iPod wedding?? no dj??? comments! small wedding!

We're doing the iPod wedding but mainly because we're old I have spent hours gathering songs, etc and we purchased a new shelf stereo with 700 watts of power for the speakers. Even with the songs and the new stereo, it'll be half the price of even the cheapest DJ. As someone said elsewhere on this site, the only thing worse than no DJ is a bad DJ.

We'll need to move the stereo between the ceremony and reception but I have a volunteer for that and I think this will work fine for our 75 guests.

I am working very hard to preplan a nice flow of music mixing oldies, fast and slow, etc. If I had a younger, more partying kind of guest list, I might not be comfortable with this idea, but I think (hope) it will work out for us.

My best friend did it, and I used an iPod during the band's breaks. I just made a playlist of fun songs and hooked it up to the speaker!

We had a small wedding (42 guests). For the ceremony we had a string duo - they added a bit of elegance. For the reception, we had a 3-piece band. This allowed us to have a first dance and father/daughter dance, but ultimately they allowed for some amazing music to be played while guests mingled, drank, and ate. It was nice having background music. Perhaps either option would work for you.

We are doing an ipod as well. We are having about 30 people and just doing the ceremony and dinner basically. No dancing

I suppose if there's no dancing, it can work....but in general, events without a DJ are harder to follow and stay organized, and guests tend to be confused and not stay as long.

I have been to a few ipod weddings and they were large and they were fun! we danced the night away. I am up in the air, I dont have an ipod or know how to load songs on one and I dont want my 15 year old to have that burden on her.

My friend did an iPod wedding and it worked out pretty well. She had about 100-125 people at her wedding.

My suggestion is make sure the venue has some sort of microphone though if people plan to give speeches. You said you aren't doing a first dance since your FH doesn't like to dance but if that changes, maybe designate someone you're close to who doesn't mind speaking to at least announce that or even the cake cutting or something.

I would say the one downside to my friends playlist is that she only had maybe 2 slow songs and people did want to slow it down a bit and were disappointed that there weren't more.

There was a great part during a song Bon Jovi's "You give love a bad name" that the ipod just stopped playing. You'd think it would be a brides idea of disaster but everyone was so into it they just kept on dancing and singing...though the funny part is, people started singing the lyrics to Living on a Prayer.

Totally works... the only thing you have to do is make sure someone - best man, or MOH - agree to be the 'master of ceremonies', to provide structure to the event. That way, there's no confusion among guests about what is happening.

I've never been to an iPod wedding, but I've been to a "boombox" wedding. Yeah...

That being said, have someone operate it so that the playlist doesn't die out. Also put a good mix of songs on there that many generations would like to listen/dance to.

It's hard to count dancers out until the day of. If you're having beer/wine/liquor then all bets are off. We didn't think anyone would really dance but out dance floor was packed the entire time because of our fairly good selection of adult beverages.

We are doing the same thing. Wedding is about the same size. No dancing here though because we are in a church and they don't "allow" dancing. Yes it's very archaic but whatever.

The event planner at our venue said that more and more people are chosing to do that these days. I say go for it!

We are using my iPad and a speaker. We were going to get a DJ but he acted like he didnt want to do it so I said forget it.

Plan is to use my laptop and speakers. lots of people are doing that now, so I wouldn't worry about it.

If you are planning on having a dancing wedding, I would definitely spring for the DJ. It really makes or break a wedding. I've been to a wedding where they used their Ipod and they wanted there guests to dance... unfortunately, it just didn't work out.

Thank all of you for your tips! Luckily my fiance has speakers from when he played in a band, so we basically have everything we need to set up and my sister has agreed to be in control of the music. We are going with the iPod/laptop music wedding lol!

We are doing the same thing. FL did some research and we bought a great speaker system. He is so excited. We are having dancing. But wanted to do it ourselves. It is doable. You have to be organized. I will find out what he purchased for you. The sound is amazing and goes as far as as a acer without straining. Our wedding is in 20 days. I will let you know how it goes.

We would like a DJ however we are on a budget. A DJ with a good reputation would cost us around $700+. I would rather do music ourselves and rent the equipment for around $100 than pay too much for a DJ. Plus, a bad DJ can really ruin a wedding. I would rather ruin my own wedding than someone else do it. Haha. Our wedding is going to be pretty laid back. Also, we have like 8 months to get playlists together and stuff.

Think about the music and have your playlists ready. You'll need pre-ceremony music, ceremony music (and someone to be ready to play the songs at the appropriate times), post ceremony song, dinner music and then dancing!

@Mikesgirl... I'll be anxious to know how your wedding goes

We would like a DJ however we are on a budget. A DJ with a good reputation would cost us around $700+. I would rather do music ourselves and rent the equipment for around $100 than pay too much for a DJ. Plus, a bad DJ can really ruin a wedding. I would rather ruin my own wedding than someone else do it. Haha. Our wedding is going to be pretty laid back. Also, we have like 8 months to get playlists together and stuff.

Think about the music and have your playlists ready. You'll need pre-ceremony music, ceremony music (and someone to be ready to play the songs at the appropriate times), post ceremony song, dinner music and then dancing!

@Mikesgirl... I'll be anxious to know how your wedding goes

We "didn't" have any dancers in our group either. Every single person danced, including my husband who hates hip-hop and dancing. He danced the night away.

People have good times at weddings.

We hired a DJ because we didn't want anyone to "work" at our reception. We wanted our guests to worry about having fun only, not about what song to play next.

I went to a wedding that had an iPod. It was very disorganized, and I'm the one who did the playlist for it. People tend to think they can just switch to whatever song they want to hear at iPod weddings, even when they aren't in charge of the music. People kept changing the playlist on me, it drove me crazy. So I gave up trying to manage it.

My MOH's hubby has access to a pro-grade sound system, which we will hook up to an iPod. He really wants to volunteer doing this, and I'm allowing it since we're doing a very casual picnic/BBQ reception. I really don't even want to call it a reception.... It's at a park pavilion a month after our ceremony. We're serving burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, etc. and playing cornhole!