What I Learned This Weekend About Loud Wedding DJ’s

I'm actually calling this a WED-I-TORIAL-  an editorial about weddings (specifically how music is used). I have a vested interest in writing this.  A lightbulb went off in my head as I attended a wedding this past weekend. Hey, you're never too old to learn. 

So here's the deal.  I attended a wedding recently as a guest for a change, not as the musical host It was a really amazing affair.  They had food at the cocktail hour that rivaled the main course at most weddings I've been to, but that's another story.

It's the music I want to talk about for a second, especially considering the fact that I do this for a living. This was a real teaching moment  for me.

Here's what I mean in a nutshell. The DJ's were great. I'm not knocking their ability.  They were there to get them up dancing, and they succeeded. However, they showed no mercy by breaking the proverbial sound barrier for 5 straight hours. It was so piercingly loud that noone could possibly have a conversation from the time they sat down til the time we left, with the exception of maybe 20 minutes when we ate.  (Plus 9/10 of the songs were mixed together one after each other at same tempo and put to a driving dance beat that literally made your heart skip)

It made me realize even more that music at a party should be a complement to what's going on.  It doesn't have to rule the event making it impossible to do anything else.

At a concert? Yes! That's a different story.  You are attending the function with the expressed purpose of seeing the artist and hearing your favorite songs.

But at a function like a wedding?  You are there to not only dance, but to  see people you haven't talked to possibly in years.  We wedding DJ's lose sight of that, and from now on I am institution a short "talk break" - even as short as 15-20 minutes where the tunes will continue but at a lower level so folks can catch up.  That way people can still dance if they want to during that time, but others can "chew the fat" if they desire.  Whadayathink?