These days it seems almost anyone is a DJ but when it comes to one of the most important days of your life do you really want to have your trust in an amateur?
1. Reputation – A professional DJ company needs to up hold a high quality in both sound and service to stay in business. If they have great equipment but lack personal skills (such as being “cold” or unapproc
hable) their customers wont recommend them.
Did you know that 54% of customers share bad experiences with more than five people, while only 33% share their good experiences.
2. Equipment – Just because “Johnny” has an awesome home sound system doesn’t mean the system will be great in your venue that seats 200 people. A DJ will have equipment that is suited for both small and larger rooms and therefor give you the best sound for your venue size and the number of people.
3. Dependability – yeah its great to ask a friend, neighbor and give them a few bucks for doing so but remember your booking someone for what is one of the most important days of your life, usually booking most of your vendors/suppliers 6-12months in advance so although “Johnny” is keen now by the time your wedding rolls in will he still be as keen or will he “get a better offer” a few weeks out leaving you with no one?
4. Presentation – As a hired professional your DJ should come both dressed and prepared for your wedding. This would mean dressing appropriately, he should not come in jeans and ripped t-shirt for your cocktail event. His equipment should be clean, well maintained and set up neatly with plenty of time to spare.
5. Reading the crowd – A truly professional DJ should be able to be given a brief of the wedding then use that and his skills and knowledge of crowd reading to make a playlist that suits the mood/atmosphere of those at the event. This even happens at the calmer parts of a wedding, such as meal times.
A club DJ may not live up to your needs as reading a crowd is not as needed for clubbing.
6. Back up – Great DJ’s will have a back up option for possible unexpected errors. Equipment failure or malfunction can’t always be prevented but with a professional DJ, he will regularly maintain his equipment helping to prevent the possibility of no music at your wedding. He should also know how to fix slight errors without you even noticing.
7. Variety – Making your own playlists on an ipod or spotify playlist has become popular, its great if you have all the songs and know what your doing but if not it can be a long and costly need that could have been avoided. It also can’t adapt to delays like meals running late, where a DJ will find new music in the same genre as discussed to continue until the meals are finished.
A professional DJ’s will have access to the same music you do but they over time have a large variety of this already sorted and designed in a way that works for them to quickly find and organise music for your day.
8. Handling Requests – A professional DJ should be able to put his tastes in music aside and focus purely on your tastes and the atmosphere for the evening. He will know if certain song requests are inappropriate (due to language or content) or if they will destroy the atmosphere (meaning clear the dance floor) without having to play the song to find out.
* Our DJ’s will decline requests that are inappropriate
Once you’ve decided a professional is the way to go, call or meet a few and find out what they do or don’t do for their money but most importantly how you feel about them and their style (both personal and musical).