Hiring a wedding DJ is one of the many difficult tasks included in planning a wedding. Ideally, you would like to find a quality DJ for a reasonable price. Often times, the level at which your guests are entertained or not depends greatly on the capabilities of your DJ. You may want to approach with caution when hiring a wedding DJ.
Wedding DJs: Pros vs Amateurs
The level of professionalism among them may vary substantially. Some may consider it to be a serious profession while others might view it as more of a hobby. Therefore, it is advised that you don’t just go with the cheapest option. Sometimes you truly get what you pay for. Budgeting a wedding can prove to be an extremely stressful and difficult task, but you might want to think twice before deciding to make up for prior mistakes in the DJ budget. You will find that you can either find a DJ through a larger company that subcontracts out many DJ’s each week, or find one that works on his/her own.
Approaching one of the larger companies can be a smart move for a number of reasons. Because they are associated with a company, it means they will likely be more committed to your wedding reception. They will also be more concerned about referrals and upholding a good reputation. A negative to hiring from a company however, is that you might not have your DJ assigned to your wedding until about a week prior. One thing you should most certainly do is ask for recent client’s names or contact info and then after contacting them you can learn from what they have to say about their experience. Or, another idea would be to ask DJ’s where they are playing local in the meantime and go check them out for a bit if possible. That way you can ensure the quality of what you’re getting.
What prices can you expect?
Basically, wedding DJ prices should be about $800-$1200 depending on how elaborate of a setup you are looking for (lights, staging, equipment, etc). Most professional DJ services range roughly from $100-$300 per hour. Package deals that include a well-experienced DJ and all of the bells and whistles (light show, professional sound system, wireless microphone, back-up system, set-up and break-down, and back-up DJ) start at around $1,500. Avoid just taking the cheapest option but also don’t feel the need to empty your entire budget in one place. Find something that is a happy medium. The unfortunate truth of the matter is, the fate of the guest experience for reception relies heavily on the DJ, so it is an area where you don’t want to go wrong.
