Small Weddiing

Lisag72

Hi,
This is my first wedding at 40 and his second at 45. We are just planing a small beach wedding with just our immediate family and a couple of best friends. His son will be his best man and my 2 nieces will stand by me. We are renting a small room in a hotel and having a nice dinner served afterwards but we are not having a dj since there is only 20-25 of us. Do you think thats a mistake ? Should we have music of some kind ?

handfast4me

Hi Lisa,

I grew up just North of Boston.  We got married in the Keys, just the two of us, and it was very romantic and intimate.  I love small weddings like what you've planned. 

I like music while I dine (my undergrad degree is in music), but my experience is that if any of your family members have hearing problems, it may make it hard for those folks to participate in the conversation.  I might put music on an Ipod, and bring in small speakers, or use CDs, with a small CD player.  You want it so that it can be heard, but that so folks don't have to shout over it while they're having their meal. 

Lisag72

The ipod is a great idea ! Thank you !

Marrin713

I did the ipod and it worked fine.

VeronicaHanG

Hi there...
You and I are very similar, I'm 40--(3rd marriage) and he is 47 (2nd).  We are having about 25 people maximum; simple ceremony and a nice dinner afterwards. We are not having a DJ and might get a photographer for about an hour or so.....I was thinking of having an ipod hooked up to a small speaker and have pre-made songs selected already.....
Not looking to spend crazy $$ on the wedding...it's just about us, anyways  :-)

Best of luck!

Kristin789

Before you get hassled into creating some kind of play list and downloading songs for an ipad you'll have to keep track of on your wedding day...

We had a wedding like yours and we asked the venue if they already had a music service piped into each reception room.  They said yes.  Turns out that most venues that host these kinds of things all the time have four or five choices for pre-recorded music to play during a dinner or lunch, and they know how and when to turn it on, and how loud it should be, and they turn it off when you're done.  We chose SOFT JAZZ.  We aren't huge jazz fans, but we felt we needed some kind of background music and the soft jazz was the least disruptive.

ChiGirl2013

We had a similar sized wedding.  We opted for the iPod because we wanted to choose our own songs, and we also included the wedding songs of all the couples in attendance which was a surprise to them and they loved it.  Our crowd wasn't really a dancing sort of group so a band or dj would have been a waste of money.

The restaurant did pipe in music, but it was a satellite radio type thing and we could only have it set on one type of music for the entire event - ie all classical, all rock, all jazz.  We wanted more variety so we opted for the iPod.

tishayork

We attended a wedding last summer for very dear friends. There were about 25 guests at a small restaurant. The couple had a DJ who played soft tunes during dinner and we also danced to some "oldies" after dinner. It was a lovely event! Food for thought

LRKnowles

I think you should have what you would like at your first wedding! If you want music, have it.

wilson24019

We are burning a CD with our own mix to play at the reception.  It is classical music, my fiancé is a purist. The issue of the hearing loss is important too.  that might affect if you have music, how loud you play it, and where you put the speakers.

ShellD13

This is almost my exact plan as well.  I'm 38 my FI is 43 and this is my first and his second wedding.  We are doing a very small ceremony only 19 which is only his kids, our parents and since I was adopted after my mother passed away my sister from my biological family.  After the ceremony at a local park we are picking everyone up and bringing them to a local 4 star restaurant for dinner.  We may be seated in a private room but it depends on how busy the restaurant is - so I am planning on preparing a play list for my ipod just in case we get the private room but I've seen lots of weddings/receptions where this was done and it worked great!