Need A Bit Of Help Options

[rokchik]

A friend of mines brother is getting married this weekend and I've been helping with the planning. This has been a very rushed event... they are moving overseas in 3 months... and they only decided to get hitched a month ago. It started off very low key and simple but it has now turned into a complicated mess. There are about 70+ people invited... it started off with only 25... and they asked me to do the music as well as MC. I've never done anything like this before and the bride is being a bit of a "bridezilla" with only 5 days to go. I only have my laptop and my iTunes collection which is 10000+ songs give or take and I have a little bit of everything. It was going to be rather simple when I knew all 25 people and what they liked musically but now there is a whole group I know nothing about and the bride is not being much help in the way of what she wants played. My only direction is "no extremes of any genre" and she doesn't want the usual wedding reception music. I've made and deleted about 50 playlists and am just wondering if anyone out there has A) ever DJed a wedding and if they have any pointers and B ) What kind of stuff should I play to bridge generation gaps but still keep everyone somewhat happy?

This is a lot harder to do then I thought. I know a lot of music but it's not what I want to hear or what I consider good is it... the bride is also leaving a lot of song decisions to me for stuff like the cake cutting, garter and bouquet toss etc. I have a few ideas for those but any suggestions would be great.

Please help me

rok

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This post has been edited by rokchik: Nov 4 2008, 03:49 PM

[Noangels]

I have played at a wedding and we went down like a lead balloon.The brides side of the family were metal freaks and the groom and his mates were Paras just returned from Afganistan who all looked like blinged up chavs and were into modern chart music(not my scene,but you cant knock popular music)

Your best bet is to do a broad spectrum of styles with as many classic tunes as you can from that genre

good luck with it!

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[rokchik]

I have played at a wedding and we went down like a lead balloon.The brides side of the family were metal freaks and the groom and his mates were Paras just returned from Afganistan who all looked like blinged up chavs and were into modern chart music(not my scene,but you cant knock popular music)

Your best bet is to do a broad spectrum of styles with as many classic tunes as you can from that genre

good luck with it!

Thanks NoAngels Sorry to hear your experience was not enjoyable. I'm having that fear right now When she said she didn't want the usual wedding reception music it made things a bit harder... however she doesn't want anything she never heard of before either... which limits things a fair bit as well she never heard of Led Zeppelin until she started hanging out with me.

Oh dear... I'm going to drive myself crazy as I'm a bit of a perfectionist and this is just not going well.

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[OrganisedConfusi...]

Just play big songs that are famous. Like REM say. Just don't play REM - Bad Day whatever you do.

Just find songs that are fitting for the day. Happy songs that lots of people know. If you make sure you have a large choice then you can't go wrong. Have you tried asking the groom for some songs he'd like to hear?

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[Jesse]

Lol do it Iron Maiden style, end up playing smoke on the water while completely wasted @ a polish wedding.

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[rokchik]

Just play big songs that are famous. Like REM say. Just don't play REM - Bad Day whatever you do.

Just find songs that are fitting for the day. Happy songs that lots of people know. If you make sure you have a large choice then you can't go wrong. Have you tried asking the groom for some songs he'd like to hear?

Thanks OC and I did ask the groom... his response was "play whatever the bride wants" He's going to do well as a married man, he already knows to agree with the wife (JK)

Yeah that's the other thing is finding songs that are appropriate. I mean "One" by U2 is a popular song played but it's technically a break up song. My only saving grace at the moment is she just called and said she wanted a lot of celtic music played (which translates basically to Irish drinking songs) I can handle that no problem

Oh and Jesse, coincidently, the bride is Polish But not a Maiden fan

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[OrganisedConfusi...]

Bryan Adams - She's Only Happy When She's Dancing is a great one

I bet it's a hard job. DJing is hard enough as it is and I've only done it once

You just need to take a lot of big chart songs in every genre and see what people want and also what is appropiate. So no songs about death or splitting up or having an awful day. The music just needs to make people smile really and want to dance

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[rokchik]

Well I've come up with about 150 songs to choose from... with a backup list of about 50 incase people tend to lean more on the hip hop/pop side of things. I won't list all 150 but here are a few I picked just so you get the idea...

Dancing Queen - Abba
You Shook me all night long - ACDC
Get this party Started - Pink
Ain't love a kick in the head - Dean Martin
Here for a good time - Trooper
I wanna grow old with you - Adam Sandler
First, last my everything, Barry White
Good Vibrations - The Beach boys
And I love her - The Beatles
Born to be my Baby - Bon Jovi
Groove is in the Heart - Dee-light
When the lovin starts - Fleetwood Mac
Wonderful tonight - Eric Clapton
Shout - the Isley Brothers
Sweet Child o mine - GNR

Kinda "typical wedding" stuff but it's hard to be to adventurous with a wedding. I think it's a pretty upbeat list and runs across many genres and eras. I have some top 40 stuff thrown in too and a fair bit of classic rock. For specific moments I have:

Bouquet toss: haven't quite decided but it's either Hot Stuff by Donna Summer or Girls just wanna have fun by Cyndi Lauper

Garter removal: You can leave your hat on - Tom Jones

Garter toss: for sheer badness I think it's going to be Run to the Hills just cause i've yet to see any man get excited about the garter toss and they usually run

Cutting the Cake: Love and Marriage - Frank Sinatra... again for sheer badness cause most associate this song with the show "Married with Children" I know the groom shares my sick sense of humor the bride not so sure

Any other suggestions would be welcome, nothing is set in stone yet.

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[Noangels]

That setlist doesnt look bad at all!You could put in that Brian Adams everything I do tune in there.

Rolling stones-Brown Suger is another good one that is uplifting and everyone should know it

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[g-forcelover]

Gorgoroth!!!!!! nahh, Most classic rock should do, Led Zep, ACDC, etc.

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

Happye pop evergreens are just for these occassions IMO.

My suggestion is only one song for now, but I'll try to think more:

Love is all around - The Troggs

EDIT: one more - what a wonderful world - Louis Armstrong

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This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Nov 4 2008, 10:16 PM

[FrankW]

Are you being paid to do this?

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[rokchik]

Are you being paid to do this?

No, I'm doing this more as a favour for my friend. But when I say I'll do something I take things pretty serious. Besides if you have a crappy DJ EVERYONE remembers... I don't want to be that.

Ivan - I have Louis Armstrong on the list but not the Troggs. I'll have a listen though. Thanks for the suggestion

Noangels - I have both those songs as well as The only thing that looks good on me is you - Brian Adams and Start Me Up by the Stones. I've tried to limit it to no more then two songs by anyone artist though. Just for variety sake.

Thanks everyone again for the suggestions. I'm nervous as heck though.

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[FrankW]

I say, do the best you can and leave it at that. The fact that you're doing it as a favor should be much appreciated by your friend(s), I'm sure. I wouldn't overly stress out about it. You're doing it for free, a very generous thing to do. If bridezilla doesn't appreciate all of your efforts, for free, I'd surely tell her what to do with the songlist. I mean, consider the alternative...hundreds for a professional DJ, right?

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