In this article, we address the reasons NOT to DJ at your own wedding but to hire a wedding DJ!

Why is it important to hire a professional wedding DJ?

Every now and again, we are told that someone we know has been to a wedding where the Bride & Groom have decided to ‘DJ’ at their own wedding.

We were recently hired by a couple to use our sound and lighting so they could use phones to play music. On this occasion, our fully experienced DJ/Presenter was utilised to control volume levels. He had nothing else to do and was idle for the whole wedding reception. What a waste, all that experience and ability falling asleep at the desk!

There are many reasons NOT to DJ your own wedding, I will address the main reasons here.

1. A Wedding DJ has years of experience

With this experience, a wedding DJ has developed the skill of knowing what music should be played. He/she knows which loosely structured order they can be played and can be inspired by a list of music provided. The experience to know what ‘other’ tunes will work in any particular context of what is being played right now.

In contrast, a bride & groom will know what music they like. They may even have a good idea of what party music is, however, do they have the depth of knowledge to rescue the dance floor if their choices don’t work? Chances are that they will not have as much music as they think. They will be left lacking to satisfy any choices from their guests.

Thankfully, almost all couples are aware that they cannot do this so leave it to the professionals. It is extremely rare for a couple’s exclusive choice of favourite music to suit their guests. This is why using a professional DJ is vital to the success of a wedding reception. A very important reason not to DJ at your own wedding.

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2. Playing the music at a wedding is a full event activity

A wedding DJ will plan ahead for each event. At each event, he/she will be continually aware of the changing dynamics of the audience and dance floor. With a choice of thousands of music tracks spanning almost 100 years and dozens of musical genres, there is a lot to think about.

One single guest may very well ask for something a bit different which send the DJ down a different route changing the dynamics for the better. Situations like this opens up the mind of the DJ and helps the him/her to discover new interest of the audience. Most often, this has a positive impact on the reception.

As a bride and groom, do you really want to be stressing about this instead of enjoying the best day of your life?

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3. iPhone or iPad playout

To DJ at your own wedding you will need a playout medium. This is usually either an iPhone or iPad but can be any media player. Whilst these do provide reasonable quality, they are not professional systems and are liable to be problematic.

So, you have chosen your music to play. This could be via itunes, Spotify or other app you have installed. A reliable internet connection will be required to access all the music you will need. You may have already downloaded a limited playlist to your player.

Typically music played from iTunes is of varying quality. Some tracks will be clean and clear while others will be louder, quieter or of inconsistent volume levels. A professional DJ will have all tracks balanced to the same volume without clips, with a gentle warmth and pitch correction. A not so professional DJ will simply adjust every track as it plays. With no DJ, this is a tiresome task with someone having to attend to the player adjusting the volume of each track.

4. Front of house volume and quality

This refers to the volume and quality of sound heard by the guests at the reception. If you decide to DJ at your own wedding, you will still need to make sure the music is heard by your guests.

A professional DJ will provide everything required including top quality speakers and amplification. Your venue may have a sound system installed, but this will have been designed for vocals and may not handle music particularly well. Sometimes the EQ of an in-house sound system has been adjusted to suit vocals and limit the frequency range to serve this purpose best. This is not good for music reproduction.

There will be many places to hire a better sound system near to your venue but the cost of this will be higher than hiring in a professional DJ from the start. Lighting can also be hired in, however it should be remembered that positioning and correct operation of lighting is important for for the overall feel of the entertainment.

5. Your wedding day will have been planned for over a year, it’s time to chill

After all the planning to ensure everything is just right for your wedding day, do you really want the stress and tie up your evening worrying about music and keeping your guests happy? You shouldn’t be, it is time to relax and have a ball.

To join your guests in a celebration of the most important day of your lives. To mingle and talk with your family and guests and to build a memory of your happy day which you, and your guests, will remember fondly for the rest of your lives.

Hire a professional Wedding DJ

A professional DJ will take your advanced requests as well as taking them on the night. He will care enough to make every effort to ensure everyone has a great time. A professional DJ knows exactly how to treat you and your guests so you can relax and enjoy!

1000 reasons?

There may not be 1000 reasons in this article. I have limited the advice into 5 simple categories. These categories could be expanded out to include many more detailed reasons why you should not DJ at your own wedding.

Getting back to the start of this post where I mentioned the couple who hired us for our equipment. The groom spent the whole night using his iPad at his table to control his iPhone at our desk. Music volumes and quality were all over the place.

Whenever guests were not involved, the music would abruptly end and a new track started. Unbelievably, Spotify adverts would pop up every few minutes. The choice of music was not always to the liking of the guests.

Politely, the guests joined in but many were left disappointed. This is not the lasting impression they should have had of this wedding.

In conclusion

It doesn’t make sense not to hire a professional DJ and to DJ at your own wedding. It may be seen as a chance to save some money but it is false economy. Your guests will remember a badly thought out reception far more than not having personalised napkins.

If you need to save a £200-£300 or so from your budget of your wedding, there are easier ways to do it.

As always, please leave any comments or additions below.

Are you an iPad DJ? Would You Ever Use an iPad to Gig, for Real Clients?

I’ve just read a post about the use of iPad apps as a DJ. Not really sure about this as I think there are a number of issues, which can be handled, that make iPad DJing a bit awkward. To iPad DJ or not?

With the advent of the new generation of iPads and only one connector used to mean you could only connect a single external device at a time. This included a charger or anything else like a mixer etc. This was obviously a big issue, but recently a new adapter was released to allow more than one connection. This should be OK, but over the years there have been many adapters or converters available for many uses, not the least electrical sockets, which we were later told not to use because they were dangerous.

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I am not saying the iPad adapter will ever become dangerous, but I am sure it has a maximum capacity for the amount of current which can be used at any time. In the relatively near future, developers of DJ hardware will release new hardware for the iPad DJ, will the iPad be able to deal with this?

In my business, established in 1979, I started using PC’s in 1998 for events. The first software I used was PCDJ Red. Over the following years, technology has taken a much tighter grip on how I work. I am not behind the times as far as technology is concerned, but always have reservations about technology no matter how good it gets.

Computers, PC’s and Macs, have become vastly much faster and cheaper. Laptops are far more adaptable and powerful than ever.

Improved technology has increased the reliability, and affordability, of computers and laptops, not to mention the iPad. However, they are not infallible! Having used PC’s since 1998 for gigs, I have had very little problems. Usually any problem stems from new software needing additional resources, forcing an upgrade of the’system’.

I used laptops for a couple of these years but resorted back to PC’s. The main problem with a laptop is that it was prone to be knocked. With all the USB leads connected it was a real lottery whether all would stay in place or not. Additionally, if anything was to go wrong with a laptop it became a nightmare. Personally, I can troubleshoot and repair a PC, but a laptop is another thing altogether. I have replaced laptop screens, hard drives, memory, VGA connectors, and more, but a lot of why a laptop is so small is because most of the important things are part of the motherboard.

Working on laptops can be a real challenge for a business. It is easy to destroy one just by being a little careless and many issues can only be fixed by replacing the motherboard. It is far from easy, unless you are techy, to conduct repairs on a laptop.

PC’s are far easier to maintain. Much more accessible, larger component parts, and most importantly, for me at least, bolt-on PCI boards. Newer versions of these boards are available. The story remains the same, something breaks, unplug it and put a new one in. Reliable and easy maintenance in one.

This brings us to the iPad. There is no doubt that iPad’s have made their mark. Many DJ’s are using them every day with great success. Given some of the points I have made earlier, I doubt the long-term reliability and usability of them. Yes, you can look good, or at least cool by using an iPad. What if something goes wrong? What do you do?

My typical playout system at a gig is a PC. On a shelf beside me is a fast and totally capable laptop with the exact same software and files as my main PC. In my laptop bag is a smaller, older, barebones laptop with exactly the same contents as the PC. The backup laptops are never used for playout as my PC is totally reliable. I prefer it this way, issue free performances every time.

Will this be said about the iPad in a couple of years. Imagine using one for a few years, with its small size and delicate demeanor. After being dropped a few times, after connecting and disconnection hundreds of times, after using it all day for Facebook or other apps. Do you really think it can hack it? Do as I do and take others as back up, but I bet your iPad will go wrong before my PC does!

Below is a link to the original post I read. It is trendy and cool to use an iPad, but is it the best option?

Have a look at the beat apps to DJ in 2020

Remember, this post contains my opinion on this matter, you may agree or disagree. That is a good thing. Wouldn’t the world of DJ’ing be boring if we were all the same!