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Russian Singing AND American Music+Dancing??

rlb209rlb209
in Wedding Customs & Traditions Forum
I really need some help trying to figure this one out!!  If anyone has any ideas or went through a similar problem, please share!!

Here's the situation: I am American, but my fiance is from a traditional Russian family.  His mother really wants to let Russians spontaneously sing together, and for there to be an accordion and a keyboard for people to play (sort of karaoke style)!  She says that Russians always want to gather around and sing together at celebrations!

The problem is that we also want to have the American tradition of a dance floor with a DJ, and we cannot figure out how it might be possible to allow people to sing together AND have music and dancing at our reception!!  

Our reception venue is one big room, with a side room for a photobooth-type set up.  We also have an outdoor garden area that we can use.

Can anyone think of a way where we might be able to include dancing AND allow Russians to spontaneously sing their heart out without making it uncomfortable for either culture??  Any ideas would be really helpful!!
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Re: Russian Singing AND American Music+Dancing??

  • itzMSitzMS member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers First Anniversary
    edited December 2012
    Why not just do an "open mic" segment?
    The DJ would be able to take a break for 30-45 minutes-ish, and could announce that the floor is open to anyone who would like to sing a song to the bride and groom.
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  • unchatenfranceunchatenfrance
    500 Comments Third Anniversary
    edited December 2012
    Does your FI not have Russian music he can give to the DJ to play for the guests to sing along to? H and I come from the same Eastern European culture (as were most of our guests) but we wanted "Western" music too and wanted to avoid the traditional wedding singer and accordion player. So we gave the DJ a bunch of songs we wanted him to play mixed in with some Western stuff, and that's what he did. The DJ was not familiar with our culture and songs at all, but I made a list indicating the tempo and genre of each song we provided so that he could have some idea of how to combine songs. And it worked out pretty well!
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    2500 Comments Fifth Anniversary 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    I really like pp idea of giving DJ a cd that has some of the popular songs that everyone would want to sing & let him occasionally play 1-2 songs & go back to the regular dancing. and in regards to the accordian, if you can't avoid it, then offer a compromise that they can play 2-3 songs each hour. That should be long enough because then the people singing can go back to the bar and re-hydrate.
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  • Jen4948Jen4948 member
    Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its 25 Answers
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_customs-traditions_russian-singing-and-american-musicdancing?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:36Discussion:2f57e56d-2dfb-48c7-9c34-5c3f172e6c3dPost:e76f48af-9181-4f6c-8126-b4151e4f7606">Re: Russian Singing AND American Music+Dancing??</a>:
    [QUOTE]Why not just do an "open mic" segment? The DJ would be able to take a break for 30-45 minutes-ish, and could announce that the floor is open to anyone who would like to sing a song to the bride and groom.
    Posted by itzMS[/QUOTE]

    This is only good if *everyone* is allowed to do it, not just the Russians, and there's no risk of the wrong person getting hold of the mic and saying the wrong thing. 

    I think open mics at weddings are too risky.  I wouldn't do it at my wedding.
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