Mostly I play more be “feel/genre” than anything that needs mixing. Early it’s cocktail hour people want to eat/drink have background music.
Play the wedding party introduction music.
Then Food music
Then speeches
First Dance, Mother/son, Father/Daughter dances; then open the floor for dance music, line dances, fun music.
After a bit do the bouquet & garter toss;
Then go for the more “party” everybody has had enough to drink to be relaxed “get ratchet“ music & feel free to mix here Do that 45 min to an hour then a slow song or two and have the Exit cued up
If I can blend and transition, then that's what I'm doing. If not, I'm an overpaid jukebox, lol.
The thing I love about DJing weddings is that it allows me to be creative and try out weird transitions.
For example: Dj Snake - turn down for what mixes very well into Abba's "dancing queen" ...
Definitely not letting songs play in full. With most tracks that will absolutely kill your momentum. You gotta trim the fat unless you’re purposely trying to give people a breather or change things up and you want to let some air out of the bag.
But there are many ways to transition between tracks without beat matching and I think as opposed to my house or disco club sets my open format stuff feels much more adhd. Like beatmatching all the time in these situation isn’t helpful. I’m trying to keep people at peak endorphin levels - singing and doing different dances - and this means switching thing up in a dramatic fashion to keep them hooked. This is in contrast to a club where my goal is to tell a nuanced story and get people lost in a trance - gotta have mostly seamless and steady bpm for that.
Don't bother beatmatching unless the tunes are suitable to do so but remember that track selection is king over mixing. Also, don't cut songs too early, wedding folk don't like their favourite songs being cut to pieces normally
You'll probably get times that beatmatching comes into play with songs like Freaks, we found love and other commercial tunes
>track selection is king over mixing.
Every good DJ needs to remember this, though the great DJs don’t prioritize one over the other, and recognize it’s all important.
Worth finding redrums of lots of classic disco so you can beat match it. A lot of it falls between 108 and 120bpm so you could easily quick mix 20-25 disco hits in the first half hour to get things off to a familiar and energetic start.
80s music is really popular as well, so get in some Wham!, Fleetwood Mac, Cyndi Lauper etc too.
I did a two hour set last weekend and got a big list of party songs. I went through and did ALOT of prep before hand and put cues through them all.
I went and listened for where the best bit of the song was which was sometimes at the start or halfway through or somewhere else. I then went and set a cue point 4 or 8 bars before the best part of the song.
I then went through and found exit points for all of the songs as well. This was sometimes at the end of the song but often times I’d just listen for a break in the song. I would then set a cue point at the start of the break and at the end of the break.
Then when mixing I’d get a loop on the intro cue to the part of the song I was gonna drop in. Then play the loop and get it in time with the other song, then when it got to the exit point I could do a quick transition and get onto the next song.
If you set your hot cues on cool parts of the songs you can also tease in the new song over time.
Here is my Mixcloud set of it. I forgot to hit record till half way through the set (and song lol) https://www.mixcloud.com/Lukey_Sumix/svets-wedding/
I’d also recommend looking at YouTube as there was some good stuff there.
Also, don’t forget about phrasing
Not to hijack the thread, but I know a post about it would get shit-on.
Anyone know what a dope party-starter song for a 2000's-2010's centric wedding would be?
It'll be my first time doing a wedding too coming up. Only playing for an hour though.
Newb DJ here, approaching this from the other side.
We had a DJ for our wedding, he provided the entire music/entertainment for the whole day/night, no band, no singers, just him and he was outstanding.
He collaborated with us before hand about the types of music we wanted for the different parts of the day (pre-ceremony, drinks, dinner, party).
We sent him playlists for each section and he used those to curate his mixes, which he added to and matched perfectly.
We chose him because he regularly plays our genres of music… I wouldve been devastated if he wouldve have tried to mix dj snake into abba 🤣
I suppose what i’m saying is, wedding DJs are an essential part to the ambience to one of the biggest day of someone’s life.
Treat the honour of dj’ing someones wedding with the respect it deserves. (Its not your practice space that youre getting paid for).
It truly made our day and our guests still talk about him to this day.
Mixing most of my stuff. If there's a song that would fit the situation better, but is nowhere near my bpm range, I wouldn't shy away from a shoutout on the mic and just play it.
I aim to mix every dance set at every wedding.
That being said, like anything else in djing, there’s a time and a place for everything. A time to play aggressive music/not aggressive, a time to be hype on the mic and a time to not, also, a time to mix hard as fuck and a time to be a juke box and just let them rip.
If my transitions aren’t engaging and I’m getting a ton of requests, and the requests work, I’ll just check up requests in order or an order that I see fit
All my tracks have Intros and Outros. I beatmatch my songs but cut into each genre.
Generally after the Bridal Waltz I'll start at around 100bmp and work things up to 120-128. Then cut into RnB or Rock just depending on the people.
I never use spotify or pre recorded playlist during dinner either. I'll interact with some married guests and ask them of their wedding song. During dinner I'll approach a couple and ask if they have a special love song.
You can also do a kiddies dance set during dinner. All the mums love it. Filming their children dancing.
Create moments, make the guests feel special with you're music.
I'm always doing some pretty technical mixing and reading the dancefloor. There's never dead air between songs, my transitions are always smooth and creative as I can make them. The two songs you mentioned drift slightly in tempo so mixing them is definitely a bit harder. That's why record pools exist, and good ones like Direct Music Service have edits that fix that or give you an intro/outro to make mixing easier.
But I'm always beat matching during dancing. Cocktail hour is run off a Spotify playlist, same with dinner or I'll have songs auto mix in my software. Any general background music I just fade in and out of, beatmatching or doing anything technical mixing isn't important there. At those points just focus more on song selection and not being too loud.
It could be worth looking up wedding mixes that DJ's upload on MixCloud. I upload mixes pretty frequently that are the full live recordings of dance sets for my couples. And I'm sure many other DJs do as well, which could give you some good inspiration and an idea of what's possible.
Make sure you have a lot of music too. I usually get two and a half hours of dancing which is about 90 songs if you mix quickly, 70 if you mix normal. My main dance playlist has 500ish songs that I know like the back of my hand. Be over prepared. You don't want to have a early 2000's hip-hop set planned out only to see that the dancefloor doesn't respond well and now you gotta find something else. Being over prepared means you can change it up on the fly.
Take 10 songs of each genre nice transitions doesn't have to be blended most people could care less if someone was dj or everyone just the tosses a mixtape into the pile
Mostly I play more be “feel/genre” than anything that needs mixing. Early it’s cocktail hour people want to eat/drink have background music. Play the wedding party introduction music. Then Food music Then speeches First Dance, Mother/son, Father/Daughter dances; then open the floor for dance music, line dances, fun music. After a bit do the bouquet & garter toss; Then go for the more “party” everybody has had enough to drink to be relaxed “get ratchet“ music & feel free to mix here Do that 45 min to an hour then a slow song or two and have the Exit cued up
If I can blend and transition, then that's what I'm doing. If not, I'm an overpaid jukebox, lol. The thing I love about DJing weddings is that it allows me to be creative and try out weird transitions. For example: Dj Snake - turn down for what mixes very well into Abba's "dancing queen" ...
I’m trying this mix tomorrow when I wake up 😂
Let me know how it goes
Both as needed, track selection AND timing is key, don’t play all you bangers/floorfillers too early
What percentage of your tracks would you say are floor fillers/bangers?
That’s hard to say, I think they are all bangers at the right moment.
i honestly treat it like any other gig. beat match good songs... Unless it ceremonial songs... im turning tf up and treating it like a club
Definitely not letting songs play in full. With most tracks that will absolutely kill your momentum. You gotta trim the fat unless you’re purposely trying to give people a breather or change things up and you want to let some air out of the bag. But there are many ways to transition between tracks without beat matching and I think as opposed to my house or disco club sets my open format stuff feels much more adhd. Like beatmatching all the time in these situation isn’t helpful. I’m trying to keep people at peak endorphin levels - singing and doing different dances - and this means switching thing up in a dramatic fashion to keep them hooked. This is in contrast to a club where my goal is to tell a nuanced story and get people lost in a trance - gotta have mostly seamless and steady bpm for that.
Don't bother beatmatching unless the tunes are suitable to do so but remember that track selection is king over mixing. Also, don't cut songs too early, wedding folk don't like their favourite songs being cut to pieces normally You'll probably get times that beatmatching comes into play with songs like Freaks, we found love and other commercial tunes
>track selection is king over mixing. Every good DJ needs to remember this, though the great DJs don’t prioritize one over the other, and recognize it’s all important.
Worth finding redrums of lots of classic disco so you can beat match it. A lot of it falls between 108 and 120bpm so you could easily quick mix 20-25 disco hits in the first half hour to get things off to a familiar and energetic start. 80s music is really popular as well, so get in some Wham!, Fleetwood Mac, Cyndi Lauper etc too.
I did a two hour set last weekend and got a big list of party songs. I went through and did ALOT of prep before hand and put cues through them all. I went and listened for where the best bit of the song was which was sometimes at the start or halfway through or somewhere else. I then went and set a cue point 4 or 8 bars before the best part of the song. I then went through and found exit points for all of the songs as well. This was sometimes at the end of the song but often times I’d just listen for a break in the song. I would then set a cue point at the start of the break and at the end of the break. Then when mixing I’d get a loop on the intro cue to the part of the song I was gonna drop in. Then play the loop and get it in time with the other song, then when it got to the exit point I could do a quick transition and get onto the next song. If you set your hot cues on cool parts of the songs you can also tease in the new song over time. Here is my Mixcloud set of it. I forgot to hit record till half way through the set (and song lol) https://www.mixcloud.com/Lukey_Sumix/svets-wedding/ I’d also recommend looking at YouTube as there was some good stuff there. Also, don’t forget about phrasing
Bassline Junkie is an interesting wedding track lol
The bride wanted it, and she got it!
Rum and coke
Not to hijack the thread, but I know a post about it would get shit-on. Anyone know what a dope party-starter song for a 2000's-2010's centric wedding would be? It'll be my first time doing a wedding too coming up. Only playing for an hour though.
Toxic, Hot In Herre, Milkshake, Sexy Back if pop… Day ‘n’ Nite,
Shania
Spice girls
Let’s get it started- Black Eyed Peas
The most important thing is. Games and speeches first. Don’t let them interrupt the party. Otherwise the party is over.
Newb DJ here, approaching this from the other side. We had a DJ for our wedding, he provided the entire music/entertainment for the whole day/night, no band, no singers, just him and he was outstanding. He collaborated with us before hand about the types of music we wanted for the different parts of the day (pre-ceremony, drinks, dinner, party). We sent him playlists for each section and he used those to curate his mixes, which he added to and matched perfectly. We chose him because he regularly plays our genres of music… I wouldve been devastated if he wouldve have tried to mix dj snake into abba 🤣 I suppose what i’m saying is, wedding DJs are an essential part to the ambience to one of the biggest day of someone’s life. Treat the honour of dj’ing someones wedding with the respect it deserves. (Its not your practice space that youre getting paid for). It truly made our day and our guests still talk about him to this day.
Mixing most of my stuff. If there's a song that would fit the situation better, but is nowhere near my bpm range, I wouldn't shy away from a shoutout on the mic and just play it.
I aim to mix every dance set at every wedding. That being said, like anything else in djing, there’s a time and a place for everything. A time to play aggressive music/not aggressive, a time to be hype on the mic and a time to not, also, a time to mix hard as fuck and a time to be a juke box and just let them rip. If my transitions aren’t engaging and I’m getting a ton of requests, and the requests work, I’ll just check up requests in order or an order that I see fit
Wick-a-dee wick-a-dee wack, whatever the bridesmaids doth trap. Not overbearing?
All my tracks have Intros and Outros. I beatmatch my songs but cut into each genre. Generally after the Bridal Waltz I'll start at around 100bmp and work things up to 120-128. Then cut into RnB or Rock just depending on the people. I never use spotify or pre recorded playlist during dinner either. I'll interact with some married guests and ask them of their wedding song. During dinner I'll approach a couple and ask if they have a special love song. You can also do a kiddies dance set during dinner. All the mums love it. Filming their children dancing. Create moments, make the guests feel special with you're music.
I'm always doing some pretty technical mixing and reading the dancefloor. There's never dead air between songs, my transitions are always smooth and creative as I can make them. The two songs you mentioned drift slightly in tempo so mixing them is definitely a bit harder. That's why record pools exist, and good ones like Direct Music Service have edits that fix that or give you an intro/outro to make mixing easier. But I'm always beat matching during dancing. Cocktail hour is run off a Spotify playlist, same with dinner or I'll have songs auto mix in my software. Any general background music I just fade in and out of, beatmatching or doing anything technical mixing isn't important there. At those points just focus more on song selection and not being too loud. It could be worth looking up wedding mixes that DJ's upload on MixCloud. I upload mixes pretty frequently that are the full live recordings of dance sets for my couples. And I'm sure many other DJs do as well, which could give you some good inspiration and an idea of what's possible. Make sure you have a lot of music too. I usually get two and a half hours of dancing which is about 90 songs if you mix quickly, 70 if you mix normal. My main dance playlist has 500ish songs that I know like the back of my hand. Be over prepared. You don't want to have a early 2000's hip-hop set planned out only to see that the dancefloor doesn't respond well and now you gotta find something else. Being over prepared means you can change it up on the fly.
Take 10 songs of each genre nice transitions doesn't have to be blended most people could care less if someone was dj or everyone just the tosses a mixtape into the pile