Submitted by Professional Wedding DJ (Michigan) on Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - 12:59pm.
I've been a professional wedding DJ for over 17 years and have seen many trends come and go. When I started DJs were carrying huge heavy cases filled with CDs (the more you had the more professional you were). Now the majority of DJs carry labtops with the trend moving towards tablets. I've seen chocolate fountians replaced with photobooths. When I started it was all about putting on a show for the bride and groom with props, leading line dances and interacting with the crowd. Now it's about creating a multimedia spectacle using the latest technology (uplighting, slideshows, the newest LED lighting.
As trends have continued to change and morph, I've seen more and more brides and grooms choosing to do an IPOD wedding (as we like to call it). Even though this sounds like a great idea on one's pocketbook there are many things to concider.
1. Rental Gear - When you are renting equipment it tends to be either low quality, highly used, a dj's backup gear or all 3. Highly used rental gear tends to have issues and if you don't know how to problem solve issues (which a trained DJ should know how to do) then you are asking for problems.
2. Reading a crowd - No electronic equipment (no matter how advanced) can read where a crowd is going or what they want to hear. I did a wedding years ago where this was the case. The bride wanted me to play 2 mixed CDs that her friend had created. I asked the bride to label the songs on the CDs so I could choose when to pay the songs. The bride wanted me to put them in an just push play. Even though the music was what the bride and groom loved to listen to, no one else did. The dance floor was dead until the last hour when the bride finally decided to let me take the wheel. At that point the floor was packed.
3. Control - This is always a touchy issue. Brides and Grooms see their wedding day as the most important day of their lives. With this thought deeply ingrained in our culture, many brides want to have complete control over every aspect of their wedding day. This includes the music. Brides and grooms feel they could do a much better job djing their wedding then hiring a professional. I like to use an analogy to illistrate how hiring a professional DJ is a better idea then an IPOD. Imagine going to an expensive resturant (or any any resturant for that matter). You open your menu, find what you want to eat and place your order with the waiter/waitress. Do you then go in the back and make the food yourself? No. You let the professional cook who has been trained to prepare your meal to your specifications do their job to create a beautiful meal for you.
4. Flow - When it comes to weddings there is a definate flow to an evening. It's not just about the dance music. There's also the cocktail hour, grand introductions, toasts, dinner, cake cutting, etc. If you don't have someone there who knows how these events flow together and how to relay that information to the other vendors (photographer, videographer, banquet facility, etc) then your night will skip along hap-hazardly. As a bride and groom you are already under a boat load of stress. Why add to it by trying to figure out what is supposed to happen next.
There are many other issues that come to mind but these are the biggest issues one should think about when deciding on weither to have a IPOD wedding or a real dj. For most it all boils down to money and I completely understand that. We are all thinking about our pocket books today. But (as we say all the time in the industry) you will get what you pay for. If you want to spend $150 on a dj you will get a $150 dj. If you pay for a $100 IPOD wedding then you will get a $100 IPOD wedding. If you spend $800 on a professional dj you will get a $800 professional DJ.
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I've been a professional wedding DJ for over 17 years and have seen many trends come and go. When I started DJs were carrying huge heavy cases filled with CDs (the more you had the more professional you were). Now the majority of DJs carry labtops with the trend moving towards tablets. I've seen chocolate fountians replaced with photobooths. When I started it was all about putting on a show for the bride and groom with props, leading line dances and interacting with the crowd. Now it's about creating a multimedia spectacle using the latest technology (uplighting, slideshows, the newest LED lighting.
As trends have continued to change and morph, I've seen more and more brides and grooms choosing to do an IPOD wedding (as we like to call it). Even though this sounds like a great idea on one's pocketbook there are many things to concider.
1. Rental Gear - When you are renting equipment it tends to be either low quality, highly used, a dj's backup gear or all 3. Highly used rental gear tends to have issues and if you don't know how to problem solve issues (which a trained DJ should know how to do) then you are asking for problems.
2. Reading a crowd - No electronic equipment (no matter how advanced) can read where a crowd is going or what they want to hear. I did a wedding years ago where this was the case. The bride wanted me to play 2 mixed CDs that her friend had created. I asked the bride to label the songs on the CDs so I could choose when to pay the songs. The bride wanted me to put them in an just push play. Even though the music was what the bride and groom loved to listen to, no one else did. The dance floor was dead until the last hour when the bride finally decided to let me take the wheel. At that point the floor was packed.
3. Control - This is always a touchy issue. Brides and Grooms see their wedding day as the most important day of their lives. With this thought deeply ingrained in our culture, many brides want to have complete control over every aspect of their wedding day. This includes the music. Brides and grooms feel they could do a much better job djing their wedding then hiring a professional. I like to use an analogy to illistrate how hiring a professional DJ is a better idea then an IPOD. Imagine going to an expensive resturant (or any any resturant for that matter). You open your menu, find what you want to eat and place your order with the waiter/waitress. Do you then go in the back and make the food yourself? No. You let the professional cook who has been trained to prepare your meal to your specifications do their job to create a beautiful meal for you.
4. Flow - When it comes to weddings there is a definate flow to an evening. It's not just about the dance music. There's also the cocktail hour, grand introductions, toasts, dinner, cake cutting, etc. If you don't have someone there who knows how these events flow together and how to relay that information to the other vendors (photographer, videographer, banquet facility, etc) then your night will skip along hap-hazardly. As a bride and groom you are already under a boat load of stress. Why add to it by trying to figure out what is supposed to happen next.
There are many other issues that come to mind but these are the biggest issues one should think about when deciding on weither to have a IPOD wedding or a real dj. For most it all boils down to money and I completely understand that. We are all thinking about our pocket books today. But (as we say all the time in the industry) you will get what you pay for. If you want to spend $150 on a dj you will get a $150 dj. If you pay for a $100 IPOD wedding then you will get a $100 IPOD wedding. If you spend $800 on a professional dj you will get a $800 professional DJ.