The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your Wedding Ceremony
There are many benefits to having a DJ at your wedding ceremony. A DJ can make sure to play the exact songs you want for each transition, and provide the necessary equipment to amplify the officiant and the couples vows so everyone can hear.
Having a DJ at your wedding ceremony helps take the stress off of you, your friends, or family members, and puts an expert in charge of making the music and audio for your ceremony perfect.
As a wedding DJ, my goal is to set the vibe to make each couple’s wedding sound incredible throughout the entire evening.
Throughout the planning process, I often give them tips and guidance to ensure variables like song selections, timelines and wedding formalities are in tack.
The one part of the wedding day your DJ will have little creative control is your ceremony.
Since your wedding ceremony is more of a spiritual event, to get the best outcome proper preparation is a must.
WHAT DOES A DJ DO AT A WEDDING CEREMONY?
EBD Wedding DJ meets with you multiple times before your wedding. If you have booked a package that includes ceremony & reception, the DJ will add all of these details to the music and timeline planning. They will give you helpful advice and recommendations from some of their past experiences. Our main goal with your ceremony is to make it all about you and your dream
The DJ will coordinate with you, play the seating music, play all songs during the ceremony, run microphones for the officiant and your vows, help with audio for other live performers or musicians, and make announcements.
Here are a few tips for creating a beautiful ceremony—and getting the best flowing ceremony possible. Planning your wedding ceremony can be one of the most daunting yet most rewarding parts of the entire wedding planning process. You get to choose readings, music, florals, seating options, backdrops, and everything in between–all to craft the perfect day to profess your love to your new spouse. Is there anything better? If you already feel overwhelmed or just aren’t sure where to start, take a breath and feel rest assured that you’re in the right place!
These are just a few things to think about when booking entertainment for your ceremony. Let us run through that list to point out some of the advantages to having a DJ at your ceremony.
We bring a separate sound system, wireless microphones, and an audio mixer to every ceremony. This means you will have great sound. We can also plug musicians into our mixer, and even send out a feed from the microphones for your videographer if needed.
Our setup is non obtrusive, and we don’t have to be right near your guests for them to hear us.
We can play all of the music, including seating, and every step of your ceremony 100% customized to your exact tastes. We can also easily work with other musicians or acts, to help fill in what is needed.
We always bring our own weather proofing to any event that is not indoors. This means you don’t have to worry about no music at your ceremony or holding it off just because of a light drizzle.
I recently discussed some key points during the wedding ceremony from a DJ point of view with one of my clients and figured it would be useful to share to all of the EBD Couples!
1. Unplugged Ceremony Announcement
This is an announcement done right before the procession of the wedding party begins (at the very start of the ceremony), letting guests know the ceremony is about to begin, and asking them to not use their phones throughout the ceremony – no pictures or videos and to please silence them.
You can add something like “The beautiful couple would love for you to be fully present in the moment with them” or “The couple have hired professionals that are here to capture the moment exactly the way they intended to”.
2. After Ceremony Tip
After the whole wedding party processes down the aisle, you can ask the officiant to not forget to ask all the guests to rise up out of their seats for the presentation of the person or persons walking down the aisle.
3. Officiant Tip
Do not forget to ask all the guests to sit down before the ceremony begins. Sometimes officiants will also do a welcome speech after that and then tell everyone to sit down. A lot of officiants forget to ask everyone to be seated again.
4. During the ceremony,
Do not do anything unnatural. Just pretend that the microphone is not there (you will have a lapel microphone and we will do a sound check and I’ll explain everything 30 minutes prior to the ceremony). I will be picking up the couple’s vows to my best ability from your microphone as well. No need to lean in closer to them or anything like that. We want pictures and videos from the professionals to look perfect.
5. Once the ceremony is coming to an end, there are 2 celebratory moments.
The first one is when you announce the kiss for the first time after you declare them married. Music will start playing then. The second celebratory moment is when they turn to face everyone after the kiss. If there is a bouquet, you can take that from a member of the wedding party, and invite everyone to rise up out of their seats again. You then introduce them to everyone for the first time as a married couple. Then as the DJ, I will turn the music down while you speak and turn it back up after you’re done 🙂
6. The very last announcement is after the recessional is over and the parents have also been dismissed by you out of their seats. Let all the guests know where cocktail hour will be taking place.
