Is your "Do Not Play List" becoming your 'Do Not Dance" list

Right now, many of our clients are busy little bees planning for their upcoming wedding day(ok, ok...so even bees need a shameless plug once in a while!). 

As you go through that process, we want to share some of our expertise and experiences that we think can help make your celebration unforgettable!  

Like many people in the wedding industry (and like many soon-to-be wed couples), we often see and hear about websites providing tips and 'tricks' around everything from working with your wedding caterer to selecting your music and working with a DJ for the ‘big day’. 

Over the next several weeks, we will review and discuss the pros and cons of some of these tips and provide suggestions for how get the most out of working with us as your Wedding DJs.

 Tip #1: The “Do Not Play” list

For most wedding couples, the music is an essential part of their celebration.  It is for that reason that the ‘Play’ or ‘Do Not Play’ lists can be a good guide for us to understand more about your taste in music and your ideas about what will work to get your guests dancing.  You may even notice that many Wedding Planning websites strongly encourage couples to create a concrete play/do-not-play list to ‘guarantee’ that the DJ plays what you want and keeps the dance floor packed. 

One of the popular wedding planning sites suggests the following when creating your play/do-not-playlist:

“The Do Not Playlist is probably more important than your actual "play" list -- make your DJ or band swear up and down that they will follow it no matter how much cash Aunt Milly is waving.”

Ok, so yes, you can make your DJ swear not to stray from your list; however, there is much to consider when selecting the ‘must plays’ and ‘never plays’ for your special day.  First, you’ve taken the time, energy and hard-earned monies to hire a DJ and you should absolutely take advantage of his/her expertise on what may/may not ‘move’ the guests. 

If your main goal at your reception is to hear your favorite songs during the celebration, then only utilizing your playlist might be the best path.  However, if your main goal is to keep your dance floor packed (or a balance of both of the above), then consider this:

If your crowd requests songs on your ‘Do Not Play’ list and/or are not responding ‘well’ (meaning not packing the dance floor) to the songs on your ‘play’ list (for whatever reason), you can give your DJ the wiggle room to try out some other songs and ‘chase the crowd’ (in other words to meet the crowd where they are in terms of music that will make them want to dance). 

The songs don’t necessarily have to be pulled from those stereotypical, most requested wedding songs, such as Celebration (the 3^rd most requested wedding song of all time from guests nationally!), but rather your DJ can continuously assess the crowd by watching their response to specific genres and head in that direction for a bit just to get/keep them moving.  If your playlist is important to you, your DJ can use it as the foundation for the 'night' and return to that list throughout the event.

REMEMBER: Whether you’ve been to similar events with all of these same guests or it’s the first time some/many of them have been in a room together, every crowd has their own personality at different events and our goal is to capture that personality and work with it.

Now, your crowd could absolutely pack the dance floor with just the songs you’ve requested to hear (or similar artists), but being pro-active and discussing all the options ahead of time with your DJ gives us a better chance to understand your vision and follow that in order to help make your celebration the spectacular day you imagined!

Sound Choice Events Suggestions:

1.  Decide the goal or role of the music at your reception.  Is your goal to hear the songs on your playlist no matter what with more of a focus on guests interacting OR is your goal to keep the dance floor packed no matter what.  (there are options in between as well to meet a balance of the two)

2.  Discuss the role you want music to play with your DJ ahead of time and ask for suggestions on how to make that happen.  Be sure you are direct about your vision so your DJ is clear on your vision.

3.  If dancing is very important to you at your reception, consider giving your DJ ‘wiggle’ room to ‘chase the crowd’ with their music selections to get the dance floor moving or to keep it packed.

4.  Maintain open communication with your DJ throughout your reception (or assign someone else to do so).  During the celebration, we will check in with you a few times (briefly) to insure that you feel things are running smoothly with the music and to see if there is anything you want to switch up in terms of the type of music we are playing, etc. 

Lastly, it is most likely the case that no one hears those very stereotypical, most requested wedding songs more than your DJ (or possibly that special relative that requests them at EVERY family wedding). 

As DJs (and occasional wedding guests ourselves), we would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to get your guests moving to something a little less familiar and something that is unique to your taste(s)!!  With some pre-event discussions & brainstorming with your DJ about the music you like and your vision of the big day, we can help make your wedding sound as good as it looks!!