Reception eclectic mixture of music= ?

I gave the DJ three must play songs and two do not play. Told him to use his judgement. We got married on a holiday Monday afternoon and everyone danced all day. Are you doing the music yourselves or do you have a DJ? I would suggest not micromanaging a DJ. As far as his comment goes... If guests are bored they will leave early. You're throwing a party after the wedding... Doesnt he want people to have a good time?

FH and I have an eclectic taste, too. But, it's OUR wedding! We'll play a lot of things that will for sure get people on the dance floor, but while everyone is eating, it'll be 100% our tastes. Everyone wins!

It's as much about the order of the songs as the songs you have selected themselves. If you have a DJ, he should be knowledgeable enough in how to gauge crowds and keep them interested. If you have food and alcohol no one can be truly bored. ;]

Yeah, he encouraged us to pick music, he has a site that allows you to choose songs from huge lists. A lot of the music is danceable and relatable to people of each age group (nobody under 21 attending) and have added specific songs in requested by special guests.

I've had couples who made a lot of the playlist for the night and also had eclectic tastes. I ended up vetoing a lot of their songs when it came to dancing because it was clear that some of songs were only special to them or like one other person. They didn't even notice or care because the dance floor was full.

We were very set on what type of music was played. For example, I wanted jazz and some indie music while DH wanted classic folk and classic rock (Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, etc). I gave our DJ 25 "must play" songs. I also told him do not play these genres of music (rap music, R&B, pop, top 40s, etc). We had a live bluegrass band for the part after dinner and the traditions, so the DJ was not playing music to dance to but for people to eat, mingle, and have a glass of wine. I actually had several people tell us on the day of the wedding that they loved our music and DJ. As long as the songs are not inappropriate (dropping F bombs or about horrible love stories gone wrong etc etc), I think you'll be fine. Play the music you enjoy.

@Willie H. that would make me run away from you so fast. This is THEIR night, not yours. They pay you for a service. You can make suggestions, but to veto their choices because it was special only to them?? I'd be furious, regardless of whether the dance floor was full or not. Hopefully you at least told them this prior to the day of.

Thanks ladies- the music we chose doesn't actually take up the whole 6 hours and we left some time for him to specifically "feel the crowd" and choose songs accordingly. I can post some sample stuff if you are wanting to know specifics?

@Elizabeth (1)- no F-bombs, or traumatic things, haha.

@Elizabeth (2)- I agree, I would be realllllllly upset if he just straight up changed it.

That' s fine Elizabeth, the couple I referenced had a list of ohhhh about 75 songs, during every meeting we talked about their song selections. I told them they could make a short must play list and I could get a taste for their taste or they could make something longer. They went for the longer, which is fine. They put stars on the songs that were must play and the rest were suggestions. So obviously I played the must play songs and used my best judgement on the rest. A vast majority of the list were songs I would have played anyway.

So it's not like I took a must play list and just said "nope I'm doing my own thing" We had multiple conversations about the song list and if there was something that I had not gotten to yet and they wanted to hear (I think there was one song) they came over and asked and I played it right away.

Admittedly we are not for everyone, which is fine. Our claim to fame I guess, is a full dance floor. So I think the couples who come to us kinda already know they need to have a mix of songs they like and songs that everyone will like. Side note many of my couples have told me that if the songs they put on the list aren't working (I.e clear the dance floor) just scrap it and move on.

Anyway, this isn't about me, rereading my original post I can see how it can seem like I'm just like nope not playing this, which is not the case. I make every attempt to play all the requests from my couples. But the question was in reference to guests being bored and my point was I guess that yes it's your wedding but you are also a party host. I feel like its your responsibility to make sure your guests have a good time too.

I think it depends on how much dancing you want. I think most people will admit that they are more likely to dance to songs they've heard before. Sure, we all like hearing that obscure song with a small, strong following, but I plan to keep those to a minimum at our wedding. A recent wedding reception we went to had a mix of Bollywood and American music, and the crowd pretty much cleared the dance floor for the Bollywood songs. I'm going to probably hand the DJ a short list of maybe-play songs so they get a sense for our style but beyond that I'm going to rely on them to keep the dance floor packed...which is why I'm having a hard time finding a DJ based on online reviews!

ETA: I think Soontobestuddard has a great idea. Confine the eclectic music to dinnertime and then get everyone dancing after that!

We gave our DJ a short list of songs we definitely wanted played and he went from there with the music. And we had a variety of music, pretty much anything from ABBA to Ozzy was played.

We did the playlist ourselves, and we had a little bit of everything:

Tricky, Tom Waits, Lighting Hopkins, The Delta Bombers (a local band that we're friends with), Janet Jackson, Flight of the Concords...

Everyone kept commenting about what a great mix it was. We DID try to keep things pretty upbeat...except for The Rains of Castamere (from Game of Thrones. haha)

But with our very eclectic taste, our guests were all thrilled.

Here are some examples of artists we chose:

B-52s

Beastie Boys

Beatles

The Clash

Cyndi Lauper

Depeche Mode

Devo

Dropkick Murphys

Duran Duran

Elvis

Flogging Molly

Green Day

Hall & Oates

Jack Johnson

Justin Timberlake

Lady Gaga

LMFAO

Modern English

Nine Inch Nails

No Doubt

NSync (haha)

Ramones

Rick Astley (another haha)

Salt N Pepa

Gwen Stefani

Sublime

Wayne Newton

Some of the lesser knowns:

The Bird & The Bee

Dubliners

Lagwagon

Mariachi El Bronx

National

Pogues

Rilo Kiley

Rocket from the Crypt

Sneaker (My uncle's band from the 80s- playing 2 songs)

Tossers

Walkmen (which is what our 1st dance will be from)

What about songs on a "DO NOT PLAY" list?

*bump*

It depends on what you want...do you want your guests to party all night with you? If you do, you'll have to play music that is more their tastes. If you care more about hearing your favorite music, then play what you want. DH and I love EDM, but most of our friends like Top 20's hits and hip hop. We told our DJ what we like and what the crowd likes. We told him we wanted a party and trusted him to keep it going. He didn't play much EDM (except the couple songs I went up to him and specifically requested), but we partied all night long, which is what I ultimately wanted.

Seems like a pretty standard list. Im guessing some of the songs can be spread over dinner too.

As far as a do not play list I get a lot of no

YMCA

Hard Core Rap (obviously)

Chicken Dance

Taylor Swift (sometimes)

Thanks everybody! I wound up scrapping some of the less popular stuff that is likely not well known and for the songs in that category but still wanting to be played, have them played during dinner. I told the dj to do what he does best.