DIY Wedding music will potentially save you $1000 or more and it will also put you in the position of controlling each and every song your guests hear. Which means you can make your wedding experience that little bit more personal, you can show your guests how you feel at each moment of your wedding and ensure that everyone is up on the dance floor no matter how many different types of people are in attendance.
By hiring a full sound system you will allow your guests to be fully immersed in the music and the equipment is set up and packed up completely for you so that all you have to worry about is your own personal devices and song selections.
What you’ll need
- A PA system at the ceremony. We have a selection of wedding PA systems for hire.
- A sound and/or lighting and effects system designed for BYO music at the reception. Some of our party sound system hire packages include this type of equipment.
- A music playing device (i.e. Laptop, Tablet, iPhone, Smart Phone, iPod, Mp3 player) with your song collection. iTunes, Spotify and various apps can allow you to organise your music so that it is convenient to run through. Don’t forget, charging cables, backup batteries etc to make sure all devices don’t fail you! Consider also that if you use a phone, if someone calls the phone during a ceremony, the music may cut out, you can get around this by setting your phone to airplane mode. This also alleviates the horrible interference noises that occur when you have a signal near a speaker!
- Another backup music playing device with a backup of your music collection. We all know how technology can occasionally fail you at the wrong moment, make sure you backup your songs to another one of your devices or a trusted friends device.
Book the gear
You will need to decide if you need wired or wireless microphones, small or large sound system, multiple systems for separate ceremony and reception venues, lighting and effects for a dance floor, sub woofer for extra bass and maybe even a cinema screen hire to play a multimedia project for that extra touch.
Just a couple of tips when using a microphone: The big issues with microphones is the feedback, this occurs when the mic picks up sound from the speaker and creates that high pitched squeal. When you use our PA systems we will set up and test the system to reduce possible feedback. Our microphones also come with an on/off switch which helps you cancel this out quickly if someone accidentally walks too close to a speaker. If you are using a wireless microphone which is great for passing around between guests for speeches and toasts just be aware if people are carrying phones of other devices using a wireless signal it may cause feedback issues as well.
Have you thought about creating a multimedia project to be played at your wedding, maybe a series of photographs or short videos? We also hire out projector screen packages.
We also have packages that include lighting effect systems to really draw people onto the dance floor. Our lighting systems have sensors that react to changes in the music so your lights are in sync with your music.
You should book the required gear in advance to make sure you don’t miss out. We have simple systems for speeches and background music and boosted options designed to get your dance floor moving. You can see our hire packages here: Party Sound/Lighting/Effects System Packages
Make a music plan
Creating a wedding playlist is no small task, ultimately this music should be important to you and your spouse, it should set the mood, create a good background for dancing and mingling and also entertain your audience. You may need to debate and compromise on some song selections with your significant other! If you want some tips on choosing songs for your playlist check out our How to Create a Wedding Playlist guide for everything you will need to know when you plan to DIY DJ your own wedding.
You will need different styles of music for each segment of your wedding and you may want songs played in a certain order for each part. You should consider looping the playlists if you reach the end of the playlist before the next segment. A silent audio track at the end could also be a good fail-safe.
There are a few different ways to create your playlist:
- iTunes allows you to create a playlist for each section of your wedding. It also has settings for looping your playlist and crossfading songs to eliminate silent gaps. Itunes will order your playlists alphabetically so to make your night that much smoother you may want to label your playlists: Wedding 1 – Processional, Wedding 2 – Recessional etc
- Spotify: If you sign up for a premium subscription for around $9.99 a month you can use the same account on multiple devices and your playlist will be all online! Once the playlist is downloaded onto a device you can select available offline and it will remain on the device for 30 days. Spotify also has the crossfade option in the settings.
- There are also apps that allow you to create your playlist such as Wedding DJ for apple devices or Fun Wedding for Android Devices.
Get the settings right
One word, Crossfade!!! iTunes and Spotify allow you to set your crossfade and soundcheck in the playback settings. The soundcheck setting in iTunes or "Set the Same Volume level for all songs" in Spotify ensures even volume levels for each track and the crossfade settings helps to reduce music stalling between tracks which can have an effect on how full the dance floor stays throughout the event. People on dance floors dislike silences as much as quiet slow songs when they are in full party mode!
Make Backups
Laptop frozen, iPhone battery flat? Make a backup of your playlist on another device such as smart phone or mp3 player. The last thing you want is to realise you have no way of playing the amazing playlist you have created. Remember charging cables/batteries for all your devices and backups.
Persuade a friend
You will need a reliable person to help manage the music and lighting. Our systems are designed to be automated once setup and turned on but you need someone to change between playlists, turn on the lighting when the dance floor is ready for use, turn off or adjust the haze machine when appropriate etc. Providing your friend with a outline of when each playlist is to be played and when during the ceremony and reception will help eliminate any accidents. This person will probably also need to act as music bouncer when things get a bit wild on the dance floor and the occasional guest wanders over to choose a song. After all the effort you put into your song choices you don’t want a guest treating your playlist as a juke box.
Practice and test
We will ensure the equipment is set up correctly so all you need to do at home before the event is ensure your music devices have all the necessary accessories, your music is backed up and your playlist runs smoothly.