As a wedding DJ, I always enjoy talking to married couples, especially about their wedding experiences. Even couples who have been married for 25+ years will often look back in horror as they explain what went wrong on that special day. Surprisingly often, I hear “ Our wedding was great, but our DJ…awful!” When planning and budgeting, many brides lump the importance of the wedding entertainment into the same category as things like the tablecloths and draping. Trust and believe, I’ve never heard a single complaint where the wedding was great, but the tablecloths were all wrong and ruined everything! In 25 years, no one will remember the tablecloths, but they absolutely will remember the experience they had with their wedding DJ.
In an effort to educate you so that you make your wedding entertainment choice a detail of higher importance than tablecloths and drapes, allow me to highlight 5 Things That Can Go Wrong On Your Wedding Day DJ Because of Your DJ!!
1. The Music You Want is NOT the Music You Get. When I work with my wedding clients, we make custom selections together for things like their entrance music, first dances, mother / son and father / daughter dances, etc. We customize and plan everything down to the pre-ceremony playlist and the dinner music to make sure that we create the vibe that is intended for each couple on their special day. BEST CASE SCENARIO – your DJ Misses one of these important cue points. Lets imagine walking to the center of the dance floor to dance your first dance, and instead of the song you’ve selected playing, you’ve got to awkwardly figure out what to do when the DJ cues up a different song. Do you dance? Do you wait for the right song? Everyone is watching. And this embarrassment and disappointment, you will definitely remember years from now when you say, “Our wedding was great, but honey, do you remember what the DJ played instead of our first dance song?” Sigh.
2. The Event Flows Awkwardly / Timeline Events are Missed. Even with a Wedding Coordinator on board, Brides often forget that the DJ has full control of the flow of the event. A good DJ will work with the coordinator and vendors, and make adjustments as needed to make up for any day-of changes to the schedule. Sometimes the photographer runs late with the cocktail hour. Sometimes dinner takes too long to be served. These are all things that are not in the control of the DJ, but a good DJ will know how to adjust to make sure all of the cues are still hit. A bad DJ will not be able to make adjustments on the fly, in the best case, making your event flow awkwardly, and in some worst cases, causing you to run out of time for certain events like your cake cutting, your first dances, your bouquet toss, etc. As you know, you only get one chance to do your wedding day. Imagine that the DJ doesn’t know how to coordinate or make schedule adjustments and you barely get through dinner and a first dance before it’s time for the reception to be over. I bet you’ll remember that disappointment for a long time.
3. The Music Sucks and all Your Guests Leave Early. This one is a big deal and really illustrates why it’s important to hire a DJ who cares more about your event than their ego. A good wedding DJ is going to work with you to determine what music you want to hear as well as what music your guests may want to hear. They need to be versatile to be able to play to a diverse age and demographic range. And they need to be able to read a room and make adjustments as needed. A BAD wedding DJ will come in and play whatever THEY want to play. Or they’ll completely miss reading the room and get caught in their own head or their own ego. Can you imagine the look on your grandma’s face when your wedding DJ decides to get the party going with a Trap Music set right in the middle of your wedding dinner? Now if that’s the music you want for your reception, then this might be ok for you, and Listen, I’ve played IT ALL for Weddings. The beauty of being able to customize with a DJ is you can create an event that’s true to you. For most people, this would be a HUGE PROBLEM. And even if it’s not trap music or something inappropriate, a DJ who isn’t strong at reading a room and keeping them engaged will guarantee that your guests leave early. I’ve attended weddings and events where the DJ was terrible and the guests left in some cases up to 2 hours early, many times to continue the parry somewhere else. Then there you are on your big day in a big empty room dancing by yourself. And I’m pretty sure you’ll be hard pressed to find a venue that refunds for guests leaving early.
4. Equipment Failure and NO Backup Plan Ends the Party Early. As a full-time Mobile DJ, I always have backup equipment and a plan for any sort of equipment failure. Just like anything, sometimes unforeseen things happen. A Good Dj will be prepared for whatever failure could happen on their end. (Ex. I’ve got backups of all of my equipment right down to the microphones. If anything goes wrong, we just pull out the backup and we are up and running again in no time, in many cases without any knowledge or impact to the client.) A Bad Wedding DJ will not be prepared for equipment failure. So when their speaker goes out, the microphone stops working, or maybe their laptop dies, then this means that the party is over unless someone has an aux cable that they can plug into their phone. Sorry about that.
5. The DJ Doesn’t Show Up. At All. This is really a worst case scenario situation, but what’s sad is that I’ve heard it from the mouths of a handful of brides. I’ve also heard it from the mouth of a handful of Djs who felt like they couldn’t be bothered to show up or communicate that they were unavailable. This is absolutely DEPLORABLE to me, especially from the perspective of doing good business. And that’s the thing about Show Business too…a true professional knows that the show must go on. I’ve, thankfully, never had an incident that forced me to cancel a wedding, however, I did get a wicked case of the flu this year and had to substitute in other Djs for a few events. In which case, I still contacted the clients beforehand, advised of the issue (my flu) and the solution (with their permission to send a different dj or offer a refund) With a Bad wedding DJ, you run the risk that something happens (a more appealing gig, or some other unforeseen excuse that doesn’t pertain to you and isn’t your problem) and they don’t even show up at all. To me, of all the things, this is definitely the worst, and definitely will create some memories around your special day that will be difficult to forget.
These are just a few of the more common and stand-out problems that can occur at your wedding because of your DJ. But Wait! Don’t let these horror stories scare you into hiring a band. (I’m Kidding. Hire a band if you want to!) Remember that the key to executing a successful event of any kind is to take the time to research and check out the vendors to find the best match for you. Check online, ask for samples, references, and read reviews. Before you’re locked into contracts, you’ve got the power to make sure your vendors are quality.