You are paying your DJ/MC alot of money and if your wedding needs a boost, they (the DJ/MC) needs to show you that they will go out of their way, within limits of course to show that they are trying to get your guests involved. There is NO SUCH THING as a bad crown..

Interaction is  a broad term and in the entertainment world, can be described on many different levels.  One way to describe interaction is tastefully involving your guests in the fun without embarrassing anyone. Some ways of doing this would be explained below.  If your guests are bored at your wedding reception then they will most likely want to leave early. Let’s give them a reason to stay and build the atmosphere to where fun is contagious.

1. Cocktail hour:   Have your MC/DJ stand by the door and greet guests. (a great way to break the ice) your guests are more likely to come up later to request a dance song.

2. Dinner: Kissing names announcement. (Tired of the clinking of the glasses) Try providing names of all of your married couples on separate pieces of paper and each time the clanking of the glasses occur, pick a name and ask that couple over the microphone to stand up and show the newlyweds how a married couple should kiss.

3. The shoe game:  (we have not tried this yet) put bride and groom back to back (sitting down of course) and have them hold one of each of their shoes in their hands. Your DJ/MC will ask a series of questions and they will answer with the shoes. Click on this Link for an example.

4. Conga line: your guests are just sitting around and your wedding reception needs a jump start…….Try getting everyone into a conga line (we use shake senora by Harry Belefonte) and bring them towards the bar and around the room and outside the room if necessary to get some people. Bring it back on the dance floor and go into limbo once around and then into something like Old time rock n roll.

5. Soul train line dance : An truly amazing way to get young and old involved with this one.

6.  The Anniversary dance: Usually done in liu of the garter/bouquet but can be done in addition to. A great way to get you and old up alike and while you are playing a few songs, Your DJ/MC is excusing guests from the dance floor into a circle as they count down the years of marriage. This will have you find the LONGEST married couple (never say oldest)

7. Open up the dance floor with a slow song right after dinner and have every couple join, Use some unique lines and get then out their.

8. Novelty songs are always a comfort thing and need to be discussed prior, but they still do work. Ie: Electric slide, cupid shuffle. cha cha slide,,e ct….

The above are just a few examples of things you can do to enhance s0me of the fun for your wedding reception.

This article is completely based on facts and opinions of over 100’s of Bands and Dj’s.  Being that I have 24 years and over 1500 wedding receptions of experience personally, I think that I have a better outlook than even some wedding coordinators in this business.

When setting the floor plan for your wedding reception, you need to keep this in mind: PLACEMENT of the bar. It is ok to have an outside bar during cocktail hour, but STRONGLY discouraged for the dance portion of your evening, that is unless you don’t care about your dancing atmosphere throughout the night.

Guests naturally will gravitate to the bar setting, wherever it may be to have some nice conversation. If you have the bar in the same room, they can have that same conversation, but be a part of the atmosphere where the fun is. When the bar is in the other room, they are shut off from that atmosphere and fun. With the bar being in the other room, they can barely, if at all hear, the music, see where the fun is and it takes them out of the element. If you have the bar in the room, and they see the dance floor and everyone having a great time, they are more likely to join and be a part of the party.

So while the argument may be that a great DJ or Band will keep everyone in the room, that is completely 110% false.  It is hard for a DJ or Band to get that groove with the right group if they aren’t around. Think about it.. if Journeys ” Don’t stop believing” came on at 11pm at night and you were waiting for that song all night and came back in the room after it was over, you would have missed everyone getting excited to the song. However on the other side, if you were in the room with everyone and they all got excited and ran to the dance floor and starting jamming, then  you are more likely to keep them on the dance floor, rather than only working with a small select group all night.

Important NOTE: Most people have seen such BAD and un-impressive DJ’s and are sooo turned off by seeing that, they naturally lean towards a band.. It does NOT have to be that way. Read more below.

Band: ranging from 1 man bands to 15 or more pieces

Costs: As low as 795.00 to 8000,00+ on average

Pros: Classy, Live performance, Real genuine sound,

Cons: More expensive, Lack of coordination, In most cases NO Emcee, In most cases no meeting with band leader, rather just phone calls, Smaller music library to play, will have to learn custom songs, very loud and hard to control volume, larger equipment.

Having a band is truly an amazing touch to a wedding reception. Usually you have to pay 2k plus to have a semi professional band. We are not saying not to get a band, rather consider this when thinking about getting one. Do they have an Emcee/coordinator whom you will get to meet with one on one to go over the announcements, names,activities, feel for the evening? How long are your breaks? Do you require meals? Will you coordinate with all the vendors so everyone is on the same page?

We have worked with several bands over the years as DJ’s and done all the coordinating/Emcee work. Most of the bands we have worked with, unfortunately did not produce the same “dance” results as we were able to achieve as experienced, professional DJ’s. I know that their are plenty of great wedding bands that have the dancefloor packed at many receptions, we just haven’t worked with them. I have heard many stories of bands not being able to get the atmosphere fun to get a “music groove” to where people had an amazing time.

DJ’s

Pros: Less expensive, More variety of music, Emcee skills, Coordination, in most cases meetings with your DJ/MC  directly, can control the volume level, can play just about anything

Cons, Have to do much research to find the right DJ,

Costs: 600.00-1900.00

Experienced, Professional Dj’s can be as, or more classier than a band. They can be very fun and easy to work with if you hire the right one. They can coordinate with your other vendors and Emcee the entire evening so each guest will know exactly what is going on and when. The benefit of hiring a DJ over a band, usually falls within the way they communicate with the other vendors and how they can keep the evening running smoothly. If you do end up hiring a band, then we would strongly reccomend hiring a coordinator and an Emcee as well to cover the other angles. A cleveland wedding DJ can truly make your wedding reception as much if not more fun that a Band can. A band can be an amazing choice if you hire one with all of the things your profesional Cleveland wedding djs can offer.

Please feel free to add to this article by posting.

Part of a DJ/mc’s Job is to create an evening of fun and ongoing events where there is no dead time in a wedding. Even in the middle to end of dinner you should be playing some more upbeat music. The transition between dinner and dancing is EVERYTHING. If your guests are bored because too much time passed, then chances are they will become more bored/tired and less likely to get up and dance.

If you keep the evening running smoothly and build up the music and atmosphere, it will surely get all age groups up and dancing. The common denominator is the “fun atmosphere”

With the atmosphere in fun mode, everyone from grandma Marge to your young friends in college will see how contagious the fun is.

As a Cleveland wedding dj for 24 years, I utilize the input of the bride and groom in regards to some must plays and play if possibles and they give me a better feel for what they want and I mix that in with the reaction of your guests.

THE TOP 10 REASONS NOT TO EVEN CONSIDER USING AN IPOD FOR MY WEDDING RECEPTION……………..

10 .  Your Ipod can’t take requests. (but your DJ and Band can) what if their was that 1 or 2 songs your friends knew you loved from years ago, but you happen to forget about? hmmmmmmmmm it would be really cool if you heard one or two of those and it brought back awesome once in a lifetime memories.

9.  What if your guests happen to not like your style of music? If you sit down with a DJ or Band, they can have a plan b, got forbid something like this happens.

8. You have to either illegally download most of your music or pay for it on I-tunes.   Any professional DJ/MC or band, legally has this music.

7. Who is going to coordinate your evening? Who is going to line up the bridal party? Who is going to show you how to cut the cake? Who is going to keep the events moving smoothly? Who is going to coordinate the events with the venue? In most cases your DJ or band will coordinate the entire reception with ALL of your vendors, ensuring a stress free evening and making sure no one misses a single thing.

6. Sound system? You will have to rent a complete sound system and take hours of your day to learn how to use it. Estimated cost 150.00-200.00

5. Sound quality? Sound quality from an ipod is at approx 96-128bps   That is very low quality and the on board sound card for the ipod is not designed to use on a high defenition professional sound system.   Any high end DJ company or Band will have state of the art equipment. This will be very clear sounding.

4. Backup equipment or music? what happens of the battery goes out on your I-pod? What if something happens with the music equipment. Who is going to be able to fix it on the fly.  With any experienced DJ or band, they are also technicians and will have backup equipment on location and know how to fix something if it goes wrong.

3. Set up and Take down? Do you really want to be bothered with this on your wedding day.. Even if you give the job to a friend to do,, who is going to stick around and clean it up? With a DJ or band, you will have nothing to worry about.

2. How can you plan ahead on what your crowd is going to like and how they are going to react to music, without being there to see their reaction for every song.  What if the dancefloor is packed and you wanted to keep things moving, however the next song you programmed in your ipod was a slow song.. Wow……….you just cleared your dance floor. A DJ or Band had the talent and experience to keep the fun going and build an atmosphere that will engage your guests with tons of fun and dancing all night long

1.  What personality does your ipod have?  What ideas are your ipod going to give you? What great agenda is your ipod going to set up that will work? How is your ipod going to engage your guests? If you hire a professional Band or DJ, you will sit down with them ahead of time and get a better feel for what eachother is looking for and how much interaction or involvement you want from them.

in summary: by the time you add up custom announcements, music and a sound system rental, you are at approximately $600.00+  any experienced professional DJ/MC will start at approx 850.00 and range up to 1500.00+. Bands start at approx 1400.00 and range to 8000.00.. 20 years from now your guests will only remember 1 thing………..Did I have an awesome time and stay late dancing, or did I leave early. If they don’t remember your wedding, they most likely didn’t have fun…………(or they drank wayyyy too much)

The above reasons are based on facts and real live examples.

If you go to youtube.com and type in ipod wedding disasters,  you will see exactly what I mean.

Cleveland wedding Photographer: Corey Ann Photography  http://www.coreyann.com/

Venue: Radisson Hotel in EastlakeWe booked this couple over a year before their cleveland wedding reception and they were extremely excited for the big day. They were fun in our first meeting and the energy and fun they started with in our 1^st meeting, lasted throughout the planning process and into the reception. They were always smiling and took our ideas and mixed them with our expertise and the reception turned out to be nothing short of amazing.

www.coreyann.com

When we arrived at the reception, we used our larger Bose sound system as there were almost 300 guests. We wanted the room to be filled with sound, but keep the volume louder on the dance floor so the guests were able to still enjoy conversation. Cocktails were set up in another room, so we used our smaller (less obvious) cocktail sound system which we played a nice Jazz mix of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, ECT…

We arrived extra early so we were able to coordinate with every vendor and

www.coreyann.com

 employee at the wedding. As a very experienced Cleveland wedding dj company, our goal is to meet everyone that is involved and introduce ourselves and make sure we are all on the same page. When cocktail hour began, I took it upon myself to invite guests from the hallway to the cocktail area. We introduced ourselves to all of the parents and explained the evening in short detail so they were comfortable with everything that was going to happen.

www.coreyann.com

About ½ way through the cocktail hour, the bridal party arrived and was shuffled into a special room down the hall, while guests enjoyed cocktails and appetizers. We took it upon ourselves to go down and meet with the entire bridal party and meet the bride and groom as well. We took the bride and groom aside and in addition to congrats, we asked if there were any last minute changes or if they had any questions. We went over a quick 35 second review of the evening and we even asked to make sure all the grandparents were coming. (You don’t want to introduce grandparents that couldn’t make it) After meeting them we went on to the Best man and Maid of honor. Why do we meet them, simple.. They are our assistants for the night. I would much rather ask things like “where is the throw bouquet” or “is the bride wearing a garter” to the Maid of honor, rather than bothering the bride herself. Let her enjoy her big day.

As the doors opened and we seated the guests, we discussed a special introduction for the bridal party and how it would go. I lined up the entire bridal party and went over all the names and where they were going to go. The introductions were extremely high energy to where they even pulled the Lebron James gig with throwing flour in the air….. We even played the cavs entrance song. That you can see on YouTube here. 

www.coreyann.com

After the introductions we went into the cake cutting to the sounds of “how sweet it is” and then into 3 toasts. Because I had met with everyone using the mic and showed them where to stand, how to use the mic and so forth, it was easy for them to just pick the microphone up and go. After Monseniour gave the blessing, we played a nice array of old jazz standards for dinner. Dinner was sit-down and The Radisson Hotel, really outdid themselves with excellent service. Dinner went quick and 2/3 of the way through dinner, we switched the music to the sounds of, “mow town” and even some “sweet Caroline” the guests were all singing and dancing in their seats as they finished dinner.

http://www.coreyann.com/

We then immediately went into our formal dances. Starting with Andrew and Kelli’s first dance “My Best Friend” Tim McGraw……….. Then right into the father daughter dance (I loved her first, Heartland) and the mother son dance (find your wings, Mark Harris) 

Then the dance floor opened as we invited each and every guest to the dance floor. Our announcement of “for each couple joining them, will be an extra added year of god luck for our newlyweds, was a hit and there were at least 250 guests dancing. We went right into the “twist” and the rest of the night was history. Dancing and activities all night long. We added an anniversary dance in and all the guests were involved.

Most of the music was a wide variety as we sat down with them and went over their likes and dislikes and balanced those with our expertise and the crowd’s reaction for an amazing and unforgettable evening. Working with Corey ann is so much fun as she takes amazing pictures and she really knows the right pictures to take. When you work with fun and amazing vendors, the night really goes smooth as the communication line is wide open and understood.  This couple was nothing short of amazing to work with and we certainly hope to run into the new Mr. and Mrs. Andrew and Kelly Marks again real soon.

www.coreyann.com

An option that is almost a must at any reception

The Anniversary dance, if done correctly, will not only pack your dance floor, but is a very tasteful icebreaker that involves almost everyone (married) at your wedding. Sometimes you will never see “all” of your guests dancing, but this will guarantee at least “all” of your married couples are out their dancing at least one song at your reception.

What we do differently…. After making a few announcements that you are inviting everyone to join the bride and groom on the dance floor for the anniversary dance,  you play a classic song to start and then start excusing those in order of marriage. We usually start with 8 hours or so (find out ahead of time when the bride and groom said I do) that usually gets a laugh. Then 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years and so forth.. BUT>>>>>>>> WE DO NOT excuse them from the dance floor, we (you must repeat this 3 to 4 times) excuse them to form a circle around the dance floor in a circle to salute the longest married couples.

As we get down to 40 years and over, there is an amazing atmosphere that develops of ooohs, ahhhs and applause each time we do the countdown and get higher. When we have 1 couple left we finish the dance out to “Young at Heart by Jimmy Durante” and get the couples name and ask how many years. We do announce it and sometimes ask for some advice for the newlyweds.

NOW……………after doing all of this you didn’t realize one thing……….WE HAVE A PACKED DANCE FLOOR already in a circle.. what do we do…….Right into an awesome song for all ages. Sometimes we us the twist, sometimes we do Shout, and sometimes we use Old Time Rock N Roll..  These are songs that everyone knows and likes and is GUARANTEED to keep at least 40 to 50% of your group dancing.

The above way is just how we do it. It is a great way to get everyone involved and keep the evening moving. In most cases brides and grooms do not want to do the garter and bouquet anymore, therefore we use this as an alternative. If they have the bouquet as an extra, we have them present that to the longest married couple. In some cases we have had brides and grooms present bottles of wine, champagne and even some unique things.

Good luck and contact us for more information on some of the ways we can help with tasteful interaction at your wedding reception.

A Cleveland wedding Dj Selective Sound Entertainment.

If your reading this article, I will lead you through the truth behind what makes a successful reception when it comes to music. The biggest misconception of all brides and grooms is that they are required to choose the music for their reception. TRUTH=NO WAY (see below)

1st of all, you should be meeting with your DJ/MC 4 to 5 weeks before the reception to discuss the music. Yes, you will have access to your online planner and get a chance to choose some must plays, do not plays, ect.. but you should have trust in your DJ that their talent and experience, balanced with your input on the music for your wedding reception will make for a great mix of music for all.

When choosing music: THINK DANCE MUSIC NOT your favorite listening songs. Most do not realize this and just put down music they want to hear, but truth be told, how are your guests going to react to those songs. We as DJ’s need to build an atmosphere of fun music for all age-groups.

DO NOT: submit a playlist with your own songs for the reception. If you do this, there is no room for error and your guests surely and most likey arent going to react the way you had hoped. If this happens, you better have a plan B for your DJ.

A do not play list should be discussed with your DJ. Most wedding DJ’s stay away from: corny novelty (discuss), rap, heavy metal, explicitlyrics, suggested lyrices ect… But go a little further and dig.. ask them questions about where they went to college, where did they like to go dancing,, oh, they aren’t dancers, ask them if they like to karaoke, go see bands,, ect.. This will way better tell us what they like music wise.

If submitting a Do not play list, only list about 5 or 6 of your most favorite. If the DJ has a do not play list of 10 songs or more, it does get more difficult as each song has to be run through the do not play list..

Interaction: should you or shouldn’t you………..we reccomend, but it can be done on a “if needed” basis

Trust your DJ/Mc,, utilizing their talent, your experience and taking requests from the guests, should make for an amazing night.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Tom and Josephine Yuzuik

Photographer: Justin Ketchum

Venue: the club at Key center

April 24^th, 2010

The Club at Key center Marriott

When you begin the planning process, we have usually met the bride and groom ahead of time and discussed some ideas. Because Tom and Josie were from out of town, they booked us over the phone. They had seen us at some friend’s weddings; therefore they knew they felt comfortable with us. We set up a meeting when they got back into town and that is when the fun really began.

The Happy wedding couple

When we sit down with a bride and groom to plan their wedding, they have already spent a significant amount of time on our online Selective Sound Entertainment Cleveland DJ wedding planner. It is very detailed and gives us a more clear vision of what your wedding details are. We went over all of these details together in the meeting and came up with an amazing agenda and plan for the entire evening.

The guests arrived for cocktails in the heritage room and their was a piano playing. Even though we technically weren’t supposed to be playing, I took our wireless microphone and put it near the piano so it could be heard in the main room where guests were sitting. During this cocktail hour, I was able to meet the parents of the bride and groom and introduce myself and congratulate them.

Cleveland DJS Selective Sound Tom and Josie

When the bridal party arrived towards the end of cocktail hour, I greeted the new Mr. and Mrs. And their bridal party. We instructed everyone where to walk, lined them up, went over names for the final time and coached the ones who were doing toasts.

After seating the guests, we did the introduction which stared with I gotta feelin by the black eyed peas for the bridal party and parents and then for Tom and Josie, we went into David Grey Babylon (qued up) for their grand introduction. There was a very heartfelt warm round of applause for all and when Tom and Josie entered, the guests erupted in joy. After their grand entrance, they met on the dance floor and danced their first dance to somewhere over the rainbow by Israel K.

Immediately following their first dance, they went right over to the beautiful cake to cut. After us coaching them and Justin Ketchum leading them through it, they were very classy and fed each other.

http://www.justinkphotography.com/

Dinner service was amazing as our friends at the Club at the Key center always do an amazing job. We put together a mix of music from the Garden state soundtrack and some Jack Johnson, Cat Stevens and David Grey. This was Tom and Josie’s idea and it truly was a fresh welcome to dinner music.

Towards the end of dinner, we had a couple toasts by the best man and Maid of honor and then into the dancing.  Josie got to share a dance with her father to My girl by the Temptations and then Tom danced with his mom to a song for my son, my Micki Vierdick.   Then the fun really began.

We opened up the dance floor to a slow song and got everyone up there. The dance floor was packed from edge to edge. We went into a fun upbeat song, and ½ stayed on the floor. We continued to dance the rest of the evening to a fantastic mix of everything. We also included the Anniversary dance, which worked out amazingly.

After playing a fun mix of sing alongs like Sweet home Alabama and livin on a prayer as well as Country roads by John Denver and more, the night ended way to quick. While the after party was at RJ bolands, our party stopped at 10.00 with Tom and Josie.

They were thrilled and happy with the outcome and everyone had an amazing time. I truly enjoyed working with Justin Ketchum photography and like always, the Club and Key center.

Special thanks to Justin Ketchum for the photos.