Post # 1
Member
550 posts
Busy bee
I’m really leaning towards not having a DJ at my wedding. I know the benefits of having one but I’m trying to save as much as I can. I will be having a live band (for free) play for a while. Also, my maid of honor was maid of honor at her sisters wedding and they didn’t have a DJ either. She was very good at delegating who announced what and all that. BUT I’m trying to make it as easy as possible for all involved and I’ve heard there are some good DJ apps out there. Has anyone done this? Any good recommendations?
Post # 2
Member
6272 posts
Bee Keeper
I used to be a club dj so a world apart from a wedding dj, but other than just pressing play to songs, a good event dj should be able to mix and read the crowd and circulate the floor. An app can’t do that. Sure you can get apps that help mix in key or whatever but unless you really can predict the mood of the moment in advance id suggest using an itunes playlist and setting the tracks up in the order you think you’ll want them. Bear in mind to keep a good floor it’s rare to play a whole track, so you might want to shorten them and use the fade mixer facility in iTunes.
Post # 3
Member
862 posts
Busy bee
We had no DJ and it was awesome. We delegated a friend to announce the cake cutting, etc. Otherwise someone just had to hit play on our playlist. We used itunes and hooked a laptop up to the speakers. If you search around, you can find places to download music for CHEAP. I can’t remember where we got our music, but it was like 10 cents a song or something. I was a little bit nervous having no actual DJ, but it worked out and saved us a ton of money!
Post # 4
Member
534 posts
Busy bee
our reception is more cocktail style/laid back so we are planing to put together a spotify premium playlist or a mix of stations and play it over the venues speakers. We can control it via phone or ipad to pause it. I think if you are having a more formal affair it may be difficult to do without a DJ.
Post # 5
Member
157 posts
Blushing bee
I’m planning on doing no DJ too (many people I know, including myself, used to DJ in high school). Just renting sound equip beforehand, hooking a laptop up to the mixer, and… well I DID have a nice songza playlist going until Google had to come along and screw that up. =(
So not really sure what my plan is now. On the fence between A) making a static, prefaded playlist, B) finding another site like Songza (do any others actually play commercial-free without paying?), or C) just letting a friend go wild with YouTube or something. Ugh. So messed up now. I had thought of DJ apps too, but the problem is I think they’re usually made for businesses and cost a damn fortune. Part of me wants to just turn the radio on at this point.
Post # 6
Member
550 posts
Busy bee
mrsblueeyes: I’m so happy to hear that! I really do think having no DJ and still having great music is possible! My maid of honor is very confident that she can make sure everything stays on track and she’ll delegate between the maids who will announce what and when (it helps that she’s OCD haha) We’re definitely having a less formal affair so I think DIY will be fine.
MissAviatorBee: That’s horribe that that happened! We do have really nice sound equipment available to us for free (thank you Mother-In-Law for being obsessed with karaoke!!) As far as a free no commercials music site I really don’t know. I would suggest trying to set up an itunes playlist in the order you want and, like a pp said, make them fade into each other so there aren’t any awkward pauses in between.
Post # 7
Member
862 posts
Busy bee
keevolpi: My Darling Husband said that he used this to download our music. 🙂 http://www.mp3million.com/
We seperated songs into folders in itunes so it was easy to figure out what song was our first dance song, etc. 🙂
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This reply was modified 3 years, 9 months ago by mrsblueeyes.
Post # 8
Member
586 posts
Busy bee
We are doing this as well. I’ve found several helpful articles and blogs, but really like the one below because she included her playlists (score!).
http://www.snixykitchen.com/dj-your-own-wedding/
This one was also helpful because they had a staff writer who successfully DIY DJ’d her wedding (the first link is to their main article, the second is to the staff writer’s specific post on her wedding).
http://apracticalwedding.com/2013/11/self-dj-wedding/
http://apracticalwedding.com/2009/09/djing-your-wedding-with-ipod/
We ultimately decided that it would be worth it to just do it ourselves – DJ’s in our area are pretty expensive (minimum of $900 for someone that doesn’t even have great reviews). We just can’t justify spending that much on something when it’s potentially not “quality” (DJs with good reviews start around $1500). We have hired some people to do a show at the end of the dinner hour, it’s something that’s really unique and we think our guests will love. We decided to prioritize that over a regular DJ – crossing our fingers that it’s a choice that pays off :). We are planning to hire an intern from either my office or my fiance’s (someone who would not be offended by not being “invited” to the wedding) and offering to pay $100-200, free food, etc for them to “guard” the music and press play/troubleshoot minor issues (i.e. if the sound is set too high). We feel good about it, but I guess we’ll see! Good luck with yours as well!
Post # 9
Member
136 posts
Blushing bee
I’ve been following this thread and I love all these suggestions! Thank you ladies for posting!
I just wanted to mention that if you really do want a DJ but they are just too expensive try Thumbtack. Everyone I found online was *so* expensive! Went on thumbtack and received a ton of very reasonable offers within a few hours. Their websites, reviews, etc. are on their profiles and most of them are willing to negotiate. We ended up finding one for about 25% of the lowest price we’d previously received.
Post # 10
Member
550 posts
Busy bee
penguinwapi: I ran across that first blog too! I meant to put it in my last comment and totally forgot! She even talks about what pace music to play and when! That’s great that you have someone available to you to man the music!
Post # 11
Member
157 posts
Blushing bee
After speaking with one of my friends, he successfully ran a Spotify playlist at his wedding! The ads are pretty far in between… or honestly maybe I’ll just do all the prep work now (making a custom list) and then go premium for the month of (it’s like $10?) so I can have no ads, offline files in case something happens, etc. Seems like the best plan for DIY at the moment.
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