Honest Opinion Needed: DJ Services and Dance Flooring

chicky1988

Hey Ladies!!

My FI and I are newly engaged and were  trying to hammer out details for our budget.  And are wondering your opinions about DJ services & dance flooring.

To give you a little background: We are having an outdoor ceremony and reception (both same site) w/ ~80 guests.  We plan on it being fairly casual (BM's will be wearing Maxi dresses) and we are putting a lot of effort into outdoor lawn games (think Jumbo Connect 4, Ladder Golf, Frisbee Golf, Bags and Checkers) and plan to have this be the main entertainment for the night because neither of our families are big dancers (all weddings we have gone to there are maybe like 5 ppl dancing off & on). Don't worry we plan to put the location on our website and pass it around via word of mouth that guests will be spending lots of time on grass. Also we will have white wicker furniture for extra lounge areas for the few guests who may not want to partake in the lawn games. 

Though we don't plan on having a big dance we were still planning on doing a first dance, father/daughter, and MOG/groom dance.  

So my questions are:

1) If we want a DJ just to be playing background songs while people hang out and play games, can we plan to hire a less interactive and inexpensive DJ?  (We know we want to have a DJ so we don't have to have a guest man the music during our reception and don't have to rent equipment)

2) Do we still need a small dance floor?  Because it's casual I'm 100% fine just having an open space near the DJ to do our first dance etc. and for ppl to use if they are committed to dancing (which will most likely just be the kiddos).

What do ya'll think? Thank you so much for your input!!  

PS -- I changed the OP from "HO Needed" to "Honest Opinion Needed"... it just seemed like a good choice lol sorry for any confusion.

00kim00

Several djs we looked at charged an extra fee for weddings for "mc services", dance floor, special lighting, etc. So yes, if you don't need those things then you may pay less. But if you still want him to announce you, tell the guests when the cake cutting starts, call tables up to the buffet, etc., you may not get a discount. Playing music is playing music whether people are dancing or playing lawn games, but the extras could cost extra. If you are the only one dancing and you're playing background music during games rather than dance music, I think it's fine not to have a dance floor. If the dj is playing dance music, I would want a dance floor

JMalettas

 The DJs we looked into, all charged the same prices whether it was a wedding or not. It was based on how long you needed them. Certain things were automatically included regardless, and other things were extra. (Extra lighting, dance floor, etc). The DJ we used didn't charge extra to announce anything, if needed. So shop around & see what you can get!

 Personally, if it was within my budget, I'd spring for the dance floor. I don't think it's necessarily 'needed', but I think it would look nice, & designate the dancing space. If not the dance floor, I'd some how decorate to make that area look like the dancing spot. 

 *J

chicky1988

Thanks ladies The DJ companies I have talked to range in prices and increase based on how "seasoned" the DJ is (which I completely get) but usually the less seasoned the less interactive/fun they are bc they have less experience.  So I think I was just rationalizing going with a less expensive one if I didn't want them to engage our guests in dancing. (Sorry if my OP was confusing -- still getting used to writing on here lol).

00kim00  I think your rationale for the dance floor makes sense!  Background music = no dance floor & Dance music = dance floor  Thanks again!

JMalettas Thank you so much for your response!  I will definitely be shopping around  

mysticl

Have a dance floor. You don't want to risk someone twisting their ankle in an uneven spot on the lawn.