About 33 years ago (1985) having a DJ at a wedding reception was still a very new concept. I was still very young and new to it all myself.
I was working a wedding in a nice hotel ballroom and for the entire 5 hours the only dancing that occurred was the bride & groom's 1st dance and the bride's dance with her father. (Perhaps that's not entirely true but, it is how I remember it.) Not one song was requested. Not one hit song or crowd standard moved anyone to the floor. In contrast, this hotel was across the street from the club where every Friday night I'd have a dance floor with 300 people on it until 1:00am. I played at least 20 or 30 minutes overtime at this wedding because, I had by the end of the night resigned myself simply to play until the last person left the room.
When the last table of hanger-ons finally got up to leave, and older woman (mother of the bride) came over to me and said: "Thank you so much for such a wonderful evening. The music was wonderful and we loved it. I'm sorry that we're all not much in to dancing."
I learned from that experience that I can do a better job as a DJ by behaving more like a waiter. So, since then I make an effort to visit the tables find out if people are enjoying themselves and what if anything I can do to enhance that. Under the guise of taking their "musical order" I can learn exactly what kind of crowd I have at 7:30 rather than midnight. I can then choose to be the kind of DJ that the room needs or wants rather than roll the dice on people being the kind of dancers I would prefer.
It only works of course, if you're willing to step out of yoru comfort zone and do what it takes to make it work.. There are times I spent the night being a game show host, children's entertainer, line dance teacher, or star search emcee, etc - things not at all consistent with the disc jockey skills I brought with me. But ultimately, it gave me a protfolio of experiences I can use in whatever dose necessary to manage the impression I make.
I was working a wedding in a nice hotel ballroom and for the entire 5 hours the only dancing that occurred was the bride & groom's 1st dance and the bride's dance with her father. (Perhaps that's not entirely true but, it is how I remember it.) Not one song was requested. Not one hit song or crowd standard moved anyone to the floor. In contrast, this hotel was across the street from the club where every Friday night I'd have a dance floor with 300 people on it until 1:00am. I played at least 20 or 30 minutes overtime at this wedding because, I had by the end of the night resigned myself simply to play until the last person left the room.
When the last table of hanger-ons finally got up to leave, and older woman (mother of the bride) came over to me and said: "Thank you so much for such a wonderful evening. The music was wonderful and we loved it. I'm sorry that we're all not much in to dancing."
I learned from that experience that I can do a better job as a DJ by behaving more like a waiter. So, since then I make an effort to visit the tables find out if people are enjoying themselves and what if anything I can do to enhance that. Under the guise of taking their "musical order" I can learn exactly what kind of crowd I have at 7:30 rather than midnight. I can then choose to be the kind of DJ that the room needs or wants rather than roll the dice on people being the kind of dancers I would prefer.
It only works of course, if you're willing to step out of yoru comfort zone and do what it takes to make it work.. There are times I spent the night being a game show host, children's entertainer, line dance teacher, or star search emcee, etc - things not at all consistent with the disc jockey skills I brought with me. But ultimately, it gave me a protfolio of experiences I can use in whatever dose necessary to manage the impression I make.
