Post # 1
Member
55 posts
Worker bee
Instead of having a DJ, we’re thinking of renting speaker equipment and have a friend play an ipod/use spotify, etc. rather than paying for a dj. Our theory is that we’ll be able to play exactly what we want rather than the corny songs we hate while saving some money. Has anyone done this or been to a wedding with this? I’m nervous that it won’t have the same energetic feel without a DJ and lights, etc.
Any input would be great! Thanks!
Post # 3
Member
33 posts
Newbee
I have nothing useful to add here, but my fiance and I are also going to consider this in the future when we are planning our wedding. We don’t care too much about the same “feel,” but we are worried about what could happen if the equipment fails! I’m curious to see what people say.
Post # 4
Member
8695 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
How much would it cost to rent all the speaker equipment vs having a DJ? There are some DJs in the NJ/NY area that are fairly inexpensive.
But I have seen other bees say they did their whole reception with just the iPod so maybe they will chime in.
Post # 5
Member
508 posts
Busy bee
I’m curious to hear the responses. We’re taking it another step back and using CDs! haha. The clubhouse where we’ll be having our reception has a sound system and an itnerchanging CD player. So we were just going to burn CDs for music. I’m also skeptical about what sort of feel it will have and everything.
Post # 6
Member
55 posts
Worker bee
My wedding is in York, PA. I got one quote for $1300 for five hours. I still have to look the specific cost for renting the equipment, a friend of ours used to DJ and knows all this stuff!
Post # 7
Member
7901 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
- Wedding: March 2012 - Pelican Grand Beach Resort
We considered this route but found that the cost savings was not worth the time and effort. The sound equipment was going to cost something like $400 (plus deposits) and we had to deal with picking it up and dropping it off or asking one of our close friends too… I became uncomfortable as we got closer to the wedding with the idea of basically putting our friends to work when they should be guests. In the end we got a DJ for $895, and really… thank God. He made our party amazing. If you hire someone halfway decent, they will play what you want. They will listen to what you tell them about your style and they will read the crowd. Looking back, I can’t believe we ever considered using an iPod to save only about $500. Also, the benefits of having an MC who knows what he’s doing… can’t say enough about that.
Post # 8
Member
2273 posts
Buzzing bee
We had an iPad reception. We brought some lights from eBay (about $50-55 for 2 lights) and a bubble machine (about $40 all up I think). The venue had a sound system we hired for $50.
the only issue we had was the intro music for speeches stuffed up but that was because when we did the editing, as we wanted specific parts of songs for people’s intro, we didnt make them long enough (we should’ve added some “silence” to the end of the snippet) as the person who did that part of the music for us wasn’t aware that the song cut out and the next intro started immediately…
otherwise we only had a small wedding and the few people that got up and danced were the ones I expected so the cost of hiring a DJ was an expense that wasn’t worth our while…
funny thing was as soon as the dancers got fed up with our play lists (DH was so insistent on needing music for the oldies too) one of my mates put her iPhone on and played some other music – I didn’t care it was good music and it was about 10.30 after a few people had gone home – Darling Husband didn’t even realise until he went to pack up before our goodbyes and he actually appreciated it because she played our exit song from her phone and we were able to take our iPad with us rather than hoping we could trust a family member to do it for us (as was prearranged)
Post # 9
Member
209 posts
Helper bee
We had an iPod and it worked great!
Our venue supplied all the equipment for it including speakers, dance floor lights etc included in the venue price. We just made a few playlists: mingling music, eating, dance, boquet toss etc and the venue came with a manager for the night plus 2 extra staff (seperate to catering staff) so we asked them to be in charge which they were happy to do and did it perfectly!
Post # 10
Member
39 posts
Newbee
Our venue is supplying the speakers and other sound equipment (so perhaps we were lucky in that regard!) but YES we are absolutely using an ipod (wedding is this weekend!)
Neither of us were comfortable initating that “forced” feel of line dancing, slow dancing, or anything else for our wedding. We are not terribly traditional, though, so it was an easy decision for us.
I created a playlist for dinner (jazz), a playlist for our first dance and the mother/son+father/dauther dance (we’re doing those at the same time), and then a playlist for the “party” for the rest of the evening.
Easy and cheap 🙂
Post # 11
Member
433 posts
Helper bee
@Snickers95:
Any way those who have used their ipods could post a list of the songs they played? I think it’ll be pretty easy to think of fun dancing music but I have no clue what to use for background dinner music.
Post # 12
Member
4657 posts
Honey bee
We did!
But ours was an afternoon wedding and reception. No dancing through the night kinda stuff. We had a relative cue the music for the procession, ceremony, signing and recession. Then we had the rest of the music on a playlist shuffling for the background music at the reception.
It went really smoothly and I would definitely do it again!
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