I did a wedding recently at the request of a good friend. Like you I’m straight up club DJ, and previously sneered mockingly at mere wedding DJ’s!
I have to tell you you will have a ball. People are well up for dancing and super responsive to you. Do a load of classics and drop a few of your own, it’s a great opportunity for some unlikely mash ups too.
Oh yeah, finish with New York, New York - full floor guaranteed.
Aye people who mock wedding DJ’s usually haven’t done it or realise how tricky it is to do it right. In my opinion a straight up club set is far easier and takes much less effort. Good luck with it mate.
I totally agree, weddings are harder than club gigs. In wedding you have a huge difference in age for demographic, and wedding djs have to have a bigger library of music. You pretty much need to have everything, seriously, top 40, rock, classic rock, country, reggae,etc
I need more classic rock, its a genre I don’t listen too
Beatgrids for a lot of these older songs are all sorts of messed up
why not just get those rock/top 40 packs for 10 bucks from online stores. most of the music might suck, but if thats what they want…
Yep. In those situations, after getting over my horror at the idea, I stopped beatmatching and mixing and just played the tunes. Crowd don’t care - they just want to dance to classics. It was very unnerving for me though!
pandora “wedding channel” streaming on my phone plugged into my mixer … hahaha, I only did this when everyone was just eating and whatnot, when theygot to dance I changed things up. 
Sack off the grids and match by ear. Also consider key and mood for transition. I match all my keys by ear with an endless encoder mapped to fine tune.
Man why am I having so much trouble thinking of Top 40 music to mix in
You’re over thinking. Just grab the current Top 40 list, and find anything with a solid beat, and start there.
Is it in bad taste to play songs that say damn or ass? Like I don’t know why Get Low is so popular lol
Shhhhiiiit friend just asked me if I could do dinner music now also, whelp
Wonder if a Levels/Somebody That I used to Know mash up would be way too much. hmm
Question - When I’m going from the First Dance to Father/Daughter what am I supposed to play for that gap
4 bits of advice from me:
- pace yourself, its a fucking long time playing music you aren’t super into
- have plenty of tunes people know, and plenty more for backup, and more for backup again
- don’t bother mixing every tune
- play Outkast - Hey Ya
Actually, one more tip. Make sure your equipment, including mic’s etc, is super reliable and are all tested at the venue. The music stopping or your mic not working during speeches at someones wedding is a cock up of monumental proportions.
My situation, we are just starting off, first gig tomorrow actually, and thinking ahead towards the future and hoping more gigs will come, but we aren’t yet pushing the fact we are “for rent”, mixing is still a hobby for us. So thinking ahead, I’ve also been wondering if weddings are even something I’d want to do, if someone asked us. I realize it is an opportunity to be paid fairly well, but I am not sure I could break the bit of style we’ve built up over the past year and a half to do a wedding. Let me ask this another way. Do you really have to break from your personal style of music/ mixing to do a wedding successfully, if your style doesn’t even come close to things like classic rock, rock, raggea, top 40, etc.? I mean, couldn’t you say “I’d be glad to do your wedding, if my music and my style is what you want?” It might lower chances for a wedding gig. Yes, I understand that. I don’t see that as a bad thing really though, because I know I can be sure to be “right” with my own style. Thoughts?
scamo
In response to your question Scamo you are providing a service, not a showcase of your skills and coolest tracks. It’s certain you will end up playing tracks you aren’t into to satisfy the majority. There’s still pleasure to be gained by providing a great night for everybody even if you’re not into every track personally.
It is important to know your limitations. I certainly pass on weddings when the couple wants “world music” or “zydeco”…mostly because I do not understand those genres enough to do a good job. That said…I have gone as far as building a collection of Contemporary Christian music to satisfy a client. Are you willing to drop $$$ on 200 songs for an event? Do you charge enough to even make than an option?
Wedding DJs provide a service. This is not art. This is not about you. This is not an education session on the nuances of some sub-sub-sub genre of EDM. This is not a DJ battle where you need to throw out every mixing trick you know. I mix only during the dance portion of the evening…and even then, I do it sparingly.
Wedding receptions are multi generation events. What are the odds that Grandma is going to like Dubstep? What are you going to do to ensure that Grandma hears something that she likes? What if there are kids at the wedding?
Time Life Music, Rhino, and others have good box sets that cover the “wedding friendly” genres: 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, classic rock, love songs, trash disco, and even country. My local warehouse club has a reasonable selection on any given day…each box set is 60-ish songs for $20. All “familiar favorites” that will go over well during dinner or other non-dancing times. If you stick to a single label for the box sets, duplicated songs will be rare. For $100 you can pick up 300 songs that will provide you with a solid back catalog for any future weddings you do.