Wedding DJ....
Author
Discussion

Freakuk

Original Poster:

3,960 posts

167 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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Well I am not sure where to start with this one. I class myself as an amateur DJ, I record a few soundcloud mixes, play at friends parties etc etc.

Anyway, a friend had asked me to play at their wedding, but the venue put the blockers on it, as they have their own resident DJ, no problem as far as I was concerned, meant I could enjoy the wedding and not try a get the crowd going.

Yesterday was the wedding, the venue did have an LED dancefloor, but the lighting was minimal, I have more lights at home. The "DJ" if that's what I should call him was literally just hitting play on the next deck as the song was fading, there was zero mixing, no beat matching, beat mixing, phrasing, key mixing, EQ mixing, literally nothing.

He did attempt to mix on two occasions, the first he literally brought a deck up to max volume with no EQ mixing, it sounded terrible. The second he had to do a BPM transition (low to high), but he was using the main part of the song to ramp up, my ears were bleeding at this point.

As ever with these things, people are drunk, dancing, and as long as he was playing the typical party tunes it didn't matter. I just felt sorry for my friend that they would have paid quite a lot of money to the venue when a spotify playlist would have provided a better experience IMO. Part of me wants to complain to the venue on their behalf, but I don't feel it's my call to do that, they had a great day (obviously) so I should just leave it there.

Weirdly I never put myself out there or try and promote myself as a DJ, I've got a hectic working life and my free time is precious and I'm not sure I would class myself as a "DJ", but it would have been a great solid gig at a decent venue and not blowing my own trumpet it's clear to see that I could have easily done way better than the bare minimum this guy was doing.

Funk

26,840 posts

225 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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Not your wedding, not your fight imo... I'd stay out of it and keep thoughts to myself in case your friends think you're salty at not being the DJ (even though it sounds like this isn't the case) or are being critical of their wedding that was no doubt carefully-planned.

If they're unhappy with the venue's DJ and ask for your thoughts then by all means lay it out for them but chances are it was a million miles from their minds and not even an issue to them.

If they had a happy day then leave it as a happy memory. That's the most important thing.

Louis Balfour

28,176 posts

238 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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Freakuk said:
Well I am not sure where to start with this one. I class myself as an amateur DJ, I record a few soundcloud mixes, play at friends parties etc etc.

Anyway, a friend had asked me to play at their wedding, but the venue put the blockers on it, as they have their own resident DJ, no problem as far as I was concerned, meant I could enjoy the wedding and not try a get the crowd going.

Yesterday was the wedding, the venue did have an LED dancefloor, but the lighting was minimal, I have more lights at home. The "DJ" if that's what I should call him was literally just hitting play on the next deck as the song was fading, there was zero mixing, no beat matching, beat mixing, phrasing, key mixing, EQ mixing, literally nothing.

He did attempt to mix on two occasions, the first he literally brought a deck up to max volume with no EQ mixing, it sounded terrible. The second he had to do a BPM transition (low to high), but he was using the main part of the song to ramp up, my ears were bleeding at this point.

As ever with these things, people are drunk, dancing, and as long as he was playing the typical party tunes it didn't matter. I just felt sorry for my friend that they would have paid quite a lot of money to the venue when a spotify playlist would have provided a better experience IMO. Part of me wants to complain to the venue on their behalf, but I don't feel it's my call to do that, they had a great day (obviously) so I should just leave it there.

Weirdly I never put myself out there or try and promote myself as a DJ, I've got a hectic working life and my free time is precious and I'm not sure I would class myself as a "DJ", but it would have been a great solid gig at a decent venue and not blowing my own trumpet it's clear to see that I could have easily done way better than the bare minimum this guy was doing.
The venue will have charged your friend good money for the "DJ" and paid said chap a pittance for his negligible skills. That is how the wedding business works, really.

Tell me you weren't expecting Paul Oakenfold.

You're right. It is not your place to complain and nothing will come of it. You should console yourself with the fact that you have superior skills to a wedding DJ and move on with your life.

anonymous-user

70 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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Ex semi-pro dj here.

It was a wedding, not Pacha in Ibiza. Everyone gets drunk and doesn't care, leave it be and let the happy couple have fond memories of their special day.

smn159

14,222 posts

233 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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I get the frustration as the guests would have had a far better experience with a DJ with proper skills, even if they couldn't put their fingers on why.

Agree that it's not your fight though, so just take it as a learning experience, move on and take confidence that you could do a decent job if you chose to.

Louis Balfour

28,176 posts

238 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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smn159 said:
I get the frustration as the guests would have had a far better experience with a DJ with proper skills, even if they couldn't put their fingers on why.

.
The guests would have been happy, possibly happier, with a DJ who announced each record. They were there to see the couple get married, get pissed and have a laugh. They were not expecting silky skills on the 1s and 2s.


Condi

18,889 posts

187 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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As with any DJ, it's more about song selection than song transition, especially at a wedding! People want to dance to music they know, and most are too drunk to even care who or what is choosing them.

One of the biggest fk up behind the decks I've seen in 15 years of festivals and gigs was Oakenfold forgetting to put the second track to headphones when cueing it up, so it can happen to the best!

njw1

2,483 posts

127 months

Tuesday 20th December 2022
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Condi said:
As with any DJ, it's more about song selection than song transition, especially at a wedding! People want to dance to music they know, and most are too drunk to even care who or what is choosing them.
I was a mobile dj for over twenty years covering everything from kids parties to nightclubs and when it comes to weddings the above is true, you can try and do all the clever and technical stuff you want at a wedding but ultimately people on the whole just want to dance to the same old cheesy st! It's probably part of the reason why I dont bother anymore (though I still work as a sound technician), it gets quite demoralizing playing 'Come on Eileen' for the millionth time...

Oh, and regarding the lack of lighting, that's what wedding venues want and expect these days, it's all about the 'ambience' not blinding people with your huge laser light show!



Edited by njw1 on Tuesday 20th December 22:49

Louis Balfour

28,176 posts

238 months

Wednesday 21st December 2022
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njw1 said:
Condi said:
As with any DJ, it's more about song selection than song transition, especially at a wedding! People want to dance to music they know, and most are too drunk to even care who or what is choosing them.
I was a mobile dj for over twenty years covering everything from kids parties to nightclubs and when it comes to weddings the above is true, you can try and do all the clever and technical stuff you want at a wedding but ultimately people on the whole just want to dance to the same old cheesy st! It's probably part of the reason why I dont bother anymore (though I still work as a sound technician), it gets quite demoralizing playing 'Come on Eileen' for the millionth time...

Oh, and regarding the lack of lighting, that's what wedding venues want and expect these days, it's all about the 'ambience' not blinding people with your huge laser light show!



Edited by njw1 on Tuesday 20th December 22:49
Did you play James "Sit Down" and did people sit down?

Piersman2

6,673 posts

215 months

Wednesday 21st December 2022
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"Transitioning" in and out of the Birdie Song must take years of practise to get it just right! biggrin

As above, people are not at a wedding to admire the DJ's skillz, they just want a decent set of big hits queued up by someone who will largely keep their mouths shut whilst doing so. It's a wedding, the DJ is not the star of the show.

wibble cb

3,910 posts

223 months

Friday 23rd December 2022
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My wife and I like our music, but not your average pop/wedding fair, we gave our DJ specific set list guidance, and he kept to it, was it faded in the best way, or beat matched, were tracks segued to form musical 25 minute masterpieces? No, of course not, I suspect a playlist on an ipod would have done the job (showing my age!) he played what we wanted to hear, and actively avoided the stuff we did not want ( I would have made it known to him if I was hearing tripe I didn't want ) if the happy couple were just that, happy, then it really won't do you any favours to make your complaints/observations known, no matter how well meaning you are.

Weddings are (usually!) all about 2 people, no one else should get a look in,