Downtime is the enemy of entertainment
A wedding is a complex event, full of important moments and our job is not only to play music, but to underline each moment with our music with the right emphasis. In other words, a wedding DJ is the director of the party.
When I talk to with my clients (mainly, foreign couples who get married in Italy) one of the first things I ask them for is the wedding schedule. The dinner schedule (if it is a sit-down, and how many courses), is important because there are many things to watch out for.
First of all, when the guests are in the garden for the aperitif, it’s my job to invite them to the dinner-hall at the right moment. What I absolutely avoid is getting them in too early because downtime is the enemy of entertainment. But, if I do not draw attention in time, nobody will enter the hall and I risk putting the waiters, who are ready to serve, into a difficult position. The solution is to continuously coordinate with catering.
During the dinner, I usually have to manage the speeches: the Italian spouses don’t like to give speeches at the microphone very much (nor do relatives), but we do many international weddings in Italy, and we know that, for the foreign clients, the speeches are a cornerstone of the day of the event. In a sit-down option, the best thing is to wait for the guests finish the entrée to start speeches, and determine with catering if there is enough time available before they serve the next course (ask the spouses first how long the speech will be, just to have a rough idea). If you don’t, catering will stop serving because they don’t want to interrupt the speech (but in this case, the dish becomes cold – it’s not good!) or waiters will continue to serve and you’ll have a lot of interruptions in the audience – they are distracted and the moment is not valued. But don’t be afraid, we at ProfessionalWeddingDJ® will be able to schedule all the magic moments for your big day in Italy!
Regarding speeches, allow me to digress a little. The worst thing is a speech that no one can hear! First of all, only a high quality microphone is to be used, this is my rule. But very often, people fear public speaking and when some people are on that microphone, they let emotions get in the way. If the best man is giving his toast and the mic starts dropping down towards his bellybutton, nobody can hear him despite the high quality microphone.
So when I introduce the first speech, I usually recommend keeping the microphone up close to your mouth. It seems to work well.
Going back to our topic, what about the scheduled dances? It is important for the DJ to find time for the bride and groom’s first dance and for the dance with the parents. It can be during a long dinner break (however, it must be at least 20 minutes) or, usually (as I always recommend), after the dinner (but before going wild on the dance floor).
Another crucial moment is the cake-cutting: check out the next episode to know everything about this moment!
In the meantime, watch this live wedding to see how we work!
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