CD for ceremony

dco324

Has anyone used a CD or iPod for ceremony music?  I can't imagine there is too much complexity there and I'm trying to cut costs and was thinking of taking this route instead of hiring a musician.  Any advice?  What was your playlist like?  Did you include "extras" in case something takes a little longer?  Who worked the cd player or ipod?

sunshine_day_dreams

I have not done this, but my suggestion would be to definitely go the iPod route rather than CDs.  It's a lot easier to mix things up if you need a quick change of music to get people on the dance floor.  There also will not be the need to carry multiple CDs and change between them all night.

I would make sure if you go this route that you choose music that spans multiple generations and will get all of your guests out on the floor at some point; not just top 40 stuff.  I would also add way more than what you think you'll need so that you have additional songs to play if you feel like the crowd isn't dancing.  Try googling for wedding playlists and see what you find.

kwelder1

I originally thought of doing this for my wedding ceremony, and hiring a dj for the reception. Then after I paid the deposit on the DJ my parents surprised me with them hiring a band! I couldnt get my deposit back on the DJ, so I agreed with him to have him be in control of the ceremony start/stop of the music. That way I wont have to burden any family members with them not being able to fully pay attention to the ceremony because they would have to be in control of the music. It works out this way

tpender13

I think it's totally fine. The DJ company I used to work for would actually do the ceremony as well for not too much more, it might be worth looking into if you haven't already. I've seen a lot of people use CDs or whatever too, it's totally fine. The ceremony space might have a sound system you could plug into, but I've also seen people just use a boom box type thing, and it was totally fine.

sunshine_day_dreams

Wow, I just came back and read this.  I had major reading comprehension fail the first time around.  I missed that this is for the ceremony and not reception - even with "ceremony" in the title.  Sorry 'bout that.

I have seen many people do the CD or iPod route for the ceremony.  Do you have a coordinator at your venue?  Or maybe a tech savvy family member or friend that would volunteer to man the radio for you?  I would maybe use songs without words for the parts you think could take longer so that it might not be quite as obvious if you just restarted the song over again when it got to the end.

I still stick to my original stance, though, that it's easier to manipulate and go on the fly with an iPod rather than a CD player.  What would you do if you got to the venue and your CD was scratched?  Or do you really want to chance having your CD skip in the middle of the ceremony?