Dave Bradley - Weddings & Events DJ

Weddings

Weddings are the main stay of my work throughout the year. You may hear from time to time that there is a wedding season, I have found this not to be true. There are no real dates when couples don't get married and therefore there is always a demand for good wedding DJs. Even the couples that get married aboard end up having some kind of celebration back here in the UK.

If you are planning a civil partnership you may be please to know that I have also Dee Jayed at a number of these very special occasions and I understand just how important it is to get everything right.

If you are thinking of planning a fully themed wedding day you could depending on the theme of your day, make it work financially in your favour. By picking a theme that hasn't been done before or very often you could gain the interest of the local if not national press and TV. This could result in some really good publicity deals, photographs, reality programmes, interviews and many other opportunities. I know this through personal experience with happy couple Tony and Angela Bilbruck who went on to appear and be interviewed on daytime TV show "This Morning". If you would like to read more about  this click on the "Theme Nights" link above.

Overall I'm am vastly experienced at performing at all forms of wedding, traditional English, Civil Partnerships, Hindi, Greek, Spanish and many more. I understand that every such occasion demands to be evaluated and catered for in their own special way, whether it be for formal, religious or purely personal reasons. Not just the right music, but the right atitude and approach has to be take in every case, to give happy couples a day to remember for all the right reasons. I am more than capable of performing to any age group with any style of music you wish to mention, from the 50's right up to the latest party thumping favourites. I can advise you on some of your musical choices and incorporate a pre-chosen play-list if you have one into a selection of music that I know goes down well. For more information on play lists please see the section below marked "Play Lists". I will take time out at various stages throughout your evening to check with you that everything is running just the way you want and if you have any thoughts or concerns I will do my best to alleviate them for you. I may point out at certain times things you might want to say to your evening guests or even remind you of something you wanted to do. General announcements and introductions are the norm for any good DJ like myself and maybe inviting you guests to participate in the buffet, as well asking your guests to fill in the "Guest Book", which sometime gets overlooked and even forgotten about otherwise..

TOP MONEY SAVING TIP - If you don't have a huge budget for your special day, one way of cutting the cost is to pick a wedding date that falls on a bank holiday. This ensures that the people that really want to come to your wedding will do, while others that may be less committed won't, therefore reducing your catering costs both during the day and in the evening. It also ensures that you can have a long leisurely weekend to prepare, take in and recover surrounded by all the people that count.

Birthdays, Anniversaries & Other Events

Everyone likes to celebrate a milestone in their life whether it be a birthday, anniversary or other occasion and this means it's time for a party.  I can ensure that you and your guests are well and truly looked after. As with any other function I will use my experience and diligence to gauge how to navigate musically throughout the night, making sure that everyone and every age-group are caters for. and have a good time.

Play Lists

If you have compiled a play list for your wedding evening, I am more than capable of working with it. Please keep in mind, to work well this should be treated only as a “Suggested” play list and not one that need to be strictly adhered to. You may have specific tastes in music but not everyone will share your love of certain tunes. Please remember that I have had lots of experience at performing at weddings and many other types of functions and would like to think that I know what people are expecting, what type of music will work and most of all, will know what type of music wont. It can be useful but not necessary to provide me with a play list. If you do it will give me a good and clear idea of what you yourselves would like and therefore what music to include in my successful tried and tested repertoire. A good and simple way of putting together a simple and effective play list is to add a small request list to each invite that you send out, asking each guest or each pair of guests to pick three tune that they would “dance to”, not like to hear, but “dance to”. You can then compile a suggested play list out of the one’s asked for, editing out the tunes you absolutely hate in the process. If you do go down the rout of a play list, try to keep the list as brief as you can. Try to keep the play list as mainstream as possible, tunes played on normal everyday popular radio stations, tunes that are familiar with most people so as not to alienate anyone. Throughout an average night (7pm - 12 midnight), there is only time to hear about eighty to a ninety tunes, keep in mind this includes the time while people are arriving and the buffet, so don’t go overboard, leave something for me to play out of what I know works. You can e-mail this suggested play list to me, safe in the knowledge that I will then have a selection of music relevant to the people that are there. As you compile this list you could also add the names of the people who have asked for each tune, giving me something further to work with when introducing each track.

Experience is an essential part of the evening when it comes to play lists as I can select which suggested track would fit in best at various points throughout the evening. I may embellish on some of the tracks suggested by adding similar tracks, maybe from the same artist or era to enhance the desired effect. It goes without saying that if a suggested track doesn't appear to be working and clearing a dance floor, I may change it for something that I feel would be more suitable or would bring them back. I may also sometimes query or question a suggested track with the Bride or Groom before I play it, knowing that it may not have the desired effect. I may in some extreme cases advise against playing a track completely.

As a rule these days you will not find a DJ that would play what some people incorrectly class as “cheesy music” without the express request of a Bride or Groom. To clarify this further “The Birdies Song “, Superman”, “Aggadoo”, “Bob The Builder”, “Barbie Girl” and alike are complete no no’s to most modern DJs - unless expressly asked for by the Bride or Groom. There can be a time and place to play them, but this may not be your wedding and as good DJ I will understand this fully. To clarify by rule of thumb most professional DJs would class “Cheesy Music” as “Dancing Queen”, I’m In The Mood For Dancing”, “Nine To Five”, “Feels Like I’m In Love” and alike - “Hen Night” tunes if you like.

There is also the “Party Dances” section of music that some couples feel is not what they want at their wedding celebrations, track like “The Cha Cha Slide”, “The Time Warp”, “Oops Up Side Your Head” (the row your boat song), “The Grease Megamix”, “Saturday Night” and “The Macarena”. This is optional and if you wouldn't like them it should be mentioned to me before hand as they could possibly be included in the nights set.

I will accept requests and dedications on the night from anyone of your guests. I actively invite people to ask for requests throughout the night as the feeling, mood or atmosphere generated on the night can be different to that of a pre-requested list of tracks. It also gives everyone the opportunity to come up with tracks that might otherwise have been forgotten about or overlooked beforehand. I always carry my whole collection of music with me, so this is not a problem.

Most couples who have seen me work before are quite happy for him to judge what to play, covering music for all ages and all tastes, a little bit of something for everyone, music that he feels with get people up dancing. This complete with one or two speciality sections for the lads and the girls. If you have a general theme or era of music that you would like me to concentrate on I can without any problems. Everyone has their own ideas on how they would like their night to run and I'm here to facilitate this.

I will openly discuss any aspects of the music you would like playing at your wedding especially your first dance with you over the phone, normally four to five days before your big day. I am always available to talk to during the day in the weeks leading up to your wedding. The best time to talk to me is generally in the daytime as I tend to work nearly every evening. Play lists can be sent to me via E-Mail anytime (dave@doubledecks.co.uk).