Orthodox Jewish Wedding Music in Los Angeles

Before the chuppah comes the kabbalas panim, the reception before the ceremony, and it runs in two rooms. The kallah sits on her chair and greets the women; in another room the chassan's tish — the groom's table — fills with friends, rabbis and singing. Many families keep the tish to the voices of the people in it, while the kallah's side has soft background music.

When the chassan is brought to the kallah for the badeken — the moment he lowers her veil — the walk is usually loud with singing, and Od Yishama is a familiar choice. We agree with you beforehand whether recorded or live music plays during that walk, or whether the room is left to the singing of the guests.

The chuppah is where the music matters most and is heard least: soft melodies while the families walk down, a separate song for the kallah, and quiet while the blessings are said. Mi Bon Siach and Mi Adir are long-standing chuppah niggunim; Chabad families often walk the chassan in to Daled Bovos; others ask for Basi Legani, Ani Maamin or a Carlebach melody. Some families have a chazzan or a singer, others a recording.

In Ashkenazi families the kallah usually circles the chassan — seven times in many homes — and the music holds through every circle; most Sephardic brides don't circle. When the glass breaks, the room shouts mazal tov and breaks into Siman Tov U'Mazal Tov as the couple walks out to yichud. We time every cue with your officiating rabbi and the family members walking, so nothing starts early or runs out.

When the couple comes out of yichud and into the hall, the first dance set begins — and at an Orthodox wedding it is the peak of the night. The chassan disappears into a circle of men, the kallah into a circle of women, and both circles keep growing until everyone is in.

This set needs a long arc rather than a playlist: a strong entrance, a build through the fast simcha songs, room for the friends' shtick, and a moment for the chassan and kallah to be lifted. We pace it to the room, and we know in advance which songs your crowd will not stop singing.

Separate dancing works when the women's side and the men's side get the same, clear music. We set speakers on each side of the mechitza and place the DJ booth at a spot agreed with you and the hall, so it serves both sides. Some halls write their own rules for music vendors around the mechitza; we follow them.

We walk the floor plan with you and the hall: where the mechitza stands, how tall it is, where power is available, and how the dancing will move. Every hall is laid out differently, and the plan is made for yours.

Between the sets, dinner music gives the room a chance to talk — softer Jewish music, a few slow Hebrew songs, nothing that competes with the speeches. Then the second dance set brings everyone back to the floor, often with more of the friends' shtick and the songs the younger guests have been waiting for.

At the end of the meal comes Birkat Hamazon and, at a wedding, the sheva brachot after it. We stop the music for them and bring the microphones to the people honored, in the order your family sets.

In many Chassidic families the wedding ends with the mitzvah tanz, a custom kept after the meal: the kallah holds one end of a gartel or a sash while honored relatives and rabbis are called up one by one to dance opposite her, often by a badchan. It is unhurried and full of feeling, and the music under it — often a slow tune or the family's own niggun — is chosen with that in mind.

When parents marry off their youngest child, many families seat them in the middle and dance the mezinke around them, often to the old Yiddish tune written for it. If either is part of your wedding, we plan the music, the timing and who calls the names, so the end of the night is as carefully planned as the beginning.