Month: November 2017

1. Seating the elderly guests right in front of the DJ Booth

How does this always end up happening?  I’m not really sure but it seems to happen quite a bit.  The problem with this is that the older folks tend to complain about volume of the music.  They do this before the dance party event starts.  Usually by the time the salad is served, at least one of them has already requested the music be turned down.  Once we’re halfway into the reception and the dance floor is packed and Pitbull’s “Hotel Motel” is blasting, many of the senior guests are up dancing (bec they love Pitbull), but there’s always one grumpy old man who wants to ruin it for everyone.  One time, a guy even asked me to turn the music off.  I politely told him that it’s my job to play music so everyone can dance.  His response was, “Maybe you shouldn’t be here then.”  LOL Rude.  Then there’s always the younger crowd who is simultaneously asking us to turn it up!  Our music isn’t loud; it’s party-appropriate but not night-club-appropriate.  Please, for the sake of everyone, please seat your youngest guests near the DJ booth and put Great Grandpa Frank in the back.

2. Requests: Let’s talk about requests.

Taking requests at a wedding reception seems harmless enough, right?   Yes, but if your DJ is good like us, there really should be no reason for anyone to ask for requests.  For us, it usually boils down to the fact that people aren’t patient enough to let the party get started before coming up and asking for the “Cupid Shuffle.”  I’m on the first dance song of the night and someone’s asking for that already.   98% of weddings we do include this participation favorite.  Also, we usually play sets of music.  If I do agree that a request fits this particular wedding, whether I have already chosen it or not, I’m not going to necessarily play your song next,  and I’m certainly not going to shut the current song off mid-way to put yours on.  Most importantly, people seem to forget that it’s not their wedding.  The Bride and Groom have usually hand-selected many of the songs we are trying to fit in and we still have to get some good dance time in.  I’ve actually had people come up to me and say “Here’s a list of songs that DJs usually play.”  Really?  I wonder if these people are showing their podiatrists what a foot is.   Michael and I are very experienced with many types of events, and we know what we are doing.  Everyone is always happy at the end of the night.  In the defense of the guests, we realize that many wedding DJs out there have not put their best wedding foot forward, ie a Club DJ is not necessarily a wedding DJ with their techno remixes.  So we get it, and we politely do our best to satisfy everyone.   The average wedding reception is lucky to include two full hours of dance music.  You know how many songs that is?- about 30.

3. Brides and Grooms, we love you to death and understand you are excited, but it all comes down to one big choice: Do you want to hear your music all night, or do you want the guests to dance?  Either way is fine with us, but beware of the claws of the in-laws and family members.  LOL  We’ve seen all kinds of couples. The good news is that most brides and grooms seem to be on the same page with each other, which makes us think their marriages will last.  However, often they’re not on the same page with their guests’ idea of what a reception should be.   I’m all for couples wanting to create a unique vision for their wedding, and as Party Planners under our Pop-Up Party Package; Photographers; and Caterers, Music in Motion always tries our best to make that vision a reality.  However, as DJs, we try to encourage a happy medium between the bride and groom choices and today’s favorite dance hits. We advise using their sentimental music for their introductions and cake-cutting, etc.,  and letting us blend some of their other unique choices into the most popular hits of ALL genres as there’s usually a mixture of ages (and sometimes cultures) at weddings.  When the bride and groom choose not to take our advice, we simply prepare two playlists for the occasion: The list the bride and groom want now and the list the bride and groom will want later.  Usually, once the guests have requested enough standard dance music, the bride and groom will come up and ask us to change the playlist.  But once again, in the defesne of the Bride and Groom, it’s their   If they want rock music all night long, that’s what they’re gonna get.  It’s all good.
4. Dedications: This kind of falls under requests, but it’s even worse.   I think wedding guests are so excited and so in the mood for sentimentality and love that they often forget that this is not their   Please don’t ask a DJ at a wedding to play your wedding song and dedicate it to your wife.  Once again, there are only a good 2 to 2.5 hours of dance music at the average wedding, which equates to approximately 30-37 songs.  If we do your dedication, why wouldn’t we do everyone’s dedication.  Heck, why not just leave the bride and groom home next time.  It’s almost like proposing at someone’s wedding.
5. And last but certainly NOT least, the VENUES!! There are so many things to be said about the venues as a whole.  I can actually only count on one hand how many venues I actually like working with- hence the creation of the Pop-Up Party Package.  Why do they put long winding staircases on the opposite side of the ballroom location without an elevator and not even offer to help a 110-lb woman up the stairs when she’s carrying 50 lbs of equipment.  But that’s just the job.   Really, the worst part of the venues is their lack of organization.  You would think that a wedding venue who did weddings all the time would not have to ask the DJ how to handle the cake-cutting (or just forget to do it altogether) or forget to place a chair in the middle of the room for the garter removal.  The other horrible part of the venues these days is the fact that they will actually schedule two weddings back to back so that the vendors (DJs, Photo Booths, etc) have to set up in fifteen minutes while the vendors from the last wedding are still breaking down. Furthermore, why do they put two weddings side by side in non-sound-proofed rooms so that one DJ is blasting his base for the dance party (as many do) and the other is trying to carry out the introductions.  This huge venue pet-peeve actually gave us the idea to do the Pop-Up Party Package so that we could control everything and not have to worry about venue employees screwing it all up.   

All in all, these are some of our pet peeves, but it comes with the job.  So most of the time, we just laugh it off.   Well, maybe not the part about the venues.

 

 

Do You Play Any Music We Want?

This is a very common question from most brides who call to book our DJ Services.  About 95% of our prospective clients are very concerned about whether we just play a bunch of clubby, techno type music; have a set playlist that we use over and over again; or let the clients choose.

I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about what DJs have done.  As a matter of fact, at my own wedding in 2004 (six years prior to forming our company), the DJ called out at the last minute and sent a substitute who not only didn’t have all the songs we requested, but only had about 20 CDs on him in total.  He literally played the YMCA twice!  One of my best friends, Marty Defilippis (who in 2010 helped Michael and me start the business and continues to help to this day) actually went out to his car on my wedding day and brought in all his CDs with my favorite songs.  And he had to play them for this so-called DJ also.  Thank goodness for Marty’s large music collection and knowledge of technology.  Even back when DJs used CDs and records and had to haul all those crates everywhere, they still should have been listening to their clients and advising.

So the answer we give our brides is always that we will play whatever you want but are here to advise.  In other words, when you give us a list of songs you want for your reception, if we don’t have them, we can get them prior to the wedding; however, we will also discuss your choices.  Often brides and grooms like a certain type of music and want to hear all or mostly one genre at their wedding because after all, it’s their wedding and it should reflect their life together and make them happy.  While we totally agree that brides and grooms should have their weddings their way, we feel we must explain the tradeoff of choosing only one type of music at their receptions- people aren’t going to dance much.  If you want to have a lot of people on the dance floor, the DJ needs to incorporate all genres for all types and ages of guests.  Grandma doesn’t want to hear “Party Rock Anthem” and “Shots,” but surprisingly, it’s very likely she does want to hear Pitbull and is in love with “Blurred Lines” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling.”  Bet you didn’t know that.  But she also wants her “Runaround Sue” and some “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer.  We recommend using your ceremony, introduction, and special dances music to display your personality.  We will get into these choices in a future blog.  Cocktail and dinner music are not too important because everyone is mingling and eating.  We just make sure it’s not too loud.  Also, you might get two and a half hours for your dance party if you are lucky.  That’s only roughly 35 songs.  So making a playlist with two-hundred dance songs isn’t going to work either.

Based on the ages of the bride and groom and average age of guests, we always pre-make a playlist using the bride and groom’s selections and the songs that are popular at the time based on our experience as DJs and Zumba® Instructors.  But we always have to watch the crowd and feel them out when we get there.  The playlists often change about 10 percent on the spot if the bride and groom agree that their choices shouldn’t be the only ones.  We also highly recommend participation dances such as “Cha-Cha Slide” and “Cupid Shuffle” even if the Bride and Groom think they are corny because those songs ALWAYS get everyone up dancing.  Then we follow it with something that everyone likes such as “We are Family” and they all stay.  Consider participation dances as your wedding reception ice breakers.

If we meet with a bride and groom and explain all of the above and they remain set on a playlist which is non-dance-friendly, we simply go along with it but are always prepared to switch it up on the spot in case they change their mind.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, that’s what happens.  In the end, everyone is always happy with Music in Motion’s DJ Services!

Music in Motion’s 10 great songs that always get and keep people dancing at wedding receptions (not in any order):

1. “September” by Earth Wind and Fire
2. “Suavemente” by Elvis Crespo
3. “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake
4. “The Twist” by Chubby Checker
5. “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bonjovi;
6. “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer
7. “You Dropped a Bomb on Me” by The Gap Band
8. Anything by Pitbull
9. “Respect” by Aretha Franklin;
10. “Hot Hot Hot” by Buster Poindexter (use leis and do a conga line)