Early Night Music Sequencing

[Excalibur]

Are people really resigned to nobody or few people up dancing before the buffet/first dance? I'm not.

Two things. Firstly, I believe it's rarely in the hands of the DJ as to whether they fill the floor early doors. Some crowds are boogieing before the dessert, and some won't move even after the first dance. You can only work with what you've got.
Secondly, when I used to do a lot of weddings at a residency, I could have music on soon after six o'clock if it had turned round quickly. Cue someone at seven thirty asking why I aren't playing stuff to fill the dancefloor.

Simply because the finishing time was one in the morning, and I had to pace the evening accordingly. When I was bemoaning the afact that I couldn't get them moving early doors, someone once said to me- " don't worry. They'll never remember the start of the evening, but they'll always remember the end". Wise words, I felt.

[Nakatomi]

Two things. Firstly, I believe it's rarely in the hands of the DJ as to whether they fill the floor early doors. Some crowds are boogieing before the dessert, and some won't move even after the first dance. You can only work with what you've got.
Secondly, when I used to do a lot of weddings at a residency, I could have music on soon after six o'clock if it had turned round quickly. Cue someone at seven thirty asking why I aren't playing stuff to fill the dancefloor.

Simply because the finishing time was one in the morning, and I had to pace the evening accordingly. When I was bemoaning the afact that I couldn't get them moving early doors, someone once said to me- " don't worry. They'll never remember the start of the evening, but they'll always remember the end". Wise words, I felt.

True but all the same it's still all about adapting to the circumstances isn't it?

I don't break into a cold sweat if I don't get a full floor within x minutes of opening but I'm always looking for a way in. There's no formula, no absolute set method & no ready made Mastermixed solution for any of this.

We do play a part in the game though. If we bore the crowd to tears with endless twee crap or other unsuitable fayre we might lose them entirely. Keep yer eye on the ball.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

I'm sure we've all had the odd occasion here and there where you think it is going to be a stormer because everybody is up for the first few songs after the first dance and then suddenly disappear for whatever reason? It's hard to explain sometimes when guaranteed floor fillers (going by experience), don't work.

I did a wedding the other week where the music was strictly from the 1950's to the 1980's only. I loved it.
There was a pretty hefty request list supplied so I did what I always do and played the more downbeat tracks early on. These had people interested even though I'd say they wouldn't fill a dance floor at any point during the night (again, going by experience).

I was also told that the 1950's and 1960's would appeal to the majority so I concentrated on that from the off.
The first dance was an Elvis track from the film Blue Hawaii and the Bride & Groom wanted Cliff Richard's 'Do You Wanna Dance?' to follow it.
It filled the floor so I stuck to some of the requests that were of that tempo and genre and over the evening I went through the decades, finally finishing off with around an hours worth of 1980's.

Ok, so on that occasion the customer had specific eras that they wanted me to stick too.
Next weekend I have a couple of 80's themed fancy dress parties and I have literally just gone through the pre-request lists for both events. They are not too dis-similar to be honest but there are a few tracks yet again that are great tracks but down tempo (for example - Toto's 'Africa'). It's that kind of stuff that will get played early on but what I also do (for any fancy dress party) is look out of specific tunes for guests in costume and use the early part of the evening to play those.
Again, for example.... If someone is dressed as Superman then I'll play the theme tune early on or Scooby Doo etc.
You can also use the early part of the evening to add TV themes etc.

I know this isn't strictly what the OP wanted but it's along the same lines.

If it's a general wedding where the playlist for the evening needs to appeal to a wide age range and you need to play different genres throughout the evening, I will generally once again play the downbeat requests early on and mix those in with acoustic stuff, ratpack and classics like Bill Withers - Lovely Day, Madness - It Must Be Love, Nina Simone, Etta James etc and then build up throughout the evening and try and cover most bases if I can.

I always decide which way I am going to go when I see what the first dance(s) are.

[mattydj50]

So, to answer Allan's original question. If you think its working, continue, if you think you need to change it, change it!

Afer 47 years, I still get it wrong on occasions. What experience tells you (and of course, I respect those still feeling their way) is to recognise when (and how) change is needed.

My way won't necessarily work for you, and vice versa. I do use Mastermixes and Monsterjams, but as a tool to help me. I don't rigidly play the same discs or even parts of discs at every function, but use the skill and assistance of those producers to maintain a flow of music early in the evening. It does give me the freedom to circulate, mingle, take the guests viewpoint from the other side and chat to the organisers and venue staff. Once up and running, I let my gut feeling take over and play what I feel I need to play. That, coupled with requests is usually enough.

You can't force people on to a dancefloor, but you can lead them along. But, you have also to recognise the odd occasion where you can happily move into wat I call radio mode, where the guests are quite happy with, in the main, sitting and listening and enjoying their own company, particularly at family gatherings.