I just had one of my best dance party’s this past Saturday night. All dance party’s that I do are great I feel, but there are sometimes ones that are “over the top” great. This particular one was one of those, and it happened to have every one of these things below. This rarely happens, but when it does it allows for an unforgettable dance party. Here are some things that will help a wedding DJ have an over the top dance party…
1. Alcohol. Do not underestimate the power of alcohol in lowering guests’ inhibitions. It is a DJ’s friend, no doubt.
2. Young people. The amount of 20-40 years can help a dance party take it up to the next level. It’s not that 40-80 year olds can’t dance, but in my experience those under 40 are willing to be out on the dance floor for a longer amount of time and are willing to dance to different genres and not just their favorites.
3. Nice weather. The weather was gorgeous. People were in a good mood. Conversely I’ve done weddings when it was down pouring and that can put people in a partying mood as well.
4. Clients didn’t limit me by putting too many “do-not play” songs on their list. It allowed me to do what I do best, which is choose and mix songs.
5. Night time vs day time. This wedding was at night. Not always, but usually night time weddings can allow people to drink more (again, alcohol…) and then dance more because of it. Also, if the room is dark certain people will dance more than if it was light out and everyone can see them.
6. Mixing songs. I’ve gotten very good at this and at this particular wedding I was on top of my game I thought.
7. Lighting. Again, this is something I’ve been practicing a lot with, and your DJ needs to know how to use incorporate dance lights. It can be just as important as what music is being played.
8. Large spaces vs small spaces. This was a small space, which can tend to lend itself to a better dance party. Sometimes the smaller the space, the more people will gather together and it will be a more intimate environment. If you event space is larger you will lose guest to outdoor games, the bar, dessert stations, etc.
9. Number of guests. Over 100 guests will allow for a busier dance floor. It’s not that under 100 guests won’t still be great, but this blog post is about the over the top dance parties. Most of those have more people at them. The more people you have, sometimes the more energy your DJ can work off of.
10. Knowing how to “wrap it up”. I call the last 15-20 minutes of the night, “wrapping the wedding up in a bow”. That is to say, how do you end the night and make people feel satisfied? You do so by knowing what songs bring this out in people…that’s a blog post for another time!
Again, all wedding dance parties can and should be great! But sometimes the ones that are standouts happen to have many or all of these things working for them.