As I write this, it’s seven degrees outside. But only a few months ago I was sweating during a ceremony.

This ceremony was undercover and protected from the sun, but the air was stagnant and hot. The bride and groom anticipated the heat, but the solution was handing out paper fans which don’t get rid of the hot air guests are sitting in.

If you stand under a tree on a hot day, it will actually feel okay if there is a slight breeze. If heat will be a problem, I recommend renting a large fan for your ceremony. Try to position the fan so that in helps cycle new air into the room. Some guests, especially the older ones, may arrive 30 minutes before the ceremony even starts. Seat them in front of the fans so they’re a little more comfortable. If you’re worried about noise, turn off the fans right when the ceremony starts.

You as the bride may not see it, but I do. While setting up my equipment, I often see him wondering around with little to do. Meanwhile, you’re spending hours getting your makeup and hair done.

Now this is more true for smaller bridal parties. But even with big bridal parties this can be a problem. If six guys are hanging around all day with little planned, this is when the beers open up. You can call my old fashioned, but I don’t think it’s best to show up to the ceremony toasted.

What’s the solution? I have no great idea, but maybe giving him some tasks isn’t a bad idea. At least then when his buddies ask how they can help, he’ll have more to say than, “I don’t know, she’s running the show today”.

I’d rather have a DJ with 1000 songs. Why? If a DJ had a fire at their house, they’d save their wife and kids first, and then their music.

It’s not hard to download 250,000 songs. I actually started out that way. I gathered every piece of music I could get my hands on.

It’s better for the DJ to gather a smaller, highly-curated list. They know these songs inside and out. They can quickly jump to best parts of the song, and skip over the boring parts. They find the best version of the song (there can easily be 20-30 DJ edits of popular songs), i.e. using a moombahton version of the song Milkshake always goes over well! The songs are properly categorized with beatgrids set (this allows music to sync up to light-shows). No person can do all this with 250,000 songs.

Understand, the above is true primarily when the DJ is mixing, mainly during the dance floor. I think it’s totally acceptable to build playlists using Spotify to play during ceremony seating, cocktail, and dinner (it still takes lots of time to curate this list).

As a DJ, I have no idea how to bustle a dress. I do know you’ll likely be fumbling around with it while your bridal party waits to be introduced into the reception.

I would suggest having a specific person who practices the bustle beforehand. This may sound silly, but I’ll often see the mom, Maid of Honor, and an aunt struggling to do this.

Also, have a planned time to do it. You may have a DJ who’s not aware your dress needs bustled. I wish I knew this on my wedding day. The DJ announced our first dance, and my wife’s dress wasn’t bustled yet. She did her best to dance with me, but it wasn’t the easiest.

When you did a taste testing, they probably didn’t overcook the chicken and it tasted great. But when they cook for 200 people, the meat tends to be overdone.

This is why BBQ sauce is so helpful, it covers the dryness of any overcooked meat. Did you ever get a plated meal at a wedding and wish they added more sauce to the plate?

With plated meals, they need to be kept warm while the staff runs back and forth. Plus, maybe the meat sat on a plate while the potatoes were finishing up. All this leads to dry meat. BBQ on the other hand gets cooked in big batches and just marinates in juice.

Yes, some plated meals can be great, but also consider BBQ is usually cheaper and all the sauce options are fun. And with BBQ, guests can enjoy seconds!

A DJ I respected plugged every piece of equipment into one circuit. He was going over-the-top, wanting to give the Bride and Groom the best experience possible. Then it happened. During the height of dancing, the lights and music turned off. He tripped the breaker. Too much was plugged-in.

This happened over and over again until I suggested he split the load between two circuits. I helped him do it and everything was fine from that point out.

This was early-on in my DJ career; I was also going to school for Electrical Engineering Technology. Ever since then, I always do my best to ensure a breaker doesn’t need reset at a wedding. No music is the quickest way to kill a dance floor :)

Okay, it wasn’t an outhouse, but a Port-A-Potty.

Being in NE Ohio, I DJ many weddings at barns; some of them don’t have bathrooms! Yes, this is rare, but you should double check.

A good bathroom provides many benefits to your guests. They’ll have a place to freshen up and make sure they look great. Some might get sick from drinking too much; having a dedicated stall in helpful. Parents may need an area to change their child’s diapers. And you can put a nice basket of breath mints and Aspirin for the guests.

Providing guests a small Port-A-Potty simply isn’t the right way to go. It’s small, not temperature controlled, smelly, and often dark once the sun goes down. There are vehicles that provide nice portable bathrooms. These are bigger, offer power, and are sometimes temperature controlled.

My wife, Megan, only had one requirement for our wedding reception, no drop ceilings. Fortunately I found a beautiful VFW venue that worked-out great.

Being a wedding DJ, I’ve been to many extravagant venues where the walls and floors are made of marble. Yes, they’re more beautiful, but the sound can suffer in these environments.

Sound bounces off hard surfaces so large marble rooms sound like echo chambers. Have you ever been inside a Cathedral? They’re usually made of stone and marble; it’s always hard to understand what the priest is saying.

Just remember soft materials like carpet or drop ceiling absorb sound, letting the music and toasts sound much clearer.

You’re like a bright light that attracts moths. Okay, that sounds bad, but people gravitate to you during your wedding. By being on the dance floor, you communicate that’s where the fun is at. So why wouldn’t you be out on the dance floor all night?

Maybe you want to ensure to talk with all your guests. The first strategy is to talk with only certain guests during dinner time, those who might not be on the dance floor later. Second, you need to see the dance floor as a place where conversations can happen. I see brides all the time going back and forth between talking and dancing.

Lastly, if you’re worried your drink will get low, every guest relishes the chance to serve a bride on her big day.

If a table full of vendors are given a sandwich tray, you may have problems.

Vendors work very long days and are going non-stop. They may bring snacks, but after a long day of work, a quick hot meal can give them a needed boost.

I’ve seen vendors forced to hide in the back and eat bologna sandwiches. They will talk and joke about the food. Their focus changes from YOU to themselves. This is no good. Your wedding day is the Super Bowl and you deserve the best.

I personally think it’s okay for you to skip vendor meals all together; you pay so much for food as it is. It’s simply a wonderful gesture when you do. Whether or not you serve me food doesn’t affect my goal of serving you the best I can. Just be aware some vendors may not see it that way.

Yes, they should. And here’s why.

Only the DJ knows what songs are on the “do not play” list. Bruno Mars and line dances commonly show up because they’re overplayed. Maybe a song is tied to a bad memory. Either way, the DJ should make the final decision.

It’s not a simple decision. Who is making the request? Someone in the bridal party carries more weight than an uncle who hasn’t touched the dance floor; they usually request an obscure rock song or something for their lady. Parents and grandparents get VIP treatment; i’ll go above and beyond to make sure their songs are played (if not on the “do not play” list).

It’s important to listen to the guests. Often, they’ll request a song that makes the dance floor go nuts. Sometimes a guest knows what their family and friends like.

There are a couple ways to make sure requests don’t clear the dance floor. One is to mix it in with other songs of the same genre. If I’m playing Hip Hop and someone requests Salsa, I can’t immediately jump to Salsa. I need to slowly transition, maybe play a Pitbull song first. Second, if the dance floor doesn’t doesn’t respond well to a request, I can switch to another song quickly by being prepared.

One final important point, I do my best to ensure guests don’t bother the Bride and Groom. Sometimes, an inpatient guest complains to the Bride and Groom their song wasn’t played. You don’t want to deal with this on your wedding day. A little tact from the DJ goes a long way, especially when someone requests “Confessions by the Dashboard lights” by Meatloaf.

A can of Fix-A-Flat should be in every DJ’s vehicle. If pulling a trailer, do they have a nice jack w/ spare tires?Also, does your DJ know how to change a tire?

It’s not likely to happen, but if a vehicle breaks down on the way to your wedding, the DJ will be late or have limited time to set up.

These are the things that keep me up at night. This is why my vehicles are kept in excellent condition and I can quickly fix issues if they arise. Fix-A-Flat isn’t perfect, but if I only have a few miles left to the event, it will get me there quickly so I can do a nice job setting up.

Asking your DJ what year their vehicle is, and what they’d do in an emergency is a fair question.

I rarely see aisle runners work well at a weddings.

You don’t want it out while seating guests incase they kick it out of place or get it dirty. You could have some uncles roll it out right before you walk down the aisle, but are you giving them a time to practice? Some aisle runners are hard to unroll; you don’t want all the attention on them as they struggle to lay it out.

Aisle runners use to protect the bride’s dress from floors muddied by guests. Since this is no longer a real issue, one solution is to not use an aisle runner at all.

An alternative is to rely only on flower pedals, but will the flower girl just throw clumps and not spread the flowers out evenly? Can you give her good instruction and time to practice? Nice lanterns or flowers at the end of the pews often look nice.

If really wanting to use an aisle runner, I’ve seen brides block off the main aisle so guests must walk up the side aisles instead. To block of the aisle, they used a nice sign welcoming guests, surrounded by flowers.

Living in the suburbs of Cleveland and Akron, it seems everyone likes wearing bumming-around outfits to the grocery store. People don’t get dressed up like they used to. Some DJ’s mention in the on-line forums that it’s all about the music, and no one at the wedding cares how they dress; well I do.

A DJ should match the effort put in by the guests, or more. A DJ’s outfit, what their speakers look like, how clean the wires are, and even the smile on their face all lend to the overall environment that you, the bride, spent so much time curating.

Ask a DJ what they typically wear. I’ve seen a DJ recently wear jeans and white New Balance sneakers. You don’t need that at your wedding, you deserve better!

All your aunts are making cookies for the cookie table? Yes, you’ll have too many.

When DJ’ing weddings in Cleveland and NE Ohio, I often see cookie tables. And at the end of the night, I see brides and their mothers hocking cookies in pretty to-go boxes; even though most of the guests have left by that point. Ultimately, the cookies will get wrapped up because no one wants to throw them away.

In my humble opinion, you’ll have less work for yourself & family if opting for a smaller cookie table; though trying to tell family members not to make three dozen cookies each offers its own challenges :)

“And next up this evening, let’s hear it for the Best Man!”

He starts talking while holding the microphone far from his mouth, down by his belly button.

I discuss how to hold a microphone with every speaker at a wedding; they always tell me they know how to hold it. In my experience, they don’t and their nerves often take over as soon as they start talking.

To help solve this, I’ll sometimes let them hold the microphone and play with it to get comfortable. I’ll even include the rest of the table in the discussion; this way, the people closest to the speaker can give a reminder to hold the mic closer to their mouths.

I can always turn down a microphone if a person is too loud, but I’ll get feedback if needing to crank the volume while trying to make someone loud enough for everyone to hear.

You’re walking down the aisle and the song cuts off. What do you do?

Many DJ’s use one device to play ceremony music on (I’m not sure how many in the Cleveland area do this). Since the ceremony goes quick, relative to the whole night, DJ’s want equipment that is quick to setup and tear-down. Some even rely on bluetooth, not wanting wires between their iPad and speakers.

I think ceremony needs a more sophisticated setup. If a computer freezes, I can instantly switch to a backup device. There would only be silence for a quarter of a second. A DJ using only one device would have to wait for the device to restart if it crashed (that’s not a situation you’d want to find yourself in). Also, using bluetooth can be great, but they can still have cut-outs. I don’t want to risk anything during the ceremony, so for me, everything needs to be wired. You’ve been planning on walking down the aisle for so long, it needs to be perfect.

A good DJ spends time putting their equipment together so it can be set up quick while also looking nice.

DJ’ing weddings in Cleveland and North East Ohio, I’m surprised by how many country weddings I do. I did one that had beef jerky on sticks as an appetizer. What a great idea!

I’ll be honest, a lot of times I think the appetizers are better than the actual meals. Sometimes I even fill up on the apps, and I’m sure other guests do too. The nice thing about beef jerky on a stick is that it won’t fill up your guests too quick (especially if it’s a little tougher and requires a lot of chewing).

That night, I saw guests shove them into their vest pockets and carry them around. They were even eating them as late night snacks. Three different flavors, I grabbed some as well.

I have two girls, two and five years old. When they’re in our house all day, they start to go stir-crazy. Amazingly, if I take them out of the house and put them in a new environment, they calm down.

I don’t think adults are much different. Some are extroverts and are very comfortable talking to others for hours, some aren’t. Some people can go many hours without eating while others get “hangry” quickly.

When DJ’ing a wedding, love when cocktail hours are 1.5 hours or less, and they’re in a different room than the reception. This ensures people aren’t mentally exhausted from talking to others (even a chance to escape a conversation they’d like to get out of), they get extra stimulation by switching locations, and they don’t wait too long to eat.

Having your ceremony at 2pm, and dinner at 6pm is way too long in my opinion. Some Bride’s want to add so many safety-time-buffers to their timeline that they end up hampering the guest’s experience. Err or the side of going too quick vs. too long.

What is uplighting by the way? It’s like decorating a college dorm room with lights to make it look cool, except uplighting looks professional. Being in NE Ohio and the Cleveland suburbs, I DJ many wedding receptions at barns. If you’re planning to do the same, remember uplighting works better on white walls than wooden walls.

The problem is that wood is dark, not reflecting color well and absorbing much of the light. If you want uplighting in a barn, I’m not saying it won’t work, but maybe select a bright warm color like champagne. That color will match the warmness of the wood and reflect more light; it’s subtle but does look nice. If you’re wanting a color like navy blue, white walls will simply do a better job at showing off the color.