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One thing we are often asked by our clients is “How much do I tip my wedding vendors?” Or, in our industry, “Should I tip my wedding DJ?” With wedding season upon us, here’s what we think.

There is no right or wrong answer here, but there are some general rules of etiquette and popular ideals about tipping wedding vendors. I found some blogs and websites that write on this subject and handle it very well. Find their links at the bottom of this post.

From personal experience:

• It feels great to be tipped, no matter the amount, as a show of appreciation for the hard work and dedication that we gave to an event. A card is also a nice gesture, but when something comes along with that card, we feel like the client really understood how much goes into what we do.

• It is also not uncommon for a client to send a card in the mail, after the wedding has passed. We’ve gotten them weeks and even months later without ever expecting them, what a nice surprise! Truthfully, if your DJ does an excellent job, you’ll know it because you and your guests will have danced your legs off and everyone will be elated. If the event runs smoothly, it’s generally because the DJ kept things running that way. In that case, a thank you card, a tip, or a host of referrals is so greatly appreciated.
• And finally, how much should you tip? Well, it’s safe to say that if you plan on tipping, you shouldn’t tip one single person less than $25.00 and it’s very rare to see anything over $100.00 per person. I have had a $400.00 tip once in my career, and I was stunned, but it was a very special circumstance and the client was given a low price contract for services to begin with.

We believe tipping should always be at the client’s discretion and we believe that is the most common practice among Ross Productions DJs. I never work for a tip, nor do any of our DJs or Entertainers. We know our clients are paying us well and expecting the best from us, and we are always committed to delivering that level of service.

This past weekend I received a very generous tip from my clients. These were clients who asked for my professional help on a dire matter only 2 days before their wedding. The matter had nothing to do with my services, nor was it in my contract to help these clients with this matter. However, when I offered my help, I simply did what I would expect any DJ or Entertainment service to do when called upon for help. I helped my client. But my efforts apparently did not go unnoticed and my clients were very kind to me in return. This is something that many clients do and we are always greatly appreciative. We also understand that many clients do not have tips in their budget, or do not feel it is necessary to tip on top of the contract price for services provided. We want our clients to feel comfortable in knowing that we work as hard as we can night after night to give a unique and great service to them without regard for gratuity.

I think it is important for our clients to know that all tips or gratuity given to the DJ goes directly to the DJ. If there is an assistant to the DJ at your event, the tip will be split accordingly. The company has no interest in the gratuity given to a DJ, performer, technician or entertainer.

For a more detailed approach to tipping Wedding Vendors see this website:

http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/tipping-wedding-vendors

The Bride and Groom First Dance is one of the happiest moments of the entire Wedding Reception. As you plan your wedding, it’s one of the many little decisions you’ll make along the way.

The placement of the First Dance in the schedule is a personal choice. In most cases the First Dance follows the Grand Entrance into the reception room pretty much immediately. When this is done, the meal usually follows and open dancing is scheduled later, this can allow the Bride and Groom to have their special moment as soon as they enter, with all eyes on them, and it also relieves the stress for the rest of the evening because the hard part is over, now it’s time to let loose and have fun. You can break that pattern if you need to and we’ve seen the first dance influenced by the logistics of the event location and the style of the event. Some Weddings are very non-traditional, or have longer receptions, and it’s often appropriate to hold the First Dance after the meal.

Even if you do not like to be in the spotlight, our suggestion is to keep in mind that this is one moment your guests will want to see and it is one of the most memorable moments of your wedding. We suggest taking a few dance lessons to ease the pressure and loosen up for the dance. If you aren’t the dancing type, don’t try to choreograph a complex Sir Mix-A-Lot surprise dance routine, it will seem too arranged. But dance lessons can definitely help you to look and feel as natural as possible for your First Dance.

But what song to use! With so many songs to choose from, how do you decide? The First Dance song is a very personal choice. My suggestion is that you grab your iTunes or CD collection, sit together for an evening, order in, and listen to a lot of your favorite songs. Look up the lyrics on Google if you don’t know them and think about what the song is saying to and about you as a couple. Is the song easy or possible to dance to? Get off the couch and grab your fiance and dance! Find out if you want to dance to this song by dancing to it in your living room, in a very private and intimate moment, you’ll know if you want to share this with everyone you know and love.

Once you’ve chosen the song, let your DJ know immediately. Then they’ll be able to have the song prepared and backed up on 2 computers or a CD player, ready to play at the right moment. A DJ will be able to accommodate any song request you provide in advance, but it will work a little differently if you hire a band. Make sure they can handle your song request or consider picking from a list of songs they suggest – otherwise, have them play the original recording for your First Dance. It’s your choice because it’s your wedding.

We’ve seen a lot of First Dance Songs and you really can’t go wrong with those classic choices. I am also pleasantly surprised by an obscure song selection.
The most requested 1st Dance Song? I would have to say it’s “At Last”, by Etta James, but a few others that keep coming up are “Better Together” by Jack Johnson, “Over the Rainbow” by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, and “I Could Not Ask For More” by Edwin McCain.
Here’s the list of the last 15 songs chosen for the Bride and Groom’s First Dance at receptions DJ’d by Elegant Event:

1. Just Because – Nikka Costa

2. I Finally Found Someone (Bryan Adams & Streisand)

3. Your Song – Elton John

4. Be Mine – David Gray

5. Backwards and Forwards – Aztec Camera

6. At Last – Etta James

7. Better Together (Jack Johnson)

8. Crazy Love (Ray Charles)

9. I Could Not Ask For More – Edwin McCain

10. Over The Rainbow – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

11. I Could Not Ask for More – Sara Evans

12. Lost In This Moment~Big & Rich

13. The way you look tonight by (various artists)

14. Making Memories Of Us – Keith Urban

15. You Are My Home – Vanessa Williams and Chayanne

This blog is for all those brides and grooms trying to plan a wedding and dealing with all the stress of making it unique.  I came across an informative article that I think will help some of you. Below is a quote from this article with a link to the original – hit the link if you’re interested in the rest of the story.

“Each and every wedding is unique in its very own way. Thus, every single detail related to it must carry a persona that truly reflects this sense of uniqueness and exclusivity that will contribute to the whole blissful wedding experience. Having personalized wedding items and novelties is definitely one of the best ways to achieve this. Not only these items depict the distinctiveness of your wedding reception, they also act as meaningful mementos for you and your guests as a remembrance of a beautiful wedding.” -Rene Lacape

I found a great Blog on Planning that caught my attention…’Planning…Forever Events Blog‘, . The blog is titled, “love your wedding florist“, and it’s from the site’s special series, “loving your wedding vendors.” I am quite knowledgeable on how a wedding DJ gets their “amazing” title due to working with Elegant Event Entertainment’s DJ division, and reading all of the blogs on the EEE site; however, I didn’t know many of the details about other wedding vendors. Reading this blog gave me a better understanding that the wedding florist is just as important as any other planned detail of the wedding. I now know that one should trust their wedding florist, due to the simplest fact that being a florist is their chosen profession and it’s what they do week in and week out, they are a Professional in their field, they make it their business to know a zillion kinds of flowers.

This article’s “behind the scenes” was a great story.You see that a well trained florist can work under any amount of pressure. When problems occur at the last minute, they get worked through and fixed versus simply saying, “too bad, the bride is going to have to deal with these arrangements, and like it.” The florists in this article showed how important it is to put the bride’s needs first by giving everything they had to the event and rearranging the flowers to the bride’s highest expectations. This also showed dedication and professionalism, which is a necessity in the wedding industry.

One last thing I got out of this article was that a great wedding planner would know the bride’s likes and dislikes even if all the other vendors were somewhat misinformed by the bride, the planner should be taking the time and be organized enough to collect a ton of detailed information from the Bride and Groom to make sure the event is flawless. If the New York wedding planner in this article would not have known such detailed information, the flowers would have not been changed. That could have ended with the possibility of the bride being very unhappy, and thus, a failure on the planner and every vendors’ part. Great wedding planners know their clients needs and they know how to communicate those needs to all the other vendors. When Brides and Grooms have a great Wedding Planner on their side, they won’t be stressing about what will or won’t get accomplished or whether a DJ or photographer is doing his job or a florist has the correct flowers, or the caterers are on time…hiring a great planner helps you hire other great vendors, because great planners know great vendors, and ultimately, this makes for a great event!”

The Bride and Groom enter the reception with no music playing and no advance announcement to the guests.

The Bride wanted to have her first dance with her groom immediately following the Grand Entrance, but the guests weren’t even aware that she was entering the reception area, and there is no MC.

The First Dance is awkward, the song wasn’t cued up properly, there was dead silence for over a minute as the Bride and Groom stood nervously in the center of the dance floor waiting for someone, anyone, to help.

When the music finally played, it sounded terrible.

Does this sound like a reception that went according to plan? It’s even more painful to watch! Check out this video of an iPod wedding disaster:

As a wedding DJ, I know it doesn’t have to be this way. I have other thoughts about the iPod wedding disaster, but I wanted to link up the video first. I’ll address some of the other problems of an iPod wedding in a future article. If you know of any additional videos that show iPod wedding disasters, please email me – we’re looking for more.