Rough time DJing a Wedding Social... need advice
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  1. #1

    Default Rough time DJing a Wedding Social... need advice

    Hello,

    Last night at 8pm I got called in to DJ a 600 wedding social for 9pm because their DJ did not show up. I decided to accept because I wanted to help out, and if I am not at a gig, I want to be doing a gig. I do not have any wedding social social type music, luckily my light guy had a playlist of social type music ready.

    So as per request of the couple getting married, we started with older music, had a couple excited old people on the floor, slowly moved forward to time. And then after a bit younger people started complaining, and the couple let us open it up...

    So I started with some top 40s, a little bit of rap, and some electronic stuff mixed in. Got some young people on the floor and then after abit they scattered as well.

    We then moved to some rock stuff, classic social songs like journey, acdc, shit like that... Got some really excited old people who also scattered after about 15-30 minutes.

    We then switched back to top 40s, mixed in some trap and electronic stuff, and got a lot of young people for a while, and then they slowly started to scatter as well.

    So I decided to try some different things and I played some raggae and soca. And got a few people who also scattered after a while.

    At most the whole night I did not have more than 40 people on the dance floor at any point, out of 600 people I was kind of disappointed . The average age of crowd was probably late 20s to early 30s. I tried every style to see if it would pull anyone to the floor and it just didn't.

    Any advice? Don't want this to happen again. I'm used to DJing at clubs where everyone wants to get on the floor but there is not enough room. This was my first wedding social.

    Thanks for any help.

  2. #2
    Tech Mentor LXJ's Avatar
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    You can't see wedding in the same light as clubs or raves. The people are there to celebrate the wedding, socialize, and not necessarily there to dance. You can't measure your quality of performance by the % of people dancing in this circumstance.

  3. #3
    Tech Guru Kwal's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LXJ View Post
    You can't see wedding in the same light as clubs or raves. The people are there to celebrate the wedding, socialize, and not necessarily there to dance. You can't measure your quality of performance by the % of people dancing in this circumstance.
    This. It's a wedding... Depends on the family as well.

  4. #4
    Tech Guru VanGogo's Avatar
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    Some weddings almost no one dances except for the Cha Cha Slide, Wobble, etc. and a slow dance or two. Other weddings you have 15-20% of the crowd on the floor the whole time. So just depends on the group. Doing different audience participation things like a Soul Train line can help with the right group.

    It sounds like you did fine mixin it up for the different age groups. So good job!

    I don't do a lot of weddings, but the guys who make it their profession (and get paid the most) can be extremely good at getting people involved and on the dance floor. There is a whole different set of skills than a club/bar requires.

  5. #5

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    yeah i just talked to my friend who does wedding socials and he said that a job as a social dj is to make people spend money for the bride and groom. If he sees people nodding their heads , buying drinks or 50/50 then he is doing his job. And I did notice people doing that, and some old people screaming for excitement if a classic rock song would come on.
    Don't feel too bad about it now, thanks guys.

  6. #6
    Tech Guru dripstep's Avatar
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    There's a reason a lot of djs won't do weddings. You are there to be a jukebox, unlike at a bar/club, where you're there to keep people on the dancefloor. Don't stress, if the bride or her mom didn't come and yell at you, you did well.
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  7. #7
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    You can't please all of the people all of the time…especially with the vast diversity of people found at a wedding Ive DJ'd at 3 weddings, for close friends, and after each one I've said 'never again'
    Traktor Scratch Pro 2.7, MBP 13", iPad 2 & TouchOSC, Reloop NEON, Pioneer DJM750mk2, Mackie d.2, Pioneer CDJ800 x2, Technics SL1210MK2 x2, NI Audio 6 DJ, Dicers,

  8. #8

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    thanks. appreciate

  9. #9
    Tech Convert
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    Yeah from my experience Cha slide, wobble etc would get everyone on the dance floor. Other than that people are their to have a good time. But people are seeing families they may not have seen in a while two families merging together can be a little awkward lol. Some weddings are like family reunions. You did well dont be discouraged.

  10. #10
    Tech Wizard
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    Welcome to the world of being a mobile DJ!

    Pretty typical croud/reaction at a wedding or wedding social. People have fun in different ways. Some dance, some don't. Some drink, some don't. The dance floor at events like this is a constantaly changing and evolving environment
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