Band or dj? 22 May 2012 at 2:17PM in Weddings & anniversaries 38 replies 3.9K views

Paulaviki

We had a DJ, I'm just not that keen on wedding bands! We have quite specific tastes in music so gave them a massive list of what they could play and they stuck to it. The dance floor was packed all night at our wedding until 2am!

ellay864

Just to stick up for DJs here...my husband is a DJ and he always makes a point of asking clients what sort of music they like, invites them to give him as many actual song choices as they like, will take any requests on the night, and sometimes we still play to empty dance floors. The trouble with a lot of weddings is that if you have people who aren't the dancing sort, and if they have a chance to sit and chat to people they've not seen in ages it can be near impossible to get them up. Tonight we did a party where everybody said we were great, we got aksed for our card several times, the couple who's party it was said they'd recommend us...yet the floor was empty more than it had people on it. Even when we played requests, people looked happy about it and were kind of dancing in their seats but just didn't want to get up to the floor. It's very frustrating for us, and we certainly do all we can to play what we think/hope the clients will want, but sometimes it just does really depend on the type of people there.
And sometimes we play what we're asked and nothing happens, we put in a request that is really in the sort of genre that the client doesn't like but it gets the floor filled. You feel you can't win at times lol
Of course there are also some rubbish DJs who won't try to 'read' a crowd, or play what they want and don't take on client requests, but it's not always our fault!

paddyrg

Is there a local 6th Form music course? You could get a decent student band wanting to gig playing covers. There was a decent 8-part ska band, none of the kids over 17, cheap as chips and no booze to buy for them ;-)

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Approvedentertainment wrote: »

I have lots of bands available...

Band :spam:

gadgeteer_2

I know some DJ's through working as a photographer. The price/quality vary wildly. You shouldn't shop on price alone but look at the set up they have, the service and experience.

I've seen many advertise for < £100 a night and some for £500. Guess which has more lights, organised games and screens to show photos they took during the evening? Guess which had a couple of sad looking lights and a laptop.

Abbafan1972

I think I would go for a DJ, as long as they know what type of music you want them to play beforehand to keep your guests happy.

One that interacts with the guests and takes requests is good.

I can remember going to an anniversary party of a work colleague a few years ago and I think we were there to just make the numbers up anyway, as the room was half empty.

All the DJ played all night was reggae music and most of it I hadn't even heard of. I think the only song I recognised was "Baby come back" by UB40 and Pato Banton.

It was the most uncomfortable evening ever and one I wouldn't want to repeat!

Relocationrelocation

We had a DJ, who happened to be a friend and the dancefloor wasn't empty all night... in fact he didn't get through all the music he'd planned to play. We gave him lists of songs we liked and wanted and he played a mixture of stuff - indie, rock, disco, rnb, bhangra, 60's, etc... it was amazing. We had lights too, which came with the hire of the dj equipment.

tillyscot

We had the same dilemma, i scoured the internet and hired a wedding band in yorkshire called http://www.rockmyreception.co.uk they were reasonably priced and knew a D.J who worked through them and was therefore really good value for money. I would always recommend asking the D.Js and bands if they know of someone they can work with and put a package together.