5 DJs tell us all about what they got up to on their wedding days

Our weddings are supposed to be one of the best parties of our lives, so with their penchant for party-starting — what antics are DJs getting up to on their big days?. There are famous examples of course, from Ida Engberg and Adam Beyer hosting their afterparty at Berghain, to Annie Mac and Toddla T being married by DJ Sara Cox in Ibiza, dancing the night away with both the conga and a céilí. Whether a low-key, relaxed affair before the furore of a tour or an all-out-blow-out with celebrity party DJs and gospel house choirs to match — DJs take the same care in their wedding days as they do curating the vibes in their parties.

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We caught up with five DJs to talk about their unforgettable weddings, from traditional ceremonies in Ibiza, to black wedding dresses to an after-party at a taco restaurant — here's what they all got up to on their big day

"Our wedding was in 2018, we met in Berlin so you'd think that would be the obvious choice. But my wife Nicole is American and with me being British it was too complicated to get married in Germany. Also, German registry offices look like 70s office blocks, not very romantic, so we went for Copenhagen instead. It turns out Copenhagen is like the Las Vegas of Europe, the paperwork is super simple and the wedding ceremonies are pretty short. The town hall we got married at was beautiful, there were paintings everywhere — short ceremony but stunning. It was like Las Vegas too in that we got divorced a month later [laughs]."

"We kept the guest list short — probably ended up offending everyone [laughs], so it was just Nicole's parents, my brother and my auntie and uncle. We just wanted it to be us you know, no stress, no wondering how everyone else is enjoying it. Both of us wore black dresses, the concept of white dresses only came because of Queen Victoria, But in the past people would wear all colours — even black, you'd wear the same dress to your wedding as funerals, there wasn't the morbidity over black. So I thought it was fitting."

Afterwards, we went for a nice meal, we didn't play any electronic music or party tunes — it was Fleetwood Mac, Bowie, the Rolling Stones. For me and Nicole that's our romantic music. There wasn't an "after-party" per se, but 3 days later I was playing at Awakenings in the Netherlands, and my parents-in-law actually joined. Nicole's father loved it so much that he came to ADE all the way from the US not long afterwards, and the year after too. He's 75 now and he's become obsessed with techno — the day had a real effect on him. He'll message and say "Can you get me tickets to this festival, can I go and see Charlotte [de Witte]" and then at ADE he had a selfie with her, he's so proud bless him."

"We had our wedding in Southwest Ranches Florida on October 22nd 2016, which is where my wife is originally from. It was set on a beautiful ranch property that was filled with gorgeous banyan trees. We had our ceremony under one of the biggest trees on the ranch and hung up lanterns, crystals and a large Moroccan wedding blanket behind us. Arrangement wise we pretty much did everything you would expect from a wedding, but describing it doesn't necessarily do it justice as it was more about the feeling we all got from the shared experience. It was an incredible day that we will never forget! Some crazy stories from the wedding are a bit too private to share publicly, but I will say that it was very entertaining for my wife and me to witness a culture clash of our friends with our family, especially those more conservative family members. There were moments when people from these two groups were dancing and drinking together which brought us so much joy."

"There were tracks that had a big impact on the day. Our first dance tune was '(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You' by UB40, we cut the cake to O.T. Genasis 'Cut It', and the grand exit tune was 'I'm Different' by 2 Chainz. I had my friend Noah Dials DJ during the reception and my good friends Jesse Boykins III and James Farmer performed live. James covered a handful of classic Motown love songs which was super special and Jesse performed our song 'Wonder Years'.

"We threw our afterparty at one of our favourite Mexican restaurants called “I Love Tacos” conveniently located next to the hotel everyone was staying at. We brought a massive sound system in and Dials continued to DJ the party, he dropped my tune 'Gunshotta' and the room erupted. I ended up DJing at one point too and threw down a bunch of jungle and footwork, which was hilarious to see some of my family members wylin' out on the dancefloor for the first time to wild amen breaks. Things got a little out of hand when everyone discovered that MeLo-X had snuck in the jug of pre-made “Green Tea” shots from the reception which had god knows what in them. After a friend got “punched” in the face by a table, we decided to call it a night and Lexi and I snuck off to have our first night alone together as a married couple."

"We wanted our day to just be a big party. The ceremony was nice but we cut out the parts that tend to make the day drag — the fake signing of the marriage certificate, kept speeches limited etc. We booked SK Vibemaker to play, one of the most underrated party DJs in my opinion. Just had everyone dancing the whole time. We had some fancy venue and they tried to say we had to book one of their own DJs but there was no chance that was happening.

"My wedding was in Ibiza in 2013 and it was a traditional-ish church service and the reception was at the beautiful Hostal Salinas just off Salinas beach, with Maxxi Soundsystem being the default wedding DJ (everyone else who had agreed to DJ on the night got too pissed so we left him to it haha)"

"The afterparty was a little rowdier though... At the time we were residents at We Love Space (now Hï) and they gave us one of the smaller rooms ‘El Salon’ to host our ‘Wedding party’ which was a crazy as it sounds as Dixon, Amé live & Henrik Schwarz live were in the room next to us the contrast was pretty stark — a wedding do inside a 7000 capacity super club, with full-on embarrassing wedding bangers mostly served up by Ryan Shaw of Masters Sounds. I’d love to say it was an evening of beautiful music selection with impeccable taste... but.

"Sarah Broadbent one the of We Love promoters summed it up best the next day saying it was the best atmosphere she had ever seen in that room and at the same time the worst music she had ever heard… make of that what you will."

"We managed to get married just ahead of the pandemic which I'm very fortunate for, as it meant we could make lots of special arrangements. The House Gospel Choir performed some of me and my wife Sarah's favourite songs right after our ceremony, so it was straight in from there really. They even did a re-make of my track 'Techno Disco Tool' which was pretty funny! We also had carnival stalls like ‘hook a duck’ and ‘coconut shy’ and love-themed crazy golf and hired a casino that included fake money printed with photos of me and my wife which was pretty jokes!"

"Our good friends Reju, Annie Mac, Jack Beats, Toddla T and Denis Sulta DJ’d at night so it was almost like a festival line up - the stately home we got married in didn’t know what had hit them, but they loved it! I made my own mix of Vybz Kartel's 'Yuh Love' and Beyoncé's 'Drunk In Love' for our first dance. When Annie Mac and Reju were playing our friend Reju who was also the master of ceremony for us got on the mic and our families do a dance-off. Our parents were smashing it to be honest and then my wife came running downstairs in a huge pair of LED neon wings that her friends had bought her as a wedding present.

"Music was a huge influence on our day and we considered every track that was played at every point throughout the day. We walked down the aisle to Minnie Ripperton's 'Loving You'. The after-party was pretty wild, we created a little dance floor in an area where they wouldn’t usually have one but we thought it created a little cosy dancefloor similar to Pikes vibe. The Lord and Lady (that live in the stately home) sleep not too far away and they said their beds were bouncing. I remember looking at the dancefloor as Denis Sulta was playing and it being a full-on rave with both our parents and families on the dancefloor with hands in the air. My wife and I didn’t get involved in the after-after parties but we heard some amazing stories from our friends including one climbing over a wall to get in to their hotel when in fact the gate was open.

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Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter