I NEED ADVICE & experiences with DJing your own wedding, Ipod style... well, laptop style actually. Please!

Tyrone Blue Entertainment, next March when I get back from getting married I will let you know how my IPod wedding went. Out of the 60 people coming only 2 are big on dancing. We are also already planning on having a CD with the wedding march, First Dance, Mother and Child dance and Money dance.

Make sure you mix up the music. I've been to weddings where they basically only had country music and stuff. It doesn't go over well. It just becomes too much.

I get the point that the vendors want work, but dang with their posts on here, it makes me want to run away from the idea. They are certainly not selling me on the idea of needing to hire one. I don't see how anyone can be that negative and then be a great DJ. The most important thing about a DJ is their personality! Makes a IPod wedding sound that much better and I don't even have a IPod.

Also, I was to a wedding where they used an ipod, and for the ceremony it worked really well. The only bad part was that they had to get my fiance to do the music, and he had to stand way over somewhere doing the music. So he didn't even get to sit and see everything. The music was fine though.

For the reception, they had a jug band play first, and then it went into ipod music. It worked fine, but their wedding was also really laid back and in a barn. If you plan to have a fancy wedding, you need to have someone in charge of the music, or just get a dj.

Shay M. the main reason I don't want a dj is because almost all of the weddings/events I've been too the dj's have been kind of rude/obnoxious, almost downright mean. Especially if God forbid you want a certain song that you like.

Emily-

I have to agree with Shannon and Clare, but disregard BGPictures. My son was in charge of the music at his cousin's wedding. He had her laptop and her IPOD all connected to our IPAD. On the IPAD he could run the music list. The mother of the bride was very detailed and gave him the music timeline sheet and the wedding timelines for him to follow. He could sit in the pew like a guest controlling the music, sound's volume and stop if he needed to. For the reception he could stop the music if an announcement had to be made or a toast and walk around to visit people.

Someone in your family/friend a techy to do the music? Do a practice run. Make sure you have a timeline of your wedding ceremony and reception so that there is no miscommunication or do what Clare and Shannon did and keep it very simple. Just get the person a nice thank you gift. You do not need to pay a family member lots of money to do the music. It could be there gift to you and the

I have been to both iPod weddings and DJed weddings. My cousin's reception was her laptop filled with music. I don't remember anyone complaining about the music and I remember everyone having fun.

A wedding I went to had a horrible DJ. The bride and groom spent an hour taking pictures and the DJ did not play music for the hour we waited for the bride and groom to show up. When the brother of the groom introduced the couple the DJ tried to increase the volume to emphasizes the entrance there was nothing but feedback and they had to be introduced 3 times before the DJ didn't increase the sound. The B&G's first dance, mother son and father daughter dance were on one cd that was given to the DJ. The first dance went off without a hitch. The father daughter dance started with the first dance song, as did the mother son dance. I am including a picture of the bride with her father on the dance floor telling the DJ that their song is number 2. I think she's flipping him off...

Needless to say we are going with an iPod/laptop wedding. We have been putting together playlists for over a year and we are having a nice relaxing wedding. If people don't dance they don't dance. It's going to be a great time and we aren't worried about it!

Just make sure you plan it all out and have a backup plan, just in case!

Wow, this has certainly been an interesting thread! I debated on if I should comment or not, because Shannon really stole the show and said a lot of what I was going to say! Others have followed. I was mad enough just reading some of the others.

But to add points for our side- I'm another bride that had a FABULOUS DIY music wedding! I've been to two weddings that rocked it as well - one with an ipod, one with a laptop.

Let me say first that our ceremony AND reception were on the beach. The ceremony was on the beach itself, and the reception was on my in-law's beach house deck- where our sound was setup. So having good sound was probably more of a challenge for us than in typical weddings, even other outdoor ones.

(cont)

We had a free professional DJ. Yes, I said that right. We didn't have to pay for the DJ(er, I guess we did because it was included in our package - but it wasn't like shelling out a few hundred for a DJ alone)... and we still chose to go with our own music. I think that was the major reason we wanted to do this, not because it was cost efficent(which, it was) but because I'm such an OCD planner bridezilla whatever you want to call me that I wanted to pick every.single.song that was played at our wedding. And I did just that! Our music choices reflected US. Still, everyone danced to them and enjoyed! Everyone from my 75 year old grandmother, to our 25-30 year old brothers and friends, to my 3 year old son.

Anyway, the DJ did the work on making sure everything ran smoothly. I told him what I wanted - he did it. Basically, he was told to hit go, announce our special dances/events, and calmly manage the situation however he had to if something went wrong. While I appreciate what he did,

We really didn't even need him there. One of us could have announced the special events. The rest of the time it was just automatically set. We even told the DJ to sit down with us to eat.

You know, overall, some ipod weddings are going to suck. Some are going to be awesome. Just like some DJed weddings are going to be awesome. Some are going to suck.

I think some people here may be a little bitter because technology is taking over and is causing them to lose jobs.

And I'm with Carole and Kelly - some DJs can be totally outrageous/ridiculous and I'd MUCH rather be listening to cds (or a mixtape!) on a stereo.

If you don't have the money for the DJ, it's not going to magically appear. I've been to a wedding where they used the i-pod....it was not horrible. There were a few issues, but didn't stop our fun.

Wow. I really appreciate all these comments, and I'm so glad that my post is helping others to make their decisions. I just got an email from a DJ who is reasonably priced, but is still out of my range (So you have an idea of where I am right now, financially. I got offered a job at the daycare where I’d like to send my daughter, and in order to take it I'd have to pay THEM $100 at the end of the week … I’m considering it. See?) Anyway, I was inspired by some of the positive posts, and I’m grateful for Mr. Blue's recommendations/advice. I realize that it must be having your art encroached on by technology. I spent all day yesterday making what I believe is a well-rounded play list (which I might share, tho it’s not completed), and every 1 of my RSVPs has an "I promise to dance if you play the following song:" line on it. Since they won’t be able to make requests at the event, I will plug the most requested songs into the play list. Still, I won’t be able to use everyone’s choices. Cont

I will likely be using a laptop as a primary, tablet backup, and smart phone 2nd back up. My father is very technically inclined and will serve as my master electrician/sound tech (actually he used to be a sound tech in college) and as I said my friends down there are professional actors/lighting/sound techs, and I’m very much considering hiring one of them to emcee/”DJ”. Tho I may just use a relative. I’ve also considered recording my own voice to use between sets, like *mimicking a baritone DJ voice* “I’d like to ask all the single ladies to make their way to the dance floor for this one. And ladies, make sure your ring fingers are ready to do the talking. Here we go”! Followed by, “Single Ladies – Beyonce”. Sounds good to me, anyway. Followed by, “Now, we’re going to slow it down a little bit, and let our single ladies catch their breath. Good job, ladies.” Followed by, “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You”, right? Cont.

I probably shouldn’t use a man’s voice tho, it’s just where I went in my head. I also have song-editing software that can be used to eliminate silence between songs, and paste my voice in if I go that way, tho it’s corny. Anyway, these are just my ideas. Mr. Blue, feel free to critique them (gently, please). I’d be interested to know what your professional opinion (and anyone’s really) of my song choices is, keeping in mind that I am not done the list and haven’t received guests suggestions yet. Oh, and that I’m in my 30s so I like 80s/90s music… and while I don’t start out with BEPs, they do come early in the play list.

Here’s what I have so far: Oldies (Do You Wanna Dance, Cant Hurry Love, Everybody Needs Somebody), Fun popular stuff (I Gotta Feeling, Say hey - I Love You, You Spin My Head Right Round), Old Classics (Old Time Rock n Roll, Twist n Shout, Brown Eyed Girl), Newer Classics (Faith, 500 Miles, Mony Mony, Love Shack), Classic dance faves (Bust a Move, Baby Got Back, Sweat - Everybody Dance Now), Slow (Better Together, Cant Help Falling in Love, Lady in Red), Oldies (Proud Mary, Do You Love Me, Footloose), Pop hip-hop (Blame it on the Alcohol, Boom Boom Pow, Pon de Replay, Golddigger) Classic Rock (Shook Me All Night Long, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Paradise City, Ballroom Blitz), Oldies (Johnny B Goode, Twistin the Night Away, Crocodile Rock)CONT

Slow (Unchained Melody, Have I Told You Lately), More classic dance faves (My Perogative, OPP, Ice Ice Baby, It Takes Two) Pop hip-hop (Hey Ya, Bad Romance …) Then I had go to bed. Some of those will change when requests start coming in from guests, but… I’m kind of proud of what I’ve done. If Mr. Blue, or anyone else has some suggestions, by all means, share. Tho I ask that you be delicate as I worked so hard on this, and learning that it totally sucks could crush me.

PS I totally just got offered a full time position at the daycare (literally, she just called me) so maybe I can afford a DJ after all! Seriously though, not really as I still have to pay for the daycare... but I'll take home almost a 1/4 of what I make! Yay for not having to pay an employer to let you work!

My best friend did her wedding on an ipod/laptop. She did it for her ceremony and her reception. She picked all her music and put it together. I remember sitting at the ceremony and there was not a dry eye in the room. She had the music put together so beautifully. You sat there feeling all the love in the atmosphere.

The reception was so much fun! We danced till our feet ached!

So yea it can work.

You cant pull money out of your butt if you dont have it. If you are organized and detailed then go for it. IF not then get someone to help you.

Set it up when your done and see how it goes. Fix any glitches and have a back up plan.

I am actually in the midst of pricing DJs in my area but I can promise you this IF they have the SAME ATTITUDE as the DJs on here then they WILL NOT be hired!

If they dont like that I want to have my own music played then they wont get the job. It will be their loss.

Congrats on the job!!

Several people have mentioned the time gap between songs. How long is the gap? I'm not really seeing why its a problem. Not trying to argue, just trying to understand. My church has music/recording equipment so I'm just making a CD for the ceremony but I need something for the reception. Or do I? Do I really need music for the reception if there is no dancing? I wish now that I had paid more attention to details at other people's weddings!

@Shay, I'd put some music on just for some soft background noise, like people do at cocktail hours.