Ipod instead of a dj

Using an Ipod really depends on the size of your wedding and locations. The very small weddings use Ipods but they aren't having to have sound get over a bunch of ppl. If your wedding is outside, it's going to be very hard to get good quality with an Ipod. Good Luck with whatever you chose!

We here at Weddings, Inc. completely understand the need for brides to save money. We have built our entire business model around saving brides money on their wedding day and have successfully worked with brides with all kinds of budget issues.

With that being said, however, the one thing we BEG brides NOT to do is use an I-pod instead of a DJ.

The DJ does so much more than play music! He or she is the BACKBONE of the entire reception!!!!!!!!!!! An I-pod cannot announce your bridal party, walk you through the cake cutting or know how to change up the music if what is playing isn’t working. They give life to your party. Have you ever been to a wedding where the DJ did a bad job and all you could think was, “this wedding stinks!”? What do you think your guests will say with no Master of Ceremonies at all????

Ladies, PLEASE talk to perspective DJ’s and explain your budget concerns. In this economic climate almost everyone is willing to make a deal. I am sure you can economical

Thanks everyone. thats what i was thinking. the dj makes the wedding fun and i just did not understand how brides were having ipods and making it work.

We are using an iPod, which I normally strongly recommend against! Ours is simply because we are having such a small ceremony, no dancing, none of the traditions type stuff...

We will play instrumental music while everyone enters, then have a BIL who will be manning the music. As soon as the ceremony is over, we'll do our exit with everyone for pictures.

While we are outside, our caterer has agreed to change the music to a playlist that will be our background music during the luncheon.

I've done some MCing and stuff- so I'm familiar with how things work and our event is really laid back. If we were doing a 'real' reception type event- I would NEVER use an iPod!

Wait a min Brian and Ki F, lol

You mean ppl who opt for iPod receptions, do not designate a Master/Mistress of Ceremony? *facepalm*

I had a friend that used an i-pod, an to be honest it made her wedding horrible. People kept going over to it if they did not like the song and changing it right in the middle of things and then all you hear is that click, click, click, noise that the i-pod makes. Hardly anyone danced at her wedding i think becuase of this... just a thought.

I couldn't imagine my reception being the same without the DJ. He was awesome an def made my reception awesome. He is more the just music, and IMO couldnt be replaced by an ipod.

For general information you do not want to use the ipod. It is to hard to control. If you do want to do your own music use the computer you keep your music on and run it from there. Create play lists and be sure you have a good sound system to work with. Remember you still need someone to run it. You will be busy. So think hard before you go with DYI music.

Oh, and Brian and TeeDub- we have a master of ceremonies who has agreed who will have a few small things to say! I would certainly say we are the exception and anyone having a reception with more than just immediate family- find the money for a DJ!

We are doing something similar...I guess. We already have music picked but with a few openings for music that we might hear over the next year. I also have chatted with a very close friend that is doing our announcements and once our special dances are outta the way...it's just dance music for the rest of the evening.

@Amy- sadly, I think we may use our iPhones... Because we can set up the playlists on it. I want thinking of using on of the higher end iPods solely because I don't want to drag my laptop around and have to hide it... but those detaisl are still in process. I know more iPods actually suck for that type of stuff, but the concept is the same.

I think our dj is waht made our wedding so much fun. he was awesome. played great music and kept the dance floor packed all night and he was a great mc. dont skimp on the dj

We will be using our ipod, mainly b/c we don't see the need to shell out thousands of dollars on a DJ, for our smaller wedding. We will be having someone working the ipod, I have made different playlists for our first dance, special dances, background music and some dancing music. We aren't planning to have a lot of dancing but the music will be there if anyone does. The reception will be starting at 9:30-1pm so I'm not sure how many people will want to dance that early. Our venue has specific speakers for ipods/mp3 players/cds so the sound quality is really good, and our reception area isn't that big, we're only having 30 people or so. Our coordinator does ipod weddings all the time there and she said she's only had a problem when the couple doesn't create an easy playlist to follow. So I guess it would depend on a few different factors.

We rented sound equipment and hooked up my laptop to it. I had made playlists in itunes for the first dance, bouquet toss, etc. I had a close friend announce the bridal party in since the BIL that was in charge of manning the music was also part of the bridal party. Then BIL made sure the correct music played when it was supposed to and made some of the announcements along with the day of coordinator. The day of coordinator made sure everything moved along and happened. It was really low maintenance because for the dinner and dance music he just had to let the playlists run and only go up there for the special ones which we only did for the 1st dance, the 1st slow song to open up open dancing and have everyone join us on the dance floor, the bouquet toss, & the garter toss. Oh and the last song.

Before you make your decision, take a look at the following video: http://adja.org/general/ipodwedding.asp

One of the biggest mistakes people make is defining a DJ as "just the music" for their wedding. A professional wedding DJ can help coordinate (especially if you don't have a coordinator), organize and make your reception flow smoothly from the moment your guests arrive until they leave.

Here are some of the downfalls (in my opinion) for an iPod wedding:

1) No Continuity in the music - You can't beat-mix to keep your guests on the floor and you cannot "rotate the floor" to engage all your guests since no one is there to read the crowd

2) Without professional announcements, your grand entrance, cake cutting, first dance and other activities will be simply anti-climactic

3) A DJ will create the memories that your photographer will capture.

4) Equipment will not be set up professionally. It will look bad and sound even worse.

I can refer you to a couple of DJ's in PA.

For our wedding since it was in a house we ended up making playlists on itunes. Originally we were going to use the IPOD but because of the system we ended up burning the music to discs. We had a playlist printed out and everything labled out. Our wedding wasn't to large and was super intimate, this idea worked for us but will depend on your wedding. Good luck!

@Meghan: Let's say you set up your iPhones. How will you get the sound to the PA? Who is going to be liable if something is not taped down properly and one of your guests trips on a cable?

Who's going to "man" the iPod and resolve conflicts? and if your dinner runs long/short, what happens to your playlist? are you going to go back to the beginning or let it play forward from there?

Most playlists are not very flexible, and programming an iPod on the fly is not very intuitive. Complete silence will make your wedding guests uncomfortable and will probably result in them leaving early.

Before you decide on an iPod wedding, please meet with at least one professional wedding DJ so you can understand that a Wedding DJ does more than "just play music."

@Brittainy, that's cool you guys used cd's, we were thinking about burning the playlists onto disks as a back up.

If it doesn't play well, don't blame on the IPOD, Just tell the Bride!

I got a dj for my reception, but to save on money I am using an ipod for my small outdoor ceremony with outdoor wireless speakers! I am not sure how its going to turn out with the timing and everything though...I will have somebody man it the whole time to help with this. If it doesnt work out then at least we will have an awesome time dancing to our dj at the reception lol!