It depends on your crowd and what kind of atmosphere you want. We had about 70 and if we had wanted dancing, we would have had a DJ. Because neither my husband nor I care to dance, we opted for a string trio and a morning ceremony.
What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
The nice thing about a DJ is that he can change up the music to allow one type of music for dinner & cocktail hour and then if you & your guests are into dancing can easily change up the music for that. Most DJ's will play a variety of dance music & then pull more of the style of music that they notice keeps your guests out on the dance floor. At my wedding the line dances were big hits or anything that got the everyone involved, so my DJ kept playing those instead of the more modern dance songs.
I was at a small wedding this week with no DJ. Although the music they played was fine, the DJ does more than just play music. He keeps the reception flowing and also acts as the emcee. At this wedding there was no one to announce things like cake cutting (which people missed), etc. and also no one to coordinate the exit. The reception came off as a little disorganized.
I initially wasn't going to hire a dj (for about 50 guests) but changed my mind after watching Four Weddings. Some of the weddings seemed boring. I want to make sure that someone is looking out for the energy of the crowd and trying to improve it. Plus, I want someone else to figure out when the cake cutting is (and announce it) and the father-daughter dance, etc. Less to stress about.
My wedding is going to have 50-60 guests and we did hire a DJ. Neither of us are big dancers either but I do still want to do the traditional first dance and father/daughter dance. And I know that our guests will enjoy being able to dance if they are dancers. Our DJ also reassured us that he will be paying attention during the cocktail hour to what kinds of music people are responding well to so he knows what they will enjoy during the reception. And I agree with what others said about it being helpful to have a DJ make announcements, although someone else could also make announcements if they agreed upon it ahead of time.
Re: Small group, DJ or no DJ?
With All the Trimmings