Is a dj needed for the Reception to be fun?!

I personally say book a DJ. i'm all about saving on the wedding where you can. but it's important to have a good DJ/music. The things people remember most about weddings food/music/drinks/bride.
I've been to weddings with the ipod playing. and it hasn't been as fun. A good DJ will feel the vibe in the room and play accordingly. and there will be no lag time between songs (the way a song would end on an ipod and go to the next track).

Definitely not essential to have a DJ. We set up our own playlist and just ran our iPod or iTunes through the sound system and everyone had a great time. It also save a lot of money.

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Well I believe smaller is better! If my fiancee didn't have such a huge family, we would have gone smaller too! I love the old cabin feel of murrieta's, so rustic and beautiful!

We sure are! It will be outside just around the back of the main building. Hopefully the weather will be nice to us that day!!

View quoted message Thanks Taryn! Our venue is so tiny we can barely fit the tables - I don’t think we will even have room for a dance!

Ps I love your venue!! Are you having your ceremony there as well?

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You still have time to find one! The Lowest price I came across was $800 plus GST. If you want any suggestions just let me know

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He did! He's booked for our date, but got his friend who covers him when he can't. His name is Bill. He was available and is giving me a wicked deal!! Thanks again for all your help and kind words. I'm so happy we got a DJ for a reasonable price. Only a few more things to go!!

We have our nephew IL doing our thankfully and will be renting lights through Long & MacQuade but we did purchase a great Bluetooth speaker, fair size runs for 7-8 hrs. We dl'd songs through Spotify for our guest arrival and our 2 processionals.

It would be a lot cheaper to have a playlist and use a Bluetooth from your laptop or phone. The sound is fantastic

Our venue is really small (murrietas in canmore) and I was just going to do an iPod shuffle...but now reading through these comments I am wishing I had a DJ!

Hi Taryn, Did Sean get back to you?

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Oh that sounds lovely! A cousin of mine got married at the cornerstone theatre and they are so awesome and helpful there. I'm sure it will be a beautiful wedding!

Hi Taryn !! My daughter is being married at the Canmore Ranch weather permitting and the reception is at the Cornerstone Theatre. The Grande Rockies Resort is BEAUTIFUL!!!

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Hi Kim!!

We are getting married at the Grande Rockies Resort in Canmore on Saturday September 8th this year!! Just 5 months away!!
Has your daughter got her venue yet?!

I emailed Sean, so hopefully he gets back to me soon! This is, so far, the best (only) wedding gift we have got!! So thank you, thank you, thank you!! Much love and appreciation from myself and my fiancee!!

Taryn,

I may have a suggestion for you. A wedding gift really. We booked Sean from Big Fun DJ 101 in Calgary for September 15, 2018 for our daughter's wedding and due to a scheduling issue we had to change our date to May 2019 and we aren't able to use Sean. Sean is amazing, has great reviews. I spoke to him and he is willing to transfer our deposit from our daughter's wedding to you, if you contact him. He doesn't need to know we don't know each other well, but just tell him Kim Rose sent you about using Sarah and Gary's deposit. I can't remember how much the deposit was, but I told him you were a sweet couple on a budget getting married in Canmore. So fill him in and see what he comes back with. He is so easy going. Hope this helps. Someone might as well use the deposit rather than lose it and yes this is a legit offer. No lie. There are good people out there. I PM'd you as well. Please look into it.

Taren when are you getting married?

Hi Taryn,

My daughter is being married in Canmore as well! It is very beautiful there.

My first wedding we did an iPod with a wannabe DJ controlling it..They blew a breaker 😳 delayed the wedding because we had no power and to top it all off the playlist sucked and nobody danced.This time around I’m hiring a DJ and I’m excited!You can shop around for djs and if you mention you’re on a budget many djs will try and work with it.

Not at all. It's up the the bride and groom in the end, we are doing a DJ only because we already knew one that we wanted. He has done several events before for my FH's family so there was no "shopping" for him, he was the 2nd vendor we booked after our venue just to secure him. Many weddings have a their own stereo and an ipod/mp3 plugged in.

We didn't want to put any extra work on our wedding guests to assign the music dept as we want everyone to enjoy themselves. The Dj we hired reads the mood really well, I was at a wedding and someone requested Techno Music. Within about 15-35 seconds of him playing it no one was on the dance floor he switched right away with Backstreet boys and we were back on the dance floor again.

Thanks everyone for the information and suggestions. I feel Valerie's comment really hit home, I do not want to be worrying about the music and playlists all night! I think I will go with a DJ and the fiancee will just have to deal with it!
Thanks again all you lovely brides!!

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Hi Kim!

Thanks so much for the offer but I live in Calgary and we are getting married in Canmore. Thanks for the suggestions as well, I really appreciate it!

Yes a DJ or some form of music is needed for the "fun" portion

Depending on the vibe you're wanting, it's totally up to you. I agree with the others, that if you're willing to put the time in, you could create a few playlists to change the mood as the day/night progresses.

However, I'm also trying to be budget conscious, but the $800 I know it's going to cost me to get a DJ/MC is worth it... the biggest factor is, a DJ mixes songs, they flow together, there's never dead air. Also, they change the pace, build up to fast paced songs, take breaks with slow songs (where the MC will usually tell people to grab their favourite person and have a dance)... They also fade the music out slowly when it's time for a speech or announcement, not just cut out in the middle of a song... They may even be able to take requests from guests, whereas doing that with your own music would screw up your playlist.

To answer your question, I would say it is not essential, but be prepared to put in many many hours of prep work to have home made playlists.

DJ's are good for mixing music together, getting the crowds pumped up and they can also help keep the night on track (announcing dinner times, speeches, etc)

I wouldn't suggest using your phone to play music, but most venues have speaker hook ups you can easily do to a laptop and have some playlists playing all night on them! Heck even spotify would be a great option!

The only real difference is that the DJ is very good with flowing one song into the next, transitioning from one to the next! A playlist on a laptop might have a bit of dead air between songs but its really not that big of a deal!

I’ve been to weddings that had DJs, laptops, and a live band featuring the bride as the singer. They were all fun! The laptop/iPod route could work fine if you have someone who’s willing to take care of it.

Our DJ is also going to MC for us so we found it important. If you have someone who is into music then you can have them figure out a playlist for you or you can put together a playlist and just try to make sure it's songs that will keep people dancing and not too many slow songs.
You can google some tips on how to make a wedding playlist to help.

We had a DJ and he certainly managed to make the party more lively, so I don't regret getting one. He was also our MC, and people talked about his personality all night, it was fantastic.

If you do decide to go the route of doing your own music, I would suggest having your MC be in charge of the music for the night to make sure they play the right playlists throughout the evening, or someone who would be willing to take that task on, preferably someone who wouldn't be drinking all night (unless your playlist will go start and end when the wedding closes).

My FH and I had the same debate early on.

He wanted to have a playlist on his phone or laptop. I was worried about it not working, guests hogging it or the playlist just plain sucking.

I wanted to have a DJ. The idea of being worried about a playlist all night just made me cringe. I wanted someone to be able to read the room and deal with all the song requests from our guests! I also wanted a host, to make sure everything went by smoothly.

We both went back-and-forth on the subject for a while. Finally, we decided to get a DJ. It'll offer us piece of mind while we enjoy our wedding day and dance the night away

Hi Taryn, you can go either way, but an experienced DJ can really get the crowd going and keep the party going until the end. You have paid good money for a venue and you want to get every penny out of it that you can. If you are in the Edmonton area, we have the name of a very economical DJ that we are considering for our daughter's wedding, and he comes with excellent references and he may work with your budget if you don't need him for the afternoon like we do.

I've heard people doing playlists on laptops or phones or ipods. Just make someone have 'ownership' of checking on it every so often to make sure the playlist doesnt end and then you're stuck with dead air.

Some people I know use Spotify (but be sure to use the paid version, not the one with ads).

I like what Karen suggested with having different playlists that way you know each one will be appropriate for each part of the night. It would take some work making those playlists but absolutely doable! We’re having a friend DJ for us. He used to own his own company but just does it for friends and family now. He’s basically just bringing his equipment and laptop and letting it play and people can request songs if they want. I think I’d be too nervous not to hire or have someone in charge of music so I would make sure if you’re going to use a phone that someone still can man it and be there for any issues or song changes. Also I’d make sure to put the phone on airplane mode or something just in case some tries to call or text it haha maybe use and iPod or laptop instead?

It can work for not having dj. You guys can ask your guest what music they would like to dance to at the reception. You can also just put the music on shuffle or have playlist for dinner hour, dance hour,& your first dance. That way who ever control the music know which playlist is appropriate to play.

I'm having a DJ who also had games up his sleeve.

Make a playlist on a laptop and have a friend play it. Simple and cost effective