If you’re looking for a Los Angeles area DJ to play your wedding, chances are you’re hoping for a fairly raucous reception. It doesn’t have to be that way of course, a calmer vibe can usually be achieved via a Spotify playlist or perhaps a live band. However, couples looking to party tend to go the wedding DJ route.
A talented Los Angeles wedding DJ can turn a reception into a dance party with relative ease. Los Angeles wedding DJs know their music, certainly, but above all else, they know how to play a crowd; even when things unexpectedly affect the vibe. Maybe there was a longer-than-expected ceremony. Maybe the meal hit a little heavy. Or maybe guests will just need some time to get into it. These are all common issues and exactly why it is so important to hire a good Los Angeles wedding DJ. They will know just what to do to help set the tone and create a more high-energy dance party.
There are also a few creative things you can do prior to the wedding to help excite your guests and make them arrive at your wedding reception ready to party:
- Send Musical Invites
People send out all kinds of creative wedding invitations today. To give you an idea of what I mean, Bored Panda wrote up an incredible list of 101 possibilities. These ranged from redesigning Magic The Gathering game cards as invites to piecing together mock passports as save-the-dates, to building small shipping crates with invitations inside them. Really, the only limit is your creativity. But if you specifically want to set the tone for a party atmosphere at your wedding, we suggest finding a way to incorporate music into the invite. That might mean something as simple as sending digital invites that blast your favorite dance music at the recipients. Or if you really want to get into it, you might consider having your Los Angeles wedding DJ or a musically talented friend compose an original dance track that doubles as an audio invite.
Whatever you come up with, this kind of invitation definitely sends a clear message: It’s going to be a fun-filled, high-energy wedding.
- Prep the Right Tracks
As stated above, a skilled Los Angeles wedding DJ can probably get everyone dancing in a relatively short time. To some extent, you should leave it up to him or her to manage this. That said, a good Los Angeles wedding DJ also needs to be able to handle requests from the happy couple as well as their guests both before and during the wedding reception.
Requests that happen during the reception don’t always get played since your Los Angeles wedding DJ can’t be certain to have the tracks if they aren’t told beforehand so it’s crucial to tell him or her any must-play songs before the party gets started. And as a bonus tip, it’s not a bad idea for you to engineer those must-play requests toward songs you know will get your particular crowd dancing. To help get you started, here is a list written by NYTimes.com just last year that is full of excellent dance song picks. They are songs you might not have thought of in a while (like Sean Paul’s “Gimme The Light” or “No Scrubs” by TLC) and they are all also Los Angeles wedding DJ-approved. Making sure your Los Angeles wedding DJ has them on his or her list is a good way to ensure that people get dancing.
- Sneak Off to Vegas
Okay, so Vegas the night or week before a wedding is a little bit of a cliché. But it’s also only about a four-hour drive from Los Angeles, and it’s the best place on Earth to go if you want to lay the foundation for a weekend-long dance party. If you haven’t been to Vegas often (or recently) and think of it primarily as a place for casino gaming, you’ll be happy to know it’s much more than that. Poker.org posted a piece not long ago specifically identifying fun attractions beyond the poker tables and included a few — like partying with live music on Fremont Street and catching a show — that can help to get you and your wedding party in the mood for a good time. And that’s to say nothing of the pulsing, DJ-driven nightclubs at several of the resorts! You don’t want to overdo it right before the wedding of course, but Vegas is close enough that it’s a feasible warm-up. Have some fun with the music in Sin City and you and your wedding party will be ready to keep the good times rolling once your Los Angeles wedding DJ hits play a night or two later.
- Start the Party Yourself
Finally, most simply, and most importantly of all, remember to start the party. Sure, everyone’s there to celebrate you as the happy couple. But they’re also looking to you to get a feel for what kind of wedding it’s going to be. So just as we noted when asking “Is A Wedding DJ Worth It?” the best tip is to get out there yourselves. The best wedding dance parties tend to happen when the couple stays on the dance floor and the party gravitates to them. So above all else, remember to lead the way!
