neon express

graysquirrel

Do any of you know how fast these guys book? 

jenn920

With the amount of people who say they are using them on here, I bet pretty fast... I booked them over a year out!

maybe984

It depends on the date. I literally booked Dave like 3 weeks before the wedding. Granted, my wedding was a Sunday. Then again, it was a novelty date (10/10/10) so I was actually surprised he was still available.

And on a side note, he was FANTASTIC! A few brides have had issues with his equipment causing the music to skip, but I feel that his skill at selecting music far outways the potential for error.

Liberty27

I booked him about a year out for a Saturday wedding in July...

Steph0871

Ditto everything Maybe said.  We booked them about 5 weeks out from our wedding, but it was a Sunday in November.

We had a great experience with him.  

veijes

We booked them about 4 months before the wedding but we had a Sunday wedding too.

They have 2 DJ's so I don't think they would book that fast, but if you know you are gonig to do with them, I'd book them now, it's only a $50 deposit.

MaggieandJake

we also booked with them a little over a year out.  It's nice to year that most people had a very positive experience with them, b/c i was starting to get nervous.

graysquirrel

We're trying to get creative with the budget so that we can get a DJ. I wasn't going to have one, but I think that people would prefer one and I want the guests to be pleased. Ours is a Sun night so hopefully we can still book. Thanks!

maybe984

Seriously, do it! It won't add too much to your budget. In that space, all you need is their 'small' system which they only charge $250 for. In the grand scheme of a wedding, $250 is barely anything.

emilykathleen511

I booked early, but that is because I post-poned my original wedding date and re-booked with them for my new date at that time. They were super flexible and willing to move my deposit, so that was super awesome!

dcprep

They were awful for our wedding. The music skipped ALL.NIGHT.LONG. 

My suggestion: Basically you have to outline your entire night's playlist. If you ask him to play anything that isn't already uploaded onto his system, he has to download it on his computer, which causes the music to skip. It was soooooooooo embarrassing.

NuggetBrain

I used them.  They were fine.  You don't need to outline the entire night's playlist. 

veijes

Ditto pp, we didn't outline the entire night, just the song for grand entrance, our first song, and father daughter song. I made a list of 10 songs we loved and he played all of those songs plus songs just like it. If you give him that in advance, he'll download them. They were very in tune to what the hit songs are now.

I Want Cake

We booked with them for our April wedding.  They seem to get a lot of work, and like a PP said, the deposit is only $50.  Even if you end up choosing someone else later, $50 isn't a big deal to lose.

I fully intend to look over his completely playlist for our special request songs and have Dave download them before the wedding.  Thanks for the tip, DCPrep!

NuggetBrain

What you're doing is basically what everyone does, Cake.  You should always inform the DJ of your special dances (first dance, mom and groom, WP, etc) and any particular songs that you definately want played at some point during the regular dance.  Neon Express does ask for those things, so as long as you tell them that in advance you should be fine.

You do not, however, need to outline every song for the entire night's playlist.  That's excessive. 

maybe984

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_minnesota-minneapolis-st-paul_neon-express-5?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:81Discussion:da981ca0-fdd0-4d78-a424-61508804f7d3Post:2c9c67ae-38c7-4b22-b370-ce5300d7c73e">Re: neon express</a>:
[QUOTE]What you're doing is basically what everyone does, Cake.  You should always inform the DJ of your special dances (first dance, mom and groom, WP, etc) and any particular songs that you definately want played at some point during the regular dance.  Neon Express does ask for those things, so as long as you tell them that in advance you should be fine. You do not, however, need to outline every song for the entire night's playlist.  That's excessive. 
Posted by NuggetBrain[/QUOTE]

I agree with Nugget. We made sure he had the important stuff, and the rest just came naturally. There were more than one special request, and we didn't have a single issue with skipping.

I don't mean any offense to anyone by this, but I think a few people are making too big of an issue out of some fluke computer issues. I know it's embarrassing to you, because it's your BIG day, but making it sound like Dave and Neon Express on the whole are unprofessional hacks that aren't worth hiring or trusting with your music selection is also little excessive. Sh** happens. I've been to big ass concerts in huge venues where a speaker blows or someone's amp dies... it's not like it's always predictable or always their fault. Could Dave use a new computer? Probably. Will it ruin your wedding? Unlikely. As far as I've heard, this has only happened at two of the dozens of weddings I've heard of them doing... so I think you run a pretty safe shot at having a perfectly fine reception.

Steph0871

Ditto Nugget.  You really don't need to outline the entire night.  We used his system for our ceremony, dinner, and reception (just a few dances.)  We had compliments all afternoon on how awesome the music selection was (both the dinner music and the 'lounge' music during our casual reception.)  We did, of course, notify him of our ceremony song requests, and he had them all.  

dcprep, I gotta be honest. I'm a little taken aback by your super strong hatred for them lately. When you first talked about them, it was way more of a  "yeah, it skipped a bit, and they had to reboot so we were without music for a few minutes, but I guess you get what you pay for" to lately being completely gungho about bashing them.  Not that you're not allowed to give negative feedback on a vendor (its' helpful, afterall), just the totally different approach you're taking.

Have you talked to Dave about it? Did you ask for a refund? Did he blow you off? It just seems like there's more to the story here.

NuggetBrain

For reals.  I understand that you're upset, but honestly, you've been hootin' and hollarin' about how they are terrible-horrible-OMG-they-will-ruin-your-wedding and I find it a little odd.  Let's be honest here, it's not like they called your mom out of her name on the mike, or showed up drunk, or not at all, or didn't have any of your special songs, or played hardcore rap music all night long.  If I had a vendor that 99.5% of the time did perfect and just happened to have equipment problems during my event, I'd be disappointed, but I wouldn't decide that meant they were AWFUL and everybody should know not to book them EVAR. 

veijes

Ditto pp! And he was so good at our wedding I would have paid $600 for him, so to hear someone else bash him, I feel bad that other brides are turned off from him and will have to dish out more money for another DJ.