I have to admit that I was a bit of a control freak when it came to our music. We had an 80s/90s dance party for our rehearsal dinner, a wedding ceremony with a mixture of live music and background tracks, a cocktail hour consisting of travel-themed songs and of course dinner and dancing music for our wedding reception. For all these events, we had selected songs to be played. We left nothing to chance.

The night before our wedding, in lieu of a rehearsal dinner, we had a 80s/90s dance party and it was a big hit! Everyone said the DJ was so great (I had selected each and every song) but his transitions were done really well! I was so glad he knew what he was doing! However, we arrived about 10 minutes late and I noticed that the songs the DJ was playing our cocktail hour songs (they were supposed to be played the next day). Our hotel wedding coordinator introduced us to the MC, Luis, who was very friendly and sweet. We mentioned that the DJ was playing our songs for tomorrow and he quickly had the DJ change to our 80s and 90s playlist. Since it was early in the party, no one was dancing yet, so it wasn't a huge deal but it was an overlooked detail by DJ Mannia's team. Again, we had sent this listing to Joann in advance so it didn't take too long for the DJ to switch gears. Luis did a great job that evening and the DJ was on point once the right playlist was used. We also got a lighted dance floor from DJ Mannia and it really was a fun addition to our throw-back dance party theme. Every guest had a stellar time!

For our wedding ceremony the next day, we hired DJ Mannia's sound system and brought our own playlist on my iphone. This also included background tracks for my singer to sing along to during the processional. I communicated with Joann from DJ Mannia and she was very responsive and helpful. My singer was even willing to bring her own microphone because DJ Mannia was only providing 1 microphone. Everything worked out perfectly except that the wireless microphone that DJ Mannia brought ran out of battery towards the end of my ceremony. It wasn't too big of a deal, but it should definitely be noted since you have to pay for this sound system separately from their DJ services. I would hope that in the future, they test their equipment and make sure the batteries and such are good enough to last a 30-minute ceremony. It should also be noted that I had a cousin sit with the sound system operator to ensure all the cues were done right and my cousin basically controlled the iphone playlist. Again, the music was very important to me so I made sure that we didn't leave much up to chance.

For cocktail hour, we selected a set of songs that were travel-related (since we had a travel-themed wedding) and for dinner, we selected songs that were some of our favorite songs but too slow for the dancing portion of the reception. Those went off without a hitch! Same with our first dance song, our cake cutting song, our father-daughter dance song (and they even faded the song out early as I had requested) and the bouquet toss song! They really stuck to the requests I had made and kept to the script!

In addition, all the dance songs played were from our listing that we had provided in advance to Joann. Again, the DJ did a great job making the transitions between songs seamless and effortless. It was such a great time! Luis, our MC from the dance party was also there and he was cordial and funny! We also had fireworks towards the end of the night (which was a surprise for our guests). I had pre-selected a song for the fireworks and they played it exactly as I had imagined it. At a perfect moment in the song, the fireworks went off! It was crazy!

Overall, I think DJ Mannia team did a fantastic job. I was so happy that Joann and Luis were both a pleasure to work with. We didn't interact with the DJ directly because Luis was our liaison but the whole team on site seemed very friendly and we exchanged many smiles throughout the night. There were a few hiccups as mentioned above, (which I believe could have been prevented) but in general they are so awesome to work with and I highly recommend them for people who are a bit more hands-on with their wedding music!