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In Lebanon, wedding receptions are very common. But to prepare for it, as music provider, it takes quite a work. First of all, after meeting with the bride and the groom concerning the progress of their reception, the crew, myself (the DJ) and the manager all gather at the warehouse to pick up the necessary stuff for the party. After that, we head to the location where we start the assembling process. Some people are concerned of the dance floor where we basically put two bases of 18 inches each and two mid-highs of double 15 inches. The others take care of the sides where four speakers of 12 inches are put as two left and two right. The DJ takes care of "his table", a set of pioneer 1000 cdj with an American audio mixer, one "sure" microphone and one monitor speaker of 12 inches are his tools to take care of.

A normal wedding in Lebanon, which are 95% in the market, goes like that. First there's the welcome drink where people start coming, having their drinks and chatting. Here the DJ puts some nice chill out music or soft music. He has a choice between Buddha bar, Ibiza chill out, flamenco groove or even Lebanese music from Lebanese composers like Ziad el Rehbani, Gary Terzian who plays guitar and many others. After that, and when people are seated and ready comes the zaffet, the Arabian tradition of welcoming the bride and the groom. A CD is given to the DJ who plays it for the zaffet. First they do a folkloric dance on the dance floor, get the groom on a haysa "chill" music, with the groom go get the bride and come back to the dance floor with all the relatives and friends to do the final zaffet or the "dabke". When the Bride & the Groom are seated, the first dance is prepared. From the dry ice to the smoke machine, lighting, special effects and of course, the song. the new weds are redirected to the dance floor to perform their first dance and when finished, they open the buffet for people to start eating. During the dinner, the DJ plays some good old English, French and Arabic songs known by people who are enjoying their meals. 15 minutes after the dinner begun, the Bride & the Groom start their tables tour where they welcome people and thank them for participating in the ceremony. The DJ here is responsible of playing some high leveled songs but NOT dancing ones. when done, the dance floor is open. In Lebanon, Arabic songs are the hit. Starting with Nancy Ajram, Four cats or Shereen's songs is the best way to get people to the dance floor. mixing the songs and know when and where to play them is very important. The DJ has to please the majority of dancers to keep as many people on the dance floor surrounding the Bride & the Groom. At midnight comes the cake event. The new weds march to the cake, cut it, open the champaign bottle and have their toast to everyone during which the DJ plays the music they already agreed on. Coming back to the dance floor, the DJ invites ladies for the bouquet and then the gentlemen to the garter during which he also plays music that has been agreed on with the Bride & Groom. The dance floor is open again until people start leaving where the DJ comes back to the medium and chill out music. When everyone is out, the crew comes back again, unassembled the speakers where the DJ takes care again of "his table", drive back to the warehouse then everyone goes home.
This is an inner view of the parties here in Lebanon. My concern, every night, and what I LOVE to do, is to make people happy or most of them as you can never please 100% of the people. Hope you'll enjoy it with a little knowledge of what parties are like in LEBANON.

Learn more about this author, Fady Abdo.
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