Our guests all had a blast. They never had any problems or worries. They partied hard all night and…read moreloved the music! Gene took requests that were a bit obscure or hard at times, and boom, he had them. He was there on time, there until the very end, and played our music. I've heard stories of DJ's of losing music. Sad! But not our case thankfully.
Coming from the perspective of bride and groom however, it was pretty stressful working with Gene. We provided music for the ceremony and dancing. I provided a detailed list of instructions for the ceremony. We had to have 3 different conversations to make sure he got it down right. Then, during the ceremony, he didn't play the bridal March until I was pretty much at the alter. Cool.
About 1/2 of our requested play list was played. Maybe this is cuz a lot of guests made requests. If so that's great! If not who knows. We didn't get the few songs we asked to have played during dinner get played. He had a very well put together playlist for dinner. Very low key, easy listening. Not bad at all! It sucked we didn't get any of our stuff added to it. Grateful Dead isn't exactly normal requests, but neither was most of our music, and it's easier to listen to during dinner then to try and dance too.
When we said NO other toasts aside from the best man and maid of honor, we meant that. In steps dad- with a toast. We specifically said no toasts because of family! I can appreciate it being hard to say no to family, but it was our request. It should've been respected.
When you go over the family to introduce and how, and it's written down, it seems pretty straight forward. So it was SUPER irritating AF when he approached me to ask "I just met Sandy. Should I introduce her too?" Why yes. You should. She's my mother. And first on that list we made together. Where's the list you ask? Right in hand, with Sandy listed at the very top. Hmmm....
When you get texted left and right an hour before the ceremony to say you've got shit to do and no where do it and no idea how to set it up, that's annoying AF. Maybe instead of interrupting the bride and groom hours before their Special moment you could reach out to a groomsmen, owner of venue, worker of the venue that's right there next you. Just a thought though. I know it a new venue for you, but that forethought and consideration would've been nice.
We met with Gene twice before the wedding to discuss what we wanted and how we wanted it. It seemed to be hard for Gene to except the fact that we are very nontraditional. No cake cutting. No father daughter dance. Mother daughter dance was novel to him, but he seemed ok with it. How we wanted our reception to go was not traditional, and clearly a bit difficult for him to grasp and be on with. And interspersed thought all of our conversations were his stories of how wonderful his previous weddings had gone, how much people loved him, and he really hoped to get a thank you card from us as well after everything was over. He didn't seem thrilled we wanted him longer then his standard set hours, even though we didn't balk at the additional pricing past his regular packaging. He even told us three separate times he didn't think we'd need him until 10pm for partying. To which I replied every time "Our guests play hard. We will go until 10."
I'm no bridezilla. I was super chill about almost everything. But when there's a pattern set regarding standards, following requests, and still getting paid well for it, I got pretty pissed. So be careful. If you've got a low key super straight forward traditional wedding with everything easily accessible and ready at all times for him- and someone to hold his hand- he may work out great for you. I regret not asking my friends to be our DJ though. It was easy enough requests they could've done it.
Bottom line: he seemed very ill prepared for the whole thing. We asked twice if we wanted to be at the rehearsal to help, and he said no. So take what we say to heart. And PM me if you've got questions.
