Reception Saga – DJ search continues…
August 26, 2009You may have read a bit about my quest to have some Bhangra music at our reception. If you’re not familiar with it, we often think of it as “Bollywood” music. My fiance is Punjabi and has grown up with this music. I’ve loved it for a long time but don’t really ‘know’ it that well. I hear compilations here and there but couldn’t begin to tell you who sings what. Anyway the music is super lively and fun! Though I’ve never really watched “Dancing with the Stars”, when I mention Bollywood music people bring it up and said the Bollywood show was one of their best ever! We also have a couple of these tracks in our Zumba class which are so fun! Some of my favs so far: Aaj Ki Raat (from Slumdog Millionaire), Mauja Hi Mauja (From Jab We Met)
and Aaj Ki Raat
(from Zumba class), Beware of the Boys (Mundian to Bach Ke)
(from my personal tiny collection).
In addition to the Mehndi at the Welcome Party, the other Indian element we want to bring into our weekend is some bhangra music rockin’ the reception! (Punjabi people LOVE their parties and love to dance – from 3 years to 80 they are all on the dance floor!) Our Marriott wedding planner was able to find us a DJ. He has this music but we found out that he plays “only Indian functions”. This isn’t really what we are going for – our guests will be mostly Americans that are unfamiliar with the music. We don’t really want an “Indian DJ”, but an awesome DJ that plays a variety of music and can mix some of this other music in since we’d also like to have some latin, Caribbean and dance music. I also went to the Aruba.com forum and asked if anyone has heard of this DJ and still no replies in over 2 weeks! (normally you have valuable input by the end of the first day).
Well the other DJ the Marriott wedding planner wants to hire doesn’t have any bhangra music. It seems the wedding planner really really likes these guys so I’m looking in to it. Since they don’t have the music I would provide a playlist and they will see if they can get it, or what I will probably do is send them a couple of CDs. My hope is that they would review the CDs before the reception and figure out how to weave the music in with the rest. I talked with the owner of the DJ company directly and he gave me three names of DJs that might be available. First thing I did (of course) — search the forum to see if I can find anything out about any of them. No luck! So I’m a little disappointed I’m not being offered a DJ that I can find even one review on. And I cannot find a website for the company that I was hoping would have bios and maybe reviews, testimonials and/or playlist samples. Am I the only one that expects to be able to at least see a professional website for vendors I’m looking to hire? I hate this feeling of having to trust a wedding planner I barely know.
The other option is to see what DJs our independent wedding planner works with. (A few weeks ago she had recommended someone that gets rave reviews on the forum.) This week the Marriott’s planner reminded me we’ll have to pay a ‘facility fee’ if we bring in our own entertainment! I was like what the heck? When we visited in May that’s one thing that caught our attention – we were told no facility fees (not ‘no facility fees unless you hire your own DJ’). I was irritated because it seemed so petty given the money we are spending there. (She also insisted we’re welcome to use our own vendor – that all the Marriott really cares about is the food and beverage. They don’t even require your guests to stay there like many hotels do. That was a big selling point for us — the flexibility and not being held hostage by a small list of ‘hotel approved vendors’.)
We’re definitely exceeding the initial proposals in room and catering costs and decided to have the welcome party there. The fee is nominal but I was really annoyed. Its not my fault they are not offering me anyone I can find reviews on. Not only that – but I would need the DJ for 3.5 hours and I am told I will have to pay for 4! (They will only book in full hour increments.) So, if I hire their DJ I have to pay for time I don’t need and have to put in a lot of work collecting music / playlist for this person. I had told the independent planner that I would be having Marriott handling all the entertainment, but now I don’t know…
By the way — that ‘facility fee’ IS in their wedding package brochure. I didn’t think to look because we were told no facility fees. They say its to cover items like electricity. Really, I’d like to keep it simple and stick with Marriott for the entertainment. I’ve posted a new message on the forum to see if anyone has heard of the three guys the company may have available.
Anyone else going through the ‘wedding planning mood swings’? Getting totally excited about stupid things and getting way too upset about even dumber things?




The highlight of my month!?!? My Jimmy Choos have just arrived! I am so in love with these shoes (and of course the wonderful man that bought them for me)! I have to admit that I just picked probably the most impractical wedding shoes given that we’re having our ceremony on the beach and dinner on a lawn! I tried these on when we were in London this spring and couldn’t stop thinking about them. By the time I finally decided I had to have them, they were sold out worldwide. I had even emailed them through their website hoping they’ll notify me if they get a pair of this
The other resource that has been a tremendous help is the 
One of my favorite sites for inspiration: 





