The Music Question

The most difficult question I’ve been pondering when it comes to wedding planning is this: the music.

I’m the kind of person who doesn’t get up and dance at weddings.  I prefer the conversation at the table.  As a bride-to-be, I worry that I’ll chafe under the constant attention during the reception, and that I might be encouraged to “lead the party” — something I’d rather leave to my bridesmaids.  Unless I’m a) totally rehearsed and 2) perhaps slightly intoxicated (both things could happen at the wedding — that’s acknowledged), I’ll probably no flail about like a fool (though, yes, I know, the emotions of the day could make me throw caution to the wind).

In considering music, IP and are taking our personalities into account, along with hopes and dreams of our guests (i.e., would they like to dance?).  As a nod to Mexican culture, we stumbled across the idea of having a mariachi band play our wedding.  While the idea is a fabulous one in theory, two problems popped into view right away when considering the execution:

1) It’s cost-prohibitive to have them play the entire reception; hell, two hours is pricey

and

b) The Midwesterners and Northeasterners attending our wedding might really get sick of a mariachi band all night, especially if they’re hoping to dance

I’ve been trying to find a solution that doesn’t involve hiring a band and a DJ, but I’m stumped.  It’d be about $1,400 (maybe a little less) to do both, but that seems like a hefty price to pay for music.  We’re wary of the cost of the mariachi, but we’re also wary of DJs in general — we’ve each been to weddings where the DJ was super-obnoxious and I’ve heard a ton of horror stories about DJs just not listening to requests (the biggest ones I want to avoid: being introduced as Mr. and Mrs. IP [I'm keeping my maiden names and adding IP's last name to mine -- I would want WordNerdia acknowledged], or being introduced as “man and wife” [nothing would make me want to hurt the DJ more]).  Add to that the fact that I’m not much of a booty-shaker to begin with?  Recipe for going way over on music costs.

We could always do the DIY iPod music, but I’ve heard horror stories about that, too.  The reception’s unorganized, there’s no one introducing the couple, no one to announce dances, no one to shepherd the guests.  In theory, a day-of coordinator could at least get guests moving, but I don’t think he/she would be eager to take over DJing duties.  In keeping with the “modest but classy” theme, I worry that the DIY music would make that image crumble quickly — nothing is more immediate than music, and no situation is less fixable on the day of than music.  We’re doing our own invites, but we get countless runs as we try to achieve a design we like.  We only get one shot at the music.

So consider me currently baffled.  I know we need music, but how do we go about providing it?