How to DJ Your Own Wedding in 15 Easy Steps – Part 1

As the economy has been a bit tight lately, many brides are looking for ways to stretch their wedding budget. So, if it’s just music you want, then you could try to take a couple of iPods, ask Uncle Bob to man them, and take your chances. Here’s what to do…

Step one: Find and rent an amateur-grade sound system (hoping it works), then figure out how to run it.

Step two: Find and acquire appropriate liability insurance (as more and more venues require proof of insurance prior to set up). It will cost you $300 to $500 for the annual policy since it’s not available for a single day’s use.

Step three: Figure out where to legally purchase the appropriate music across multiple genres (big band, top 30, rap, alternative, country, etc.) for a wide variety of tastes based on the range in ages of your guests.

Step four: Find somebody to program the music in a logical dance flow.

Step five: Find somebody to transport all the gear. Once there, determine the appropriate electrical power load and where to set up based on sound configuration, dance theory and event flow. Set up the gear.

Step six: Find somebody with the experience to “read” a wedding crowd (based on the 11 critical crowd reading reception criteria) to play the right song at the right time for the right reasons. They need to know how to read and then lead your audience in the right sequence, at the right time through the application of proper wedding knowledge and extensive wedding experience by using multiple music genres, tempo, styles, and trends to create or change the energy in a room.

Step seven: Find somebody to take, maintain, and then play song requests, hoping you have all the requested music with you.

Step eight: Find somebody to smoothly transition the music from song to song without any dead air, while seamlessly enhancing key wedding events with music, exactly on cue.

Step nine: Find somebody to tastefully interact with guests, maintain audience participation and crowd interconnection.

For steps ten through fifteen, and interesting statistics from national publications, be sure to read part two.