WEDDING GOSSIP Girl In A White Dress 14 12890 views

Ditch the DJ?

Our resident bride-to-be, Cheryl, shares the highs and lows of wedding planning in the run-up to her big day. This week, she has to decide whether to have big band beats or disco fever at the reception…

To disco or not to disco, that’s the question. How do you decide what entertainment to have at your reception?

I’ve always thought I’d prefer a live swing group that would play some big band numbers that’d get everyone on their feet and dancing happily like something out of a 1950s American school prom movie. A wedding band will usually do a two-hour set of well-known tunes with a break in the middle for refreshments. If you’re not sure where to start, your venue or married friends might be able to recommend one, so it’s worth asking before you get out the Yellow Pages.

But after some initial research, I realised I would have to ditch some rather essential aspects of the wedding in order to afford this – namely the caterers, the men’s suits, and my shoes. And I love my shoes too much to compromise on this.

So the next, more budget-friendly option is the DJ – a wedding favourite, the DJ will entertain your guests for anything up to four hours, with a mix of tunes from the sixties, seventies, eighties and beyond. Some DJs let you choose a few of your favourite tracks, while others will take note of the songs you definitely don’t want to hear on your wedding day (the Birdie Song and YMCA come to mind).

This is quite a good option as they’ll invariably bring with them some colourful lights to light up your dance floor in the style of Saturday Night Fever, and, if you’re really lucky, a disco ball to help get the party started.

Lastly, we considered compiling our own playlist for the evening and simply plugging our iPod into the venue’s speakers, thereby ensuring that every song was pre-approved by us – and not an S Club 7 hit in sight. Well, maybe one or two.

But with this option comes the danger of over-champagned guests tampering with the iPod and either breaking it, bringing a premature end to the party, or selecting some randomly inappropriate tracks that could include anything from your Japanese for Beginners audio lessons to that classical music CD that came free with the Sunday paper. If you're going for this option, just make sure your iPod is safely hidden in another room away from drunken, prying eyes...

So have fun choosing and let us know if you're a disco diva or a big-band bride!

Photos © James Farmer / Paulo Meira

Next week: Cheryl counts down the final few days!