Cocktail Hour Music

I programmed the music for the cocktail party and dinner (we had a 1 hour dinner before moving to another room for dancing and dessert with a DJ). I made a playlist for both and provided an iPod to the venue and asked them to play each list as is and not on shuffle.

View Quoted Comment Great, were you happy with it? I feel like I'm mostly just looking for soft background music..

You should really just add the extra hour with your DJ. It's so much easier than trying to do this yourself. He's going to be there well before your ceremony starts anyway, so it makes no sense that you wouldn't have him do it. Does your venue even have speakers? I'm assuming your DJ is bringing his, so then how would you play the music for cocktail hour? Not worth the effort, IMO.

Did you even save money by doing this? I'm assuming since your DJ will be there the whole time anyways, probably not. It's not like he's going to leave for 45-60 minutes after the ceremony and then be back in time to start for dinner.

We had a DJ for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception and it was a breeze. I would look into seeing how much extra it would cost. Otherwise if the venue has a speaker system you can make a playlist on spotify (would have to pay for an account so you don't get the ads). With this as well I would make sure the venue could accommodate.

View Quoted Comment Yes the venue has a speaker system for this or I wouldn't have even considered, but the DJ will be set up in a different room that the ceremony and reception will be held in (cocktail hour is downstairs) so they won't move their set up back and forth for a 1.5 hour cocktail hour.. just looking for suggestions from people who have done this as stated, but thank you.

View Quoted Comment Yes we save around $600 and the DJ cannot move his equipment to a different room for cocktail hour for just 1.5 hours.

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I'm a wedding musician, and we bring 2 setups, one for cocktail hour, and one for the reception. That's standard procedure. A cocktail hour should not be costing an extra $600, that's crazy. Most musicians and DJs I know charge $100-$250 for cocktail hour. And that's in the NYC suburbs, i.e. one of the priciest areas in terms of wedding costs in the country.

View Quoted Comment Our DJ is $300/hr. They are bringing one setup. Thank you for your input, but as stated (to save my time) I'm really only looking for advice from people who have gone this route.

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So sorry to have wasted your precious time.

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Yes, I was very happy. The way my venue worked, they provided the DJ for the ceremony at 3:30 and then he came back at 6 for the reception. After the ceremony, we had a cocktail hour and then an hour long dinner. Reception (dancing) and dessert was in a different room and that's where the DJ was. The venue was already equipped with a speaker system hooked up to an ipod docking station for the cocktail hour and dinner. They offered to supply the music for us (with our input of what genre/style of music we wanted) or we could provide our own ipod with playlists. Since I really enjoy programming music for parties and events, I chose to provide my own playlists. I even set the order of songs. I used to be the queen of "mixed tapes" back in the day and used to program music for a clothing store I worked at in the 80s so I had a blast doing this.

The music I picked for the cocktail party was upbeat and a mix of genres and eras (I was 56 when I got married last year and H was 61) so most of our guests were 40 - 60. A few of the songs I picked were: "Handclap" by Fitz and The Tantrums, "Let's Groove" by Earth, Wind & Fire, "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club, "Shape of You" by Ed Sheerin, "Play That Funky Music" by Average White Band, "The Girl Can't Help It" by Little Richard and "Girl U Want" by Devo.

For the dinner, I wanted the music to be more mellow. Some of the songs I chose were "My Cherie Amor" by Stevie Wonder, "That's What I Like" by Bruno Mars, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, "Brass In Pocket" by The Pretenders, "Lost Without You" by Robin Thicke, "How Sweet It Is" by Marvin Gaye, "Anyone Else But You" by The Moldy Peaches (from the Juno sountrack), "You Are The Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder and "Halo" by Beyoncé.

I also provided a must-play and suggestion list for the DJ and he said he was impressed with my picks since my choices really translated to the dance floor. I guess I've always been a DJ wannabe - LOL!

If you need any help, please let me know.

View Quoted Comment Wow, that is awesome! So can I ask did you download or buy each song (and what did you use if so) or did you just have these songs you already? Thank you so much!

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I have over 15,000 songs on my iTunes from years and years of collecting music. Also, the libraries where I live (Long Island) are stocked with tons of CDs from every genre so I often borrow CDs and burn the songs I like on my iTunes. They always get the newest CDs in as well so when an artist I like releases a new CD, off to the library I go. I bought maybe 2 or 3 songs on iTunes that I couldn't find in the library but I pretty much had everything already. Also, compilation CDs are a great source for current pop hits like "Now That's What I Call Music" series or "Grammy Award" compilations.

View Quoted Comment Ahh such a great idea!! Thank you!