How to DJ your own wedding

Can I DJ my own wedding to save money?

So you’re thinking of DJ-ing your own wedding? You’ve seen the price of wedding DJs and you’re thinking there must be another way right?

No doubt you’re wondering whether its even possible to DJ your wedding. Well I’m here to tell you it is possible and just how to do it.

I’ll also tell you why I think its a bad idea too. Hear me out, there’s some valid reasons for this.

But hey you’re here to find out just how to DJ your own wedding party so lets find out

How old is too old to DJ?

What DJ equipment for weddings

Let’s start with the really obvious thing you’re going to need and thats a sound system!

Wedding DJ venue sizeDepending on the size of your party I don’t mean some portable Bluetooth speaker either. You’re going to need a professional quality sound system that can kick out a loud and high quality sound for a good few hours.

Speaker power or loudness are measured int Watts. Here’s a great rule of thumb you can use.

For every square foot of space, you’ll need 1 watt of speaker power. If you know the square footage of your wedding party venue you can work out the watts you’ll probably need.

Let say the venue is between 500-1000 square feet you’re going to need a sound system of between 500 and 1000 watts. I always recommend a bit of extra “head room” of around 250 watts to be on the safe side.

If you’ve yet to book the venue and are wondering how big it will need to be here’s a handy way to calculate it.

For every 100 guest you need 1000 square feet of space. This takes in to account dining space and dance floor too. Again you can be conservative with this and add some extra head room of 250 square feet if you like.

So if you’re inviting 150 guests you’ll need a venue of 1500 square feet or more.

If you’re having a smaller party, say 75 guests, you’ll need a venue of around 750 square feet.

How to DJ my wedding

Its not just a sound system you’ll need but something to play the music too. I’m sure you’ve seen some impressive looking DJ kit and you can of course go all the way and DJ with that if you want

But I’m guessing if you’re really wondering “Can I DJ my own wedding?” It’s because you want something simple that can do the work for you. For this you just need something simple, just a laptop or iPad can do the job. Exactly how it’ll do the job is something we’ll discuss later.

For now we need to get you set up with some speakers.

Active speaker systems for weddings

Traditionally speakers have been “passive” and required an amp to power them and supply the audio. These days things have moved on and you can get very compact and high quality “active” speakers.

These have the amp built in to the speakers so are easier to setup and get started with. You can even get ones with Bluetooth built in but I wouldn’t recommend that, more on that topic later.

I highly recommend you go for an active speaker setup as this is generally cheaper and easier to work with.

Rent the equipment, don’t buy it!

If you’re trying to DJ your own wedding it’s probably because you’re trying to reduce costs right? So there’s no point spending hundreds on a sound system (unless you plan to use it a lot in the future!). The best thing to do is rent it from your local DJ equipment rental shop. There may not be one in your town but you’ll usually find an events production company or disco rental equipment store in most cities, especially in the UK.

They can usually do you a deal on sound and lighting equipment but remember you’ll need to pick up and return the equipment usually the day of and the day after your wedding. The more days you have the DJ gear for the more you’ll be paying. So you’ll need to factor these chores in to your day.

Is lighting important for a wedding party?

A wedding DJ doesn’t just bring the music to the party, they often bring the ambience and atmosphere too. If you’ve already been looking up wedding DJs in your area and seen their setup you’ll notice one thing. Its colourful and floods the room with light and activity.

What lights for wedding reception?Sure wedding DJs can vary in quality and price but they generally all have an impressive array of lights. This is because while the music can make people dance and enjoy themselves, the lights actually play a much bigger role.

Lighting sets the mood and turns a fairly dull empty space in to a living breathing party venue!

While its important to have volume for your music its even more important to shower the room with light and party and “occasion”.

You’ve probably seen all manner of whizzy lighting rigs with projectors, lasers and all sorts of spinning, dancing, swirling beams of light wiggling in every direction.

I’m here to tel you now that while that stuff may look cool, its not needed. In fact too much of that just gives people dizzy spells and looks tacky.

What you need is mood lighting, above all else, set the mood for your wedding party.

You can do this easily with LED floods. Yes that’s their name. You’ll want to find RGB LED flood lights that can be controlled and change colour. If you can chain them together then even better!

You can place these lights around the venue, anywhere you can find a mains socket. In fact its entirely possible to get batter powered RGB LED floods these days but that may be going over budget.

How to DJ your own wedding receptionThe idea here is to fill the room with colour, like a decoration, adorning the walls and ceiling and dance floor with your favourite colours.

Pink is obviously popular as are purples and blues. These lights don’t need to flash or move or dance about, they just set the mood and allow you to turn off the main “house lights” and illuminate the room with your wedding DJ party!

Marie Cubin from Rent My Wedding does a great job of listing all the various ways you can light your wedding venue. Definitely worth a quick watch.

You can also do this with “scans” which can serve two purposes. These are disco lights that are essentially a projector with a movable mirror. The projector contains patterns and colour filters and lens to focus the light. The mirror is there to angle the projection in any direction you want.

Wedding disco light ideas

These can often be chained together, working by “sound to light” moving with the beat of music, or can be programmed to carry out specific moves. These are great for projecting patterns and colours on to wall and ceilings as well as getting more active as the party moves from dinner to dancing.

While there are other lighting options they tend to create a rather tacky look with a blast of swirling almost out of control looking beams of light. If thats the look you’re going for them go for it, but for weddings I recommend a more elegant lighting arrangement. Carefully chosen scans and LED floods are probably all you need.

By all means add a few mirror balls and fairy lights to add decoration but don’t think you need get every cheap flashing party light you can get your hands on. Class costs less than you think

Watch Nick Spinelli’s video on wedding lighting advice. He makes some great points about elegant wedding lighting and what to avoid.

Rental costs Vs Professional DJ costs

All of the above can be rented rather than purchased but of course the more equipment you want, speakers, rigs, tripods, scans, floods, etc, the more your rental bill will be.

At some point the cost and logistics of renting and setting up all this equipment negates the saving you can make by DJing your own wedding. You may save a couple of hundred pounds but is it worth it? This is something you’ll need to calculate yourself by comparing the cost of renting all the equipment you want with the cost of a local wedding DJ.

Be careful that you don’t create a job for yourself, as well as responsibilities around looking after expensive equipment, plus the safe return of it back to the rental store.

If your wedding is small, low key and just a handful of family and friends then you may be able to rent equipment cost-effectively compared to a professional wedding DJ. But the bigger your party is the more lighting and sound you’ll need.

Depending on how much lighting and how big a sound system you need to rent you may find that it wont all fit in one car! Do you need to rent a van now too? Or maybe get your friends to help pick up the equipment? Remember those speaker and lighting tripods and rigs aren’t small. Make sure you’re fully aware of the effort it will take to bring the equipment to the venue and return it the next day.

In fact will you be around the next day or off on your honeymoon? You need to consider all these things carefully before DJ-ing your own wedding! There’s a lot of admin involved in the setup.

Creating your wedding playlists

Whatever you decide on renting or buying DJ equipment, it doesn’t mean much without the music!

Hiring a professional wedding DJ doesn’t just provide you with DJ equipment but also a (usually) highly skilled person who knows how to build party playlists.

So if you plan to DJ your own wedding YOU are now the individual who needs to come up with playlists for your own wedding party.

This is easier said than done but here’s some great steps you can take to create your own wedding music playlists

The bride’s favourite music

Wedding playlists for brideAlways start with the bride, if she dances then almost anyone will dance too. Please the bride and the groom is automatically happy!

Maybe you are the bride or maybe you’re the groom (or you’re one of 2 brides or grooms) either way the bride and groom are the most important people at the party. Get them dancing and you’re guaranteed to create a party atmosphere.

So to start with create a playlist based on your partners favourite songs. Just remember that it’ll probably need to be a little more mainstream than the niche musical genres they may be in to. While its great your fiancée loves death metal, your gran and 2 year old niece may not be so keen on dancing to it.

Make a list of songs you know she’ll love and that everyone is likely to dance to. You’re usually looking for pop, indie, rock, soul and dance songs so hopefully your loved one likes a number of songs in those categories.

Music for all ages

How to make wedding playlists for your own weddingNext you need to think about the people coming to your wedding party. How old are they? What mixture of people are there? Are there plenty of kids or is it mostly adults?

This will influence what music you need to add to your playlist. If its mostly over 30s or over 40s you can add more 80s and 90s classics to your playlists. If there’s a decent number of younger kids you’ll need to add more modern pop and dance anthems to please them.

What you absolutely do not want is bored looking teenagers or adults that refuse to dance because they can’t relate to the music.

While it may be your wedding day the fact is you are hosting a party for your guests so create a playlist that will please them first.

Stag and hen playlists

Stag and hen group playlistsAnother sure fire way to please the crowd is to create playlist that you know the stag and hen groups will enjoy. If there were songs that featured during the stag or hen parties then include those. If there are songs that the bride and her closest girlfriends love then add them. The same for the stag / bachelor party group.

Nothing gets the dancefloor heaving quicker than the stag and hen (or bachelor and bachelorette) parties jumping on the dance floor and singing along to their favourite songs.

Why having multiple playlists is important

You may think once you have these playlists of all the best party anthems you, your partner, your closest friends and relatives will enjoy is all you need to do.

But you’d be wrong. You’re going to need more music than that.

Here’s why…

Your wedding party is likely to have clearly defined moments, here’s a few of them that you might recognise.

  • Mingling with guests after entering the venue
  • Sitting down for dinner
  • Mingling with guests during dinner (or just after)
  • Speeches
  • Cutting the wedding cake
  • First dance
  • Inviting people to the dancefloor
  • Romantic slow songs at the end of the night

While you may not be as formulaic as this you’ve probably been to a wedding or two that featured most of these moments.

DJ at your own wedding. Advice.All of these events have one underlying thing in common. They all feature music, while it may be background and hardly noticeable, a professional wedding DJ will play a “bed” of music while you’re mingling, cutting cakes, having dinner, etc. The only moment where that wont be the case is the speeches.

So you’ll need to create playlists for a lot of these moments, or at least create “mood” playlists that suit these moments.

You’ll need a playlist that sits well during dinner and mingling. Nothing too loud and in-your-face, no intense songs here, laid back acoustic songs are perfect. Soulful classics and light indie music works great. Keep away from the rock and dance music and keep the tempo mellow.

Cutting the cake is usually more joyful and exciting, if you and your partner have a special favourite song (that isn’t your first dance) then this is a good time to play it.

The first dance is obviously one special song but you’ll need a “first dance playlist” because once that song ends the next few are crucial as you invite more guests to join you. Go with sure fire winners here, mainstream songs everyone loves that are upbeat and exciting (without scaring off the small kids and grannies!)

A collection of romantic slow songs to round of the evening is a great way to wind down and bring the wedding party to a close.

DJing your own wedding advice

So it sounds like now you know all the playlists you’ll need right?

Wrong!

Seriously there’s more?!?

Professional wedding DJs will tell you that however many songs you think you’ll need for a party, you’ll always need more.

People will ask for songs you’d hadn’t thought of, other songs wont fill the dance floor the way you thought they would, some songs will clear the dance floor calling for a quick change of tune to bring them back again.

To keep the party flowing you’ll want no “dead air” between songs so you’ll always fade one song over another. This means you’re shortening each song from what would be 3 or 4 minutes long down to what could be just 2 or 3.

This might not sound like much but it soon compounds and that 4 hour playlist you created suddenly gets eaten up in less than 3 hours.

Here’s a list of tracks that get played at nearly every wedding and there’s good reason too. They are romantic, widely enjoyed by all ages, mainstream enough to keep the dance floor filled and also plenty of people know the lyrics so singing along is always a boost to the atmosphere.

Good wedding party songs

I recommend having at least 50% more tracks per playlist than you think you’ll need. Its better to have as many options available so that you’ve got lots to choose from.

You’ll also want to sort them in to a decent order so you can play the playlists from the start rather than on shuffle. Its better to know whats coming next than for it to be completely random. This allows you to create buildups and cool-downs in to your playlists so it doesn’t jump about too much. I recommend at least 3 tracks in the same musical genre before changing to another to keep things fresh.

Different ways to DJ your own wedding

Now you’ve got the DJ equipment and the playlists sorted we need to think about exactly how you can DJ your own wedding party.

There are a few options for you here

Auto cross-fading songs with Spotify or Tidal

This is the simplest option. Your playlists are all in your Spotify or Tidal account on your iPad, laptop or smartphone. Enable “auto crossfade” in the settings and let your playlist run. The app will fade between songs just before they end. Its not a very elegant solution but does at least give you the easiest option.

cross fade songs on tidal for wedding playlistThis also works on Apple Music for Android and Apple Music for Mac, but for some strange reason its no on the iPad or iPhone versions of Apple Music. If this changes we’ll update this page with the latest info.

There are other apps available for smartphone and tablet that can take songs from your favourite streaming platform (and local audio files on your device) and cross-fade them together.

While this is an easy option, hit play and off you go, it really isn’t the best option out there.

Here’s why you might not want to do this

  • You have no control over the fade or when its going to happen.
  • Its not beat matched so drum kicks will clash as one song fades out and the other fades in
  • If you’re changing from one playlist to the other it may not cross-fade (Depending on the software you’re using)
  • Changing playlists may be awkward especially if one playlist runs out and you’re busy
  • Controlling exactly what’s played and when may be cumbersome, although it may be possible to do this remotely with your smartphone.

Regardless of these issues I’m pretty sure this is the vision you had when you thought “Can I DJ my own wedding party?”. Playing playlists from your streaming services and plugging some simple device in to some speakers.

But there’s an elephant in the room here, or rather the room maybe cause a lack of this.

Your streaming service will need an internet connection. So you’ll most likely need Wi-Fi.

Does your wedding venue of choice have wifi? Is it reliable? Will it be reliable on the night when a couple hundred people try connecting to it?

Or will you get a phone signal strong enough for a fast data connection?

If you don’t have either of these things on the night what are you going to do!?

For this reason streaming services really are not a reliable source of music. I highly recommend you download the music you want to play at your wedding party. Even if your wedding venue tell you its a fast and stable connection you can’t guarantee that on the night things may stop working and your beautiful wedding party has no music!

Semi-automated mixing with Algoriddim djay app

When it comes to DJ software there’s plenty of options out there.

But there’s one I’ve really fallen in love with recently and thats the “djay” app by developers Algoriddim. It’s impressively powerful and has some pioneering features you wont find anywhere else. It’s also widely support and available on every smartphone, tablet and laptop on the market.

It works with plenty of DJ controllers too from the simple budget options to the industry standard DJ gear.

Of course its highly likely you have neither and it may be that you don’t need either too. As there’s one handy feature of the djay app that is quite unlike any other offering out there and might just be the answer you’re looking for.

If you subscribe to the Pro version of jay you get unlimited access to their “Auto Mix” feature which is surprisingly powerful.

Use djay auto mix for wedding party

As the name suggests the software attempts to act like a virtual DJ, automatically mixing between each track its presented with.  You can select playlists for it to add to its “up next” list and you can easily drag them around to change the order.

Auto mix has a lot of handy settings but you can leave everything in “automatic” and it’ll try its best to mix tracks together, matching their tempo and alternating between different transition styles to keep things interesting.

Its well worth downloading on your smart device of choice and seeing how it handles your playlists. If you have music locally on your device then it can easily mix this together. It can also connect to streaming services but there are some caveats here. For starters Tidal is the closest thing to mainstream music and does a pretty good job but isn’t the biggest of libraries. You’ll need a premium account to stream music through djay. Your other options are beatport and beatsource but they are really for dance music DJs, not for weddings.

It does have support for Apple Music which you’d think would be the answer to your problems but there’s a snag. It only works with downloaded tracks so you’ll need to download them via the Apple Music app first. This then leads to the second problem with Apple Music which is DRM. The digital rights management that controls access to tracks that are downloaded. Almost all tracks have this and wont play on anything other than the Apple Music app. No good for us djay users!

Of course if your tracks aren’t downloaded you have the same wifi issue as the previous option. Patchy wifi that could go down, mid wedding party, would be a disaster! So tread carefully.

With all these little issues aside, the software is immensely powerful and goes far beyond want a simple cross-fade could do. Check out this walkthrough from Algoriddim themselves. Is this what you need for your wedding party? 

And here’s part 2 if you’re enjoying that video.

Djay automix settings and features

For starters its transitions options include djay’s incredible “Neural Mix” feature which can remove percussion, melody or vocals from any playing track in real time. It has to be heard to be believed!

There’s also options to change the transition lengths to something more akin to a real DJ. Adjust the preferred transition type and set whether to morph between tempos rather than try to sync or beat match them.

It’s a powerful method of auto mixing between your wedding DJ playlist.

DJ automix settings for weddings

There are however a few things to note here.

  • It doesn’t always produce a seamless mix, in fact its rarely perfect
  • It does a great job of picking start and end points of your tracks, its not always the start of a track and you have no say over that
  • Some of the transitions don’t suit the music thats being played, but it selects them randomly if you leave it on “automatic” transition selection.
  • If you want to select a new song that someone has requested it can be a bit fiddly
  • Streaming can be a bit hit and miss, a strong fast wifi connection is a must if you’re streaming!

Your best bet is to download original audio files of your music but this is neither quick nor easy these days. If you have the technical know-how to download your music then Algoriddim’s djay app might be just right for you.

If you’re looking for an option thats semi-autonomous and much more likely to keep the party vibe alive I recommend downloading djay and trialing it to see if it fits your needs.

You can then plug your device in to your sound system through an audio adapter cable and away you go. Music while you mingle, dance and celebrate your wedding day.

A more hands on approach

How to DJ at your own wedding?Of course these two options have their flows as autonomy comes at the price of quality.  You’re at the mercy of your playlists and while they may have seemed a good idea days, weeks or months before your wedding day, you may be regretting some of the choices on the night.

A big part of what makes a professional DJ so valuable is their ability to read the crowd and change the music to suit the demographic, atmosphere and time of night. All of these can be carefully nurtured and rewarded with intelligently curated song choices.

No DJ software can do this for you, and even if you’re not a DJ you’ll soon notice that some of your song choices are jarring. When the energy levels need to rise your playlist is busy playing mellow songs, or when the dance floor empties for seemingly no reason, you’re struggling to bring people back with your automated list of music.

So maybe you want to be a bit more hands on. Picking the songs, syncing the beats (or learning to beat match if you prefer), and reading the crowd to keep the party going.

There’s two issues here you need to be aware of that we’ll cover in the next 2 chapters. We get asked about these a lot so it’s worth spending some time reading up on these.

DJ controllers for weddings

DJ controllers for weddingsWhile its possible to DJ with just a laptop as we’ve discussed in a previous article, its not the most intuitive of experiences and prone to causing problems when you need simplicity. For this you’ll need tactile buttons and faders. So you’ll need a DJ controller.

If you have one already then great!  You’ll know just how awesome they are. If you don’t and you’re trying to keep costs low then you’ll need to find a decent budget DJ controller.

While there’s some epic high quality industry standard DJ controllers you can rent, they’re likely to baffle you with too many dials and faders you just wont use at a wedding. So you’ll probably need to buy (or borrow) a budget DJ controller.

Good DJ controllers for wedding partiesIf you’re planning on using an iPad I can recommend the Reloop Buddy 2 as its portable, cheap and highly compatible with the aforementioned Algoriddim Djay app. You just plug it in and start DJing.

It has more than enough bells and whistles to keep you busy and impress your wedding crowd. Working with the djay app means you could also switch between auto mix mode when you’re busy shmoozing with guests, then switch to manual DJing when you want to take over.

Spare cables for DJingYou’ll need to pick a controller you feel happy with and learn it inside out before the big day arrives. You don’t want to be confused and panicking when things start to sound dodgy and you don’t know how to control your own DJ controller!

You also need to make sure you know how all the DJ equipment will be wired together. I recommend asking the rental shop for details of the connections the speakers will have so that you can purchase the right cables to attach to it. You’ll also need nice long cables (5 metres or more!) as the speakers may be positioned some way away from your controller.

Will you have time to DJ your own wedding?

Wedding reception DJing adviceThis is the crux of the problem with this option. Its much more hands on and time consuming compared to the simple fading between playlist songs.

As its your wedding day do you really think you’re likely to have enough time to be the DJ too?

Would your partner agree to let you DJ the whole time as well?

I’ll take an educated guess that the answer to both of these questions is no. So if you really are going to DJ your own wedding how are you going to get around your limited time and resources?

One obvious answer is getting your friends to DJ too.

You could work alongside a few of your friends and take shifts to handle the music during the dinner, mingling, first dance, etc while you’re busy. Leaving you with just a “prime time” slot when the party is in full swing and everyone’s dancing.

Get this right and you can impress your guests and your newly-wed partner as the headline act at your own wedding!

Weddings are a busy and potentially stressful day if things don’t go to plan so making your life easier is definitely the key. This is why almost everyone outsources the music, lights and DJ skills to a professional. But if you really do want to DJ your own wedding make sure you’re making your life as easy as possible on your big day.

I highly recommend watching this video that gives you some great scheduling tips for your wedding. Everything from cutting the cake and speeches, to the dance party and admin of getting guests in and out of your reception. Well worth a watch.

Wedding DJ tips

Weddings are unlike any other DJ gig you’ll ever do so even if you’ve been DJing before, you’re a club DJ or just a bedroom DJ enthusiast, it’s important to follow these tips to make the most of your wedding party.

Keep things simple

You’ll be busy enough as it is on your wedding day so lets not make it more complicated than it needs to be. Keep your Disco equipment rental simple, no complex lighting rigs and systems you need to programme. Plug and play is the preferred method.

Active speakers will help with this and a simple to use DJ controller or smart device to output the music is probably all you need. If you start adding more complexity there’s lots more chances for it to go wrong.

The last thing you want at your own wedding party is for the DJing to go wrong! So make sure your playlists are prepared well and ordered, easy to navigate, and simple for others to use too.

Always have backup plans

Whenever there’s technology involved things can and will go wrong. Prepare for the worst so that you can rescue any situation. If the wifi isn’t available at the venue what are you going to do? If you can’t use the streaming service you wanted how will you play music? If the power trips out at the venue who do you need to speak to quickly to get it back on?

A professional DJ will have the answers to all these questions and backups in place to continue quickly and efficiently should something temporarily stop the party.

External backup drive for wedding musicI always recommend backing up and downloaded music to an extra external hard drive you can quickly plug in and carry on with. Even if its not your full playlist you at least have something to continue the show with.

When renting equipment always ask for spare extension cables and backup speaker cables. Rental stores usually have a surplus of these that cost nothing or very little to rent. Hopefully you’ll never need them but if one does fail during your wedding party you’ll have something to replace it with quickly.

Easy DJ transitions

Its a wedding party not a music festival. You’re playing music for everyone from 3 year olds to 93 year olds. They’re not interested in how you can mix 4 decks together or create seamless transitions that least 2 minutes.

They just want to party, so keep your DJ-int prowess (or potentially lack of skill) to yourself and just give the audience what they want.

I recommend easy switch / cut mixes where you wait until the end of 16 beats and drop the new tune in with a quick flick of the crossfader. No need to seamless mix here, people want the party to continue and a cut mix can add an element of surprise when their favourite tune suddenly drops.

Sure you can get creative too sometimes but really, at a wedding party, people just want to have a good time and dance to their favourite songs. So your DJ skills may be lost on most of the crowd.

Keep your transitions to just a few seconds, 16 beats maximum, your trying to keep the atmosphere going and short mixes do a much better job of this when you’re dealing with radio edit pop songs and indie rock.

If you do want to learn some simple creative transitions then this video has 2 quick tutorials for you.

Be prepared for others to DJ for you

With all the best planning in the world its still highly likely that you’re going to be exceptionally busy at your own wedding party. Meeting every guest at the venue, mingling and being pulled in 10 different directions at once as everyone wants to spend time with you on your big day, this is the reality of a wedding reception.

So the chances of you actually being the DJ at your own wedding is slim. Make sure others know how to use the equipment and can take over when you’re obviously struggling to keep on top of this extra task you’ve given yourself.

Whether its just keeping an eye on playlists, moving from your dinner playlist to your first dance playlist, or taking on a more active role when everyone is dancing. Make sure you’re not the only person in the room that can handle this.

How to use Spotify DJ mode for your wedding

Spotify DJ Mode for my wedding?I’ve been asked a number of times about Spotify’s DJ mode as the title would suggest its a perfect fit for people with a Spotify account who want to DJ right?

Wrong. Spotify DJ mode is a glorified cross-fading feature of Spotify, mixed in with some extra features around playlists, both curated by artists and your own playlists too.

The idea behind it is to create a radio station like feel to playlists you want to listen to. With no “dead air” between songs the tracks overlap briefly, cross-fading between the two to keep the musical vibe going.

There’s no special DJ controls, no extra features to allow you to transition between songs in a cleaner way. Its really just for easy listening while you work so you can enjoy playlists in a different way.

Spotify DJ mode gets even worse when faced with a few tracks of the same musical genre, especially dance music.

Can you use spotify at a wedding?House, EDM, even Drum and Bass all sound terrible when applying an auto cross-fade since the beats aren’t synced. You’ll get an annoying double thumping sound and jarring experience that sounds so bad your wedding party guests will be wincing as the two songs clash and transition.

If Spotify really is your own choice then by all means take a look at Spotify DJ mode but rest assured it wasn’t built for people who want to DJ their own wedding. It’s just an app gimmick. So beware.

Why its probably a bad idea to DJ your own wedding

Wedding dance party Dj tipsNow that we’ve covered many of the aspects of DJ-ing at your own wedding it may sound like its entirely plausible and a great option to cut costs and save yourself hundreds if not thousands on a professional wedding DJ.

I have to admit I actually did DJ my own wedding! Back in 2007 I got married overseas and had a wedding party a month later than the big day. With friends helping me collect the rented equipment, handle some of the DJ playlists and let me headline my own wedding party.

So I fully admit it can be done and can be fun too.

But was it cheaper? Not much

Was it easier? Definitely not

Was it more stress than hiring a professional? Yes definitely!

Can I DJ my own wedding?So speaking from experience I can say that while it was a lot of fun at times, life would have been easier and not that much more expensive to book a wedding DJ to handle all the work, worry and stress for me.

At your wedding you want a wonderful memorable experience of what is in all seriousness a very hectic and demanding day. Do you really need the extra workload and potential problems on this day of all days?

Probably not.

As a professional DJ for years and someone thats DJ-ed his only wedding, my advice is still to pay for professionals. They’ll have better equipment, better skills and know just how to making your wedding party one you’ll never forget, without the need to run around like a headless chicken trying to DJ your own wedding party!

More advice for DJing your own wedding party