Wedding DJ - Be Your Own DJ

Advances in technology have made it easier than ever for couples to compile their own wedding day music, and many are choosing to avoid the cost of a wedding DJ by doing it themselves.

Here are three pros and three cons of being your own wedding DJ:

Pros:

Greater control over the music so you just hear songs you love

The most obvious advantage of being your own wedding DJ is that you can just play the music you really love, and avoid those songs that make you shudder. No matter how comprehensive your ‘do not play’ list is, a wedding DJ is bound to play something that you hate, and usually at a particularly significant moment of the reception.

If you are compiling your own play lists for your wedding day, you have the perfect excuse to browse through your entire CD collection choosing your favourite tracks from each and every one. You and your fiancée could open a bottle of wine and make an evening of it as a welcome relief from wedding planning stress.
More flexibility over what you play when

If you are in control of the music played during your wedding day, you have greater flexibility to adapt your music according to how the day pans out. Imagine you’d booked a DJ for seven o’clock thinking that you’d have finished dinner by then, but actually your guests are still looking pretty comfortable digging into their desserts.

With your own play lists, you can simply carry on with music that is suitable for dinner, rather than switching to dancing music as planned. If you’d hired a DJ for a four hour set you would either have to hurry your guests along, let them eat their tiramisu to disco beats, or pay your DJ to sit around and do nothing for an hour.
Reduced cost as you won’t have to pay a band or DJ

Hiring a good DJ can be a very expensive element of your wedding reception. In the current economic climate, many couples are looking to reduce the amount they spend on their wedding, and replacing live music or a DJ with pre recorded play lists is a great way to do this.

As long as you already have an MP3 player you can hook up to the venue’s sound system, the only cost involved in being your own wedding DJ is downloading any tunes you don’t already have.

Cons:

No personal interaction with your guests

The great thing about having a DJ for your wedding is that it gives your guests a focal point and something to look at. A DJ should also be able to interact on a personal level with your guests to get them up and dancing, and to play any particular songs they are requesting.

A DJ is able to read the mood of your guests and decide what to play based on that. They should respond to your guests’ reactions to the music they are playing and either carry on in the same style if there is a positive reaction, or try something different if the music isn’t pleasing the crowd. A DJ can also act as mater of ceremonies, announcing key elements of the reception such as the first dance and the cake cutting.
Increased stress for you on your big day

You have spent many months planning your wedding, and on the big day you want to be able to relax and enjoy spending time with your new husband and all your loved ones. This is very hard to do if you are in charge of the music as well.

You will constantly be worrying about whether the music is going down well, or whether you should change to something else, and when the moment comes to switch between play lists, you can guarantee you will be deep in conversation with an aunt you haven’t seen in years. Leaving your wedding music to someone else will give you more peace of mind on your wedding day.
Less professional musically

Unless you are actually a DJ by profession, it is unlikely that the music you choose and the way it is played will be as professional as with a wedding DJ. There may be moments of silence between the songs unless you are able to mix tracks together. The quality of the sound may not be as good as with a DJ, and tracks that you thought would be perfect for dancing might actually fall flat on the dance floor.