Wedding DJ refuses to skip song the bride hates, 'the rest of our songs were modern.'
Working a wedding isn't always the romantic and fun shift you'd imagine, sometimes it means getting screamed at by a bride who is 3 champagnes deep...
So, when a conflicted wedding DJ decided to vent to the moral compass of the internet otherwise known as Reddit's 'Am I the As*hole' about an angry bride and Elvis, people were dying for the details.
AITA (Am I the As*hole) for playing a song the bride didn't like?
I'm 28M and I'm a DJ for various events. Proms, corporate events, even weddings, which this story happens to be about.
I meet with the bride and groom about 2 weeks ago to finalize the song list. I show them my usual wedding playlist and remove the songs they don't like or want off of it, add in some non-love songs that they like, the whole normal business.
Wedding took place this past Saturday. Reception happens and we're off with my wedding playlist, with some other songs thrown in that fit what the couple said their music tastes were.
About an hour and a half in, Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley comes on, which is on my wedding playlist. Bride stares at me and groom comes over to ask me to skip it as she doesn't like the song.
They didn't mark it off during the meeting where we finalized the song list, but hey, people miss things sometimes. I'm completely willing to believe they could've just skimmed the list and didn't catch everything.
Well, skipping a song in the middle of it is kind of weird and throws off the flow. I try to avoid doing so as much as I possibly can. I tell the groom that they didn't tell me to leave it out, but the song is short so sorry, but she'll survive.
Bride calls me last night and screams at me for including the song. I reminded her that she did not tell me to take it off the list, so it stayed and got played.
She says something about how 'only OLD PEOPLE listen to Elvis and the rest of our songs were modern so you should've figured it out.'
And yeah I could've skipped it but abruptly skipping a song throws everything off as I said before. AITA or is she a bridezilla?
Later, he edited the post to include:
EDIT: Okay there's something a lot of you are fixating on that I'm gonna try to be clearer about: mixing or fading it into another song. For wedding sets I play every song in its entirety, so one song getting cut in half would result in people noticing, even if I faded it out.
It's happened to me in the past, where people would come up to me and ask why I cut it, even if I faded it into another song. I definitely could've done better to explain that, I'll admit.
It's not hard to do, it's just that I get too many questions after the fact if I do it. 'Aw, why'd you cut it short?' So yeah. That's my reason. Hope it's clearer now.
Here's what the jury of internet strangers had to say:
greenseraphima said:
Uhh I find it hard to believe that you're a professional DJ who can't make a quick transition to another track. YTA.
Music_withRocks_In said:
IT'S FOR THE BRIDE!!! Bride makes a request, you do it even if it's somewhat jarring. Some people play the chicken dance at their weddings and I find that a lot more jarring than a song cut out. They are paying you, it can be jarring or have a messed up flow if they want it to be.
If it was a random guest I would get blowing them off because you don't want to upset the wedding couple with a weird flow, but not the actual bride and groom requesting it.
Ol-faithful said:
I'm going with ESH. Could she have reacted better? Sure. Did she have to scream at you? No. But this situation could have been very much avoided if you just did what the groom asked during the wedding.
It's their wedding, not yours. Does it really matter if the 'flow' is thrown off if it's their wedding and they're paying you..? He asked you to skip it, you could have just skipped it.
'She'll survive' is a very strange attitude to take towards someone who's paying you to DJ their wedding. Just skip the song. You get paid, she doesn't sit through a song she doesn't like, everyone's happy.
GlaxenFlux said:
You were being paid to play songs the bride and groom wanted. They asked you to skip a song but you decided you wouldn't because you didn't want to 'throw off the flow.'
That's bullsh%t, no one is going be talking about the DJ skipping a song, they're going be talking about the DJ who ignored thier customer's request and how no one should hire him. YTA.
BBMcBeadle said:
YTA. 'Sorry she'll survive?' Dude you are in the customer service industry. Even if you think she is a witch and it is their fault you need to adjust and rebound. People are there to celebrate the bride and groom, not your vibe.
7thatsanope said:
YTA. You aren’t an ahole for playing it when it was on the playlist and they didn’t cross it off, but you are the AH for not skipping it once they told you to skip it.
It’s the bride and groom’s big day and if they want you to skip a song that’s been started, you skip the song. It wouldn’t throw anything off if you just smoothly transitioned into the next song like the professional you’re supposed to be.