lights at wedding reception without a dj

mimosaurus

hi everyone, i'm getting married in october this year. we've already planned most things, and managed to get some brilliant deals.

i've been reading through some of the posts and see that loads of people are saying a DIY ipod style disco can work well as long as it's well planned...

my fiance is adamant that he doesn't want to pay a dj to do what we can do ourselves, and we're also already nearly at full capacity in our reception room and would struggle to fit a dj in..

the only thing that worries me about not having a dj, is what to do about lighting? can other people give me any ideas of what they've done, whether it mattered that they didn't have dj lights at their reception, what it was like at other peoples weddings etc? if we need to hire the lights and set them up etc, i feel like we may as well just hire a dj!!

thanks for your help!!!

ellay864

where/what is your function room? some places will have their own lights and speaker systems. Have you also considered speakers that will be big enough? If you have large or full room you'll need something decent to play the ipod through

butterfly2001

Firstly check with venue that they will allow you to use an ipod and if they do check they have a PPL license which allows performance of recorded music- relates to royalties and public use of music. Of course all music has to be legitamately purchased for this.

If you were to purchase lighting and sound system you would need public liability insurance and PAT testing again even if you were to hire this you would still need public liability insurance.

You can hire a simple light set up for around £100 or a honeycomb light at £40 (do internet search to find out about light) which provides enough light for a room capacity of 100.

mimosaurus

yes the venue allows ipod use, and the speaker system etc is fine. that's not the part i am worried about!! they don't have a lighting system - which is the problem.

i can hire a dj for not much more than the lights hire so if that is the case then i might as well just get the dj.

i was more looking for peoples experiences of receptions or parties where there has been music played through speakers but without the dj lighting, and whether this changed the atmosphere?

thanks for responding anyway!

butterfly2001

no prob,, i sometimes wonder if people realise about the additional cost ie like if you do hire lights the fact that its best to also get public liabilty insurance.... whats your venue like that will help on deciding if you can get a way without dj lights? I think some venues you probably could get a way without the complete lighting set up but even just one light can be affective

talulahbeige_2

We're thinking about just having a dicso ball with one spot light on it. Really old school but we're having 5's music so it fits.

savvy

IMO lighting really creates a party atmosphere, we had an ipod set up for sons 18th, and then we used our own honeycomb lights (split apart), we borrowed a strobe off a friend and used our bubble machine. I was quite worried about not having the DJ 'speak' to get the party going but it was great in the end because we got to play our own set list that was arranged to party up and wind down towards the end..........everyone loved the choice of music so got up dancing no problem.

Having said that, I went to a party the other week that also didn't use a DJ, but had a couple of lights and it was a bit flat and nobody danced all night.........but this may've been due to the mix of people as it covered a broad spectrum unlike my son's 18th where they were all younger and perhaps more up for a party of course.

It's horses for courses I guess, at my last party I told the DJ what music I'd like to be played as I can't stand the cheesy party tunes........and seeing as I'm paying him I'd like what I like ha ha. Although he played some of the stuff I wanted it was predominantly cheesy party tunes which annoyed me, especially when I had to hand over my cash at the end of the night

mimosaurus

the room is a pub function room. it's a fairly large room (seats 70 for sit down meal) and is beautifully decorated, but is quite dark even in the daytime. the actual dancefloor of the room is quite small though, and we intend on keeping a lot of the chairs and tables in the room for the evening because of the mix of guests who are coming. we definitely need to do something about lighting, I'm just not sure what! which is where a dj would be soooo much easier!! having said that, i don't really want the whole multicoloured lights flashing all over the place sort of thing that comes with really cheesy discos, and i absolutely do not want cheesy disco music, or a dj who tries to 'rev the crowd up'.

my feeling is that there are enough people who will want to dance and have a little party for it to be a good laugh regardless of the music and lights, but i do want some atmosphere going on! i don't want it over the top because of the mix of people who are attending.

talulah - have you tried the disco ball and light thing in your reception room? just wondering if that would be enough for our room.

savvy - thanks so much for your reply, you have proved exactly what i was thinking and at least now i can show this to my fiance and say - looooook other people think the same as me!!!!

butterfly2001

Glad peoples reasponses are helping if you do decide to go for a dj i hope you find a good one at a reasonable cost.

Also do a list of songs you would like to play and type of music or artists to avoid. A really good dj should play the majority of songs requested including those from your guests (if you allow the dj to ask for requests!) In general the dj should play 60% of songs you like/ request/ others request and fill at a maximum 40% through selecting according to how people are responding.

Violetta_2

What about fairy light's , they would create atmosphere without being too disco. (and I love fairy light's.

savvy

mimosaurus wrote: »

savvy - thanks so much for your reply, you have proved exactly what i was thinking and at least now i can show this to my fiance and say - looooook other people think the same as me!!!!

Ha ha no problem I think for me it's mainly that we are quite a rock/live band orientated family, so none of us likes the cheese aspect, there's good enough upbeat 'party' tunes in our ecletic taste anyway.........okay maybe my drum and bass fetish is difficult for some, but it was my party and what I like and I was paying :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I love Violetta's idea of the fairy lights, if you have a theme or colour that would be great to include them with it, also perhaps consider just plain white rope lights, maybe around the edge of the floor to uplight it a bit too, and maybe candles in those flameproof bags with the shapes cut out, on the tables - very atmospheric