If you’re in that vast wasteland between engagement and marriage, chances are you’re planning your dream wedding. Or—if you’re a guy, you’re planning HER dream wedding. Or—if you’re a guy like me, you’re putting off planning HER dream wedding.
Cost-Ineffective
You may or may not have noticed by now, weddings are expensive. I mean really, really, expensive. Even a modest one can set you back thousands of dollars. We figured out pretty early on that we couldn’t afford a fancy soiree, with all the bells and whistles, but we didn’t want to just shuffle over to the courthouse and file the paperwork, either. So every little detail, every facet of the event had to be re-scrutinized. We made a game out of it, in fact.
The Soundtrack To Your Day
If you’re looking to save money, and want to make your special day just as memorable to your guests as it will be to you, consider the time-honored art of Karaoke. Not only is it a cheap alternative to hiring a band, it’s an interactive event that’s fun for all the reception guests. It’s a healthy compromise between a lame DJ that’s not much better than an iPod, and a band that may only know a few crappy songs.
A Game You’re Not Supposed To Win
A wedding is filled with people who most likely don’t sing karaoke all that often. There are dedicated karaoke bars, or bars that have “karaoke night,” but those tend to bring out a certain kind of person—the talented singer who wasn’t good enough to make a career out of singing, and is resentful that they didn’t. All week, this person plots and schemes, picking the right songs and practicing their scales, so come Friday night, they show up with a plan.
This person, more often than not, will bide their time, letting everyone take a turn, and then, once everyone has completed an embarrassing song or two, he/she will belt out a rendition that puts all the other performances to shame. The applause and attention that follows is what this person lives for, but they forget one important detail:
You’re supposed to suck.
Karaoke is not a skill, it’s a game. It has an inherent lack of pretension to it. It’s what you do with both friends and strangers when you’re a little (or a lot) drunk, and you want to have fun. So if you do decide to make this a part of your wedding plans, just make sure you don’t invite “that guy.”
To DJ, Or Not To DJ?
We opted to hire a relatively inexpensive karaoke DJ, who basically emcee’d the event. He was great, he kept the mood pleasant with lots of song suggestions, and he even got the party started with a couple tracks himself (nobody ever wants to be the first one up on the stage). We played fun games, paired random people together, and even changed some lyrics to personalize song dedications.
It was a great event that offered a nice break from the sappy emotional stuff, like the speeches and the vows and whatnot. When people remember our wedding years later, they always comment on how much fun it was to sing karaoke—we’ve even inspired a few couples to include it in their own wedding plans! So feel free to do the same—just remember to dedicate a song to me.
Image Credit: ShutterShock
Brady Kinsgly is a freelance writer based in San Diego, California. Current projects include various magazines and internet based companies such as Instant Checkmate.
