Let me guess.
After all the stress accumulated in the months leading up to the wedding, the tension of that day, you can’t wait to get to the evening party to have fun with friends and rock out on the dance floor to the beat of the latest hits.
This thought accumulates 98 percent of married couples however…
However, do not make the fatal mistake of believing that all you need to achieve what you want is a good DJ at the console, a good sound system and some lighting effects
In my career I have heard incredible stories of couples invited to friends’ and relatives’ weddings where the evening party never got off the ground because of questionable choices or inexperience mistakes made by the bride and groom themselves.
Mistakes that can get even the best DJ in the world in trouble, putting him or her in the position of being unable to perform his or her job in the best possible way with the risk of ruining the entire evening party.
Are you curious to know what mistakes are most frequently made in evening party planning?
Let’s look at them together:
1. Plan A and Plan B
In addition to being a very complex event where the unexpected is always around the corner, a wedding is actually one of the most expensive investments a married couple will ever make in their lives.
Planning everything in detail, relying exclusively on professionals will certainly help you, but each of you will also have to deal with the one thing that cannot be bought, managed, organized-that is, the weather aspect of the day.
The widespread hope is for a beautiful sunny day and a mild temperature, perhaps with a slight breeze, but since we cannot be certain of this, it becomes essential to plan the whole day and consequently also the evening party both in a case of clear weather and in the case of adverse weather.
All in all, the choice between one option and another, for the music service, becomes simple and automatic when the same day according to the weather situation he finds at the location he has to decide where to set up.
The problem can be generated when the weather is uncertain or when it changes abruptly during the day.
It would be reckless in such cases to set up the audio-light system for the evening party in an outdoor area wouldn’t it? I feel exactly the same way!
Yet much more often and more than you can imagine, the DJ, also pushed by the caterer, maître or wedding planner on duty, in order to please the bride and groom who absolutely dreamed of dancing under the stars, takes the risk of setting up the system outside, in an area that is not covered or partially protected, even in uncertain weather.
The risk involved in such cases is very high!
Imagine if, right in the middle of the party where the dance floor is full and everyone is having a good time, the music suddenly turns off because it is starting to rain and the DJ has to run for cover.
That would be a disaster, wouldn’t it?
At this point what can be done?
Here in situations like these it is panic that sets in and the most surreal things happen!
Sometimes the bride and groom brand the situation as a passing cloud by inviting everyone to wait a few minutes, but the DJ cannot afford to let the system get wet with the risk of the equipment getting ruined.
So either cover everything with a waterproof tarp or choose to move inside the structure?
Do you have any idea what such a decision entails?
Do you have any idea how long it takes to pack everything up, move and set up again?
Do you have any idea what can happen if with the intent to help friends or waiters they cause damage to the DJ’s equipment perhaps such that it is unusable?
You are aware that just moving guests from one part of the venue to another will cause you to lose a good portion of them
Are you aware that creating a 20- to 30-minute music gap during the evening party more undermines it to the point where you can no longer raise the party?
We care about the bride and groom being able to have the evening party they have always dreamed of, but our long experience has taught us (sometimes paying dearly for it) that if there is even the slightest chance that it might rain, to always set up the system in an indoor hall or in a terrace, barchessa or porch ABSOLUTELY COVERED so as to preserve the party from even just a few drops of water or moisture.
Then also beware of terraces, porches, or barchesse that sometimes do not offer a 100 percent guarantee of saving the DJ’s instrumentation in the event of a strong storm or wind.
You must ensure that these areas can be completely insulated from the outside through sliding glass windows or more simply through sheets anchored to the ground.
2. The garden as a dance floor
Who among us hasn’t!!! Hot, sunny day, endless lunch, new shoes but then toward evening when etiquette gives way to more sober attitudes, resisting the temptation to slip off your shoes and stand barefoot on the grass for a while is impossible.
Many brides and grooms then, having a location with a large garden, think it is the ideal solution to have the evening party there, but have you wondered if your guests might appreciate this decision?
If your goal is to get all the guests of all ages to go wild, thinking of the garden as a dance floor is not the best choice since in the summer time, towards evening, the earth releases the moisture accumulated during the day making the grass wet which this is not very welcome by the ladies and girls who come to the wedding with high heels and newly purchased shoes risking ruining them by getting them soaked or running the risk of sinking into the earth, breaking the heel and, in the worst case scenario, getting hurt.
The solution would come naturally: let’s have all the guests wear sneakers and that’s it!
But do you think parents, uncles or older relatives will bring a change of shoes to dance at your wedding!
Or that the friend or especially the friend who has waited months to show off her new dress and be noticed by everyone takes off her shoes and goes dancing barefoot getting her feet and dress wet and dirty?
The result is DISCONTINUED: although there will be beautiful music few people will have the courage to launch themselves onto the dance floor and the risk you can take is that the party will not even take off.
Of course not everyone poses these problems, especially when the alcohol level has reached a good level, but how many people are we talking about?
So…how to do it?
When choosing the location always make sure that the dance area is set up in an area where the surface is hard enough that heels will not sink in, perhaps still outdoors but in a barchessa or porch or in an area yes outside, but where there is no dirt or grass.
To get around this problem if you really have no alternative, you can choose to have a few inches of platform installed that is aesthetically elegant and does not remind guests of the steel runways of village festivals. Of course, this decision must also be approved by the owner of the location since in the area where the platform will be placed, the grass will tend to yellow.
3. Photo booth & Open bar
This friendly entertainment in recent years has taken more and more shape, becoming an unmissable event within the wedding in just a few years.
Usually the photographer sets up a special backdrop at a location so that guests can take original and nice photos of themselves, sometimes with the help of colorful hats, fireplaces, glasses and various gadgets.
The instantly published photos will be a nice keepsake for friends and relatives as well as, of course, for the bride and groom who will enjoy seeing the older relatives in particular masked in a goliardic way.
To make it as successful as possible, however, agree with the photographer where to set up this area, which should not be far from the evening party area, otherwise there will be companies of friends and relatives who will leave the dance area en bloc to take some fun photos, emptying the dance floor with the real possibility that they will never come back to dance again.
The same thing applies to the open bar. It would be a big mistake not to set it up near the runway. Such an unhealthy choice could cause the evening party to close early.
So if you have the opportunity, choose the area to be devoted to the photo booth and open bar close to the dance area, so that your guests do not stray too far from the party, making the “comings and goings” of people from one place to another irrelevant.
If this solution could not be feasible, at least for the photo booth arrange with the photographer so that it can be offered at times other than the evening party, perhaps as an interlude between courses, before the cutting of the cake, or at any break in the wedding.
4. Delivery of wedding favors
Favors and evening party? What do these two aspects of marriage have in common?
In fact nothing, but a very common mistake that several couples make is to deliver the wedding favor as guests decide to leave the wedding.
This choice can undermine your evening party at the base and with it your ambitions to dance and have fun because you will spend part of the time accompanying your guests to the favor table greeting them and chatting with them.
You built a fabulous evening party and didn’t even enjoy it because you spent the whole time handing out party favors instead of being on the dance floor having fun with your friends and family!
Choose to hand them out before you leave the room for the cake cutting (if you do it outside) or after coffee if you do it all inside; This will allow you, as you go from table to table not to forget anyone and have time to thank everyone for participating.
If, on the other hand, this solution does not meet your ideas and tastes, set up the table near the dancing area, so in the evening those who decide to leave will come to say goodbye but without wasting too much of your time.
We have explored this topic in depth in this article [Perché gli sposi non si divertono]
5. Substitute yourself for the DJ
The most common temptation of several wedding couples is to give their wedding DJ the playlist with their favorite songs to dance to mistakenly thinking that their tastes will surely match those of their guests.
Based on the assumption that “The customer is always right,” I ask you a question: Do you prefer that the DJ scrupulously follow your directions with the possibility of getting an empty track or do you prefer to give carte blanche to the DJ who has had a chance to understand the type of guests present and what genres of music to propose to fill the track?
Leaving the delegation on the choice of music to the DJ you have hired during the evening party is the best solution: if he is a professional who specializes a weddings, he will surely know how to intercept, through “flirt” songs proposed during the pre-evening, all the different musical tastes of your guests and mix them ad hoc to make the rhythm of the evening party gradually more and more pressing.
At the end of the evening, you can read the satisfaction in the eyes of your friends who are sweaty and tired and will leave your wedding feeling like they have never had so much fun.
6. The vocalist friend
From time to time we get the friend in the console who asks if he can borrow your microphone.
Our job is also to know how to handle these situations, and if the friend can gracefully be humorous and entertaining, he can turn out to be a great ally as well as a great mic entertainer because he knows all the guests and knows how to involve them in the party.
Unfortunately, more often than not, however, it happens that the “impromptu vocalists” (after a few more drinks to loosen up) literally get carried away, coming across as intrusive and inappropriate.
The lent microphone becomes a boomerang that does not return to its rightful owner, who is forced to lower it to prevent the sympathetic moment from turning into an hours-long agony;
An ideal solution might be to choose a professional entertainer who will be able to contain even the over-exuberant friend!
7. Karaoke.
Italy is also called the land of bel canto, then suffice it to see in recent years how socials have filled up with young people who want to try their hand at singing with more or less high quality.
So welcome the karaoke moment but how and when to do it becomes crucial to plan to offer it at the right time since properly placed it can give that extra touch of sympathy and involvement to your guests, placed instead at the wrong time it can become boring and freeze the wedding.
In fact, the first question to ask yourself is to figure out whether there are among your guests people who would feel up to going and singing in front of everyone, because if not, organizing karaoke at all costs just for the friend on duty who wants to perform his or her own personal show could be truly CATASTROPHIC, a confusing moment in which, within minutes, even the most dance-inclined guest could get bored and leave the party.
Karaoke, moreover, should be done with the support of a professional singer who can cover any out-of-tune or correct live attack errors and possibly avoiding the “Bocelli” on duty, but aiming to make a group even at this juncture by inviting the groom’s friends to challenge the bride’s friends.
The most opportune times to offer it are during the sorbet break where temperatures are perhaps still too high to think about dancing, or during the pre-evening to start grouping and bring people closer to the dance floor perhaps while the bride and groom are intent on saying goodbye to those who for various reasons (age, distance. young children) have to leave the wedding, or to welcome friends invited just for the evening.
Likewise, karaoke can be used at the end of the night when energy starts to run low to come back to group until the evening party closes rather than continuing to put on music for an empty dance floor.
8. When to finish?
Almost all venues these days impose a closing time for music on the bride and groom in the contract, however, there may be cases where there is no time limit;
In these cases very often the scene we are confronted with is the 10 loyal friends drunk as a skunk dancing or singing (in a manner of speaking) until 5 a.m., with the bride and groom exhausted, sitting and the DJ literally wiped out after a full day’s work.
Is this the last image you want to have of your evening party? I don’t think so.
So it would always be good to end the evening with greetings and thanks, announcing the last song when there are still several guests dancing, perhaps inviting the last guests to make a big circle around the bride and groom.
It will be a memory that friends will also carry in their hearts for a long time.
If, however, at 5 o’clock the rink is still full with newlyweds and friends enjoying themselves then onward and upward!
If you have read the whole article my compliments because it means that you really want to get the best out of your evening party, but most importantly you do not want to make one of these mistakes;
That said.
I hope with this article I have given you the awareness of how important it is to plan all the details, to compare with the DJ, the caterer and the photographer to optimize their services in order to then be able to get that evening party that you so longed for and deserved!
Avoid making any of these mistakes and you will have a great time but if you have a fear of not being able to organize everything or missing something you can visit our website www.weddingsymphony.it and go to the contact page to book a specialized consultation with our Paul and understand how he can help you contain and manage friends and relatives to leave your guests with a pleasant, indeed, indelible memory of your wedding.
Remember that
“Marriage is a live movie. You can’t go wrong because you can’t buy a memory.”
We always say this to all our wedding couples.
A few simple tips combined with a dash of common sense in choosing the professional to whom you entrust the musical aspect of your wedding not just based on price will make your evening party a memorable event.
I am Paolo Furlan the first Wedding Music Planner in Veneto and founder of the Wedding Symphony music agency specializing in music for civil or religious ceremonies and music and entertainment for wedding receptions.
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