Do we need a DJ or will an ipod/spotify be ok?

[Littlebigcat]

So we have booked our wedding for next year and the venue we have chosen is essentially a room, no sound or lighting facilities, but we are free to hire or bring in what we want as long as it's saftey tested.

We were thinking of a DJ but to be honest I often find them a little bit cheesy (might just be the weddings I've been to, but I hate the 90s school disco feel). I was considering using an ipod playlist or spotify but am concious that someone may need to be in control of that at least for a little bit. We would most likely ask guests before hand to make suggestions for the playlist.

Has anyone done this and how did you make it work? Would you just leave it to play? Am I over thinking it?

We had an ipod and it worked well, but you do need to think carefully about the playlist and mix the songs together.

I think it can work well, most wedding DJs are awfully cheesy and if you have your own ipod playlist it will save a small fortune.

Just put lots of thought into the actual playlist and it should be fine.

DP and I have built our own jukebox for our wedding, and we have compiled the palylist over the last eight months, and we are very excited and confident that it will do the job, plus give guests something to do and get them involved in the music.

We had a friend put together a spotify playlist for us and he added requests as well throughout the evening :)

If you do go the spotify route though, I'd advise downloading the playlist to ensure there's no potential issues with wifi etc - we made sure we had enough downloaded, then played a few requests as well, but the wifi wasn't stable enough to stream the whole evening.

All good ideas. Thank you.

Over- I love The jukebox, that sounds really fun!!

I'm trying to think if I can rope anyone in to assist who would actually enjoy the job

A friend of ours had an iPod, and to be honest it didn't work that well. The playlist was very mixed, but a lot of it was just songs the B and G liked, and not really stuff you could dance to. It was also on shuffle, so we had loads of coupley songs on in a row, then everyone got bored. Then loads of really energetic ones and everyone was knackered. And although it's not cool and I personally hate it, the song that got every single person on the dance floor at the last wedding I was at was The Macarena.

A DJ can read the room and play stuff that gets people on the dance floor when there's a lull. They can also adjust the sound levels, take requests and generally take the stress away.

A friend of ours had a jukebox and it just ended up with people literally fighting over the songs, cutting off others mid-song. Was a bit of a disaster. Not sure if it's rude to ask someone to monitor it all night...

It's good to get another viewpoint Peeved.

if we did do it we would have asked for input from guests in advance and very carefully put together an ordered playlist.

There are one or two people we know who would probably quite enjoy the task tbh but unfortunately one of them is the best man so I think he might be busy

We are quite indie, rock and folk orientated and the idea of the macerana or whigfield is just my idea of hell. I know loads of people do enjoy it though. We haven't ruled a DJ out entirely.

Laughing at the image of guests fighting over the jukebox and cutting songs off. Jebus people have some class! We are having ipod but only 30 guests so hopefully the dancing rage won't manifest. I guess if it is a large gathering a dj might come into his or her own.

I think you can find pre-made wedding playlists on Spotify?

don't forget a DJ also provides the lighting, and that you will need serious speakers to fill a room that big

you can get decent djs but admittedly they're harder to find and they usually don't advertise themselves as wedding djs.

I would be worried about the sound system - as psychic says you will need a decent sound system and also to think about lighting. Also a decent DJ will provide more than just the music - there will be some banter to fill the gaps and to encourage people to get up and dance.

Thak you for the replies. I'm kind of shuddering at the idea of banter too

I don't know still. Our friends have often done gatherings in the past where everyone just takes turns in putting music on and I sort of envisaged it being a more organised version as it usually ends up with a lot of dancing and fun. Not totally opposed to a good DJ though as would take a lot of the organisation away from us but it would have to not be cheesy.

Not too worried about the sound system if we did provide our own, it's not a huge room and I think DP could get hold of something appropriately sized quite easily and he generally knows what he's doing. I have no idea what we're doing about lighting in general though. We've seen pictures of day set ups but none of the evenings.

I agree with Peeved. Been to a wedding with a playlist and it was rubbish. A DJ creates a different sort of atmosphere. What about a band? Or hire a jukebox?

I really wouldn't want to rely on guests doing the music. It's one thing doing it at parties by choice - quite another to have to do it.

I think we will look in to DJs and if we're not convinced by them we might do a playlist. I wouldn't rely on guests on the day either, I had thought of asking for 10 song suggestions per guest and work them in. I guess my main worry with a DJ is that my friends and family's taste isn't all that mainstream so finding one that will play what people will want to dance to might be difficult, are they generally quite flexible?

Our venue is probably a little bit too small for a band and I'm not sure our budget would cover it even if we thought there was enough space.

We had a laptop setup with some free software called virtual dj. We set up a playlist and it automatically faded between tracks so no awkward silences! We even paid £10 for the day to have access to a Spotify style database of songs so guests could add their own requests to the playlist. It worked well apart from when certain people kept hogging the music choices!

We had a DJ and he was awesome. We gave him a list of songs to play, a list of 'over my dead body' songs that he would not play regardless of how many requests he got (DM- I'm looking at you!) and he managed the rest of the time with floor fillers and requests. He brought all his own equipment, including a massive lighting rig. However our space was huge and we had 150 guests so a DIY effort was never gonna work.

I'd hire a DJ. Way too risky relying on an iPod!

I am totally agreed with you but i don't think so that it will go with ipod or any mobile you can't enjoy ,so its better that you spent some money and hire one dj from my point of view in this case you can enjoy as well do what you want to.

OP we were the same as you - didn't want a cheesy DJ, wanted to play our own choices. We did the iPod thing and it worked brilliantly! We did spend hours putting together the playlist to take us from after dinner to first dance to full-on dancefloor fillers. And I had to veto some of DH's choices (Dinosaur Jr at a wedding? ). We queued up about 4-5 hours of music and let it play. I put it all on a giant iTunes playlist (on laptop so no streaming issues) and put the laptop out of reach. Definitely didn't want guests tampering with it! control freak

It helped that the sound system went up properly loud, that we had disco lights and the rest of the lighting levels were low. These things really helped the atmosphere. We had lots of people dancing drunkenly and lots of positive feedback.

I'd say go for it!

I'm glad it can be done successfully. Makes me feel less silly to consider it. It's clear that you have to get the atmosphere right and plan your playlist well or it'll be a disaster.