Thoughts on Skipping a DJ?

FaithCaitlin

Good Morning Ladies!

FI and I went yesterday to look at the Palm Beach Zoo and absolutely loved it. We asked the head Chef (he's in charge of booking weddings) if they had the ability to set up an iPod dock and he said no, but that they did have a 6 disc CD player.

FI loves music and has a gigantic music library. He was planning on making a huge playlist for our wedding and we were going to skip the DJ. We have quite a few older people coming to our wedding and doubt there will be a lot of dancing. In addition, I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where the DJ wasn't cheesy, haha.

Do you think it would be okay to skip a DJ considering we'll probably have little to no dancing and given my FI's love for music? My only concern is: who will do the announcing? A friend?

Thoughts?!

Jessica & Mark Andrew

I will be watching this thread. My FI and I are having a sit down dinner at Chart House and are inviting immediate family and most are on the older side as well. My coordinator at Chart House suggested maybe a string quartet or another type of musician for our first dance and cocktail hour. We are having our reception indoors and they don't allow a DJ and I too was concerned about not having an announcer.  So hopefully we can get ideas from the girls

NPopRocks

Not all DJs are cheesy. My DJ (Shannon from Liquid DJs) is super cool and has a great sense of humor, I've seen him in action before and I was like WOW, I want him to DJ my wedding!

If you don't want a DJ and have a lot of old people at your wedding, you might want to consider hiring a band. Live music is always great! : )

lgrn22

I think skipping a DJ wil be fine if you are having an afternoon or early evening reception and dancing or partying is not going to happen. I am just concerned what happens if the cd player doesn't work or you need to change the cd's. Do you really want to be messing with it on your wedding? But no DJ is fine.
I wouldn't do announcements if you are not having a DJ. (thats me though) If I went to a wedding and someones friend just stood up and shouted that here come the new Mr and Mrs I might find that strange.

FaithCaitlin

I too am concerned with what would happen if the CD player stopped working. The CDs switch by themselves and will be fine time wise with only 6 CDs (apparently each CD can hold up to 80 minutes).

I hadn't even thought of a live band!! My mind is all over the place today, hah! I will look around for a possible live band.

Any other thoughts on skipping a DJ? For the record, my ceremony is at 6, the reception starts at 7:30.

cmp1986

I agree with PP. Since your having a later wedding, I would consider having some type of music. It will be kind of a drag if there is just silence. If you do go the DJ route, you can always have him play older type music for your guests. The CD player (in my opinon) is risky. If a CD skips or for some reason won't play, then what are you going to do? Plus then you have to ask a friend to take time away from joining in on the celebration to play music.

djoann958

My daughter had an afternoon reception 2-7pm and we had quite a few older guests. We had a DJ and I was so worried no one would dance. Well. let me tell you- I had nothing to worry about. People partied and danced like it was new year's eve. My mother- age 70- was on the dance floor the entire afternoon. I don't think she sat down once! I would definitely suggest a DJ- he can guage the crowd and keep the party moving based on how the guests are intracting. A CD player can't do that. just a suggestion

Jeni10csc

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_florida-south-florida_thoughts-skipping-dj?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:67Discussion:abec46c8-12ba-46ca-9546-a34c6dada6d0Post:da206e82-73f3-4883-aab2-6c86ac645492">Re: Thoughts on Skipping a DJ?</a>:
[QUOTE]My daughter had an afternoon reception 2-7pm and we had quite a few older guests. We had a DJ and I was so worried no one would dance. Well. let me tell you- I had nothing to worry about. People partied and danced like it was new year's eve. My mother- age 70- was on the dance floor the entire afternoon. I don't think she sat down once! I would definitely suggest a DJ- he can guage the crowd and keep the party moving based on how the guests are intracting. A CD player can't do that. just a suggestion
Posted by djoann958[/QUOTE


I agree with this post. The DJ relieves your stresses of monitoring CDs in any way. It's not only that the CDs might have technical difficulties of some kind (and who wants to deal with that on your wedding day?) but also the DJ gauges the crowd and changes music/genre as needed. My wedding was the same as above post: even my 85 year old grandmother was on the dance floor.

Also, not all DJs are cheesy. A good DJ will do only as many announcements or talking into the mic as you request. If you want NONE of that, he should not be saying anything at all. There was only two announcements at our wedding: Introducing me and husband (we didn't have our court in the entrance to the reception) and when our dinner buffet was open - and actually, now that i think about it, I don't think he ever even announced the buffets opening because people saw it and just went to get their food.  

We also had a DJ at my shower and were concerned with the "cheesiness" of DJs but he was quiet and respectful and never once said anything on the mic at all.

Two DJs I used and definitely recommend:

Ubi for wedding
DJ Connection for shower - Emilio was the actual DJ who worked our shower.

They both payed exactly what I asked for and didn't stray from my list or request to not have announcements or any "cheesy" music

Sorry my post is so long - I guess I have a long opinion =) I hope it helps ...

twinkle82576

Like one of the PP, I'm also getting married at The Chart House, and from the get - go decided on no DJ. We're having a mid - morning ceremony followed by cocktail hour and lunch. I don't think those times are appropriate for a dance party. Further, like some of the other girls, we generally have an older crowd who aren't about the dancing. So we hired an acoustic guitarist and a singer. They will perform throughout the entire event. That night, we'll be having an after - party with all our friends (the younger crowd that we couldn't afford to invite to the wedding), and we'll get our dancing done then.

EvelynandManny

Im chart house wedding #3 .. LOL.. no DJ for me either but we are having and IPOD and I do have a DOC that is also doubling as my Master of Ceremony (but she has done this before so its not like just someone standing there talking gibberish LOL) depending on the set up and how the day progresses I might put on the dance music or might now... but i did make a limbo stick (yes im corny but whats a wedding without a limbo?) so im hopeing to have some dancing!

britt07uva

Don't know if this would work for you ... but I was just looking at the DJ packages from 84WestStudios and they have an iDJ package that is like a pro iPod DJ system and some other options with it? HTH )

FaithCaitlin

You girls are wonderful. Thanks so much!