It sure has been a productive summer for me! If you are just finding me, I look forward to possibly becoming your wedding DJ. Welcome to an all-new experience for the modern bride and groom seeking a top wedding DJ to help them plan the music for what will be one of the biggest days of their lives. I won't bore you with any complex technical terms, but my website has recently been rebuilt on a faster and more secure platform, and all the while this upgrade was taking place there were significant cosmetic changes made. If you are a newbie to my website, welcome and please feel free to poke around and find a little wedding playlist inspiration. Since you are new, you probably haven't seen me boast about my blog, but it happens to be one of the most informative out there and its interest has spanned numerous countries around the world. It NOW looks as stunning as the most beautiful bride. Image is truly everything when trying to secure your wedding DJ. Scroll down and I'll explain :)

The inspiration for this cocktail hour playlist came to me after the realization that this August would mark 50 years since the release of the signature song by The Spinners, "I'll Be Around".  Not long after the Spinners landed in Philaldelphia they would collaborate with Thom Bell and record the classic song at Sigma Sound Studios.  "I'll Be Around" was placed on the B side of the single " How Could I Let You Get Away".  Here in 2022, it's so surreal to think back that there was actually a time when a DJ had the power to flip over a single and play a song that (in their opinion) had a better chance of becoming a hit. In today's digital world, I'm not sure if a DJ has the ability to flip over a Spotify or Apple Music track, as most songs are delivered to radio stations by way of email or FTP.  Being the active Spotify user that I am, I cruised over to the Spinner profile and found that "I'll Be Around" came up as the 3rd most streamed song from the group.  Even though "Rubbermand Man" came in at #1, I consider "I'll Be Around" to be a signaure song that's got the perfect vibe for cocktail hour at your wedding.

Long before COVID-19 seemed to reshape the wedding industry, I made a decision to put my sole focus on DJing weddings exclusively. One of the reasons I opted to focus "just" on weddings was because of my deep respect for the art of being a top notch professional wedding DJ. Since my clients deserve the best, I felt it was important that they get my entire focus when they secure me to be their wedding DJ.  But in the years and months since making that decision, I was approached about an assignment that would provide an excellent opportunity to showcase my talents as not only a DJ, but also an emcee.

In recent weeks, I've been talking with prospective clients who would like to hire me  to be their wedding DJ. One of the questions that has come from a few of these introductory conversations is how exactly I would speak on the microphone. Most of the time these types of conversations will mainly focus around how I will motivate the crowd or mix their music, so to hear them begin to ask about a wedding DJs MC skills and voice quality is rather refreshing. Over the course of my wedding DJ career, I've always said that a wedding DJ's voice is equally as important as playing the right song at the right time. With the steady stream of amateur wedding DJs continuing to infiltrate the market, modern brides and grooms need to understand that hiring a wedding DJ with a voice that truly cuts through is very important. It really is as simple as this, if a wedding DJ sounds truly horrible on the microphone, it won't matter what songs are being played. It'll be at that time that your wedding becomes forgettable. In an effort to avoid an annoying voice at your wedding, you'll want to read on because I don't want you to make the same mistake that so many couples have made in the past.

You'd think that being one of the top wedding DJs in the country who specializes in 80s music, I would have put together this type of selection of songs a long time ago. Well, truth be told, I've had this screenshot in my phone for probably close to a year as a reminder.  I'm very surprised that its taken me this long to put together this selection of 80s R&B Slow Jams for your wedding playlist. Inspiration for this playlist actually goes all the way back to a private event I DJ'ed back in October of 2018 out at Folly Beach at a house on the beach.  Despite this client having a very diverse taste in music,  the prevailing theme for the evening included a ton of the best 80s R&B slow jams.  Putting together this playlist brought back a ton of 80s memories, as most all of the songs you'll see were released when I was in elementary, middle, and high school.   If you are a fan of 80s music and want to explore some slow R&B jams that are perfect for the end of the night at your wedding, you'll want to read on.

 One of the major drawbacks today with the intense saturation that the wedding industry is seeing is the abundance of "wanna-be wedding DJs" who know absolutely nothing about what it takes to provide their clients with the best sound. There are so many amateur wedding DJs who have begun to call themselves a wedding DJ in recent years because they went online and joined an amateur wedding DJ group, bought a few cheap speakers, a controller and connected it to their laptop. Part of being a true professional wedding DJ is not only knowing the right song to play at the right time or having great, polished and professional voice to make announcements, but also to acquire "audiophile" tendencies when setting up and performing for their wedding clients.  You know I feel really sorry for my professional photographer friends. You can easily become a GWC (Guy With A Camera) or (Girl With A Camera) by buying something rather small and compact that can fit into a backpack. Perhaps there is a new slang for it, but GWC used to refer to someone who bought a camera and began to call themselves a photographer without any knowledge of aperture, shutter speed, or ISO. To be a true, professional wedding DJ these days, you've got to put some money into purchasing the big hardware. Unfortunately, "gear" is something that modern brides and grooms don't consider when hiring their wedding DJ, but they need to. 

Let me be blunt with you. I want very much to be your wedding DJ. The fact you've found me by way of this blog post means I am still able to attract the best modern brides and grooms who are power users with Google.  As a savvy business owner who has forged an impeccable reputation in one of the top wedding destinations in the country, I've developed this knack for "organically" finding some of the coolest couples on the planet. How did I do this? For over a decade now, I've set out to put together an amazing website with compelling and inspiring content. Guess what? It has worked brilliantly. Back in 2016, I forged a friendship and partnership with one of the best web designer / digital marketing consultants in SC.  It was at that time my website began a transformation into something brilliant and classy.  Over the years since that amazing transformation, I've attracted so many random clients that have provided numerous compliments on my website. They loved it's affluent, classy feel, and it's intuitive design. And most of all, brides and grooms have loved the fact they can snuggle under the covers together on a Sunday morning and log into my website and create their playlist. Sorry if I already mentioned this, but I want very much to be your wedding DJ.   Read on for the best tip to finding your wedding DJ.

As I sit in my office on this much chillier afternoon, I am finding myself smiling a lot as I reflect on the past year and all of the amazing clients who hired me to DJ their wedding in 2021.  Despite the COVID-19 pandemic still very much a factor, I got to work with some incredible brides and grooms.  Those brides and grooms decided to hire me as their wedding DJ because of the musical focus I put toward all of my performances.  Those brides and grooms are also couples who took the time to think seriously about how they wanted their wedding ceremony and reception to sound.  Since my clients come to me with very particular tastes, they have lofty expectations as to how they would like their music to be mixed.  Top wedding DJs are up to any challenge as it pertains to the music for their clients.  I am always up to the challenge of putting together the best mixed wedding playlists that don't sound like any wedding they had been to in the past. One of the ways this is done is by leaving the line dances off of their wedding playlist. What exactly would that type of wedding look like? 

Sometimes when I least expect it, I'll hear a song that will take me on a journey back in time. No matter where I am,  whether its a drug store or a grocery store, or even in my car, the desire to do more music research always hits me at the craziest times. Even as we kick off the second week of 2022, I'm finding that 90s music is as popular as ever. Whether its the alternative scene out of Seattle or the unforgettable R&B / hip-hop scene, 90s music is still in demand by brides and grooms.  This post will cover the very beginning of the 90s. While 1990 marked the end of my absolute favorite decade of music (the 80s), the music scene continued down the same path. That path would include some of the best soft rock songs of the 90s, dance music, rock, pop, and the scene oout of Seattle.  1990 was a year where the San Francisco 49ers were one of the best teams in NFL history,  a gallon of gas was around $1.34,  Seinfeld made its debut, and Home Alone was the biggest movie of the year.  Since it appears that this 90s music nostalgia period that we're in end never ended, modern brides and grooms should Hold On as Wilson Phillips sang and enjoy this rocket ride back to the year 1990.

You better believe that if a bride approaches me with an extreme level of enthusiasm about wanting me to be her wedding DJ, I will bend over backwards for her. Word-of-mouth referrals from fellow wedding vendors tend to spark that enthusiasm, but I'm tickled when they take things even further before we even have a chance to talk. How does a future client become so much more enthusiastic before we talk after they were referred to me?  They head over to my website and get buried in all the content I've created on my blog I've created over the years, and even listen to one of more episodes of The Mike Bills Podcast.  When I first spoke with Melissa about her upcoming wedding on Folly Beach in November, her enthusiasm was something so very refreshing. We talked for quite some time on the phone in early August and her excitement about my style as a wedding DJ definitely was apparent.  While I wish this would happen more frequently, I am non-traditional wedding DJ who is more concerned about "Quality" over "Quantity" as it pertains to my performances at weddings. You'll want to continue to read on to see how I put together their wedding playlist based on several different types of ethnic music selections. Melissa and Matthew's wedding on Saturday, November 27, 2021 (Thanksgiving weekend) on Folly Beach would be something very special.