Stop making some noise!

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sawdust123

sawdust123

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Nov 10, 2006
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Ventura County, CA
I attended my neighbor's wedding today. It was an interesting experience but one I hope to not repeat. It was an example of how important the little details are.

My fiance and I were at table with several other neighbors. We all left at about the 4.5 hour mark. At least 1/4 of of the ~110 guests had already left or were leaving at the same time. But get this, open dancing had not yet started. Here is an approximate rundown of the timeline.

4:00: Ceremony (but first make some noise for the photographer)
4:30: Cocktails
5:00: Reception room opens
5:30: Grand entrance (after 5 minutes of instructions on how to make some noise)
5:35: First dance (make some more noise)
5:45: Buffet opens (tables are released after taking pics with B&G)
6:30: Champagne poured (and B&G finally get to start eating)
7:00: Toast (make more noise... for the bartender and caterer and the best man and now flat champagne)
7:15: Money dance (lame because half the crowd didn't know what this was and it wasn't explained)
7:30: Garter/bouquet (make more noise)
8:00: Are we going to dance? Nah
8:15: Caterer starts serving cake but no formal cake cutting
8:30: Our table is outta here (we were done making noise)
Sometime later: Maybe there was open dancing.

The DJ had top notch gear Pioneer/QSC a great facade, neatly tucked cables, nicely dressed, etc. He is one the local go-to guys for bilingual crowds and does about 160 gigs/year by word-of-mouth. I have to wonder though if that word is "make some noise."

I am pretty sure my neighbor said the country club required a wedding planner but it may have been one of their staff members. I didn't see anyone else. All I can say is that it was one of the slowest timelines I had ever experienced and had absolutely no logical flow. Not a single event flowed into the next. There was just background music between events. Not sure if the DJ or the "planner" is to blame for the timeline. However, the repeated "make some noise" requests got quite annoying and made the DJ look tacky.

So it made me wonder how people here have gone 3.5 hours into a reception before open dancing started.
 
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Typical upper Midwest time line is 3pm church ceremony, banquet facility opens at 4 official start of cocktails is 5, dinner at 6 cake is not formal simply announced that it is available, first dance at 7 all formal dances follow immediately, then open dancing..

best timeline I have ever seen
Cocktails at 6 dinner 6:30 grand introduction into ceremony at 7:15 then cake followed by formals and open dancing,. Yes it’s different but it worked so well
 
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What dancing? Today's young people who jump up and down with hands in the air (obligatory phone or beer in one of their hands), are magically going to start to do real dancing when they get older? What? How? Seems to me it's a dying art here in the US, so it doesn't surprise me at all it's played down at a wedding. I myself have been at weddings that have had zero dancing.

I cruise a lot. My favorite has been MSC. Their ships are very European oriented. Dancing all over the ship, all the time, and no urinals in the men's room - just stalls - when their ships are in the Mediterranean, the bathrooms are unisex. There are usually a lot of Germans, French, and Italians aboard.This past November, we did the big family cruise on the MSC Meraviglia, their newest, largest ship designed specifically for the American Market. What a disappointment! Very few foreigners, urinals in designated Men's rooms, and almost no dancing on the ship! One night I went around to the three dancing areas on the ship at 9:30pm. Exactly one couple - two people - were dancing on a 4000 adult passenger ship! Your average American is turning into a dead ass.

I was at our Hispanic American Club's dance last night. My legs are sore today from all the dancing - and I was the DJ !
 
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So what happened is there was so much other stuff going on that when it was time for open dancing most of the people were gone because it took to long to get to the open dancing. That's a shame. Especially for the DJ. The good news is getting paid no matter what happens.
 
It's funny. It doesn't matter what the phrase is, but when the DJ repeats it over and over, it sounds so cheesey.

Early on, I used to open everything with "at this time" until I watched myself say it on a video over and over and realized how bad it was.
 
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Scott Hanna said:
It's funny. It doesn't matter what the phrase is, but when the DJ repeats it over and over, it sounds so cheesey.

Early on, I used to open everything with "at this time" until I saw I watched myself say it on a video over and over and realized how bad it was.
Click to expand...

Mine is "ladies and gentlemen", said in that ultra-cheesy, radio jock voice..................
 
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I finally got comfortable just talking to an audience as if I was having a conversation with friends. In other words, I say "Yo dudes!" all the time. OK, maybe not. The first words I speak are only to focus attention on me. I typically point out some positive aspect of the event (great food, great view, great weather, an adorable flower girl, loving moment, etc). For instance, I may ask "Wasn't that (positive aspect) amazing? IMHO, this shows me being engaged with the event. And now that I have people's attention I can explain the transition that is about to take place.
 
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sawdust123 said:
I finally got comfortable just talking to an audience as if I was having a conversation with frIends.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've done this, I believe. It's amazing how difficult this is. At least it was for me.
 
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"Ladies, and Gentlemen...At This Time, It's time to introduce the Bridal Party! ...At this time, direct your attention to the entrance into the room. Let's Make some Noise for Suzy Smith and Joey Jones"

"Now let's make some noise for...."

"Let's make some noise for...."

Now let's make some noise for..."

"Make some noise for the BRIDE and GROOM"..

..."At this Time..."

:hammerhead:

Sadly, the MC part of being a Wedding DJ is not improved upon by most. Everyone for the most part self teaches themselves how to do it, and they rarely improve on it after their first year of weddings...You said this guy supposedly does "160 gigs a year" (I doubt it myself) ...That is SUPER BUSY. So if he has been around for 10 years, he has done somewhere around 1,600 events. ...Yet he MCs like he has maybe 24 months and 15 to 20 weddings worth of experience.

Even my own DJs that I book...I have seen them pronounce the names Great, and their voice is good, they seem relaxed, BUT the words they choose, and how repetitive they sound when saying those particular phrases while doing the introductions, and general announcements is BAD...Sometimes "okay" at best.

I try to point things out to them, and tell them what they need to make themselves aware of, and try to improve on. I even caught one of my DJs saying "BRide and Groom" all night. I had to tell them they need to memorize their first names, and say those names during the wedding. "Bride and Groom" is was a disconnected cookie cutter $500 or less DJ says all night. It was a few years ago, and both of these DJs have considerably more time in the business than I do.

Anyway, I'm not sure if what I say actually stays fresh in their minds since then. One of them, I stopped booking on weddings all together in part because I thought their Wedding MC skills were not to par with someone I want to book on weddings, or to what I believe their skills SHOULD BE when a client is paying $1,000+ for a Wedding DJ.
 
Handinon said:
What dancing? Today's young people who jump up and down with hands in the air (obligatory phone or beer in one of their hands), are magically going to start to do real dancing when they get older? What? How? Seems to me it's a dying art here in the US, so it doesn't surprise me at all it's played down at a wedding. I myself have been at weddings that have had zero dancing.

I cruise a lot. My favorite has been MSC. Their ships are very European oriented. Dancing all over the ship, all the time, and no urinals in the men's room - just stalls - when their ships are in the Mediterranean, the bathrooms are unisex. There are usually a lot of Germans, French, and Italians aboard.This past November, we did the big family cruise on the MSC Meraviglia, their newest, largest ship designed specifically for the American Market. What a disappointment! Very few foreigners, urinals in designated Men's rooms, and almost no dancing on the ship! One night I went around to the three dancing areas on the ship at 9:30pm. Exactly one couple - two people - were dancing on a 4000 adult passenger ship! Your average American is turning into a dead ass.

I was at our Hispanic American Club's dance last night. My legs are sore today from all the dancing - and I was the DJ !
Click to expand...
There is lots of truth to this... Europeans and other cultures are more natural at dancing to anything, anytime. Here were more conscious of whose watching us and how we look, and as a result from a young age they all just dance by jumping up and down since it’s what everyone else does. Now I do have to slightly disagree with how young people turn out, as I’ve done many weddings for past sweet 16 clients over the last few years. They change when they are in a relationship, especially if the girl wants to do dance and show the guy off or vice versa. That’s when you see actual dancing. Until then, then yes they continue to jump up and down lol.
 
Maybe I'm spoiled but my crowds always dance. If you're having a dinner wedding then we WILL open the dance floor for a brief general dancing set right after the B&G first dance which you WILL do right after being introduced. Then you can do toasts and sit down to dinner.

If not - you can hire someone else - perhaps someone with no entertainment skills who begs for noise. :)
 
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We follow similar methods. This DJ missed so many opportunities to improve the party. I have no idea what constraints or instructions he was following though. And I am not the type to comment to a DJ while they are working. It will be interesting talking to my neighbor in the next few days. I think he delaying the honeymoon till April.
 
sawdust123 said:
I finally got comfortable just talking to an audience as if I was having a conversation with friends.
Click to expand...
IMHO, it's much easier to do this standing on the dance floor with a wireless mic than from behind the DJ booth, and also helps "body language". The times I've done this, my son has been back at the laptop - I've never tried it solo even though Mixvibes offers an iPhone remote control app for Cross DJ. I'd sure love another button on the mic labeled "Push to Play/Pause"!!!
 
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Handinon said:
I'd sure love another button on the mic labeled "Push to Play/Pause"!!!
Click to expand...
At my suggestion, Numark put a feature into one of their dual CD players many years ago (CDN-90) that allowed this functionality using a wired remote. Of course, they also changed the display at the time to something that was not daylight readable so I never actually used this player and functionality.
 
sawdust123 said:
At my suggestion, Numark put a feature into one of their dual CD players many years ago (CDN-90) that allowed this functionality using a wired remote. Of course, they also changed the display at the time to something that was not daylight readable so I never actually used this player and functionality.
Click to expand...
A wireless version of that would be great. Mixvibes, and apparently VDJ, can be remotely controlled via a smartphone app - I'm sure there are others - but I'd much prefer something with actual buttons you could work unobtrusively by tactile feel, right in your pocket. Could you imagine escorting couples to the floor, and magically having the music play on cue working solo! Or, cajoling all the older woman on the floor (many of whom are unfortunately widows), and the Wobble mysteriously starts while you're in front of them!!*

*There would be a safety override in the software preventing Steve from doing this. You don't want to be accused of causing blindness.
 
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sawdust123 said:
So it made me wonder how people here have gone 3.5 hours into a reception before open dancing started.
Click to expand...

When I started, I played mostly Fire Halls.
A dozen old ladies serving family style...with dinner taking an hour at the most!
Then the country clubs starting getting into the game,
and became quite popular, as people really enjoyed a classier venue.
Problem is, they all seem to think that people were only there for the food and the atmosphere...
so dinner would take 2 hours or more!
So, add in an hour of cocktails, intros, cake cutting and special dances...
and you have a lot of receptions where dancing starts late, and only lasts a few hours.
 
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Proformance said:
Well, there's your answer... he's in the habit of postponing enjoyment.
Perhaps that party will end early too!
Click to expand...
Maybe he's had the enjoyment and expects the honeymoon to be the start of the downward slide ..
 
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steve149 said:
Maybe he's had the enjoyment and expects the honeymoon to be the start of the downward slide ..
Click to expand...
Still the DJ's fault. I realize that, ultimately, we're in this business to make money, but IMHO a truly responsible DJ should put on their Psychologist hat and talk these guys out of this, right from the get-go!! Pin their eyelids open and force them to watch Jerry Springer for at least a week.
 
Handinon said:
Still the DJ's fault. I realize that, ultimately, we're in this business to make money, but IMHO a truly responsible DJ should put on their Psychologist hat and talk these guys out of this, right from the get-go!! Pin their eyelids open and force them to watch Jerry Springer for at least a week.
Click to expand...
Psychologists make a lot more than I do per hour ...
 
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