10 Tips For Choosing a Wedding DJ in 2024

Choosing a Wedding DJ

Choosing a Wedding DJ is an important step when planning your wedding. You want to find a DJ who can provide the music for your wedding reception while also making your wedding day flow. You've probably heard that the Wedding DJ sets the tone for your wedding. If you choose a mediocre and/or less experienced Wedding DJ for your special day you run the risk of having a mediocre wedding day – even if the venue and food are top-notch.

Finding the right Wedding DJ for your specific wedding is one of the most important decisions you will make. It's also important to find and reserve a Professional Wedding DJ service as early as possible. Great Wedding DJs book quickly and sometimes over a year in advance.

We've put together this list of 10 tips for choosing your Wedding DJ to help put your mind at ease when evaluating and searching for your perfect DJ match. We hope this helps ease your mind, but if you still have questions or want to run something by us (we've been doing this since 1987), feel free to contact us. You can also take a look at our Wedding Philosophy page for some insight on how we approach weddings.

10 Tips For Evaluating & Deciding on Your Wedding DJ

1. Don't hire a DJ because they are a friend of a friend or a cousin – unless they are a well-established professional Wedding DJ.

2. Ask! Talk to your other wedding vendors and get their input and recommendations. They've worked with the best – and the worst. They'll recommend a local Greater Sacramento Area Wedding DJ that has made the weddings they have worked a total success. If you already have a list of Wedding DJs, show them to other wedding vendors and see if they have any input.

3. Look for referrals and reviews. These days, it's easy to find reviews on popular wedding web sites like WeddingWire, The Knot and even Yelp!. Hopefully the Wedding DJ you speak with also has testimonials on their site. See if they match up with the reviews on other sites.

4. Call and actually speak to your prospective Wedding DJ(s). Having a nice website or a cool logo does not mean that their energy matches what you are looking for. Ask questions – you are interviewing them, after all. See if they are the right fit for you and your wedding.

5. Ask DJs how experienced they are with weddings. Find out roughly how many years and how many weddings they've actually worked. Being an experienced DJ doesn't necessarily qualify them as a professional Wedding DJ.

6. Find out if the DJ you are speaking with has liability insurance – they should have $1 million to $2 million in coverage. If they don't (some venues require it), they may be a "hobby" DJ company.

7. Ask a DJ prospect how they make a wedding fun and moving along. Some DJs go as far as wearing silly hats – making the bride and groom and guests wear silly hats, make jokes on the mic, etc. Depending on your personality and what you'd like to have at your wedding, most Professional Wedding DJs are fun, but "wedding appropriate," meaning they understand that they are not the center of attention.

8. Ask prospective DJs how willing and flexible they are with your song requests and input on how you want your special day to go. This is important. Inexperienced DJs can be very stubborn in their approach to choosing songs. There are plenty of stories out there of DJs who won't even listen to the bride's requests. Find out the prospective DJ's policies on communication. This is important. You want a DJ who is more than okay with you calling to ask questions by phone, Email and/or text.

9. Don't ONLY make your decision based on price, but make sure you compare quotes with other Sacramento Wedding DJs to make sure they aren't too cheap or too expensive. Once you get a quote, make sure to ask if the price quote includes everything – we've heard stories of DJs who charge extra for little things. Once you establish the total cost, find out what their overtime policy is. Specifically how much they charge per half hour and per hour if you'd like them to stay longer than they were contracted.

10. Ask if the person you're speaking with will be the DJ at your wedding. There are Wedding DJ companies that employ many DJs – and that's okay if they have great reviews. Be aware that an unfortunate trend for many years online is for a person or company to advertise a cheap price (too good to be true usually means it is). The week of your wedding they will call DJs who don't have a wedding booked on your date and offer it to them for a cheap price. This can be a train wreck. Things that can go wrong range from not being on time to not knowing you or your preferences to not having reliable equipment or not being an experienced Wedding DJ.

In conclusion, we recommend that you are not only comfortable with the personality of the DJ you choose but also with their price and their reputation – from reviews, testimonials, and hopefully the word of other wedding vendors.

Read our article Wedding DJ: How to Know Which One is Right for You for more information.