Bringing your own sound speakers to wedding?

[Don Bloom]

Same in Chicago as Jeff in Cinncy. I can't remember the last time I did a wedding of less than 150 guests except last night and that was my niece and I didn't do video. She didn't want it but I was the official still photog. The more things change the more they stay the same. The last wedding I did as a still guy was 1983 0r 84.
Anyway, same here as Jeff...the DJ or band supplies the sound system and a wireless mic for the people doing the toasts. I use my infamous drum mic to mic the speaker and my hyper on the camera and off to the races I go. If the DJ or sound guy running the board doesn't know what he's doing then ther could of course be a problem but frankly that happens less and less. There are too many good guys who know what they're doing so less chance of an idiot working the gig.
Even for outdoor or hotel ceremonies the DJ is hired to take care of the audio for that and supplies a mic and of course speaker(s) for the ceremony and in many cases does the music as well.
We in the USA have it made compared to some of you guys in England, Aus, NZ and other countries.

[Jeff Harper]

What Don says, we do have it made. The clergy in the UK sounds difficult enough too deal with from some threads I've read.

On the other hand the smaller more intimate weddings would certainly be a nice change of pace, especially those weddings in the lovely rural settings I see in so many online trailers.

[Paul R Johnson]

As I said, I don't do weddings, but at my age, I seem to be a guest at quite a few, and a quick re-think back to the ones I've been to, shows out of 9 weddings (and these are at some quite nice places), technical assistance in terms of venue provided lighting and sound has been zero! I have not seen one top table that has had any mics or amplification for the speeches. The DJ usually doesn't get involved until the evening reception, so for the meal part, they just talk loud, and we hear some or bits of it. Our weddings in the UK are a bit weird perhaps to US standards. If it's a church, then radio mics on the vicars are common, but never have any control and are very hit or miss. Then they move to the reception venue, which are more and more frequently old converted barns and other historic buildings. Nicely decorated but again, without technical facilities. The afternoon reception for mainly family has the speeches and then friends and others turn up for the evening event. Many of these venues are licensed for civil ceremonies and so many non-religious people have the marriage and the reception in one place. Again, the ceremony is likely to be unamplified.

Most weddings are quite low key compared to the US ones I hear about - although I'm in a Beach Boys tribute band, here in the UK, and we've just picked up a booking for a wedding - which is pretty unheard of. Normally if there is live music it's a function band. Booking a band that only plays one type of music for a wedding seems to us a bit odd, but that's what the client wants?

[Jeff Harper]

Right Paul, I was really only thinking of reception, not ceremony. DJs do not get invollved till reception if the wedding was at church. However for wedding cermonies at banquet halls the DJ does usually provide mics and sound for the ceremony. For outdoors the DJ will run power to the site and set up speakers, etc.

There are a lot of banquet halls here that do provide decent sound systems since they often specialize in weddings.

I do remember one place here that does outdoor weddings that does not provide sound reinforcement for their outdoor weddings, I have actually done two weddings there but it's been years, so I forgot about it. Very bad situation but that was a lower end venue and I've been out of that price bracket for awhile so I forgot about it.

[Robert Benda]

Jeff and Don, I can assure you guys that it's probably a correlation between couples willing to get a videographer and hiring a legit DJ. There are plenty of chuckleheads in my industry. Even in my region, it was unusual for the DJ to be there during the social/dinner. Even now most DJs charge extra for it and setup their sound system for the dance, not the speeches, even if the room has 350 people and he's off in the corner.... anyway....

[Chris Harding]

We have one hubby/wife team here who have the DJ problem neatly sewn up, much like Robert. They do a photo/video/DJ service for brides. She shoots the video, he shoots the photos then she does photo and video at the reception and he is the DJ so of course he is using his own PA gear.

The answer Adrian is to train one of your 2nd shooter to be a DJ, tote your own gear (well let your 2nd shooter tote the DJ gear) and you have the PA system that suits your video needs tied up. He can also shoot some video during the dinner music period!!

Chris

[Don Bloom]

Robert,
I'm not sure I understand your statement about the DJ not being there during social/dinner.
The reason I say that is here in my town, if the cocktail hour starts at say 6pm the DJ is generally in the room set up and ready to go about 30 minutes before so about 5:30pm. Then during cocktail hour which in many if not most cases takes place in the main room, the DJ is playing music. Soft background stuff. Once the reception starts, with the typical intros, cake cutting, and toasts the DJ is generally in the room killing time but there is soft background dinner music playing so for the few hours that the DJ is there, setting up, working, striking, he's in the room unless he's going to the mens room. Since around here most receptions typically end somewhere in the area of 11:30pm to midnight with the odd one going to 12:30pm they're not working a super long day but that's not the point. The point is they are in the room virtually the entire time.

As for chuckleheads....yeah, I've had the unfortunate "pleasure" of having to work with some of them over the years and what people really need to think about when the hire their DJ is that's the guy (or gal) that's going to make or break their party at least around here. Not only are they spinning but they're acting as the MC. hire a good one! ;-)

[Robert Benda]

Don, I mean the DJ isn't there until the dance will start. It's only the past few years that most venues now require them to setup before guests arrive - most DJs didn't use to bother (yes, they'd wheel their gear in during dinner). That meant the venue supplied background music and microphone for speeches.

In fact, its still common enough for the DJ to be absent that most venues have the background music and microphone out and ready, even when I show up (I'm more the kind of DJ you guys would expect to see, apparently).

[Kyle Root]

I have only brought my own speakers to a wedding 1 time, and that was for a photo slide show that I made being shown at the Reception and the church didn't have anything to use in the fellowship hall.

I also only did it because the bride was a friend of mine. Other than that - there's no way I'd try to set all that up every time. lol

[Don Bloom]

Robert,
Yeah I kinda figured that but not here. The DJ supplies the music for cocktail hour unless the B&G have a piano man or some other type of live music...a violinist, harpist, or whatever. If they have a band for the reception then usually the guitar and keyboard maybe a drummer with a snare only will do music for cocktail hour. Something light to try to keep people from dinking as much. ;-)