Wedding DJ Cost – How is the wedding DJ price formed?

Paul:                      Hello, people. This is Paul.

Alex:                      This is Alex.

Paul:                      We’re here today to speak about wedding DJ’s and why you need to hire them for your wedding. So, the first question is why you need a wedding DJ?

Alex:                      Well, that’s a tough question, to be honest. Some people don’t want to use a wedding DJ because they just simply bring a tape recorder and play the music. However, because there are so many people involved in organizing your wedding, so obviously, you need a person, a separate person who would push play, stop, play, stop at your wedding.

Paul:                      Amazing.

Alex:                      Yeah. And so some people can’t pay for that up to $5,000.

Paul:                      Well, yeah.

Alex:                      Well, depending how much time you spend in your life pushing play, stop, play, stop, you can charge more and more.

Paul:                      Well…

Alex:                      Anyway, what’s the next question?

Paul:                      The next question that I have is why there is a difference in prices for wedding DJs?

Paul:                      Okay. So, here’s the thing, wedding DJ, that phrase, some people can understand this phrase differently because originally, DJ is the person who would bring his or her DJ rig and simply mix different songs into each other. However, wedding DJ, required a little bit different approach. So, basically at the wedding there’s several things that you have to remember. First, is the appearance of the guests and bride and groom. So, you don’t want to, found this out, because playing the right music at the right point in time is crucial. If you mess with this, nobody’s going to order you anymore. And we’ve been to you situations when people fail to do that. Right?

Alex:                      Yeah. They’re like, “Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no, no, no. Another song, please.” They’re just like “Whoa” I’m freaking out.

Paul:                      So, the other thing is that you basically, as the DJ, you give background music to anything that is happening at the venue. So, there’s a cocktail hour so you have to put certain type of music and then there’s the appearance and then the time when everybody’s eating again and then there’s the party time and that’s when DJ starts his full responsibility shift kind of thing. But anyway, sorry, what was the question again?

Alex:                      Why there is a difference in prices for wedding DJs?

Alex:                      Okay. So, DJ services may include different services because there’s the musical part, like the music part and there’s the light part meaning you can use a lot of lights during the party and that’s when DJ may become very expensive. So, on one hand, you pay for the experience and on the other hand, you pay for the equipment because the more people you have at your wedding, the better equipment you probably should have. Otherwise, if you crank the volume, the quality of the sound is going to be really bad. So, let’s say you have 400 people at your wedding, then you should hire a DJ who would have an equipment to accommodate that amount of people. So, this is one thing.

Alex:                      The other thing is during the party some DJ may use different lights and lights, depending on the quality, like with anything else, they can become very expensive. You can use just very basic flashing lights or you can use very expensive rotating LED heads. And again, depending on what you want at your wedding, if you want to just simple, nothing fancy, then the price is going to be lower. If you want to recreate the atmosphere of a nightclub with all these flashing lights and lasers and haze, of course, you’re going to pay more. So, basically with a DJ you’re getting for what you’re paying.

Paul:                      Amazing guys. I agree. So, the next question is why professional DJs cost more?

Alex:                      Like I said before, the price of a DJ may come with experience. However, there’s a little trick here. DJ as a performer should have certain skills, how to mix properly, mix the tunes. But that also applies to maybe mixing some sound effects and pieces of sounds, pieces of music and so on and so on. So, the more experience you have in that, the more you can ask in terms of payment.

Alex:                      However, at the wedding itself, and especially during like a cocktail hour, so I’m not talking about the party, but even during the cocktail hours there’s not much that you can do. There’s no art behind mixing cocktail music. Yes, you can do some fancy stuff during the party, maybe make some cool mix transition from one song to another when you sync the tempo and the beats and the key of the songs and so on. However, at the wedding nobody really pays attention. As long as you go with the flow and you keep everybody dancing on the floor, that’s what you basically need, right? Because you’re not playing your own mixes, your own songs, your own tunes, there’s no risk. You just play whatever people like to listen to, like famous songs. So, it’s a win-win situation. And so, yeah.

Paul:                      Thank you. Let’s go to the next question. This question is what is the best advice you can give to the couples who are looking for wedding DJs?

Alex:                      So, I would say that you ask for the experience. When you talk to DJs, I would recommend just ask how many years of experience they have doing weddings and being in wedding business because some people know how to mix the songs, but with the wedding DJs you have to be a little bit event specific. So, you don’t want to play songs that may not be appropriate like death metal music or stuff like that. Or something that you only like, maybe like I like hip-hop, so you want to stick to different genres to accommodate the taste of everybody that’s on the dance floor. So, and that’s why when you talk to a DJ, you basically ask them how many years of experience you have in the wedding business and then, again, if you go with the all fancy lights and stuff, I would recommend to talk to bigger companies because they have access to better equipment. There are some exceptions, but yeah. So, that’s two things that I would recommend.

Paul:                      Thanks very much. And the next question is how much would you pay for a wedding DJ?

Alex:                      So, again, this question derives from the capacity and your budget. If you have a lot of people, just be ready that you will have to pay more money just for equipment. When it comes to individuals, like specific DJs, if you’re asking for a famous DJ, of course, it’s going to be thousands of dollars. If you’re asking like a local person who’s been in the business for a long time and is not very famous, I mean not famous DJ, but maybe professional people know in professional realms. But yeah, the average price, I would say the average price for a DJ is about $2,000 depending again, on different things, but you can go lower and so with this thing, the quality is going to be lower as well. You can go higher, but in this case you’re not paying for DJ services specifically, but you’re paying mostly for something that follows that DJ service and I mean more like embellishment lights and more equipment. But the average price would be around $2,000 just for DJ services.

Paul:                      Amazing. Thank you very much, it was Paul and Alex from Tara Weddings