So, you need to know how to DJ a wedding. Maybe you’ve DJ’ed before at a house party or nightclub, or maybe you’ve never DJ’ed before at all. Either way, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. With these 5 simple tips, you’ll be heating up wedding dance floors in no time at all. Long gone are the days of the wedding singer, long live the DJ’s!
Something that’s important for any DJ set is understanding your audience. Your track selection is going to be extremely different depending upon those that you’re performing for, so this is important to note. For instance, the first wedding I DJ’ed was Great Gatsby themed so the bride asked for the first half of the set to be 1920’s jazz music and for the second half to be contemporary pop records. On the flip side, I DJ’ed at a wedding for two of my friends from college who are around my age, which meant that my track selection could be more eclectic and experimental.
1. Ask For A Playlist
You can’t just show up to a wedding with your standard library expecting that you’ll have exactly what the people there want to hear. You need to ask for the bride and groom to provide the music they want on a CD, flash drive or in a zip file via email. This is extremely important in learning how to DJ a wedding. There’s nothing worse than arriving at a wedding and realizing that your library full of Deep and Tech House isn’t going to please a wedding party that wants to hear Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj. Even if you think you have most of the songs that people usually request, it’s best to have an extensive playlist from the bride and groom to fall back on if you ever become unsure of what to play.
2. Prepare for Requests
Understanding how to handle requests is a crucial part of knowing how to DJ a wedding. If you’ve DJ’ed at nightclubs before, you’re probably used to ignoring countless requests from overly inebriated girls who want to hear 2 Chainz or Drake. At a wedding, you may feel obligated to actually take these requests, since a wedding is a very different environment to a packed nightclub plus, all the guests there hold some relation to the people who are paying you. My advice would be to use your own judgement on how to handle each request, however, if either the bride or groom asks for a song to be played, I highly suggest doing so. Bridesmaids and best men are also people you should try to keep happy since they’re so close to the bride and groom.
3. Know The DJ Equipment
Additionally, when learning how to DJ a wedding its important to know the tools and equipment that you’re working with. If you’ve never DJ’ed before, it might be a good idea to go with as simple a setup as possible, since the more pieces of equipment the more opportunities for error. If you’ve DJ’ed before, this should be a pretty easy step in preparing. Just double check that everything is in working order and you should be good to go.
4. Don’t Stress, You Can Make Mistakes
When learning how to DJ a wedding, you will often find that good mixing becomes unimportant and almost unnecessary. That isn’t to say that you should resort to lazy DJ habits for your entire set, but it’s more likely than not, that the entire audience will be drunk to the point that slightly sloppy transitions will go unnoticed. In fact, I’ve DJ’ed a few weddings that I consider some of my worst performances ever, yet everyone there still complemented my set and told me how much they enjoyed the music.
To clarify, I’m not advising you to smash songs from completely different genres together or advocating an intentionally bad DJ set, just know that there’s some room for mistakes in the technique department. So if you’re worried or nervous about making mistakes, don’t be. Most people will be too distracted to notice anyways.
5. Read The Audience – It’s Not Your Day
One final bit of advice in learning how to DJ a wedding is, ensure that you always read the crowd when choosing your next song. This holds true for any environment, not just a wedding and it’s an important aspect of DJing at any event. For example, if you play a Hip Hop record and you see hoards of people evacuating the dance floor, you should probably change up what you’re playing to bring people back and keep people happy.
With the aforementioned tips at your disposal and a basic knowledge of DJing, you should be well on your way to successfully DJing a wedding.
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