Ipod weddings are simply disastrous. I spent some time up in North Carolina where I was witness to not one, not two, but three beach weddings. Yes, three weddings. Two of which decided to go the Ipod route and both of those weddings were disastrous from an audio perspective, but Wedding 3 opted for a ceremony guitarist and live DJ through a PA and it went flawlessly. I understand the desire for brides to cut corners and save money on their weddings, but the beach brings additional elements that people just don’t understand and seem to be oblivious to.
The first thing to know about a beach wedding is that it’s the one place in the world that can be loud and relaxing at the same time. You will almost never use those two words in the same sentence and the beach is the only place where it certainly rings true. The waves crashing on the beach can be very loud, very relaxing, but also create an audio nightmare.
Wedding One
The bride decided to use an Ipod and instead of a PA to patch it through, she used one of those bedside units that you put your Ipod into and set on your nightstand for your listening pleasure. She expected to bring that to a beach and have a crowd of 50 people hear it over the crashing waves and also the additional element of playing it against the wind. Yes, that happened. I watched it. To make matters worse, the bride gave the responsibility of running it to someone who had no idea how to operate an Ipod. As you can imagine, it went badly and the rest of the ceremony went without music. The death of wedding number one. Beautiful couple, nice as can be, but I’m sure she would want you to learn from her bad experience.
Wedding Two
For Wedding Two, a hired DJ who goes by the name of a farm animal thought enough to make sure that there was a PA for the Ipod to play through. However, it stopped working mere minutes before the ceremony was to start, but then magically started working again seconds before the wedding party proceeded down the beach path. There were 3 songs to play during the ceremony entrances; one for the parents/grandparents, one for the bridal party, and one for the bride.
Once the Ipod started working again, the DJ began the song for the parents/grandparents entrance, but neither he (or the wedding planner) accounted for the fact that a couple of the grandparents had to trudge through 15 feet of soft white sand with canes and walkers to get to their seats. So as their song came to an end, the bridal party song began to play before the grandparents were even seated. The DJ then proceeded to holler (no joke) up to the bride on the dune to ask what he should do and the bride hollered back (no joke) that he should play the parent song again. The DJ clicked the back button once which then started to play the bridal party song from the beginning again (and not the parent song which was the track before it). Three seconds in, the DJ realized it was still the bridal party song and, yet again, clicked the back button only one time which again started the bridal party track over. He then realized that he must click the button twice and on that third try, the parents song started again. Less than 10 seconds later, the parents and grandparents were all seated. And there was yet one more instance as the wedding came to a close and the newly married bride and groom walked back down the aisle…to the bridal party entrance song. The death of wedding #2.
Forget The Ipods
When I first heard the ramblings of wedding DJ’s and bands discussing how bad Ipod weddings were, your first gut reaction is to assume monetary reasons. And while that may be true, I personally watched 2 out of 3 weddings die a very painful and embarrassing death at the hands of Ipods and quickly realized that out of all of the corners you can cut, this should not be one of them. Most people will say to themselves, “Oh, but I’ll make sure that the person running it knows what they’re doing.” and I can guarantee that little to almost no thought was put into the music at the first two weddings I attended. People who opt for an Ipod wedding not only expect to save money, but also time in their wedding planning when the exact opposite is true. If you opt for an Ipod wedding, expect the worst, because it’s much better to have a band or DJ thinking about the music and not you as the bride. While there was a DJ involved in the second wedding, his utter lack of professionalism created an audio fiasco and great embarrassment for the bride.
If you’re a bride planning a wedding, please opt for a wedding DJ or band instead of an Ipod. There are ALWAYS mistakes that happen and it’s just a matter of how noticeable they are. And if you hire a DJ, find out what he/she will be doing for each moment of the event and how they’ll be doing it. A professional wedding DJ will know how to handle a difficult situation as it occurs and won’t need to involve you or your guests in doing their job. Just stay away from Ipods in your weddings, because they are simply an awful choice. This is your big day, so don’t leave it in the hands of technology that’s designed for personal use.
Weddings should be a big day, but people fall prey to some of these very popular wedding scams. Here are the ones that are the most popular scams and that are infuriating brides all over the world.
It seems easy. Grab a price gun, zap what you want and walk away. The store documents what you scanned, tells your wedding guests and they buy it and as they buy it, it gets marked off the list as purchased. Seems easy enough. But in some cases, the store will quote the bride one price and then charge their guests and family something else. This is a very common trick that bridal registries and stores will scam your guests with because there typically isn’t anyone watching them or keeping track of what prices they quoted. Ask the store for a written policy, go to well known stores like Target or Outlet centers, or just ask for gift certificates and do it yourself.
The scam is really surprisingly prevalent in the tons of various limo agencies that are out there. They use limo photos of vehicles that they don’t even own. You request a stretch limo and you get a Black Cadillac or worse that they don’t show. The fix? Make sure that the contract specifically says what you’re getting. If you want a 20 seat Hummer limo, make sure that it says “20 seat Hummer limo” and not just “large limo”. Make sure the contract also reflects the date the service is to be provided, the time frame you’ll be using the service, arrival time, address of both the church and the bride, the reception and anything else that you can think of. As for the vehicle switch, physically go and inspect the vehicle on a weekday around lunch time when the vehicle will actually be there and inspect it. Is it nasty and smelly? Does it have torn and stained seats? The most important thing is to verify that it’s even there at all. If there’s a specific one you want, that would also be a good time to snag that license plate number. As for the no-show limo, check their references and your local Better Business Bureau for any lodged complaints.
6.) You’re Not Ansel Adams!
The bride takes the diamond ring in to be cleaned and when she gets it back, it just doesn’t look the same. It has flaws or cracks in it and is obviously not the same diamond. When she goes back, what do you think she hears? Everything short of “you’re crazy” and “you’re mistaken, but that IS your diamond. “ How do you protect yourself? Believe it or not, the original jeweler can etch a serial number into the diamond girdle. You can then have the jeweler doing the cleaning write down the serial number onto the invoice. That way they have documented what they received and can’t switch it out. Alternately, you can also bring your diamond grading certificate so that you can match the flaws originally documented with what you’re getting back.
As you can see, there is a common thread in avoiding these scams and most all of them are “get it in writing”. Everything down the dirtiest detail needs to be documented and signed off on. This is your big wedding day. It’s not enough to just choose a 
Ok, I’m about over it. I’ve heard multiple suggestions on multiple budget wedding tip articles (even including ones posted here) about various ways to cut corners during the wedding ceremony. And ALL of them, not just some of them, but ALL of them put the wedding music on the list as things you should cut corners on. And ALL of them threw out the suggestion of using an Ipod instead of a band or DJ. Let me tell you how bad of an idea that is on all accounts.
Wedding vendors from every walk of profession including wedding photographers, caterers, florists, DJ’s, bands and others got a free handout from the television show Get Married. The Lifetime TV show opened its doors wide for 
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