What DJs play at Weddings

Funny you ask this question, I'm getting married in three months and I have met with my DJ and provided him with a strict list of songs to play and he is not to stray from it one bit. I told him I do not want him to improvise or anything. The list is strictly oldies.

I'm on the other side of the fence from Chris: DJing a wedding this weekend in which I've been give a list of songs (and burned CDs), and am also not to stray from this. It's a brutal, stupid idea in my view, and if I abide by this asshole's rules, his wedding's gonna suck (and I'll probably be blamed). (Maybe I'm also just pissed 'cause I *hate* this guy's taste...five Jann Arden songs, a pile of Dead tunes, Arc Angels, Bruce Hornsby, Dylan songs from the mid-80s! There's not ONE dance tune, by the way...100 people will be in attendance.)

I'm getting married in August, and I've told the two people dividing the DJ chores to a) play what people ask you for (and expect them to ask for "a bit of everything"; its all ages and 2 distinct cultures); b) basically go pretty mainstream but feel free to throw in some surprises too (I want people to dance and have fun...I can program my own favourites at home any old day of the week).

Anyway, to answer the question, wedding DJs should be asked one question, at least: Do you take requests? (More importantly, do you actually try to *play* requests?)

I think I might give my wedding DJ two short lists - 30 mins or so of songs I definitely want, and a list of songs which are under no circumstances allowed (Grease megamix etc.) - other than that a free hand. And yes, granting requests is good if you can do it - but people who request shouldn't do it too often.

my mother is already planning the set for my sisters wedding (she knows better, re. me). as you might have guessed if you read the "music and race" thread, kool and the gang soundalikes abound.

this is no bad thing in my opinion.

i shall have the grease megamix at my funeral

When my brother got married, Simon Price was the DJ and the first song he played was Especially For You. They wanted to have Florence's Theme by My Life Story played as the bride walked down the aisle but the CD broke so they had to have The Carpenters instead

That was a very lucky escape!

I am DJing at a wedding tomorrow.

I hope to play a mixture of tunes that will appeal to young and old. I particularly want to keep the old people happy - out of a kind of ideological attachment. young people are always going out and listening to music they like to dance to, but old people don't get out so much so it would be nice if they got to (stiffly) shake their thing to music they liked.

of course, the real challenge is to delicately change the musical style so that the old people start off dancing to Elvis and the like and end up dancing to Smells Like Booty.

I was formerly a DJ at a period in my life. The list has dance songs on it and what not. I just don't want any chicken dance shit.

hobble hobble hobble hobble

A Nairn did they not play "Moonlight in Vermont"?? That's a beautiful song.

I was going to DJ a friend's wedding and she specifically asked for Peter Murphy's grand and glorious "I'll Fall With Your Knife" as 'the song,' if you like. Would have been great! Alas, first the wedding was postponed and then the relationship collapsed. She'll find somebody worthy, though, and then I WILL play that song!

It's hilarious how many brides and grooms have recently forbid me from playing "The Bird Dance" (a.k.a., "Chicken Dance Shit") and the "Grease Megamix" (a.k.a. "Travolta and Olivia Shit") when in fact I haven't been asked to play either in ages (nor felt at any particular moment, "hmmm, 'the Bird Dance' would mix in GREAT with this one!"). I was also forbidden recently to play "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll," but after being asked three times by the groom's aunt to play it, I went ahead (the groom was blitzed and having fun at that point, so he didn't care), and it actually ( to my surprise even) rocked the floor (great song to mix into: "Electric Avenue"; during Bob's handclap-vocal breakdown, go into Eddy shouting "Boy!"--works like a charm). I also get asked to not play the Rocky Horror stuff or "Macarena." I'm fine now being told not to play "Macarena," though a few years ago I hated this instruction--inevitably, it would get requested.

Yeah, 30 minutes or so of mandatory music is a good idea. (Though I'll say "mandatory" before the dancefloor starts to happen.)

We need an Eminem/Chicken Dance bootleg, really get this party started right!

I DJed one wedding, and it's hard. The wide age range is the biggest obstacle. I selected the songs w/ the groom and he burned them to CD beforehand, and then I brought some odds and ends. I made two errors: 1) Most of the songs were directed at my age group, and both the older guests and the teenagers complained to me; and 2) Because I selected and burned everything ahead of time, requests were not possible. Overall it went really well people had fun, but I would do it a little differently next time.

I'm getting married next month, and NO WAY, is anyone other than me (well possibly my fiance :-) gonna choose any music. I'm burning the CDs myself ....

that means Gheorghe Zamfir, Fred Bongusto and other romantic italian classics, Gypsy King's version of Volare, some techno-klezmer thing I downloaded ... my girlfriend wants the Garage mix of Gorrilaz Clint Eastwood (OK on a populist tip) and some Gotan Tango ... undoubtedly there'll be some Bally Sagoo Bhangra/Bollywood action, something rap/opera, some russian gypsy balalaika music I'm into, Aim's Cold Water Music, a touch of reggae ... difficult though as all my favourites are pretty miserable, ooh! maybe The Specials, Spain's Los Cucas, Os Paralamas do Successo, Buena Vista Social Club, Manu Chao, some french / arabic hip-hop, Jazzamatazz style r'n'b ... Missy! Get UR Freak On for the dancers at the end.

Basically I start with beautiful, stately, *instrumental* easy listening ... then evolve through easy listening with hip-hop style beats and end with UK Garage. Only problem is how to cater for the punk contingent on the guest list?

dj'ing at weddings is a nightmare - absolutely the worst. i must have done around 2000 dj gigs in my time but i will NEVER do a wedding ever again. repect to mobile djs - those guys are true pros.

My friend's very, very tiny wedding last week had no dancing (it was mid-afternoon & there were just too few of us), so we went the easy route and picked out two CDs to play straight through. One was Mozart's symphonies (25, 26, 27, 29, and 32), and the other was Miles's Davis's The Birth of the Cool. The Miles Davis got a lot of "This is great- who is it?" comments, which was nice- it's my favorite jazz CD.

So, if nobody requests the Grease Megamix...and if no DJ wants to play the Grease Megamix...HOW COME AT EVERY WEDDING I GO TO I HEAR THE GREASE MEGAMIX??

PROVEN SCIENTIFIC FACT: Bands are way more fun than DJs at weddings. Even if the band sucks.

i played a wedding last summer. rich arty london types in a marquee on dartmoor. they'd just endured an hour and a half of linedancing tuition. (somebody's baaaaaaaad idea) and were getting pretty pissed when i cracked 2 boxes of classic vinyl. it was great, the 80s stuff went down really well, i caught a load of people with dreamy reminiscent looks during rez, and (during a nice g- stone/st. germain - type - section), a very funky woman told me the stuff i was playing was too good, could we have some more cheeze, pleeze. i loved it so much, im doing 3 more this summer. just gotta take loads and loads of stuff to cope with requesters. and remember, always end with the end. (just the intro, press stop just after jim says : thisistheend.)