Diy dj

We are doing our own playlist but one of our guests is a sound engineer so he'll be in charge of music during the ceremony which will be the Star Wars theme song for the guys and A thousand years for the girls plus a song while we sign the marriage certificate.

We'll give him a list for the reception. It's at my school so the speakers are all set up. He just needs to plug in his computer. Another friend is a computer technician with my school board so he'll be helping him with the set up.

I am creating my own playlist on Itunes as we have ages from 2-85 as we are doing a destination wedding they may not have the songs everyone likes in another country.

One my website I asked people to send me their top 5 fast songs and 3 slow songs.

This way I get a wide variety of music from the 1940's to present.

Our immediate families are a mix from Italy, Spain, Brazil and Canada with 3 languages spoken so wanted songs that appeal to everyone as some do not speak English so did not want to play all English music.

I am planning on creating a mix and bringing with me on an ipod.

I am actually gonna do that too!! But if there is no one that knows a little bit sound system it would be scary... I will do that because at the reception there is like 3 people that are able to fix it if there is a problem. Good luck! I hope I helped you. ☺️

Our friends did it at the wedding and it was great! They compiled tons of the greatest and most popular wedding songs and were also able to add some traditional Polish subs for her family. Great way to save and add a little personal touch. We are doing this for our wedding. We will have a spot on our wedding website where people can request songs for the playlist. I think it will make people feel involved in the wedding as well once their song comes on.

My fiances brother created his own playlist for their wedding last year. They used Rdio but i dont think thats a thing anymore. It was hands down the best music i've ever had at a wedding and everyone had so much fun! They asked for input and song requests before creating the playlist and then lined up the songs so they flowed into each other well. On the night of the just plugged the laptop into the speaker system and away we went!

I will be doing this for my wedding for sure! Sounds like Spotify is the app to go with. I've started creating a list on my phone of all the songs I want on my playlist every time one comes to mind

Yeah, we'll be asking on the RSVP what people want to hear for a song. We won't be messing with the playlist at the wedding.

Just a word of caution with Spotify:
I got the premium version free through Fido and we love it! Great to use on phones and laptops and Ipads. But I notice it can be tricky to "que up" the next song you want to hear on the list. Like, if someone requests a specific song, you go to add it to the que and 9/10 on a touch screen I will just end up playing the song right away and interrupting what's playing. It's sounds bad to suddenly shift songs accidentally even with the cross fade on. I've noticed that only in the "party mode " Playlists do the interruptions smoothly, but I've yet to figure out how to do a custom version of that.
We are looking to see if we can find another software to better que up the songs we want to play.

That's our plan. You get the music you want. I say go doebit and are the day 100% yours.

DJ s are so expensive! I already had to budget for the photographer. We are getting our musical friend to make up a playlist. Luckily our facility has a sound system all over the place and another friend will be playing the acoustic guitar at the ceremony!

We're DIYing it. We've started now to compile a playlist on Spotify and plan on getting the premium feature for the wedding to avoid adds. You can control the crossfade (time between songs) on Spotify and they also have tons of playlists premade.

We've having fun just putting a list together starting now - even though we are a year and a half almost out from the wedding. It'll be nice to have some throwbacks from now going forward

We had friends who did this for their wedding and it was great! Our friend spent a lot of time getting his playlist together for the reception and it was a hit. He had all the major you-hear-them-at-wedding songs and some personal choices mixed in so there was something for everybody. If you choose to DIY the music, you can allow guests to make requests when they RSVP. It will make them feel involved in your day even before it happens and it will probably make them happy to hear it once the day arrives.

I am using spotify soo worth the investment and there are dj's who have awesome playlists on there. I chose a variety of music because of the differences in ages that will be attending and my niece is one of my bridesmaids so her fiancée will be my back up in case the flow isn't working.I saved 3 playlists. There are options and I like to be able to have choice. Good luck!

Great advice Melinda, Thankyou! We are considering this to save on costs, we just need to make sure we have a family member or friend who is willing to keep an eye on it!

I totally agree with Melissa! My background is event planning so I like to think of all the "what ifs" so you can prepare for them and my mind immediately went to technical difficulties! It would be so expensive to buy all the music you would need so the logical solution would be to use an online streaming site but what if there are problems with buffering and then you just have dead air?

I think you could get away with a playlist for background music during cocktail hour/dinner but for dancing, I think it's best to have a live DJ. If you're worried about cost, maybe you could have someone come in just for the dancing portion so you only have to pay for a couple hours rather than all day? Music can really make or break a wedding and if the music isn't great, you might have guests leave early.

For the ceremony, I don't know that I would trust someone to play the right songs at the right times for the right lengths. Even if you nail everything at the rehearsal, the real deal is a completely different thing and some people might walk faster than they did at the rehearsal so even if you precut the songs to the exact time you need, you might end up with some left song over and it's great to have a DJ who can fade it out and make it seamless. If you didn't have a DJ, who would be in charge of the music? You'd probably choose a friend or family member but I'm sure they would rather be enjoying your wedding than stressing about playing the right music at the right time. I don't know if I could handle that much pressure!

Hi Ahsley! Nice to meet you! I'm glad to see you got quite a lot of helpful answers in here. It really depends on how much you want to get invested in this. It could also be a good idea to have someone around you in charge of your playlist if you choose to have one. You can take a look at this article for more ideas:

How to Choose Between a DJ and a Band

Are you looking for songs for both your ceremony and reception? Maybe these discussions could help you make a playlist:

Backstreet Boys songs at your wedding. Yes or No?

3 wedding songs from the 90's

What songs will be playing at your ceremony?

You can also click reply on our comments, to leave a reply. That way, we'll get a notification with your answer! I'm so glad you're joining us!

How big will you wedding be? What kind of venue will you celebrate in?

I know of 2 people who have done this... The one wedding I didn't go to but I can ask if you would like how it went. The one wedding I did go to it was very awkward. The flow of the wedding was definitely off. They had a friend who had to keep running back to the laptop to change songs because it was a Christian wedding and so songs didn't have swearing bleeped out and so someone would have to quickly run over and change a song and nobody was dancing, they also had songs that kept repeating because the playlist wasn't big enough. The wedding was also a dry wedding and so no alcohol and so it was very quiet honestly. I just think having a dj is worth avoiding all of these things as it made for a very weird time..

Spotify is really helpful! Friends did this for a wedding and I didn't even realize they didn't have a DJ. The had MCs and literally just a phone plugged into a jack.
Me and my MOH's FH love to play DJ at events. They host 75+ people Pride events in the their apartment annually and he does a banging job of gauging the crowd and playing tracks to get people to move.

We are thinking of doing this. A friend of ours has a great sound system and we are going to ask one of his adult daughters to work the system for us.

We considered doing this, and ended up deciding against it.

My biggest concern was if the playlist we made wasn't a hit and people were not dancing...there are only so many backup lists I could make to switch it up. And I didn't want to worry about it myself, or put a friend to work at my wedding.

I was also worried about technical issues, and decided to let a pro worry about that stuff.

I think if you go ahead and do DIY the Dj, Melinda had great advice! Avoid any long pauses, have a mic available so you can make annoucements, and make sure the speakers can really jam!

I might also add- limit who is "allowed" to operate the ipod. Maybe two people spearhead this...otherwise you might have tipsy guests picking songs and messing around with the "flow". And Make the playlist longg...way longer than you think it should be! That way you won't have to re-start the playlist and hear songs that were already played if there is an accidental miscalculation of time :o

Good luck! Let us know what you decide

Thank you Valerie!

I personally would rather have a dj that knows how to read the room and can adjust and play other things as needed and not have to worry about technical issues or batteries dying or losing an internet connection or any other issues.

But if you want to do it I've heard there are some good apps (they are paid, but only a few dollars) that really help. I can't remember the names, but I'm sure if you search wedding dj app you'll come across some good stuff

Thank you Melinda! I'm glad to see it worked well for someone :

My brother did this at his wedding. My sister made a wicked playlist and we had so much fun dancing all night! It was nice because it saved them a bit of money, but also they got to choose songs that they like and that they knew their guests would like.

A few suggestions:

1. Don't leave any space between songs. My sister left about 5-10 seconds between songs but that was just enough time for people to go sit down before they realized what song was up next and it was kind of awkward just standing there in silence waiting for the next song. Better to just have the next song start right away to keep it flowing.

2. Maybe ask someone to sort of be a DJ once in a while and grab the mic and encourage people to get on the dance floor. Doesn't have to be much, but it can help amp people up once in a while if the dancing dies down.

3. Get a good sound system/speakers.