Response from DJ Vybe

Hi Danielle, it was a pleasure being your DJ of choice! Your cousins were hi-fiving me all night, and your family, had nothing but good things to rave about during and on the way out, and I had a great time as well.

I wish to clarify and address your concerns in the order written…

Yes I called you 2 weeks before the wedding, as I do with all formal event bookings to finalize the timeline and script for your wedding day. I mentioned during that conversation that your booking’s ceremony was only contracted for 30 minutes, starting music at the beginning of the ceremony, yet your returned questionnaire had checked-off that you wanted prelude music for the ceremony, and I explained that would be additional time adding $75 to the balance. You were ok with it and approved. However on the night of your wedding your husband stated he never approved of that nor was he aware of the extra. After a few minutes of back & forth, I opted to avoid the argument and forget about the additional owed — which by your own above statement it was communicated and understood. I can only hope this wasn’t a deliberate act to avoid paying the balance in full.

As for the brief delay at the ceremony; what I said to your husband was that the officiant didn’t end the ceremony as normally done throwing me off. Normally, after the bride and groom kiss, the couple is then turned to the crowd and the officiant will present the newlywed couple to the families with something like “ladies and gentle I present Mr. & Mrs. John Doe” (this would be my cue for the music and crowds cue to cheer). However, your officiant, after saying “you may kiss your bride”, awkwardly moved herself and the microphone to the side saying nothing. The room as a whole wasn’t sure if that was the end, and your husband turning to her and asking the officiant “are we done” only reinforces that. But I do apologize.

The Ribbon In The Sky Remix song play was my error totally, and I did apologize for that oversight when arranging your dinner playlist in preparation. But it honestly wasn’t the “horrific blunder” you were making it out to be, as communicated to me via your wedding planner. And I guess I may have shrugged my shoulders with the wedding planner, but not as an act of disrespect or lack of caring — it just seemed like a small thing to focus on at the moment when: 75% of the guests weren’t in the room yet when it played, things overall were running 35+ minutes behind schedule due to the ceremony late start and kitchen running behind on salad course. But again my apologies.

As for requesting of the playlist, this is correct, I do not provide a text version of my playlists, this is for several reasons: (a) it is impossible to identify what I will play exactly. If an event is 4 hours long the playlist I use will cover about 12-16 hours of music. So you end up with (b) a playlist where 60% of the music won’t be played, (c) there’s no guarantee I will play strictly from that playlist rather than freestyle from my library of 160K songs, as I am paid to read the crowd, and (d) the export from my DJ software of the playlist is not friendly to the eyes for easy reading of it, it literally looks like gibberish.

I also re-explained what is written in my contract and the booking email, that all song requests must be sent 30 days in advance of the event, or they (meaning only bride & groom since they stated “take no requests”) can request songs on the spot, if I have it I will play it. There’s nothing unreasonable about this.

2 days before the wedding you did request a change to the script intro song via the wedding planner, and I accommodated that change confirmed via email, and explained there could be no more script changes because I was already out on the road DJing 2 other events prior to your Sunday wedding, which is not unreasonable. I told her I would not be in a position to read nor react to more desired changes while on the road as I won’t be checking email. Again the change isn’t about a song, it is about the script that you and the wedding planner reviewed and approved 2 weeks before the wedding.

As for overall music play…on your paperwork you requested “(Dinner: Slow Jams, 90s thru 2020 R&B & Pop), (Dancing: 90s thru 2020s Hip-Hop, Twerk, Mainstream Pop, Reggae and Bachata)”. However, at the reception you sent your maid of honor over to tell me to change it up to mostly 90s R&B, which I did. I gave you what you asked, and dancing I evenly split the 3 decades. Your crowd and wedding was jumping and live with old and new music all night, and if you play back the tape you’ll see nearly every song I played during dinner had everyone singing along at the seats, standing or bar, especially the ladies. I will admit that I stopped playing bachata because no one was feeling it, which is not really that unusual with a 95% African-American crowd. There were several requests for Calypso, which I kindly declined because of the “take no request” rule you checked off; I tried to find the wedding planner quickly to get it approved thru you, but I discovered she left before the wedding was over and you weren’t visible, either.

My apologies again that you feel I didn’t meet your expectations. I try to give my best to everyone.

Response from DJ Vybe

Thanks for the good but perplexing review, Yvette — I only wish we could’ve dialogued about these concerns 1 of the several times during the evening that I checked in with you. My apologies that I didn’t score 5 stars with you, which is unusual considering the amazing feedback your guests gave, the many business cards people took, and the generous gratuity your husband gave.

To clarify with some insight, I was easily flexible with the last minute venue change to use a venue that would allow dancing and accommodate the larger than lawfully permitted crowd. But upon arrival I noticed we were in a smaller, tighter space without proper social distancing; then the owner directed me to not play music loudly to avoid encourage dancing, as they were nervous about losing their liquor license, per November’s COVID order. These 2 things coupled together caused me to be concerned and less engaging than normal, or as you put it “standoff-ish”.

I received 5 songs requests the entire night, 3 of them I played, the other 2 were African songs, which I do not carry, nor was it a genre you requested on the booking agreement. Not sure how fair it is to knock off 2 stars for a genre I never stated I offer nor received advanced request for. I was also a little taken back that guests that were making the requests were approaching close-contact without wearing a mask or something. It would seem that my concerns were justified due to the fact that you called me 5 days afterwards to inform me that a guest there did test positive for COVID.

This COVID stuff is a new thing that we are all trying to do our best navigate safely. And as a DJ I have to be ten times as cautious to make sure that I am not the cause of the viral spread, getting it at an event this week and then carrying it to another the following week. But as you said, “all the guests had a great time and the party was amazing all in all with people dancing the night away”. It was a pleasure to play your daughter’s Sweet 16 and delivering on the Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Reggaeton and Hip-Hop.

Response from DJ Vybe

Thanks for the review, Natausha. I thought we reached an understanding of what was going on for your daughter’s party. After voicing a concern about the music, I asked you to stand beside me while I demonstrated that the issue was NOT the music. I played 4 tracks, 2 of them the same; clean version then dirty version, next track clean then dirty. The kids would only dance to dirty and explicit song lyrics in Hip Hop, Twerk and Reggae — they were basically interested in a freak off type of party more like a strip club. Prior to the event you expressed that you wanted clean lyrics, nothing crazy. Well, teenagers coming to her party had something different in mind – which is bound to happen for a publicly advertised Sweet 16 party.

I’ll admit for me as a DJ playing really dirty and sexual lyrics for a party comprised of 11 to 16 year olds made me uncomfortable. Kids lacked self control and respect for the adults that were there. Totally ghetto hood.