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DJ/Band Issue

DanielleLovesZachDanielleLovesZach member
First Comment
in Outdoor Weddings
My fiance and I getting married on June 19th, 2010 and we are having the ceremony outside, but the reception inside. The reception hall is only about 100 feet from where we are getting married. Well, the issue I am having is what to do for the ceremony music, meaning do I get an orchestra to play, a regular cd player with speakers, an ipod with speakers or do I pay the extra $150 just so the DJ I am probably going to book will play the music outside while also playing it inside for the reception? I'm completely lost. Also, this is going to be a garden wedding so it won't be very formal at all, if that matters. Please help me :[
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Re: DJ/Band Issue

  • MzelleRicaineMzelleRicaine member
    First Comment
    Hi Danielle! You do have a lot of options. I'm also having an outside ceremony and have been asking myself the same questions. My first questions for you are: how many guests will be at the ceremony? And how much noise do you think there might be? (wind, distant traffic, etc) And what's your over/under for what you'd like to spend? That will tell you how much sound you'll need. (from a CD player/Ipod with good speakers to the dj or the musicians, who will be accustomed to bringing amps etc)Afterwords, I think it also depends on your personal style. Would you guys rather have your favorite renditions played, in which case CD player/ipod/DJ is the way to go, or do you want the touch that musicians bring? Our guest list should be at about 120 people, so either way (be it musicians or recorded music) I'm planning on having a good sound system, preferably something that includes an option for at least one body mic for the officiant to wear, so that her hands will be free and the guests will be able to hear us. (your DJ miiiiight be able to give you a hand on that one if it interests you, although if you're doing a casual affair, that might be too "showy" for you. I'm just concerned about my FI's elderly grandmother hearing everything!)Does that help at all? Ladies, do you have any other thoughts?cheers,*m*
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  • FutureMrsDudley55FutureMrsDudley55 member
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    I'm having this exact same problem. My reception site is about a 1 minute walk from my ceremony site. I'm planning to have our DJ play for the ceremony too. I have no idea how to go about setting that type of equipment myself if I used my own CD player or Ipod, and I really don't want to worry about it. So I'm just going to have the DJ do it!
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  • mlheadlemlheadle
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    We just got married at an outdoor venue. We had a friend who is a musician do the sound for us - I definitely recommend paying for a professional (like the dj). Even with good equipment it was a bit hard to hear DH vows etc (he's a pretty shy guy to begin with).  I think our guests really appreciated hearing the officiant's speech, our vows and the ring exchange. I totally get that it is an extra expense - If possible I would trim down some where else. HTH
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  • subdolasubdola member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    We had a similar issue and I did not want to pay the dj the extra money because it was going to cost a fortune.  We had a good friend of ours play guitar for the ceremony music and that was perfectly fine.  The thing that made it (vs breaking it) for us was that he had an amp and a microphone that we then used to people could hear what we were saying.  Without that nobody would have heard and that would have been a bummer. 
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  • MzelleRicaineMzelleRicaine member
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    Ml - what kind of sound equipment/mic did you use? Was it a hand mic (the kind you hold)?Thanks *m*
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  • tiffgriffin7tiffgriffin7
    First Comment
    I have the exact same situation as you and I decided to have our DJ do both and we are having some guy friends help him move his equipment indoors after the ceremony. We were going to go the iPod route but I was so worried (and had bad dreams!) that whoever we asked to play the music for the iPod would forget or play the wrong song...so I decided to just have the professional do it to ease my worries! One of my friends recently went to a wedding where they did an iPod and had a friend 'be in charge of it' well I guess he DID play the wrong song during the ceremony and kept letting the music die or wasn't paying attention to what was playing b/c he was too busy drinking....Hopefully that doesn't freak you out if you decided to go that way but it freaked me out! Also, maybe you have more reliable friends than that.
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  • tiffgriffin7tiffgriffin7
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    To answer your question, I would pay extra for a DJ or musicians, whatever your preference is.
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  • DanielleLovesZachDanielleLovesZach member
    First Comment
    Thanks for your suggestions and help Ladies :)
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