Thoughts on bands and/or DJs....

Interested to hear everyones opinions on this as we are currently having the "band vs no band" debate!!

We're doing this. A ceilidh for 3 hours (!!) followed by an hour of our favourite disco music. We'll make a playlist for 1 hour, 45 mins, 30 mins - just in case the band run over. People'll be half cut by then anyway and as long as they have the Proclaimers they'll be happy!

Hi Juliette,

Its definately an option and it doesn't kill the atmosphere. Just make sure of the following:

1) Make sure that your ipod sets are cranked up through the PA. Just having had a (probably reasonably loud) band on and then going straight in to a quiet ipod set WILL kill the atmosphere.

2) Make sure the band leaves their lighting rig on. This is what we do for an ipod set - again, it keeps the mood going.

3) Unless you have a friend who can make a proper mix for you (i.e. cut all your favourite tracks together seamlessly as a DJ would), make sure that you have the ipod's crossfade settings on. This puts an automatic crossfade between tracks. Now bear in mind that it is absolutely not as good a mix as a DJ can do, but at least there's no silence between tunes - silence will kill the atmosphere.

4) Some bands will do the mix for you - I put all our couple's sets in to pro-tools and do a quick mix on them so that they play seamlessly on the night. You have to provide the MP3s but at least you don't have to do some of the tech nitty-gritty. Its worth asking your band.

And before I get shot down in flames by all the DJs on here: Here are the negative aspects to bear in mind

1) Its not quite the same thing as a DJ. Good DJs read the crowd, take requests and change their playlists on the fly. You can't do that with ipod without stopping proceedings. UNLESS, you get really clever about things, have all your music on a mac, set up a wireless network and then you can allow your friends with ipods and iphones to request tunes and they get put in a playlist order automatically. Now this is all good fun, but you know what - its your wedding and you're not going to want to faff about with this, unless you want to allocate that task to someone who gets a kick out of these things!

2) You'll be playing MP3s. By their very nature they are not the same quality as CD playback. I hear the difference big-time through a good quality PA. This may not be an issue for most (slightly drunken by this time of the evening) crowds.

3) iPods can go missing.

4) You have to sit down and spend probably nearly a day sorting out your playlist. A DJ could just be handed a piece of paper.

All that said, its a way of saving money and worth considering if things are tight.

I hope this helps. I imagine a DJ will be along in a minute to add a couple of comments.

Tony

We're hoping to have a band, and as we're getting married quite late (3pm) I think the band will probably start relatively late into the evening too, so I'm hoping that with their breaks, we won't need any extra music after they're done. Is that an option for you? I guess it depends on how much time you think you will have to fill, but if it's only something like 30 minutes then maybe the band could take a longer break and finish up later?

We thought about this a lot and in the end came down on wanting to have a DJ who could 'read' the crowd and would of course have all the right equipment etc. We went for a band who could provide all the evening entertainment so 2 sets of live music and DJ in between and until the end of the night.

That's definitely the best way of doing it. The band and DJ can also then play off each other - i.e. the DJ can warm the crowd up for the band and vice versa for the end of the night. Of course, the budget must allow it.

Tony

Tony has covered most things I'd have said......except one....a DJ creates an atmosphere with handling the proceedings and creating an atmosphere. The misconception is that a DJ just plays music....its much much more than that. Its almost the same as thinking a band just stands and plays music.....good ones interact with the guests and raise the energy....just like a DJ.

Let me firstly declare an interest and say, I'm a DJ. I own an iPod and I love it but I would never use the thing to entertain at a party.

Yes, you can load it with all your favourite songs, leave it in the corner of the room and save yourself a few hundred pounds. The problem is, they will be your favourite songs. Your guests will obviously have different tastes and require different genres to tempt them onto the dancefloor. You should definitely have the music you want on your big day. I always take a request list in advance and guarantee to arrive with everything the couple want to hear. My job is then to mix these tracks with popular songs that will get the majority of people dancing. In my experience, brides and grooms are often very busy chatting and 'mingling' and don't spend that long on the dancefloor. There should be some music for everyone else to enjoy!

A good DJ will ensure that there are no gaps in the music, won't repeat songs that the band play and will help create a great atmosphere for all your guests. As an entertainer at scores of wedding, I genuinely believe that booking a DJ is the way to go. There's some advice about booking entertainment on my blog, if that's the route you decide to take. Visit http://www.getwed.biz/blogframes.html for more information.

Good luck and have a great day!

James.