A wedding is not a nightclub.
People go to a nightclub to dance. They’re at your wedding to celebrate with you, see old friends, and maybe do a little dancing as well.
At a nightclub, a DJ can play almost any good song and people won’t vacate the dance floor. Why would they? They’re there to dance. As long as a song has a good beat and is catchy, it doesn’t matter much if it’s a song they know.
This is not the case at a wedding. It doesn’t matter how great a song is… if your guests aren’t familiar with it, they’ll quickly exit the dance floor.
This is the sad, but true, fact about your wedding’s dance floor. But, if you realize this on the front end, you can capitalize on your guests’ propensity to dance to songs that they actually know.
Here is our step by step guide to not killing your wedding dance floor:
Step 1:
Decide: Who is your wedding dance floor for? Is it for you? Or is it for your guests? Or a combination of both?
This makes a huge difference.
Here’s why it matters: Will you unashamedly choose dance music with only your tastes in mind? Or will you plan around what you think your guests will know and love.
There is no right or wrong answer to this! It’s YOUR wedding day! If you want to absolutely love every dance song and you’re into indie dance music, that’s totally fine. Nobody can tell you that you don’t deserve to hear your music on your day.
But, just know that there’s a good chance that 98% of your guests won’t know any of your indie dance music, so they probably won’t dance.
Step 2:
Decide: Even if means the dance floor being dead all night, is it worth it to you to still hear the dance music you love and actually enjoy listening to?
This is a tough question to wrestle with, I know. But it’s a real possibility!
Let me explain…
We see this the most when the bride and groom are HUGE country music fans. We hear this a lot… “We ONLY want country music!”
We do our best to make this happen, but we see the same phenomenon occur frequently at these country weddings: the guests don’t like country.
So we’ve planned 3 hours of country dance music, but after 15 minutes, the guests begin bombarding the DJ booth, demanding what they consider “good music.”
Put yourself in our position. As the DJ, what would you do?
Here’s our honest opinion…
The wedding is about you, but if you want a night that the guests will always remember, it has to be about them as well. After all, they are probably shelling out a ton of money in hotel bills and airline tickets/gasoline costs to be with you on your big day. They deserve to have fun!
It’s your day, but it’s a party meant for them to enjoy.
This brings us to Step 3:
What will they enjoy? What songs do they actually want to dance to?
Think about who will be there, what you know they’ll go crazy to, and write those songs down. Those should comprise a healthy percentage of the songs you request for your big day.
This is the best way to not kill your wedding’s dance floor.
Because in the end, what’s more fun: you dancing by yourself to songs that you love, or dancing with 150 of your closest friends and family to songs that you ALL know and enjoy?
Additional Reading:
To read about the best time to showcase your Indie Jams, even if nobody knows them, click here.