West Ashley DJ spins tunes that keep weddings hopping

Sophia Rodriguez
The Post and Courier

Lee Edwards shows off some of the music, both eclectic and standard, he has lined up to play at an upcoming wedding.

Think of the movie "The Wedding Singer." Among Adam Sandler's curly mullet, the Boy George look-alike keyboard player and the choice selection of cheesy '80s tunes, the movie conjures up all kinds of bad stereotypes of nuptial entertainment.

The work of Lee Edwards and his crew thankfully doesn't fall into any of those traps. Well, except maybe the '80s music. But lately that's a matter of clientele taste.

"A lot of people are asking for '80s stuff nowadays, and things like Usher and other R&B," Edwards said.

The disc jockey/musician/business owner started Lee Edwards Entertainment in 1986 from his home and moved to his location on Savannah Highway four years later. He has handled more than 4,000 weddings since he started the business. After providing music for weddings, parties and other events for more than 20 years, he has made a name for himself in the Lowcountry and now gets most of his clients through referrals.

In fact, Edwards didn't know just how revered his services were until last year. A bride-to-be was talking to him on the phone, and he asked how she had come across his business. When she replied that she saw him in a magazine that outlined The Best of Weddings in TheKnot.com, he was confused. He asked where she got the magazine, and she said her mom had gotten it in New York.

"Well, I dropped what I was doing and zipped over to Barnes & Noble," he said.

Lee Edwards Entertainment received the honor this year as well.

Edwards works closely with his clients, mostly brides, to make them happy. He gives each one a wedding music planner that lists a sizable portion of his music repertoire, but it's always expanding, and he's more than willing to seek out specific songs that he doesn't already have.

As many couples have started to demand more control over what music is played at the ceremony and reception, he admits that he has been turned on to a lot of new artists and music that he once knew little about.

On one bride's playlist, there were requests for Queen's "You're My Best Friend" and songs by The Clash. His record for longest amount of time spent compiling a specialized music list is 14 hours.

Edwards was a radio personality in the '80s and early '90s and eventually developed a Sunday afternoon beach show. He has a radio voice that he can switch on and off at will, but he claims he was not a strong radio personality. At the same time, he was spinning tunes at events around the area even before he started his business.

"Those were rough times with the schedule, because I would go to my wedding gigs on Saturday nights and then have to get up at 4 in the morning on Sundays to do (morning) shows," he said.

After years of gigs, he has great stories about a bride and groom crowd-surfing off the bar at their reception ("He was a big ol' boy!"), the positive and negative effects of alcohol ("The bride told me her plans of what she and the groom were going to go do. ... She was totally schnocked.") and people who demand their song be played, even at the risk of interrupting the dance flow ("You have to let it be like water off a seal's back.").

Edwards said that wedding crowds don't want "an over-the-top DJ that's on the microphone the whole time." It's important to him to make the couple happy and to stay organized so everything goes off without a hitch.

"Even though it's a music business, the key is staying organized. Otherwise things fall through the cracks. And I don't get paid for things to fall through the cracks."

Reach Sophia Rodriguez at 937-5538 or srodriguez@postandcourier.com.