The importance of the MC at your reception

I have done over 1575 events and weddings and if It’s one thing that I have learned, organization is key to having a fun filled and smooth reception.

One of the biggest mistakes a bride and groom can do is to not have an MC for their reception. Your MC is the organizer, troubleshooter and liaison between your vendors, venue manager and guests at your wedding reception. It is a very important job and you really need one. Here are a few examples why.

I have heard of DJs reporting the evening going well at a reception. The cocktail and dinner music have been going smoothly and the first inkling of trouble begins to appear when the venue or building manager runs the DJ wanting him to make a major announcement and the bride and groom have been too cheap to pay for MC services from their DJ. Needless to say there’s going to be a problem with that. If you have your own MC, it eliminates building managers, bartenders, staff and yes even guests running to the DJ to make announcements while the DJ is trying to concentrate on the music and is not prepared to make all of these announcements let alone who they are from or what is going on. Having the bartender run over and tell the DJ to make last call can have implications if the bride and groom were not expecting it at the time it was told to the DJ to announce.

Another instance where I have heard that an MC is invaluable is when there is trouble with the guests. In one instance that was related to me, everything was going well until the dancing portion of the evening began. The bride and groom had requested a specific song they wanted to start the evening of dancing off with and as the DJ began playing it, a very drunk and enraged father-in-law rushed up to the DJ station and tried to destroy a $2000 computer because he didn’t like the song that was being played. Much to the embarrassment of all, the DJ was forced to stop the music and request help. If there had been an MC, they could have been watching and intervened in a much more unobtrusive manner and possibly defused the situation without many guests being the wiser.

These are just a few key scenarios where an MC comes in mighty handy at a reception. Some bride and grooms expect the organizational aspect of their wedding reception to just magically come together and seem to think because the DJ has a microphone and a PA system, that it is the DJs job to coordinate all the many different aspects of their reception. This is something that is quite difficult for a DJ, who is not prepared, to accomplish. Either pay your DJ to do the MC work so that they can come prepared and organized do that job as well as the DJ responsibilities, or find a person who will act as your MC to do it.

Your MC is the cornerstone of having a smooth running reception. In the many wedding receptions that I have had the pleasure of DJ-ing, the handful of events that have the most trouble were the ones where no MC was present. Never underestimate the importance of an MC at your event and you will have a much smoother and fun filled function.