No Macarena

Kim DJed our wedding this past weekend and totally surpassed my expectations. She had been communicative up until the day of, payment process was quick, easy and pretty reasonable and showed up early to the wedding. She was super flexible for the whole process. But the day of was even better. Everything ran smoothly because of her. She played what we had asked her to and threw in a bunch of others that had people dancing all night. Highly recommended!

Way back in 2009 when I attended my friend Jessica M’s wedding, I was so blown away by the DJ she hired that I sang their praises to anyone who would listen. A year or so later, at my girl Karen B’s wedding, we tore up the dance floor all night. Once again, No Macarena was responsible. I knew — KNEW — that they would one day DJ my wedding, and they were one of the first vendors I booked once my man and I set a date.
Kim, the owner, hooked us up with Jonas, who was amazing to work with. We had some venue changes a couple months out and he worked with our venue contact on logistics. I sent over the music request sheet a couple weeks out and we spoke on the phone to go over everything, including how to pronounce the names of everyone in our wedding party. I thought this was great and so thoughtful.
We were stuck on a final song and I told Jonas the song we wanted, but thought would be awkward because of a talking interlude. He sent me a version without the talking part, which is what we ended up going with — it was the perfect choice (Home, by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, in case anyone is curious)! Also, I asked Jonas to play my grandparents’ song, and he checked with me first to make sure they were ready and available for their dance. He really thought of everything.
My only advice would be to provide all of your song requests up front. Including songs that aren’t part of the reception but that you still want to hear on the dance floor. This will save you many trips to the DJ booth and will probably make the night easier for your DJ (sorry, Jonas, but thank you for being so great about all of my last minute requests!).

We had a wonderful experience with our DJ, Evan for our wedding reception! Evan had a good feel for what we wanted and kept things very low key. He played the music from our list and added some extra songs that fit perfectly with what we had going. Evan was kind, enthusiastic and seemed truly happy for us! He kept our guests happy by playing requests too. People were so thrilled by the music we had multiple requests for a copy of the soundtrack! Ha!
Evan also rolled with some tricky electrical problems at our site without worrying us and he easily set up speakers for indoor and outdoor music.
All around great, we highly recommend Evan from No Macarena!

Choosing to work with Kim Alexander, founder of No Macarena DJ & Custom Music Service, was one of the best decisions we made. I first reached out to Kim in December of 2013 for our October 2014 wedding — she was recommended by one of my coworkers, by one of the caterers we were considering, and by Adriana Robinson (site manager of our venue). She replied to my email on the same day with a copy of her standard contract and some additional site-​specific info on our venue.
I was sold on booking No Macarena, but my husband wanted to pursue hiring a friend. Four months later we were left high and dry. I frantically sent an email to Kim to see if she was still available. She was prompt in her response and four days later we sent her our $ 500 deposit. We loved how transparent Kim was with her fees, you won’t find any nickel-​and-​diming here.
Our wedding venue, the Colonial Dames, is a 2-​story, early 1920’s house with several beautiful, private gardens. We had our ceremony outside in the garden, moved inside on the first level for the cocktail hour, and then upstairs for our reception. Kim was with us every step of the way from ceremony prelude to the last song of the night.
Kim listened to our varied tastes — we requested Pride & Prejudice (BBC & motion picture) music as well as Nirvana, Texas is the Reason, and Alice in Chains — and tailored her selections to our crowd (30% baby boomers, 60% Gen X/​Y). Kim was phenomenal! She pulled back on the volume during our tapas style dinner so our guests could mix and mingle without having to shout at one another, then got the party started with some oldies (but goodies) when it was time to dance.
We highly recommend Kim and No Macarena.

DJ Jonas was fantastic! We couldn’t be happier with everything. He played all of our must-​plays, none of our do-​not-​plays, and a good sampling off of our other list of songs/​artists we like. Pretty much every song he played I was really excited about. Even the songs he played that weren’t on our list were songs we almost put on the list or really like… he did a great job of judging our and our friends’ musical taste. And he did a great job of getting and keeping everyone out on the dance floor… I think there were only 1 or 2 times when a lot of people sat down, and one of those was a special request that my husband had made for him and his friends. Our friends also commented how great the music was — my friend half-​jokingly asked if they could book him for their upcoming wedding (they’ve already booked another DJ unfortunately). All of our parents and some parents’ friends were out on the dance floor a lot too… Jonas did a good job of mixing different generations of music, catering to our play list of course. The wedding party intros were great too — he pronounced all of the names correctly, and we loved having a short clip of each of the songs we selected for the couples to come out to.
The only thing I’d have changed was the last song that was played — it was one of the few songs of the night that I didn’t recognize, and it was a fairly unmemorable song to end with. My husband and some of his friends knew it, but I would have liked more of a crowd-​pleaser for the last song (we didn’t specify a last song on our sheet).
Other than that though, DJ Jonas and the music was AWESOME. Several people said it was the best wedding they’ve been to, and I think the music and dancing played a big part of that. I think the best indication of how much people liked the music was when I saw our pastor and his wife jumping up and down singing to Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and he shouted «We love this music!!»
Kim at No Mac and Jonas were also really easy to work with and managed everything smoothly up through the big day. We had an initial call with Jonas to talk about what we were looking for, then had a follow-​up convo 2 weeks before to go over our lists and make sure we were ready to go. I was confident going into it that the music was going to be awesome, and Jonas exceeded those expectations.
Thanks so much for everything — I can’t say enough good things. And we’ll definitely recommend No Mac and DJ Jonas to our friends!

Kiiiiiiiiim!!! You made our event THE event of the year. Heading into our final wedding of 7 this year, which happened to be ours, as well as all the weddings yrs. prior had heard it all. We knew what we wanted, what we didn’t want & you read our minds!
No Macarena is exactly that and then some. No BS, everyday wedding DJ who goes through the motions and looks less then enthused. Kim brought her energy along with her one of a kind personality and all the right music!
My husband spent a good year creating a very very detailed music list for our ceremony, cocktail hr, dinner and reception and Kim took that list & some of her own and created a musical masterpiece!
Amen Kim! You rock!!!

In a letter sent to No Macerena 9 days ago… stlll awaiting a response…
We had seen your company used at another wedding, so were expecting close to perfection. Unfortunately, if someone asked me if we would recommend No Macerena or Josh in the future, we’d say no. Here’s why:
1. I don’t know if he wasn’t paying attention, but we had our first kiss, and were getting ready to walk and the recessional music hadn’t started yet. We had to wait for what seemed like a a very long time (maybe only 15 – 20 seconds, but a very awkward 15 – 20 seconds) for Josh to start playing the song.
2. Josh pronounced the best man’s name wrong for introcutions, even after going over it with my husband. He then said it right for his speech, but then wasn’t sure if he said it right, and pronounced it wrong… again.
3. He played the wrong version of your first dance song (a live version was played even after my husband gave him the exact file to play)
4. My husband forwarded and discussed with Josh the list of music we wanted played and the type of music we like. Consensus was made that for cocktail/​dinner he would just play music we had listed which we were fine with. We are both very eclectic and decided that we would really want to leave it up to Josh to keep everyone dancing and since we were paying a significant amount of money to have him as our DJ. The music that I definitely wanted played was higlighted and was about 1 hour worth of music. I felt like a marjority of what I listed was played and that Josh didn’t stray from that list really at all. In all honesty, I coud have done that myself on an Ipod and not have spent $ 1000+ to pay someone to do it.
On a positive note — our guests danced throughout the night and Joe and I both had an awesome night despite the screw ups.

After extensive research, we decided to hire No Macarena for our wedding DJ. Dave Beck was our DJ and he was great! I sent him a list of songs, and he really got the feel for what kind of music we were into. (Apparently one guest complained about how loud the music was, but I didn’t see the problem!) He kept everything on schedule (toasts, cake cutting, etc), and people were dancing all night. Highly recommended.

We were assigned Darrel Asbury as the DJ for our reception, since we were looking specifically for soul, R&B, rap, etc…
We sent a long list of songs (a handful we had to purchase ourselves and put them in an online drop box so they would get played). I assumed that Darrel would be able to get a feel for what we were looking for from our playlist.
The first hour was rough. I was really unhappy with the songs that were played. I had to tell him specifically what I did not want to hear. Things definitely improved with time (and drink).
My problem was the way Darrel responded to requests. He was rude to some of my guests. Hence the three stars.

No Macarena was affordable and easy to work with. D.J. Jonas from No Macarena D.J.ed our wedding on March 31, 2012. My husband and I have been to several weddings where, despite instructions otherwise, D.J.s will begin to play cheesy music totally out of sync with the couples’ style. We hired No Macarena hoping to avoid that and were not dissappointed.
Prior to the wedding we submitted a list of songs to D.J. Jonas. He called us and provided really good feedback on the list. He understood our taste in music and made a few good suggestions on songs we could add that would cater to some of our older guests, and also identified (1) songs he had or could get; (2) songs he did not have and/​or could not get (and provided us an opportunity to provide them); and (3) those songs for which he could not find «clean» versions. I truly appreciated being warned about non «clean» songs and provided an opportunity to decide if we still wanted them played (we did – just later in the evening).
At the wedding, D.J. Jonas was great. He really took charge of organizing our fairly large wedding party. He provided introductions for my husand and I and the wedding party. He also stayed true to playing our list of songs. The day after the wedding, one of our guests complained that D.J. Jonas, despite taking some requests from guests, refused to play the Kelly Clarkson song she requested. That is when I truly realized D.J. Jonas’s value! I am so glad he stuck to our tastes even when that required denying requests from our guests.

Awesome to work with, great music, flexible, reasonably priced. Everybody at our wedding had a blast and commented on our music selections! As advertised, there was no hokey music or lame group activities. Other than the bridal party intro and toast intros, the DJ stayed silent and just kept the dance floor active.
Bonus points for fact that the No Macarena DJ for our wedding was none other than Y100 YNOT’s Josh T Landow. I got to relive some local Philly 90’s rock! Josh did a great job!

I came on here to write a long glowing review of No Macarena and the amazing job they did at our wedding, but the two reviewers before me, Stephen and Jessica, already said it all.
I will say that it doesn’t surprise me, given how smart No Macarena is about music and how attuned to individual needs they are that one person can rave about them and say «All of the songs were recognizable and dance-​worthy, but none of them were annoyingly weddingish,» while another asked the same company for, and got, a «New Wave Dance Party.»
So I’ll just nod my head electronically in agreement. These guys are awesome. Dave Beck is super reliable, and he really made the reception happen.

Last October I attended two weddings in one weekend. Both weddings had almost the exact play list which gave you a sort of «Groundhog day» feel. During Kool and the Gang, i turned to my girlfriend and told her if we ever get married, promise we will have an alternative play list.
Fast forward eight months, and I am tasked at finding a DJ that will fulfill my wish. I had heard stories of Dj’s saying they will listen to your input, and just playing the standard wedding fare when the event comes. New to Unilocal,I shyly asked for suggestions for a good DJ who might play a alternative selection. Almost immediately, Meg C. responds with a link for No Macarena. Thus the love affair began.
No Macarena was by far the easiest and coolest of my vendors for the wedding. A simple email to reserve the date, send deposit and no bother till crunch time. Three weeks before the wedding, another email asking for all the request we would like to hear. We went with a heavy 80’s rotation mixed in with some disco and a few 60’s pop and rockabilly to shake up the flow. Dave Beck emailed back and said he had everything we requested.
Dave was simply amazing, he played all our request, and kept the dance floor filled the entire event. true to his word, he barely spoke but kept the tracks coming at machine gun pace. When some disturbed family members, and a misguided bridesmaid requested the «Electric Slide», he said he would only play it if the bride or groom ok’d it. the bride did OK it, and the groom sulked a bit. They really mean it if you tell them don’t play something. The last hour became an all out New Wave Dance Party worthy of Club Revival (if your old enough to remember that one), at the demand of the crowd. Dave kept pulling out more obscure black spiky haired rabbits out of his hat, causing most guest to have to soak their feet the next day.
So, thanks Meg, No Macarena is the easy answer if you give a shit about the music at your event.

Several months before my wedding a search of the Unilocal Talk archives for some DJ suggestions brought me to Meg C.‘s mention of No Macarena. I did a little further investigation (which wasn’t easy as there aren’t many reviews of this business out there) and everything I found was positive. The philosophy, songs and playlists on NM’s website looked like stuff I could get behind. My emailed request for availability was promptly returned by Kim Alexander Walsh (who runs the company) who agreed to travel from Philly to Atlantic City to DJ my wedding.
I provided pretty minimal info for Kim to run with. I emailed her the songs we wanted for special dances (I gave her the ones for my dance with my dad, but let her choose for cake cutting, garter toss, etc.), asked for Sinatra-​type standards for during cocktails, pointed her in the direction of her own web site’s list of contemporary dinner music for during lunch, and asked her to keep the guests dancing during the reception. She called a few days before the wedding just to touch base and verify all the info I had sent. She also offered suggestions for flow of the event (such as the best time to do the special dances) and to help with my husband’s difficulty choosing a song to dance to with his mom .
On the day of the wedding, the music was perfect. The volume was always appropriate: no one had to shout over their meals, and even when the dancing started, the non-​dancers could still carry on conversation. Those who did choose to dance (THIS twinkle-​toed bride included– I still have the blisters to prove it!) had an awesome variety to get down to. All of the songs were recognizable and dance-​worthy, but none of them were annoyingly weddingish. As the name suggests, there was no Macarena, no Chicken Dance, no Electric Slide. One song did sneak in at the end that had a dance to go with it, but I don’t think anyone would have been the wiser if not for my young cousins, who were eager to teach everyone the moves. And I was okay with that, because it made my cousins happy.
Really, Kim was one of the unsung heroes of (in my opinion) a perfect wedding day. She never talked, except to introduce the wedding party and announce all the weddingy stuff (special dances, garter, bouquet, cake), and even then, her voice was lovely and non-​intrusive. Things like cutting the cake almost felt like they were happening by subliminal suggestion rather than by a bossy DJ running the show.
Thanks, Meg C. for this fantastic recommendation! I could not be more satisfied with No Macarena!