Wedding DJ Tips

One of the best catering companies ever was Connie's Catering of Lewiston, Maine. Connie was the nicest person on earth and she always insisted on feeding everyone at the wedding, the bartenders, the DJ, the band, the photographer, the maintenance guy, everybody got a meal!!! Why? It was the right thing to do.

Get your phone ready, get your laptop charged-up, it's time to search for your Wedding DJ. google, Yahoo and Bing are good places to start. Asking your venue to see their recommended Vendor Lists is a reliable resource too. Asking the vendors you've already contracted can also be a great way to find your DJ. Get shopping though, don't delay!!!

It's that time of year, when numerous couples start searching for an available Wedding DJ. Be sure not to let price dictate who you end up selecting. Ask about experience, music, arrival time, a written contract, liability insurance!! And don't be fooled by those ads for cheap wedding DJs, $395-$495 type of Craig's List quality Wedding DJs.

Got my Moderna booster shot last week at Walgreens in Cornish, Maine! I'd love for the wedding business here in Maine to get back to normal, so I'm doing my part. No more listening to the anti-science and anti-medicine bird-brains on Social Media, Youtube and on Podcasts. I'm sticking with real science and real medicine.

My new Children's Book, "The Best Wedding Ever" is available on Amazon and Bookbaby. If you'll be having children at or in your wedding, you may want to consider getting this book. It tells of the story of a boy and girl who experience being in a wedding!!

Booking your Wedding DJ for 2022 is something you may want to do sooner rather than later. Reason: DJs are booking up faster than ever. It could be pent-up demand for weddings, whatever it is, it's real. Do your research, find an available DJ and sign a contract and put down a retainer.

I can easily look back on my Virtual DJ software to see what I played at a recent wedding. For anyone who would like to see these historical music mixes, it would be fair to say none of them are any type of indicator what I'll play at your wedding!!1

Throwback Thursday!! My old friend Phil Chabot and I started a Wedding DJ company called Record Hops Unlimited back on January 14, 1977. Phil had a band and we used his PA system and my access to WPNO's remote broadcast board and voila, RHU was born and did hundreds of weddings between January of 1977 and December 31, 1999.

One of the many beautiful barn venues in the State of Maine is Cunningham Farm in New Gloucester, Maine. I was there this past Saturday, providing ceremony services as well as music for the cocktail hour in the Hay Barn and finally dinner and dancing in the primary barn. Congrats to Kenneth and Elizabeth!!

Thank you to Fred & Sharon, a fantastic couple who had me DJ their wedding ceremony and reception at DiMillo's. Steve DiMillo Sr & Jr are awesome to work with!! What a great venue in a great Portland setting, The Old Port!!!

For over 7 years, an unfinished script about a ring bearer and a flower girl and how they experience going to a wedding sat on my MacBook Pro desk top, dormant. Well, 2020 and covid changed all of that. I finally wrote it, got it illustrated by Steve Hrehovcik and now published on Amazon!!! It's a pretty cool children's book about a wedding, as experienced by two kids.

Doing intros as a wedding DJ includes holding a piece of paper to read from while doing intros!1 Old school for sure, but very, very reliable!!! I'll be doing it this way indefinitely. Since the 70's, good old fashioned paper, that's where my intros are read from, not a phone or a tablet!!

Give me the ball, let me know where you want to go musically, and I'll get you there. Trusting your DJ to play the right music at the right time is imperative. Otherwise, if couples try to micro-manage my music selections, it comes off as making me feel like I've got one hand tied behind my back....

I do appreciate 5 Starr reviews when they come in. I recently got a glowing 5 star review followed 24 hours later by a disappointing 4 star review. I do my very best to make every wedding I'm connected to a success. The high majority of my reviews are fantastic and when I get a "B" on my tests sheet, I'm disappointed because my effort is always to get an "A".

When I set up equipment for ceremonies, I always set-up a pair of speakers that play music in stereo. I know it sounds better and gives you a better range of sound since two speakers can be spread apart. One speaker typically limits the sound to be in mono (one channel). Stereo is the way to go!!

Putting your wedding DJ in a loft is something I would discourage any couple to do. I always get the feeling of being "detached" from the reception. Worse, my speakers will not sound as good compared to being set-up at ground level. That translates into announcements and music not sounding as good.

So far so good as it pertains to Covid and weddings in Maine. I've only had one cancellation recently due to the onset of the Delta variant. Other than that, a few brides and venues are asking whether the DJ has been vaccinated. Wearing masks again is a possibility. But, we'll get through this season for sure at this point!!!!

It looks like 2022 will be a very busy wedding season for DJs!!! Many of the key Saturdays are being booked well in advance, mores than any other year I've ever seen. There's plenty of pent-up demand for sure! If you find someone you're comfortable with, BOOK THEM!! Availability for the Saturdays between May and October are disappearing, quickly!!!!

Hiring a Wedding DJ for the day wedding is simple and easy to do. It does not include the DJ going to the rehearsal dinner, however. A separate contract is needed, specific to the date, place and time of thew rehearsal dinner. So, the wedding DJ tip is this: if you want your DJ at your rehearsal dinner, get a contract for the specific date!!

Do you want guests at a wedding to hear every word you speak during a toast? Speak into the microphone correctly and they will. Let the microphone dangle at your waist and they won't hear a thing. So, nice clear voice, speak right into the microphone and pronounce your words!!!

Deciding what to play and when varies from wedding to wedding. I never plan what to play in advance, it's a combination of the list given to me by the bride & groom, guests requests and the ebb and flow of the dance floor. Sometimes, it just comes together as the night progresses, organically.

The Delta variant represents a real threat to all the progress we've made towards getting back to normal at the wedding level. Get vaccinated, wear a mask, do your part. Don't fall for misinformation, the vaccine is safe and effective. Let's keep weddings normal again!!!

I know I talked about this before but it's an important wedding DJ tip. Leaving home early to head out to a wedding should be done PSYCHO early!!! Reasons: accidents, traffic, engine trouble, flat tire, etc... There are a ton of reasons to arrive early, including having the time tofu equipment problems if they arise.

Ah yes, drinks on the dance floor! It happens at most weddings and so do the eventual drink falling onto the dance floor to spill it's contents and possible shatter into a hundred pieces! Clean up on aisle 1. Try to keep the drinks off the dance floor is possible (it usually isn't possible). Human nature.

It's a tricky thing, playing music that the bride and groom want to hear that contains explicit lyrics! Some songs have some pretty "rough" lyrics too, not meant for kids or your grandparents!! Try playing the clean versions. If you insist on the naughty version, wait till later in the night!