Selecting the right DJ for your wedding day can be both daunting and super stressful! After all… the outcome of how successful your night can be may come down to this one decision. Here 10 key questions to ask that will help you to select the right DJ for you!
All of the wedding disc jockeys you interview may not be of the same caliber.
A written, legal contract is a great indicator of whether a DJ is professional and reliable. Also, a contract establishes the DJ’s obligation as well a the clients expectations for the DJ’s to make your night a success, the contract should outlining the setup requirements and other factors related to his performance.
For this reason, a written contract is absolutely essential and any DJ not using a written contract should not, be considered for a wedding reception. EVEN if you know the DJ on a personal level.
Don’t be fooled by the “Amazing price” or slick looking website.
Im my opinion it’s SUPER important that your first meet your dj and make sure you “click”.
This is a great way to see if the DJ you’ll have at your wedding is going to adhere to all of your wishes. Your “gut” feeling is very important in selecting the right disc jockey. Don’t get caught in a situation where you can only speak to your DJ a week before your wedding and realize they aren’t going to be a good match.
Don’t feel pressure to book at any point.
Some DJs will use hard sales tactics to have you book with them, attempting to pressure you to make a decision on the spot, or shortly thereafter. Any DJ that uses these types of tactics is most likely doing so in order to keep you from meeting other DJs (whom they know you’ll like more than you like them).
When you contact a professional disc jockey, they should be willing to hold your date for you for a reasonable amount of time (Usually a week is given to make decisions) in order to give you a chance to meet with them and others. After about a week you should expect a follow up message from you DJ asking where things are at?
The number of years someone has been a DJ will give you some indication of their experience level.
A wedding is a VERY important occasion, and you don’t want your DJ’s first wedding to be your own. Be sure to ask how many years they have been a DJ for and how many gigs have been wedding related. Some DJ’s may have a ton of experience as a nightclub DJ but might not have a good idea of what to play in a wedding setting.
Wedding disc jockey should be comfortable with making announcements and serving as the emcee for the wedding.
This in my opinion should be considered a minimum standard part of the job. however, not all DJ are not comfortable with this and prefer to pass these duties on to someone else. It’s a good idea to make sure that your DJ is comfortable on the mic and is also comfortable making announcements should you require this.
To me this question goes largely ignored…
Every DJ will have a certain uniqueness to them that helps them stand out from the rest. For some it will be thier great MC Skills, for others it might be their ability to read your crowd, for others it might be there wide variety of music and technical skills that allow them to mix the music in a seamless transition from one song to another. Yet for others they may be able to deliver you with all the lasers and lights that give your day a real show stopper appeal.
It’s important to find out what style and skills are most important to you, and make sure they can answer this question in a way that give you some insight on how they will be at your wedding.
Getting some people to dance can be tricky. Different approaches work for different crowds.
Some DJs will use the microphone and exceptional MC skills to try to motivate your guest to get on the dance floor. Others prefer crafting particular song selection to ensure dance floor success. Other still will blend both styles together to suit your guests likes and taste.
It’s a good idea to find out what your DJ would do in this situation, and determine if that’s is the way you would like the situation handled.
Iv’e see many times that your DJ thinks it’s a good idea to sort things out on the day of your wedding…
For many reasons this is usually a recipe for things to not go as smoothly as it could. I usually see this approach from part time DJs, as well as DJ’s that only do this as a hobby.
A professional DJ will want to make make every effort to meet with you at least once to go through all of your details to make sure everything is well coordinated, and will at least briefly to go over your game plan if detail.
Every DJ should be able to give you a list of references of past clients.
Better yet, I think the best way to to get an idea of you DJ’s past performance is to check out their reviews on sites such are Google Reviews, Bark.Com, and Wedding Wire.
It’s a good idea to check sites like these as they’re widely accredited for not having bogus, or fabricated claims that may be on the DJ’s website. Also, you can usually see the person who gave the review’s profile. This can sometime give you an indication as to wether your likes and needs would be simular to the persons giving the past reviews.
It is absolutely essential that the DJ you consider (or any other vendor for that matter) is fully insured with a liability insurance company.
Odds are you won’t need this and everything will go off splendidly because you asked some of the questions listed above! 😀
That being said some reception venues, churches, and hall are requiring all vendors working at their facility to provide proof of insurance before the wedding. Making it an absolute must for anyone wanting to work thier as your vendor.
Liability insurance protects you and the reception site in the unlikely event that your DJ injures one of your guests or burns your reception site to the ground.
I hope you found this helpful and insightful! If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.
DJ Vibe