It has been awhile since I last posted. September and October have been so busy for us. We’ve sold out every weekend. It has been a thrill to be part of so many amazing receptions lately.
One thing doing all these wedding receptions has reinforced for me is that every wedding soundtrack should be different and unique to that couple. Sure there are wedding standards that most people like but as I listen to my clients I find they all have tastes of thier own.
Let’s look at 4 wedding receptions That I performed for from September 19th – October 1st.
Friday September 19th I did a wedding at Receptions in Fairfield for Christy and Chris [You can see there Thank You card in my previous blog post]. Their wedding soundtrack was a “Rat Pack Style Dinner” followed by party classics for dancing and then mixed with some newer top 40 later. The dance floor was packed!
The next night Saturday September 20th I performed at The Briarwood in Hebron KY for Katie and Joe’s wedding reception. After playing a few songs it didn’t take long to figure out that Katie, Joe and thier guests loved to sing along. The entire night turned into one awesome sing-a-long. I had fun trying to keep the momentum going. Here is a video from that night (the song was the grooms favorite).
Saturday September 27th I was in Covington at the Plantation Club on Twin Oaks Golf Course for Katie and Aaron’s wedding reception. After several guests requests I jumped right into Katie’s request list which featured lots of country like Johnny Cash, Some 80’s hits, and even a few of today’s top hits including her must play “I Kissed A Girl” (First time I’ve played that at a wedding]. Again we had a great dance floor. For me it was a shame to see the night end as we had so many more great songs left we could have played. In fact I played over our time limit and the venue turned the lights on as a signal to stop 🙂
Then October 4th I was at The Pheonix in Cincinnati for Leah and Chris’s reception. Their wedding soundtrack was the most unique and all inclusive collections of songs I have ever played for a reception. Leah was an 80’s rocker at heart and Chris had been to over 100 Grateful dead concerts. Dinner was everything from Frank Sinatra to Jerry Garcia. We had their dance floor packed all night with requests from Ratt (really we did) to Allman Brothers (I swear we did) to Baby Got Back. We even had wedding crashers from the wedding next door come to party with us. I bet I played 10 songs that night that I had never before played at a wedding reception. What a party it was!
Most of my blog posts are about being creative, with lights, with formalities, with ideas to create a little magic for the you and you’re guests. Let us not forget being creative with the music.
Looking back over these events I realize how important it is for a wedding entertainer to know music, be willing to play it and to have the foresite and lack of ego to ask their clients “What do you want?”. Otherwise all weddings have the same soundtrack. What fun would that be?
Brandon Lindsey of Hey! Mr. DJ Entertainment's Blog 
Our DJs read your post and wholeheartedly concur! In their opinion, one main key to successful programming at a wedding celebration is being openly attuned to the crowd’s receptivity and ready to abandon the “frequently used” song order based on BPM and/or previous favorable responses. Instead it’s a matter of being utterly flexible and GOING WITH THE CROWD’s dynamics—picking up on what’s happening in the immediate present!
I’m one of the DJs affiliated with Weddings on the Strand and am really intrigued with your September 20 sing along crowd. Do you remember some of the most effective selections they responded to? And please, what is that song they’re singing to featured on the YouTube clip? Thanks!