For wedding planners and venues

We're used to working inside someone else's plan. Your run of show sets the times, and the music and announcements are built around it. Send the draft as soon as you have it and the final version when it's final, and every cue is fitted to it: the grand entrance, the toasts, dinner, the cake and the send-off.

That comes from experience outside music as well as in it. Founder Dave Menzo has been performing since 2001 and playing Michigan weddings for more than a decade. From 2012 to 2022 he was an account executive at MOVE Communications, running client projects, budgets and timelines, and before that he was a travelling event manager at In-Field Promotional Staffing, managing events across Michigan. He also runs Menzo Media, which includes live event production, and was nominated for Outstanding Live Sound Tech at the 2021 Detroit Music Awards.

Planner and venue questions go to Dave at davemenzo@gmail.com. Questions about the ceremony, the cocktail-hour space or the reception room all go to the same place, and the answer doesn't get lost in a hand-off.

Most couples book the Wedding DJ and MC. Some add live music to it: acoustic guitar and vocals, or piano, for the ceremony, a live set for cocktail hour, or DJ plus live music, where live musicians come in on top of the DJ set, in any combination of drums, guitar, sax and violin. It all sits on one booking and one plan, so there's no second music vendor to brief. Couples who want most of the reception played live book a live wedding band, which can have a DJ between sets and closing out the night.

Names checked for pronunciation before the day. Toasts introduced in the order you set. The caterer told before dinner is released, the photographer found before the first dance, the room gathered for the cake. When the schedule slips, the change is agreed with you, and the guests never notice. The wedding MC guide covers the role in more detail.

Through dinner, the music is pitched for conversation, so guests can hear each other and your staff can hear you. Then the dance floor is read song by song.

Wedding storyPatricia & Bryan The Masonic Temple, Detroit · July 25, 2015See the wedding

The earlier these arrive, the easier the day.

• The run of show, draft and final, with ceremony, cocktail hour and reception times.
• The floor plan, including where the ceremony happens, where cocktail hour moves to, and where the music sets up in each space.
• Your contact on the day, and the venue coordinator's, with a mobile number.
• The vendor list: photographer, videographer, caterer, officiant.
• The rain plan for any outdoor part of the day, and when the call will be made.
• Names and pronunciations for the wedding party and anyone giving a toast.
• Venue rules: sound limits, a hard stop time, and any vendor requirements.

From Detroit ballrooms to Little Traverse Bay. Hotel Perry and Bay Harbor Yacht Club were with The Groove Party, a Michigan wedding band, around 2015 and 2016.

• Revel Run, Chelsea
• Zingerman's Cornman Farms, Dexter
• Stonebridge Golf Club, Ann Arbor
• The Masonic Temple, Detroit
• The War Memorial, Grosse Pointe Farms
• Laurel Manor, Livonia
• The Oakley, Holly
• Everlastings in the Wildwood, Owosso
• Brookshire Inn & Golf Club, Williamston
• Hotel Perry, Petoskey
• Bay Harbor Yacht Club, Bay Harbor

If you're sending a couple our way, these pages answer most first questions: how planning works, questions to ask a wedding DJ, a Michigan wedding timeline by season and outdoor ceremony sound. For music choices, there's DJ, live band or both.