Music or dj

Hi Christine, I would say that the best choice is to hire a professional DJ for your special day. I think it is much easier and you can have a discussion with the DJ on what music you would like to have played.

Hi Christine-

I will echo what Emile and Sam have said a DJ is probably your best bet! My FH and I considered trying to use a playlist for our reception, but decided against it for serveral reasons:

- if no one is dancing....do you really want to be worried about that?

-song "flow" is actually harder to put together than we all think...and a DJ can read the crowd and switch appropriately with no silence.

-human error

-tech issues- not something I wanted to be worried about on my wedding day!

- use of things like a icrophone for annoucments (DJ will usually bring one, otherwise you rent).

- peace of mind! for us, the party is a big deal. I decided I didn't want to be worried the whole night, and be too distracted to have fun.

Let us know what you decide- and kepp sharing plans with us!

Hi Christine! I am going to share a personal experience I had at a friends wedding this past August and she just had a laptop and speakers and a friend as an MC. So they didn't create a playlist properly first of all so songs got repeated often and someone would have to run over there quickly to change it, also it was a Christian wedding so any time a song came on that maybe wouldn't be appropriate for the people from Church to listen to or had swearing in it - again someone would have to quickly run over and change it... Also they had no alcohol at the wedding as the groom has never had a drink in his life so it was hard to even get people on the dance floor if the music wasn't right. Because they did things this way, one of the guests was the mc and the one who had to keep running back and forth from the dance floor to the laptop and there would be a pause in music and she didn't get to enjoy the night as much so the flow of things definitely didn't work! I think a dj is worth the investment because you have someone you can rely on to make the propery playlist and work with you on making one and has experience from other weddings so you can ask questions about what they think! They will be able to keep people on the dance floor and any songs with swearing and what not usually is already edited out and so the flow is smoother!

Hi Christine! Welcome to the community! I think hiring a DJ is great investment, you can try to find one that's more within your budget. I agree with Samtam, you will feel much better being able to rely on someone for the music on your wedding day so that people dance, participate and have the mood set for your reception.

You can see with different DJs in our directory to see what their prices are: Wedding DJ Red Deer

And you can also check out these discussions for music ideas:

First dance

Our wedding song -first dance!

What will be your ceremony entrance song?

What type of music did you have in mind for your wedding? What's your favourite song?

Hi Christine! I'm not sure what your wedding details are but I would definitely recommend a DJ. You could maybe get away with a playlist for the cocktail hour and dinner since it's more background music but once the dancing starts you would need someone there manning the booth and getting a feel for the crowd! You want your friends dancing with you and not pushing skip on the ipod! DJs are great because they can read the crowd and make sure the transitions are smooth. For our first dance, we didn't do the full song and just danced for as long as we were comfortable and then had our DJ fade the song out after we did the final dip.

I'd love to hear more about your wedding! What style of wedding is it? What are your venues? How many people are you expecting?