A Family Affair

Family and friends, regardless of age, show up to celebrate a newly wedded couple through a colorful mixture of conversation, laughs, and dancing. The wedding DJ is the executant responsible for setting the tone of these interactions and providing purposeful sparks of energy to ensure everyone showers the bride and groom with positivity during their first evening officially together.

A top tier wedding DJ doesn’t just get party people on the dance floor, he or she gets EVERYONE on the dance floor!  The bride and groom thoughtfully considered each invite they sent out. Therefore, it is not up to the DJ to decide who gets to step into the spotlight on the dance floor and show moves often reserved only for the bathroom mirror.  Truly, the DJs only real responsibility is to delicately blend generations of hits, speeds, and tastes into a single soundtrack, representative of the mood of the evening, connecting the distinguished with the adolescent through song and dance.

A First of Many Lessons Learned

I was DJing a wedding a few months back and was about halfway through the evening when I started reflecting on how well everything was going.  The dance floor was packed with people who enthusiastically shouted every lyric to every song I had chosen to play.  As I prepared the transition to the next song, an older lady approached me and said, “We’ve been waiting all night to dance! Could you play a song for us?”  As she finished her sentence with a smile, she pointed over to the Bride and Groom’s family’s table where her husband and a few other member’s of the Bride’s family were seated.  I was talking to one of the most powerful people in the room, the Bride’s Grandma!

“Of course, I’ll play your song” I replied!  I shuffled through my lengthy list of slower grooves to find the perfect ballad for her and the rest of her table. To my surprise, the younger generation was thrilled with the surprise change of pace and showed off their appreciable knowledge of music history with the continued dominance of song lyrics.  The best part of the music throwback was watching the Bride make her way towards her grandmother and grooving together using a choreography clearly rehearsed through a lifetime of moments spent together.

I learned a valuable lesson that evening.  Just because the dance floor is packed with dancers doesn’t mean everyone is dancing.  A DJ needs to be cognizant of those both on the floor and off, and should carefully choose music that brings all who were deliberately chosen to attend, an opportunity to create new moments together.

If you are looking for a DJ to entertain your guests at your upcoming wedding make sure to find someone who understands the core responsibility of the role they play and the tone they set.  Your DJ needs to understand weddings are family affairs whether by blood or by relation.  At Bow Ty Audio our experience has taught us this valuable lesson and we take pride in the fact that we play all types of music to make sure every guest has a chance to dance.  As you plan your big day keep in mind the words from Mary J. Blige’s song, “Family Affair”:

“Let’s get it crunk, we gon’ have fun
Up on up in this dancerie
We got ya open, now ya floatin’
So you gots to dance for me
Don’t need no hateration, holleration
In this dancerie
Let’s get it percolatin’, while you’re waiting
So just dance for me”

Ty Rempe 

Owner & DJ of Bow Ty Audio