How planning your wedding music works

Start with Check your date. Tell us the date, the venue, roughly how many guests, and your booking: a Wedding DJ and MC, a live band instead, or not sure yet. If you'd like to add live music, pick DJ plus live music, ceremony music or a cocktail-hour set. If you don't know yet, "not sure yet" is a perfectly good answer.

There's room to tell us about your day, too: how you met, songs that matter, the feeling you want in the room. Dave reads every inquiry and replies himself. Once we know your date, venue and plans, we'll send you a quote, and Dave will go through booking details with you then. We don't publish prices, because every quote depends on your hours, your venue and what you add. Our Michigan wedding DJ cost guide explains what drives the price.

The Wedding DJ and MC is the core booking and where most couples start: music for the whole reception, with an MC on the microphone for your entrances, toasts, cake and send-off. Plenty of couples book that and nothing else, and it's a full night.

If you'd like live music too, you add it to your DJ booking:

• Ceremony music, on guitar and vocals or piano, for your walk down the aisle and your vows.
• A cocktail-hour set, relaxed acoustic music while your guests mingle.
• DJ plus live music, with live musicians on top of the DJ set, in any combination of drums, guitar, sax and violin.

Before any song list, a conversation. We'll ask about the two of you, your families and your venue: where the ceremony happens, where cocktail hour moves to, how the room is laid out, and what your guests are like after dinner. A crowd of college friends and a crowd of grandparents need different nights, and most weddings have both.

We'll also ask about the music you love and the songs your family can't stay seated for. None of this needs to be finished when you arrive. It's a conversation, not a form.

Then comes the part most couples enjoy most: building the music one moment at a time.

• The processional. Which song, which version, and where it starts. Played live, a processional can be arranged so the best part of the song lands as you appear at the end of the aisle.
• The first dance. Sung live with guitar, or the recording you fell in love to, edited to the length you want.
• The parent dances. One song or two, together or separate, and whether guests are invited to join halfway.
• Your must-plays. The songs that have to happen, and roughly when. Some belong at the peak of the night; some belong to one table of old friends.
• Your do-not-plays. Every couple has them. Maybe it's a line dance you've had enough of, or a song that belongs to an ex. Write them down, and they stay off the night, no matter who asks.

Nothing has to be finished. These are the things that make planning easy, roughly in the order you'll need them.

In the last weeks, the music meets the schedule. Your planner or venue coordinator sets the times, and we fit every cue to them: the order of the grand entrance and how each name is said, who gives the toasts and in what order, when the cake is cut, and when the photographer needs the two of you outside.

Our founder's background helps here. Alongside music, Dave spent ten years as an account executive at MOVE Communications running client projects, budgets and timelines, and two years before that as a travelling event manager running events across Michigan. A wedding timeline is a project with a fixed deadline and a lot of people who need to know what's next. Planners can read more on our for planners and venues page.

If you add live music to your DJ booking, you won't have to brief separate music vendors and hope they talk to each other, or explain your story twice. On the day, you won't be the one who notices the toasts are running long or that the photographer is waiting outside. The plan is played, the room is read around it, and your do-not-play list stays close all night.