Karaoke at a wedding can be great in small amounts!
If you have a wedding coming up, you want it to be different. How about a little karaoke?! While it is not for everyone, it could be right for you.
If you are considering adding a nice karaoke package to your wedding reception, you are the type of bride and groom that really want your guests to get down with the music. Right? It is true. Karaoke will start of your wedding reception with something memorable, and karaoke is certainly a fun option for participants. However, as Spidey once said, “with karaoke comes great responsibility.” (Or something like that.)
First off, you really need to check out your DJ to see what his actual karaoke background is. He could be a great wedding DJ, but not that cultured in empty-orchestra performances. Has your disc jockey won any best of karaoke titles a number of times, like Kenny Casanova (shameless plug) ? Does he (or she) have great karaoke gear with sweet cordless microphones and hot current selections as well as the old classics songs that everyone loves, like DJ Kenny Casanova?
While it is hard to exactly explain what it is that makes a karaoke DJ “#1” in the eyes of his or her karaoke following it probably has to with a combination of personality and fast pacing. That is what makes us different.
Personality. It is something your DJ either has, or doesn’t have. There are no personality classes. You cannot learn this. The only way to really judge personality, is to see it for yourself
Ask to see your DJ playing karaoke music at a public venue. If you would like to see us, we ask our customers to stop by Villa Valenti Pub in Troy, NY every Friday night.
The reason we get booked for a lot of weddings and sweet 16 birthday parties is by having potential customers come to our public gigs and test them first. If they invite you, do it! You can see them in action, unannounced, uncensored and unknown. Then you can judge for yourself, without watching an edited video of only their best moments.
Musical sweetness.
How do you know, if what you are seeing will translate well for you? Your karaoke DJ should be funny and fun and keep the party going, but not a spotlight hog themselves. Some karaoke DJ’s are unbooked musicians looking for an outlet to shine. Your wedding is not the place for this. You don’t want your KJ to get on the mic and attempt stand up comedy. Your guests want to hear music, not speeches, but a little bit of quick mic work in the appropriate places after or before a strategic song can be classic.
Timing, timing, TIMING! It really is everything. No silence please. No dead air. This is important. When dead air happens – PEOPLE CRINGE, and the fun stops. People get tired and move on with their lives. The DJ kills the dance floor. Have you ever been on a dance floor and there is a quiet buffer space between songs? What do you see the dancers do? They either freeze and stand there like scared deer in headlights, or go and sit back into their dinner seats. BOTH OF THESE OUTCOMES ARE POOR! Silence equals BAD DJ!!! Look for the DJ try their hardest to keep everything moving and leave no room to sleep for the karaoke audience.
Once you have chosen the right DJ who also has karaoke, consider these precautions.
1) SCHEDULED KARAOKE TIME – Not everyone likes karaoke, so limit it to either scheduled performances by a few key players, or open up say the very last hour. If you open it up for the entire reception, it will not be special and will become more annoying than anything else.
2) SET LIMITS – Do not allow multiple songs by one guest. Maybe one or two, but you do not want your wedding reception to become a a karaoke concert staring one or two key players.
3) SCAN SONG SELECTION – Make sure your DJ runs all the songs by you, if they could be considered questionable. Some songs out there have ridiculous amounts of adult content and just are not right for a wedding. (HINT – if there is cursing, or a song by the 2 Live Crew, beware!)
So that’s it. Karaoke can really be a blast, but be careful. If you are, it can really add to the final flavor and make it a great night for everyone!
