Congratulations on your engagement! Now let’s plan the perfect celebration!
Now it’s time to talk about making your celebration unforgettable with the right music, games, lighting, speakers, and more.
DJ Dumplings loves to help couples create a customised entertainment experience for your special day.
Table of Contents
8 MUSIC PLANNING TIPS
Here’s a few exercises to get your creative juices flowing to build a unique and memorable wedding playlist for you and your guests as well as a foundation for your DJ to follow and manage through the wedding day.
OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER
The timeline below shows key actions points leading up to the special day.
Wedding planning can be complicated, hopefully this timeline will help manage timings and expectations.
SAMPLE PLAYLISTS
Below are pre-curated playlists to inspire you to create your own.
FIRST DANCE SONG
Shortening Songs
Not everyone is comfortable with dancing AND especially in front of an audience. But good news, you don’t have to dance to a full song! Below are suggestions on how to make this moment less nerve wracking.
* Edit length of the song by bringing the 2nd or 3rd chorus forward
* Fade out of the song at a certain part
* Experiment with chopping and changing verses
* Dance most of the song, and invite guests to join in (bridal party and/or all guests)
* Hire an acoustic band to play a customised version
* Consult your dance-studio for and edit and/or recommendations
Mash-ups
You’re confident and ready to perform a full blown choreography but can’t choose between your favourite songs. Why not have all of them?
* Firstly we confirm all versions of the songs either via our favourite music platform and/or song upload.
* Secondly, please time-stamp these versions of songs with parts you’d like to keep and omit. (DJ Dumplings would be more than happy to make suggestions on where to cut and make transitions).
* Thirdly, test out the mash-up song with your choreography and / or create a choreography to the mash-up.
* Alternatively, your dance studio will be able to help edit the song and/or make the recommendations to suit the choreography being taught.
GAMES
DJ Dumplings loves helping couples with any audio snippets for wedding games.
One particular game pioneered between Celebrant/MC/Story-teller Robyn Pattison (aka Wedding Pixie) and DJ Dumplings include up to 21 questions incorporating a variety of theme songs, sound effects, movie references and more. See the sample game below.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. All guests stand up.
2. Guests will choose answers by making gestures to represent each of the couple.
3. Wrong answers, guests sits down. Correct answers, guests stays standing.
4. Last one standing wins and we can even prepare a prize (e.g. Box of chocolates).
BESPOKE
DJ Dumplings would be more than happy to work with you on any bespoke requirements involving any sounds.
Shoe Game with Sound FX
On 16th July 2022, Jyss, James, MC Chris and DJ Dumplings worked together customising the trivia shoe game with quotes, sound FX and music cues making this activity more engaging, memorable and most importantly more fun!
Lion Dancers with Sound FX
Back in 2019, Amy, David and DJ Dumplings worked together for a customised iteration between our Lion Dance International Shaolin Wu Chu Chuan Australia troupe with sounds from David and Amy’s beloved games and animations (namely Pokemon, Street Fighter, Tekken and Zelda).
With a little bit of preparation, we were able to make this life lasting memory.
OUTDOOR CEREMONIES
Sometimes outdoor locations have difficulties accessing standard Australian 240v power sockets to power up loud speakers, so battery powered systems may be the way to go.
In some cases canapés follow immediately after the ceremony on the same or adjacent location and having entertainment continue seamlessly would be nice.
The popular choices are:
* Hiring strings / acoustic band that doesn’t require much sound amplification because their battery powered amps/instruments would do the trick.
* Play music via your celebrant’s (or friend’s) loud speaker which is completely fine, and DJ Dumplings is happy to help prepare music behind the scenes for both yourself and the celebrant.
The DJ’s Package
If you prefer pre-produced music played by a DJ via a bigger sound system (in some cases) for your ceremony and/or canapés, DJ Dumplings is happy to assist with providing:
* Portable loud speakers
* High quality microphone(s)
* Uncompressed audio recordings for both your keepsake and videographer
*The right music and the DJ set
RECEPTION
Equipment Inclusions
Once you’ve submitted your event details on the contact form , a customised package will be recommended to suit the needs of your big day. Key factors considered include number of guests to cater for, the venue and location.
Normally 2 loud speakers would be sufficient for 50-100 guests, and 4 loud speakers is recommended for more than 100 guests to ensure an even and sufficient sound coverage (music and speeches) in our space.
Floor Plans
Once you’ve booked your venue, and when it’s available it would be great to share a copy of your floor-plan (and your run-sheet) with your DJ to make preparations on the appropriate sound system configuration. This also helps avoid obstructing any beautiful decorations and fixtures (e.g. cake, florals, wishing well/signing table).
Please see some typical sound set-ups below based on different room shapes.
PAR can Up-lights
DJ Dumplings offers up to x8 powered par-can up-lights for your event to match your colour scheme.
The lights are a nice touch to adding colour and a bit more life to some sections of our venue.
These look especially nice against grainy wood pillars, exposed brick and plane walls. Creative uses have included placing an orange coloured par-can inside an unused fireplace to create a dreamy ambience.
Because these par-cans are battery powered, they can be placed anywhere without the need to plug into power sockets. The run-time is 5-10hours depending on the colour mode (static vs. multi-colour fade).
Choose from 32 colour options. Alternatively consider wireless DMX controls for customised shows.
Laser Shows
DJ Dumplings colours are magenta and green, and thus there are two automated laser shows alongside derby butterfly lights on a tripod.
The lights are usually on for dancing time only (and when lights are dimmed by our venue, they look even better), however if there are pockets of opportunities beforehand where kids are running around on the dance-floor between meals and formalities/photos, these are great fun to have them on too.
By request, we also have another more powerful laser to project “love” themed shows as well as the capability to customised up to 12 characters of text, usually the couple’s names or # hashtag.
PROJECTION & LIVE STREAM
Because of the recent 2019 pandemic, DJ Dumplings felt the need to bridge the gap between audio and visual connection for both pre-produced video telegrams as well as live streams.
Projector Only
For pre-produced videos from loved ones (e.g. close uncles and aunties, siblings & even parents to best friends) the set-up includes:
* A pull-up projector screen 2m high x 1m wide (4:3 aspect ratio)
* x1 Sony VPLPHZ60 6000 lumen projector on a Soundking projector stand
* High quality audio cable (3.5mm to XLR/RCA) between Macbook Pro M1 and Pioneer DJ Decks to amplify the video’s audio from the laptop to the loud speakers for everyone to hear.
* Hollyland Mars 300 Pro TX and RX wireless system to control the video if the projector is far from our DJ booth
* All power cables/boards, cable management and pre-event day testing.
Projector & Live Stream
In addition to the projection service mentioned above, the Live Stream will include these additions:
* 3 Go Pro (6s and 7) 4k cameras configured to either linear/wide angle prioritised to 1080p for streaming
* All camera mounts, batteries, visual and power cables and tripods with basic battery powered lighting
* Atem Mini video switcher; 3 cameras and 1 spare for things like photo montages / cover pages / same day edits
* 3 Hollyland Mars: x2 300Pro, x1 400s for wireless HDMI connections i.e. up to x3 roaming Go Pros
* Tascam Dr-05x audio interface connected to the Pioneer DJ decks to send speeches and music to our live-stream viewers, as well as amplifying them out in our venue.
* High quality 3.5mm to XLR/RCA connected between the Macbook Pro M1 and Pioneer DJ decks to amplify live-stream participant’s speeches
* Behringer Xenyx 1202 mixer to enable usage of up to x4 wireless microphones/instruments in the room
* Feelworld (x2 7″, x1 5″) portable monitors to control, prepare and monitor the live stream platform. 1 Freeworld 5″ portable monitor to frame the wireless Go Pro on the couple. The 2 other cameras are likely to stay fixed to capture both sides of the room
* Nighthawk M2 4GX WIFI travel router (Optus & Telstra sims). We will also have mobile tethering and venue WIFI back-up options.
* Hisense 32inch LED TV to share gallery view of live-stream guests for us to see at our venue
** Considerations: because of our new technologies, technicality and differing WIFI strengths in each area, please allow for a small margin of error mainly accidental drop-outs which will be rectified immediately.
