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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.

It is a huge honor to be in the category of elite Central Pennsylvania Wedding DJs. As the owner of Ross Productions, I try to listen attentively to our clients for compliments and concerns in order to constantly try to improve our service.

Although we rarely receive complaints, I recently was reminded that there is one complaint I hear a lot, so often that I’ve nearly become immune to it.

We have a policy when this happens: our DJs immediately walk from behind their DJ table/booth to double check the volume out front, we’ll walk around the room, and if warranted, we will always adjust the volume accordingly. But you can imagine what it’s like for a DJ to get a complaint from 1 or 2 people every night about the music being too loud, especially when hundreds of other guests never say anything at all. I have even had to ask myself if my hearing was going bad, but I am pretty sure it’s not. Some people are just very sensitive to loud music, particularly elderly people.

I have even had complaints where a client felt I should move my DJ set-up, (speakers and all) after a few guests complained that the speakers were blaring in their ears. The problem wasn’t that the music was extremely loud, this was during dinner, however, this table was right next to my DJ system, right in the line of fire of my speakers, and coincidentally, this table had all of the elderly guests seated there. The client’s Event Planner placed me there earlier in the day before any guests had arrived. The floor space was cramped, and although there was an empty stage at one end of the room, I was not instructed to set up on it. Most Event Planners approve the floor plan without ever consulting the DJ, and in their defense, having me on this huge stage all by my self would have looked odd and out of character for the type of event it was. Looking back on it, perhaps I should have overridden the Event Planner, but I assumed I was being placed where the Bride approved me to be. Moving my set up in the middle of the event would have taken at least 30 minutes, it would have been terribly distracting and it just wasn’t an option. Instead, we asked the elderly guests who were seated at this table if they would mind changing tables with a group of 20-somethings on the other end of the room. This wasn’t optimal, but it was our best shot. Problem solved, right? Well almost.

This particular room was acoustically tricky no matter what you did or where you placed the DJ. Wood floors, high ceilings, and other hard surfaces make for a very “live” and “boomy” sounding room. It’s a nightmare for sound technicians. The obvious fix seems to be “add more speakers”. In a perfect world where clients have unlimited budgets for their events, we can optimize sound in a larger room by having “zones” of numerous speakers throughout the room, controlled individually instead of relying on the traditional 1 set of speakers to cover a room. However, this is very a costly option and it’s just not done very often. The typical DJ setup uses 2 speakers placed on either side of the dancefloor or either side of the DJ’s table, and this generally covers the sound in most rooms with no problems. Of course, all of our DJs use professional sound gear, and in most cases, just 2 of the types of speakers we use will accommodate the average wedding or party of up to about 225 guests, inside or out. For larger parties, we bring in more sound gear. But laws of nature are, well, laws. The closer you are to a sound source, the louder it will be. Though speaker technology has improved greatly in the past 10-15 years, there are still sensitive ears that can’t take music at any level.  It is best to plan with this in mind.

If you’re planning a Wedding or Special Event with amplified music, I have listed some suggestion to help you avoid or limit complaints about the volume of music or sound at your Event.

And here are a few things Clients can do to avoid sound complaints from their guests:

1. Make sure that you approve the placement of the DJ before the day of your event. Ask questions about the logistics and acoustics of the room. Ask the DJ for advice and be sure to clear this up before the DJ arrives and is completely set up. It’s likely that if the DJ has to move his equipment, you’ll receive a bill. It takes time and is very distracting to move equipment.
2. Place the DJ near the Dance Floor, and if possible, do not place any table with guests directly beside the DJ. It’s always louder at the DJ booth or near the speakers.
3. Do not place Elderly Guests anywhere near the DJ speakers, they are almost always sensitive to loud noise and they will likely complain. Help make their time more enjoyable and seat them a bit further from the dance floor or designated DJ set up area.
4. Allow your DJ plenty of room for his sound system and setup. Depending on how large your party is and the equipment you rented (i.e. upgraded lights or sound system, movie screens, etc..) the DJ may need a very large space. Most event facilities will show you a diagram of exactly where the DJ will be placed and it’s a good idea to go over this with your DJ a few days before the event.

This Noise Problem can also go the opposite direction. We have had people complain that the music wasn’t loud enough. Since we are primarily Central PA DJs, we have to be concerned with noise ordinances in many of the event locations we work. We adhere to those ordinances. Your event facility should tell you about an ordinance if they have one, and you should always ask. At the event we generally alert the guests that we have a noise ordinance to adhere to if we receive too many complaints.

Keep in mind, a  DJ is hired to improve the entertainment value of your event, not detract from it. We are passionate about what we do here at Ross Productions, and we want your event to be the best that it can be. If you have more questions about DJ sound systems and requirements, where to place the DJ at your event, or about and Ventura County noise ordinances, please feel free to contact me.

Happy Planning!

Here are a few steps our DJs take to help with this matter:

1. We Elevate the speakers on Professional Speaker Stands: This gets the sound above the seated guests and helps throw the sound further without having to turn up the volume.
2. We Adjust levels if guests or event managers complain.
3. We keep the volume of music lower during dinner and cocktails and raise it when dancing begins. Our DJs Continually monitor volume levels with professional mixers and our professional ears.