Music to Your Ears
Wedding DJs have come a long way in recent years, especially in being flexible enough to give you exactly the kind of reception you want.
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If your wedding experiences go back as far as ours, you probably remember disc jockeys as the folks who hung out in one corner of the reception hall, spinning platters that mattered at a pace with grace, making occasional announcements-"The groom cuts the cake!" "The bride throws the bouquet!"-and mostly, staying out of everyone's way.
Well, in this still-new millennium, plus ça change, plus c'est la mÂeme chose. Nowadays, DJs serve as reception coordinators, dance instructors, live vocalists, technical prop managers (running equipment ranging from special lights to confetti cannons) and overall Energizer Bunnies for your guests-or, if you still prefer the low-key approach, as the folks in one corner of the reception hall spinning compact discs (mp3s have also entered the mix) and staying out of the way.
DJs are far and away the most popular option in contemporary wedding entertainment, hired three times as often as live bands. They've always been the more economical choice ($1,250 to $1,500 is most services' starting price), though in their early days, "We weren't able to give clients the entertainment value that bands did," says Doug Wheeler of Trumbull's Dougie Jam Productions LLC (203/377-5266; dougiejam.com). "The '90s were the era where you saw a big growth in interactive DJs-they got involved with the guests and got things going. There were a lot of DJs who might dress up the guys in the bridal party as the Blues Brothers, or as The Village People and have them do 'Y.M.C.A.' That's toned down considerably over the last 10 years."
"Interactivity has matured," agrees David Rossi, DJ/advertising coordinator with Powerstation Events in Cheshire (800/423-7835; powerstationevents.com). "Couples don't want 'goofy' any more. Thanks to 'Dancing with the Stars,' dance instruction, even prior to the wedding, has become very popular. I've taught brides and grooms how to dance to the first dance, but nothing overly choreographed-it's more for them to be able to add flair to their natural styles." (By the way, line dances, once considered old hat, have made a comeback recently in the form of the Cupid Shuffle and Cha-Cha Slide.)
Newer developments on the entertainment front include what Wheeler calls "'video dance parties,' where we actually show music videos featuring artists from Chubby Checker, the Beatles and the Temptations up to the present day. The beauty of that is, when guests are dancing to their favorite song, the artists are onscreen performing for them. So it's like having music at a fraction of the cost." A more popular video option at contemporary receptions is the projection of a "photo slide-show montage." Says Jimmy Nuzzo, president of Wilton's Dance to the Music Entertainment (203/563-9735; dttment.com), "We'll often play a little history of the couple, starting with their baby pictures and progressing to their wedding day, on 8-by-6-foot screens, or 50-inch plasma screens-which we can also use to project live videos, say of the bride and groom's first dance, so everyone in the room can see it."
"Theme" entertainment, to go with a themed wedding-ethnic or otherwise-has grown in popularity. "We did a Halloween wedding at St. Clements Castle in Portland with a Halloween music repertoire," Wheeler says, "and had the bridal party enter the reception in masquerade masks while Phantom of the Opera played." Sometimes the theme is "anything goes." Says Jack Schlechtweg of Stratford's WJ Productions (203/522-5072; wjproductions.net), "I did one wedding where they wanted everything: lighting, fog machines, plasma TVs, extra dancers-and they wanted me to lead a dozen different dances."
At others, it's the progression of the music itself. "I did a wedding where the bride and groom wanted nothing but classic instrumental jazz during the cocktail hour, and vocal jazz and standards through dinner," says Rich Gumpert, Powerstation DJ/sales and marketing director. "When the dancing started, the repertoire was all rhythm and blues and hip-hop. Though the playlist was strict, they knew their guests very well."
Most wedding playlists these days range all over the map. "What I especially like is when people ask us not to play 'Celebration' or 'Wind Beneath My Wings,'" says Rossi. "People have learned that there is enough music on this planet that they don't have to rely on these tired clichés." One potential future cliché is country-pop ballads by artists like Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and Sugarland-the new Celine Dions-for first dances and father-of-the-bride moments.
Despite advances in music technology-wireless Internet, Schlechtweg points out, makes it possible for a DJ to program tens of thousands of mp3s on a laptop with ease and speed-some DJs are more cautiously old-school in their techniques, which gives them an edge in quality over certain young guns who might service your wedding on the cheap with a collection of dodgy-sounding digital tracks. "I go to gigs with both my computer and my CD collection," says Gumpert. "I still enjoy programming with CDs, because the covers give me visual cues for songs I might decide to play on the spur of the moment."
Music to Your Ears
