But despite that and some other contrary thoughts, practicality dictates that live musicians are the best option for a well-executed wedding. And to prove it, here's 10 reasons to use live musicians rather than DJ's in your wedding.
1. Sound Quality
I may sound brutally honest or even harsh when I say this, but most DJ's aren't sound technicians. They can set up their hardware, sure, and they can play a great playlist and know how to grab attention, but they don't know the ins and outs of sound. Many DJ's don't know how to compensate for an unpredictable wedding environment, and especially if the wedding is outdoors, playing recorded music straight into their speakers with no adjustments will make the music sound like a ringtone is playing from the inside of a purse.
With a live musician, you may not even need speakers depending on the venue, and even if you do, many professional musicians know how to mix their own instruments to make them sound natural in any environment (for example, us).
And sure, muffled music might be okay at the reception, when everyone's either dancing or not paying much attention to what's being played. But you deserve the best sound possible when you walk down the aisle.
2. Control Over the Music
With a DJ, you can ask for a song and still not know what you're getting. Say you want Canon in D played as you walk down the aisle. Well, there are thousands of recordings out there for Canon in D, and dozens of ways to get those recordings.
And let's just say he decided to rip this version off of YouTube, for example. Issue number one: the video has an intro. Issue number 2: it was made in a software and sounds very fake.
Combine that with the fact that you have no idea if he'll even use the arrangement you want, and you have a recipe for disaster. And while you may be able to send him recordings, there's no guarantee once it gets to his software that the quality will be any good.
With professional live musicians, you always get a rich, clear, authentic sound from the instruments being played, and a specific arrangement is as simple as looking up or writing out sheet music.
3. Consistency in Volume
Along the same lines as the previous point, different recordings have different volumes. Especially ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY if you're using different genres of music (i.e. classical and pop). Let's say you want the bridesmaids to enter to Air on a G String or Vivaldi's Spring, and then you want to use Christina Perry's "A Thousand Years" to walk down the aisle. Well, classical music is often recorded around 12 db lower than modern music. That may not sound like a huge difference on paper, but it makes a big difference when you're playing it over speakers (see the photo above for an explanation). Sure, your DJ might think to prepare for that and adjust accordingly before playing the song, but like I said before, most DJ's aren't sound technicians, and they wouldn't think to do that.
Instead, have your wedding musicians play a rendition of the pop song. Sure, it's not the exact same as the song you love, but it'll be a much more elegant version of that song for your special day, and you're guaranteed to hear it with no headaches..
4. Fewer Technical Difficulties
Some would say that it's better to use a DJ for your wedding because "if it's recorded it's guaranteed to be perfect." That statement is incredibly false.
Anyone who's ever had computer problems knows that while a mistake in the music can be easily fixed and forgotten about, technical issues happen at random, and they take a lot of time to fix. If you're halfway down the aisle and the musician makes a mistake, that musician is back on track in seconds. If you're halfway down the aisle and your DJ's music stops playing, congratulations, your perfect day was just ruined.
Even if you need speakers for the venue anyway, it's best to hire live musicians to plug in, because there's still a smaller chance of technical issues.
In our set-up, there are exactly four technical issues that could come in. A malfunctioning cable, a mixer issue, a problem with the violin microphone and a problem with the pedal board. So not only is there a small chance of issue, but even if an issue happens, it's easy to find with so few options.
For a DJ, it's a different story. He has potential issues with cables, a mixer, speaker issues, microphone issues, problems with his music software, problems with his audio drivers, and problems with his computer as a whole. Not only are there more issues to work with, but there's a much higher chance of Spotify crashing during the Wedding March than there is of a guitar cable getting a short in the middle of a piece.
5. The Aesthetic Appeal
If there were one thing that I would love to say that every person has experienced in their life, it would be live music. I'm sure that all of your friends and family members have been to a concert before. Concerts are fun and it's a completely different experience to hear your favorite bands in person verses the recording. So why would you have it any different on your wedding day?
Wedding musicians give your guest something to look at and be invested in leading up to the wedding. Have you ever watched a musician play that absolutely adores playing? It's a beautiful thing. If you want different music for your family to be seated than for your bridesmaids, it's a lot easier for live musicians to do that. There won't have to be a stop in the music at all. A musician can put the pieces in the same key and your guests will wonder when the songs changed. Keeping the whole beginning of the wedding in the same key will sit very well with your guests and the consistent flow will also help your wedding to flow just as smoothly. If anything goes wrong or there's an awkward silence your wedding musicians would be able to fill that a lot faster than recorded music. This will leave your wedding a lot more aesthetically pleasing and take away any worries that you might have.
6. More Diverse Music Options
I will begin by reiterating the point above. It's so easy to put music in the same key to keep it flowing. Taylor Swift's Love Story into the Wedding March? No problem. They can easily be put into the same key. On top of that if you have a favorite band, wedding musicians could make a mash up of all of your favorite songs for you to walk down the aisle to. Do you love the Beatles? A wedding musician could put All You Need is Love, I Want to Hold Your Hand, and Come Together into one song. You don't like the Beatles, but want a love song mash up? That's easy too. A wedding musician can do a mash up of Love Story, A Thousand Years, All of You, and heck, why not Smash Mouth's All Star? Musicians can make all of that into a lovely melody.
On top of that, if there is a specific classical piece that you wanted to hear, but there was part that you wanted to cut, a live musician could easily arrange a piece that doesn't have the part that you don't like in it. Even if you're lucky enough to have a DJ that can edit that part of the song out, it'll still have awkward cuts in the sound reminiscent of Calvin Harris' This is What You Came For.
7. More Flexibility
Let's face it: weddings are stressful, and as a bride, you can't always be bothered to make decisions as trivial as "What music should play while the guests arrive?" It's just not something you do.
Asking a DJ to take care of that for you is a nightmare, however. Either you end up making a playlist for him or he plays a style of music that doesn't actually invite people into a celebration of love.
Hiring wedding musicians based on the style you want to hear when you walk down the aisle keeps that fear away. It guarantees that even if they play pop music when your wedding music is classical, or vise versa, it's all done in a similar style that brings everything together. It's pretty much a fail-safe on the opening music being appropriate.
8. Smooth Transition from Wedding to Reception
Sound equipment is often large, and it's even heavier than it looks. That coupled with the fact that you have to think through every inch your sound will travel makes setting up an audio system take quite a lot longer than people realize.
And unless you pay way more than you're planning to, most DJ's don't have the money or manpower to own two separate sound systems that they can set up and tear down for both the ceremony and the reception.
This makes having a DJ running your music for the ceremony an absolute nightmare. For a high-quality sound engineer-type DJ, it'll take an hour or two to get everything ready for the reception after the wedding, and that's assuming the reception is within walking distance.
That's the best case scenario. If your DJ isn't a quality sound tech, two things could happen. A) The sound quality for the ceremony will be dreadful, as we discussed earlier, or B) It'd take him even longer to get things ready to go. It's honestly not worth the risk to have the same person with the same equipment running all your music for both the ceremony and the reception. It's better to let live music handle the ceremony so the DJ can set all the equipment up only once.
9. Your Guests Would Prefer It
I don't know your family, but my family loves hearing people play music. They just love hearing someone play an instrument right in front of their eyes. People love watching the way musicians play. On top of that, wedding goers love being able to walk up to musicians and tell them that they did a good job. If a guest is attending alone, it will give that person someone to talk to during that weird mingling part of going between the ceremony and reception. Wedding guests also love how well the music goes with the ceremony. If you have a good live musician, they will pick music that fits your wedding to a T. By this, I mean that they will consider the personalities of the bride and groom along with the venue, pastor, and the structure of the ceremony. When this all comes together it is a beautiful thing that leaves the guest entranced.
10. The Sentimental Value
Your wedding is your day. You're the star. Everyone is there to see a couple they love join together before God and man. So to listen to music recorded by someone else, for someone else, with some other motive in mind, doesn't really follow that pattern.
Live musicians attended that wedding just for you. They're playing music hand-picked just for you. They've spent hours over the last few weeks practicing and preparing just for your special day. Most of the time they're playing music other people wrote, but they have the privilege of playing it in the context of your wedding, understanding what it means to you, and what it ultimately will mean to you for the rest of your life. Hiring live wedding musicians guarantees that the music played was all arranged, put together and practiced specifically for your special day. That makes all the difference in the world.
