Reception Ideas Without Vendors

My fiance and I were kind of thinking of doing the same thing for music. We both have such specific tastes that aren`t necessarily going to be available from a regular dj that we thought we would make a list of all the different songs that we think would be appropriate for a wedding reception and that can be enjoyed by many different people (after all you must consider your guests tastes too when dealing with music, if they don`t like it too no one`s going to have fun). After compiling a list we were then going to figure out how to mix it up so that you don`t have all of the same kind of music or the same artist played in a row and then just compile the music in the order we want on our computer and burn it to cds so that we have a good mix that will cover the length of the reception and all we`d have to do is pop in the cd player (like you said, one that holds multiple cds) and let it go, that way you don`t really have to worry about it. However, I do still think that we`ll need a Master of Ceremonies which a lot of times the dj`s that people hire also serve as this. This is the person who announces everything (first dance, cutting of the cake, etc) One thing that we were thinking of is the problem with having the right music played at the right time as far as the bride and groom dance, the mother/son dance etc. One option I had thought of is just having all of that music ordered up at the beginning of the first cd and then just start with that b/c that`s the general order of proceedings anyway. Hope this helps. If anyone else has any ideas or thoughts about this please share. Oh, one other thing, you may look into seeing if your venue has sound equipment available for you to use.

Traci,

Thanks for replying.....I did ask my younger cousin 23 y/o if he would mind making the anouncements (first dance, cake cutting, toasts) since he is younger and into all the music, sound equipment etc....As far as the songs and order....like I said I actually have a cd that has the "ceremony" stuff in it and for our first dance I would make a specific cd with just that song on it...or have it be the first song....I figured a 5 cd changer with 14 songs each cd should last the whole length of the reception (4 hours)...at approx. 3 minutes each song it would be about 45 minutes per cd....My reception hall is an old historical building that has 6 outlets (ONLY 6)!!!! So we`re limited for an actual sound system......When is your wedding????

I am not using a DJ. We are having a piano player.

I don`t like DJs anyway.