The wedding this last weekend was one that I was kind of looking forward to because the bride was so easy to deal with when I talked to her on the phone, she didn't have any weird requests or song selections, and they weren't doing a lot of things during the reception. She was having her wedding and reception in a place that we had been a few times and it always went well.
We always try to arrive about an hour before the event starts, so that we can set up, do sound checks, and change into our 'DJ attire'. We were starting at 6:30 p.m. We arrived in this town around 5:10, so we stopped at Taco Bell to grab a quick bite to eat. While we were there, Bonham's cell phone rang. It was a 254 area code, so we thought it might be for the wedding that night. I answered the phone. It was the lady who runs the venue. She asked if we were DJ'ing the wedding tonight at their hotel. I told her that we were. She said, 'Are you going to be here soon?' I said, 'Yes, we are right down the street.' And then she said, 'Well, we were just getting worried, since you were supposed to be here already.'
Excuse me?
We get there.... go check out where we are setting up... and we head back towards the elevator to get the equipment to bring up and we hear, 'With the DJ being so late....'
Again, Excuse me? So late? We were not so late... we were there in plenty of time! AARRGGHHHH
So this is not going well so far. We unload everything, get set up, sound check, change clothes, and we are ready to go with almost 10 minutes to spare! There is no reason for us to get there any earlier than that. If we get there too early, then we either stand around with nothing to do or they want us to start playing before its time. And not to be a 'time snob', but we are scheduled to start a certain time for a reason. We aren't in objection to starting a little earlier if guests are arriving, but we don't want to get there so early that it is just expected of us. Come to find out, the mother of the bride (and others, I guess) thought that we were going to be there at 4:00!!! Yeah right!
So that was one thing that happened....
And then as we were setting up, the mother of the bride came over and asked if we knew what was going on. Her question kind of caught me off guard. It was worded very strangely. I said, 'Do you mean the music for the ceremony and reception?'
'Yes', she said. And I answered, 'Yes, Kathryn and I went over all of it.' She looked at me like I was an idiot. If you remember from my previous posts, we send out a questionnaire for the bride to complete and then I call the week od her wedding to go over all of it in detail. Her questionnaire was almost completely pointless, because they changed the order and decided not to do some things on their list.... it was very disorganized. That bugs me, but oh well. What can you do?
When we went downstairs to change clothes, I was stopped by a 'wedding helper'. Every wedding has one! The good thing is that this one has never dated the groom! =) (Read HERE if you are very confused)
She was going over the instructions for the ceremony, but she was referencing songs as 'track #s', instead of the title of the song. Well, we aren't using a CD, so I wanted to clarify with her what she was talking about. And then she was calling the groomsmen and bridesmaids by name... I don't know who they are, so that was just more confusing.
The thing is that with a wedding ceremony, if you tell me that you want this song for the parents, this song for the bridesmaids, and this song for the bride, I can do it! People really doubt our ability and it is so frustrating! We've done a few weddings! Okay, more than a few.... several! HAHAHA!! How many have you done helper? Anyway, so this attracts the bride, a bridesmaid, and the mother of the bride. All of which have different things to say about everything! Uber annoying! (Is Uber a word?)
We finally get it all straightened out and everything went fine. The bride and groom seem to have had a good time. It wasn't an awful gig, but it didn't feel like one of our best. The crowd wasn't overly nice or receptive to anything that went on that night.
The bride and groom decided to leave around 9:40 and we were booked until 10:30, so because we are so nice.... I went downstairs to see if they would like us to continue to play music. They said that they were just going to come up to clean, but no more dancing. I told them that we could play music while they clean since we are technically booked until 10:30 p.m. The mother of the bride, who seems to have loosened up a little more, said, 'Yeah, that would be good.' So I turn to walk away and I hear someone say, 'Yeah, get your money's worth.' Okay, this is valid statement. I came down there to ask them if they wanted us to keep playing so that she could 'get her money's worth', but that comment sounds so rude and she could have waited until I was out of ear-shot! People annoy me!
Do you know that there are some DJs that consider the party completely over once the bride and groom leave? Normally, a party will wrap up then, but we always try to keep playing the entire time that we are contracted unless told otherwise. The people cleaning up like to hear music too and this gives them a chance to request something that we might not normally play during a wedding reception.
We are off this next weekend, because we are moving... and then our schedule goes as follows:
August 7th - Wedding in Abilene
August 14th - Wedding in Stamford
August 21st - (nothing, yet)
August 28th - Wedding in Fort Worth
September 4th - Wedding in Abilene
September 11th - (nothing, yet)
September 18th - Wedding in Fort Worth
September 25th - Wedding in Strawn
October 2nd - Wedding in Abilene
We still have a few weekends to book, so hopefully we'll get some good calls. I wish we could put on our website 'Nice People DJ'ing for other Nice People' =)
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