Karaoke Forums

My best friends in the entire world are getting married next summer. They would like a mix of dance music and karaoke at the reception(90% of their friends and family will do karaoke if there is an opportunity), and would like my husband to DJ. Have you ever done this? What was it like? How did it work?

IMHO NO NO NO...NO KARAOKE at a wedding reception if at all possible.

It turns into 10 teens trying to sing rap/pop songs, and failing miserably.
Or it turns into only KARAOKE, and the people that want to dance, never get a chance to, because people are singing only moldy oldie songs.

I do offer karaoke for receptions that I host, but try to talk people out of it, unless they MUST have it.

The last reception I did with Karaoke, only the bride and groom were allowed to sing karaoke, per their request, because they were at a reception that turned into karaoke only, and did not want that to happen

Now if you could set it up for say 1/2 DJ, them 1 hour karaoke, then rest of the nite DJ that probably would work. Or just cherry pick some good singers/songs to keep the pace up, but that might upset some people.

I had karaoke at my wedding. Seemed to over well. The guy I hired knew when and where to put the karaoke songs.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Karaoke for wedding reception can be done. It is commonly done over here. You just need to do more preparation. Normal rotation; forget about it.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I tried it once, and I mean tried. After about 3 songs, I had about 25 or 30 request slips in my hand, so after the 5th song, I apologized, and announced that I wouldn't get to anymore singers, because we needed to start the special dances. Knowing I'd never even get to half the slips, I just opened up the dance floor, knowing that was what the vast majority of people were there for, and I never heard a word about karaoke for the rest of the night. After that, I always told clients, that karaoke for a reception, would be a bad idea, in my opinion.

I have done well over 10 Karaoke wedding receptions. I did have one that was not successful as the bride and groom were into karaoke but the folks they invited were not so I had to play lots of DJ Stuff. I think the key ingredient has been that they come from my private party customer base and they are major karaoke people so it does not take long for them to get the ball rolling.

I do have DJ music available but really I never have had to play many songs. The only exception to this is for first dances, toasts, bouquet and garter toss etc.

The first time I was approached to do one I thought....people really do this for their weddings? But everyone has a blast and frankly that is what it is all about anyway.

I only had one wedding where kids were involved in singing and the parents did a great job of supervising them so it was not a problem.

They are good money to boot.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

Over here (Serian) most the wedding either use karaoke which is cheaper or live band. DJ music is 'a waste of stage time". Why play CD when someone can sing the song, is a common comment here.

But then more than 50% of those in the reception 'can sing' and will want to sing given half the chance. The crowd already know what kind of songs to sing; slow numbers during the dinner and fast danceable songs latter in the night.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

Why is there this inane belief that people don't/won't dance at karaoke? We've done many weddings. We set time aside for the various bride/groom dances and then into karaoke and surprise, people dance. For us the only things different from regular shows is the above and that the bride and groom get to sing whenever they like.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

we have done allot of karaoke wedding receptions without any problems. We do very little dj-ing and even have songs prepared for the "special dances" in advance. I don't think we have played more than 3 song at any reception. I guess it makes a difference where you are and your clientele

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"Integrity is choosing your thoughts, words and actions based on your principles and values rather than for your personal gain."
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"if a man has integrity, nothing else matters, If a man has no integrity, nothing else matters."
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why is this thread in the lounge? Need to move it to the main forum

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I have done several some work well some don't the key is coordination, I have a karaoke wedding coming up on the 20th that should be a blast aS many of the regulars from one bar are guest at this wedding.

never hosted one, but we and karaoke at our reception. first time i EVER saw my mom with a mic. everyone seemed to have fun, people danced all night, and we even went to our normal venue afterwards to sing one with our fill in host. it was a blast

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Paradigm Karaoke, The New Standard.......Shift Happens

Most of the weddings i've ever been at (or worked) that had karaoke turned into the kids wanting to sing all the songs. Like said above - rotation - no such thing at most weddings, bride & groom hired you, they tend to want to dictate who sings when or not at all. I try to discourage it as well, unless everyone at the reception is into karaoke - which is rare.
People can dance to karaoke, provided the singer is singing a danceable song.

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I offer karaoke, but like most, I try to talk them out of it. If karaoke comes up during the planning stage, I tell them that unless it is a very informal and very small reception, their best bet is to designate a couple-few people to sing IN ADVANCE (so its not "open karaoke"). Quite often, they opt for slow songs and sometimes even make these singers part of the ceremonial dances. Either that, or they pick cool dance songs and practice ahead of time and really put on a performance.

IMO, karaoke only works at wedding receptions when the singers can sing AND when they pick the right songs. That is why I recommend the format that I do so there isn't $hitty singers singing $hitty songs and ruining the mood.

"Oh Grandma, we loved your drunken rendition of Edelweiss. And, we'd love to hear you sing Amazing Grace. Right after Cousin Bill is done with 'Man In The Box'! "

I've hosted Karaoke at a number of weddings and never run into an issue. The biggest thing is making sure that you get to the special dances on time. Usually Karaoke doesn't even start until after you've got most of them out of the way. By that time most of the kids are gone anyway. I never had a problem with the Bride/Groom telling me not to let someone sing and people have always danced to the Karaoke songs. Usually there's one grandpa or uncle that everyone wants to hear (good or bad) and once he gets up, everyone gets going. It can work out really well.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

Yes...many times! It is a bit harder to keep it from becoming a kids "taylor swift" fest, but you are in control and have to allow or NOT allow it to go down that path. Maybe here or there. Like was previously said, Karaoke doesn't usually get started until after the "special" stuff is done, most of the kids are gone by then, so that helps you in that area. I'm open to about anything, they hired me. If the bride and groom want me to play the Village People all night...I would...

MrD

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[highlight=midnightblue]MrD - KJ/DJ Specialist
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They told me the reception will probably have about a total of 100 people more likely less than that. The only real children/ teens would be my son who will be 3 and the flower girl who will be 6 and possibly the groom's 2 sisters who are in their mid teens. I think in this case we would have an edited book (one with less rap and hard rock) with radio edited versions of songs. I agree that the special dances and things should come first before the karaoke. They are thinking about doing half karaoke and half dancing we are just wondering the best way to do that. They honestly think that the karaoke will go over better than the dancing, and I trust them to know what is best for their own reception. Although, my husband will be totally prepared in case they change their minds.

Just had a meeting Sunday with a bride and groom that requested karaoke. Here is what they decided after talking about potential not so pretty situations.

We have a timeline of events with cues listed.

After cake cutting, speeches, bouquet toss, garter toss, special dances yada yada ya, I will be opening it up to open dance. This is a 7 hour reception, sometime after 4 hours, karaoke will be turned on, straight DJing will be over. If no singers, I will still be playing dance music. Just depends. Any rotations will be up to me, however for the money they are paying me, if they want grandma Gertrude to sing Bicycle Built for 2 3 times in a row, ok, no problem! Actually could get wild. Entrance song is the Hawkeye fight song, the wedding party is coming in to Ice Ice Baby and the Bridal party dance will start with Jack Johnson Better Together for 30 sec and then cut into Shook Me All Night Long!

I think it's going to be a hoot. I was given a wide open attire choice, only two no nos is that I can't wear sweat pants, and I can't play Buckcherry Crazy (@$%&#!).

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

I have also hosted karaoke at weddings. Like others have said you have to control the little ones not taking it over. I did one last year that almost everyone there was singers from one of my regular shows. The bride and groom actually met at one of them shows. Of the four I have done 3 worked out really well 1 did not. But I was prepared and just switched to dance music the rest of the night.

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