We need a DJ for the wedding.  Which inexplicably is now less than 7 months away.  I just noticed that on the nagging countdown timer on the upper right corner of this page & now I’m completely distracted & panicked.

What was I talking about?

Oh, DJ.  So, I’ve realized throughout this wedding planning process that I’m a smidge of a control freak.  Maybe not control freak so much, it’s just this: when I do things, I know they’re done. And most likely perfect.  When anyone else does things, I have a sneaking suspicion that they are completely opposite of what I would ever want.

Having learned this about myself, and having come to terms with the fact that I do not have the 47 hours in a day required to do all this stuff myself, I made a list of things I could live without controlling.  Things that, should I put them in the (legitimately) capable hands of my fiance & should they (inexplicably) go horribly awry, I could live with the aftermath.

So he got the DJ pick.  We have utterly opposite taste in music so finding someone who could make us both happy was going to be a job within itself. 

I had one rule.  And I wanted it in writing.  If the DJ plays “The Chicken Dance”, he is not getting paid.  Period.  We are not traditional people, we are not having a traditional wedding & I do not want any hint of traditional cheeseball DJ antics.  Despite our painfully opposite music taste, this we completely agreed on. 

After hours of research & reviews, Richie found a clear front runner & we set up a meeting with Scratch Weddings (http://scratchweddings.com). Here’s what I dug about them:

1) Scratch has over 700 skilled, trained, marquee-level DJs nationwide who have done over 15,000 events for over six million guests.

2) They’ve collaborated with Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Snoop Dogg & Michael Jackson. (Seriously- good enough for Snoop, good enough for me.)

3) Scratch Weddings offers the option to select from a number of DJs paired to each couple based on their personal style, taste and musical interests with online access to DJ bios, photos, videos and music mixes.

4) Couples are assigned a professional wedding music manager to work with them, their wedding planner, venue and their DJ to handle all musical details of their wedding.  There’s guaranteed DJ replacement in the event of an emergency and liability insurance.

5)  Scratch Weddings earned the 2011 “Bride’s Choice Award” on WeddingWire, the 2011 “Best of Weddings” award on The Knot and consistently receives five out of five stars on sites like Yelp.

Personally, I like that there are hundreds of DJs. So god forbid a freak chainsaw accident happened and our DJ was unable to spin a record, they’ve got backups on deck.  And Richie is geeking out over the fact that they have a DJ school founded by Jam Master Jay of Run DMC.  In fact, he kind of wants to enroll.

So we’re going with Scratch! 

Here’s what’s cool- based on their first impressions of our (impossible) musical tastes, they emailed us links with bios & pics* for their top 6 recommended DJs:

DJ Trife: http://bit.ly/kE9S6U

DJ Vida Ventura: http://bit.ly/zB5EZb

DJ Dan Chaves: http://bit.ly/ks5wTA

DJ Stef Nava: http://bit.ly/zy36zG

DJ Jon Blak: http://bit.ly/ApHuJA

DJ Alias: http://bit.ly/mcoSjA

*Um, I’m sorry but pics are IMPORTANT! Call me some hybrid of insecure &/or shallow, but I am SO not having the stereotypical NYC supermodel DJ spinning our wedding. Because I’m a chick. And I’m allowed to be occasionally irrational about these things.

The next step is to narrow down those DJs based on their mixing styles (check it out- they really do have different vibes!).  Then we’ll go in and meet with our fave who will spin live for us.  How cool is that?!  I’ll take some video of it & share with you guys on here.

Best of all, they’re completely on board with our “no chicken dance” policy.