:: Brides guide to planning a successful party from an entertainment stand point

:: Venue

If you are going to want a party atmosphere, and you don’t want the music volume to be an issue. Be as selective as you can when choosing your venue. Find out if there are any restrictions on how long you can party, as well as how loud the music can be. Some places have a volume control because of neighbors, or hotel guests. And once people start complaining about the noise, the volume gets lower and lower and pretty much the volume is no louder than a boom box.

When speaking to the venue, just because they have done events there before doesn’t mean they don’t get complaints or have some sort of restriction on how loud or how long you can have the music going. Make sur you find out, if you plan to have a party type atmosphere for your wedding. If you looking more for a laid back lounge type of wedding then this should not be an issue, but I would recommend finding out either way.

:: DJ Set up Area

A very important aspect that many people forget is allowing enough space for DJ Equipment Area for Speakers, Main DJ Booth Area, Lighting, etc. Another very important aspect is power, as exciting as it may be to have an outside event, DO NOT forget about having enough electrical power for the DJ. In most cases one 15-20 Amp circuit will be enough, but sometimes may require more if you have any extra lighting either from the DJ or your party rental company.

:: Dance Floor

Even if you are going to have a hard wood floor surface, we would recommend an actual Dance Floor. It is much more inviting for guest to dance, as well as it gives a center point in your room. That is where most everything takes place for any event, so having an actual Dance Floor is very useful.

When you are looking around for a venue to have your very special occasion it is always recommended not to separate the group. For example, having half of your guest sitting outside on a patio area, and the other half sitting inside EVEN if you have big French doors as the divider.. Dividing a group of people is never a good idea, It makes it just a little more difficult for the DJ’s to motivate guest so get involved in what is going on.

You also never want to divide the Dancing area from the eating area, or better yet, where the bar is. Placing the Bar in same area as the Dance Floor can be a good thing. People tend to hang out at the bar, and if its right next to the dance floor the dance floor will always look busy, which in many cases is a good thing because not everyone likes to dance unless the dance floor looks busy. As well as, once people obtain their drink, many times that will head straight to the dance floor, and why not make it easy for them and have the bar close to the dance floor.

:: Buffet Tables

If you are going to have a Buffet for food, and you want things to move along and not spend a lot of time on the food portion of the event, have a double sided buffet table, especially with larger groups.

:: Seating arrangements

When thinking of how to seat your guest at the correct table that you assign, try to stay away from ideas where you have the Table number then peoples names for that table, it takes a long time for people to find their names if they don’t even know where they are sitting.. A better idea is to line up people’s name in alphabetical order with the table next to their name.. People can easily find their name and then all they have to do is look for where that particular table is.

:: Wedding ceremony ideas

Firt and foremost, no matter where you have your ceremony, make sure there is appropriate electrical power for anything that requires power.. IE sound systems.. When speaking to your vendors about who will provide the sound for the ceremony, a couple important questions you should ask is
1. Do they have a wireless lapel microphone for the wedding officiant? and
2. Is that wireless lapel microphone a UHF wireless system?

Now my guess is that you have NO idea what either one of these things mean. Let me take a moment to educate you on something that is very important for any wedding ceremony.

1. A wireless lapel microphone is a type of microphone that simply clips onto the minister/officiant’s lapel. This is a very small microphone that is hidden and is powerful enough to pick up any sound within about a 3-5 ft radius. Why is this important? Well because your officant will be holding a bible, paperwork your rings he can not also hold a microphone, and Im sure you don’t want to be holding the microphone while you are giving your vows and holding future spouses hand. As well as the that last thing you want is to have a regular microphone sitting on a stand right in your face, and ruining your beautiful wedding photos. So a lapel takes all of those worries away.

2. Now what is a UHF wireless system? Without getting too technical there are 2 types of wireless systems for microphones. VHF and UHF. UHF uses a higher frequency then VHF so you don’t have to worry about getting static and interference from other radio frequencies like walkie talkies, and Im sure that is explanation in itself. You also don’t have to worry about having audio drops outs as frequently. UHF systems cost almost double of what VHF systems cost and not may DJ’s spend the money for things like this.

Now when you ask these questions to your sound person or DJ and if they give you any excuses like..

“Oh I don’t like the sound of Lapel Microphones”, or “Those things are crap and don’t work as well as a regular handheld or wireless”..

Than that means they really do not know what they are talking about, and either don’t have a lapel microphone system or they do and because they have used it in the past and had problems because they bought the Cheap VHF System, they don’t want to use it at your event.

I would recommend moving on and find someone else.. Because if they are going to feed you these excuses or mislead you in anyway about a simple microphone system, who knows what else, they will do.

:: Dinner

During Dinner Let people eat, don’t do any sort of dances or activities during dinner. Making the DJ talk more then needed will just make people stop listening, and the DJ will have a difficult time trying to get people involved in other aspects of the event.

Also, because people want to eat, most will not pay attention to what is going on and will more likely chat amongst themselves and be very rude during any special events you have during dinner.

Non of the events during a wedding take any longer than 5 minutes, except a Money/Honeymoon Dance, Open Mic Toast and a Photo Slide Show.. So trust me when I tell you, in a 4 hour Reception, you will have plenty of time to eat, do all of the traditional wedding events and still have at least an hour for dancing.