DJ vs iPod

Ok. So I thought I was done with wedding posts. But, for those of you that don't know, I think about things. A lot. And I am still thinking about things I would've done differently. Don't get me wrong. I still think our wedding was an incredible day and I mostly just think about that. However, we were recently at my cousin's wedding and afterward I decided it was worth putting up a post about a decision we all have to make when we have a wedding. It may seem obvious to some, but it didn't seem so obvious to us.

We are music people. We love and live music. Lots of our family and friends are music enthusiasts (read "snobs"). Therefore, we thought long and hard about our ceremony and reception music. Our top priority for music during the reception was to have songs that people (lots of people) would dance to. These days a lot of people don't immediately jump to hiring a DJ. And let's face it, we didn't get married in a big city with lots of djs to choose from. Our venue had a sound system, so we decided we could save some money (supposedly the average dj costs somewhere between $800-2000) and go the iPod route for the reception. 

Here are some of the pros and cons for both (I only know these now. We didn't know all of this when making our original decision). 

DJ

Pros                                                                       

1. Someone to run the show                                  

2. Guests can request songs                                      

3. They bring their own sound equipment            

Cons

1. Uncertainty (without a referral, the dj could be awesome or totally suck.)                     

2. Cost             

                                                             

iPod Playlist

Pros                                                                     

1. Cheap (was going to say no cost; however we did spend money on songs we wanted but didn't have in our library.)                          

2. We get to keep the playlist and listen to it to remind us of our wedding. (I workout to our dance playlist all the time. Fun!)              

3. We had control of the songs up to the day before. We had fun putting the playlists together.                                                              

Cons

1. No MC. We didn't think about this before the rehearsal. Thankfully, our officiant and friend, 

Nora, rocks and mc'd for the first part of the reception. But it would've been great to have someone who knew when to make announcements (i.e. first dance, last song of the night, etc.) 

2. That lame delay between songs. 

3. Sometimes you don't think of a song you'd like until you are in the moment, and by then it was too late. 

4. If the venue doesn't have a great sound system (ours didn't and we didn't know that until wedding day), then you are kind of stuck with it. 

I still don't know if we would've done it differently. We were planning from so far away and would've had to hire someone (the one dj in the islands) without meeting him. It seemed a little sketchy and we were really trying to make this a budget-friendly wedding. Overall, I think we did an awesome job of picking songs that people would dance to. We asked a friend to "man" the music and she did a great job. This is essential if you plan on going the iPod route. Make sure you designate someone is in charge of pausing/starting, adjusting the volume, and making sure guests aren't just coming up and skipping songs mid-song. 

However, if you have the money or have a friend that can do it, I encourage you to consider getting a DJ. Something about it just seems more like a party and it is nice to have someone mc-ing the night. If you do plan on going the iPod route, feel free to email me at asutkowi@gmail.com for our playlists (cocktail hour, dinner music, and dance party).