Dj!??!?

I have been to a few that just had playlists and they were actually really fun. Everyone on here will give you crap and tell you to spend money on a DJ or your wedding will be a disaster, but DON'T listen to those. No DJ does not mean a crap wedding. We are not having a DJ because It's not worth the cost to us because we already have our entertainment covered. We have playlists for each section that we need extra music.

I don’t think a DJ is necessary for a wedding but every wedding I’ve been to with just a playlist didn’t have many people dancing. I think if you want the dance floor packed and a party vibe a DJ really makes or breaks things.

View Quoted Comment The one thing we haven’t been able to figure out is how many playlist, songs that go in the playlist and whose gonna be running it. Really the only thing I wanted a dj for is to keep the flow of the day going. And mic work.

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We have a separate playlist for everything so it doesn't get mixed up. We have a ceremony playlist, a cocktail hour playlist, a dinner music playlist, and then a party playlist. Figure each song is on average 3 minutes long. Figure out how long each section is that you need music for and make sure you have that many songs to cover and usually like 5-10 extra just in case.

As far as the logistics...make sure you know you will be having someone run it before you go into all the preparation for it. There are places that rent sound equipment and such. A friend of mine hired a person from a nearby college to emcee their wedding and they were cheap. So that might be an idea too...

We didn't have a DJ (we used a spotify playlist) and it went over really well! A few things though... make sure you have someone responsible for MCing (like, making announcements, encouraging people to get up and dance, etc) and to manage the playlist. It really isn't enough to just press "play" and let the playlist go... you need to change songs if people aren't responding, adjust the volume, etc.

Another thing is don't be afraid to go off-playlist! We used our playlist for about 30 mins and then my husband's best man (who we had put in charge of manning the playlist) and I ended up just picking some off-playlist songs because we felt like they would fit the mood really well, and THAT was when people actually started getting up and dancing.

A DJ definitely does WAY more than just pressing play on songs. I cannot emphasize how important it is to read the room in order to choose what song (or what type of song) to play next. That being said, I still don't think hiring an actual DJ is "necessary" if you have a friend or relative who would enjoy taking on this responsibility (and who you trust to do so!)

I would share our playlist with you, but like I said, we ended up going off-playlist for the majority of the reception, so I actually don't even have a full list of all the songs that were played! But I'll give you a few that I remember, that seemed to be the ones people danced to the most. Though keep in mind, it's also a know-your-crowd thing... depending on what region you're from, the ages of your guests, etc... your guests may not respond to the same songs ours did...:

-Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida (this was the song that actually got everyone UP from their tables and started dancing)

-Mambo Number 5

-Twist and Shout - The Beatles

-Roam - The B52s

-Uptown Funk

-Dancing Queen