I wrote a private explanation to JHP in the survey after my event and they never reached out to me. First I wish I had been pushed harder to pick multiple songs for family and brid...al party entrance. I asked for honest thoughts based off their experience and how long an entry typically takes, and they told me no that it’s usually fast. I just didn’t want a bunch of clipped songs. So that song played about 3 times until the bridal entry song.
I was asked to make playlists for cocktail hour, and dinner and dancing. So I put in a lot of effort to put songs together that myself and my family loved, and it was genuinely stressful to pick a good list, but we got it done. I discussed with them how these are just ideas, and styles I like, however the list did not need to be played from start to finish as I trusted them as the professionals to DJ. I did tell them our crowd was older and to prioritize some Disco, classics and Latin dance. Keeping it more classy. The DJ of my event played my exact playlist for cocktail hour and it was great. Then when dinner started, he proceeded to play the same songs from cocktail hour, which led me to believe he didn’t review my playlist at all and did not put the effort to be aware of what was going to be playing. People did notice and pointed out hey this played already! I did tell him about this and he said “sorry I probably had smart playlist on Spotify” and he changed it to his own music. For the anniversary dance, I chose one song as advised, but the DJ did not follow the traditional ways of that dance. He did not call for the younger couples to be seated as the song progressed.. and instead EVERYONE who was called up stood there dancing confused as the song repeated on a loop from start to finish FOUR times. I was so embarrassed, had I known this was the plan, I would have been okay with it and I would have picked 4 separate songs. My song choice styles were not followed for dancing, and we just could not keep people on the dance floor with the “my humps” and “get low” choices from the DJ, which in my mind would have fallen under the not-classy category I requested to avoid. Whenever people would get up and dance for Spanish, oldies, or Disco, he did not pick up on that and continue to play more songs of that style, he would change it to something completely different and people would leave again. I felt he was struggling to read the room or not watching. I should have added more songs to my definitely play request list on their platform, but I think I trusted too much because the phone calls with Jake were so great I felt comfortable that I was understood. I’ve never hired a DJ before and never been married, I didn’t know better. I thought my playlists followed a clear style. The most heartbreaking part for me was he totally skipped my bouquet toss, and I can never get that back. A lot of people did not stay late I truly believe because the music was so hard to stay pumped to, but even if only one person was left in the room I would have wanted to do my bouquet toss, that was not his call to make. I had a fun song picked and a lot of single/unmarried friends who were on the patio and would have come in. The night passed and ended before I got a chance to notice. I really wanted to have a different experience than this, but I am happy to see that is not the case for most people since the reviews are stellar. It must have been a mishap with my event as I am extremely easy to please.