FAQs
- What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Courtesy of my website. 1. Do you offer a written contract? All of the wedding disc jockeys you interview may not have the same standards of professionalism. A written, legal contract is one of the first indicators of whether a DJ is professional and reliable. Furthermore, a contract establishes the DJs obligation to the client and outlines what is required for the DJs success, by outlining his 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, in our opinion, be considered for a wedding reception. 2. Will you be the DJ at our wedding? Often, the person you speak with is not the person who will be your DJ on your wedding day. This is a very common practice among large agencies. It is absolutely paramount that you have an opportunity to interview, in person, the specific DJ that you will be working with and determine whether you feel comfortable with them. You should also expect that the individual DJs name is specified on your contract it is the only way you can be guaranteed his or her services at your wedding. 3. May we meet with you in person before we sign a contract? Many wedding DJs attempt to conduct their interviews over the telephone and through email instead of meeting face-to-face with prospective clients. In our experience, there are two reasons a disc jockey would do this either they dont feel you are worth their time, or they have something to hide. Some deejays are very different in person than on the telephone and what is presented on their website, and you should insist on meeting in face-to-face so you can judge for yourself whether they are a good match for you and your wedding. Your gut feeling is very important in selecting the right disc jockey, and its practically impossible to make this evaluation unless you are together in person. 4. How long will you hold our date for us? When you contact a professional disc jockey, they should be willing to hold your date for you for a reasonable amount of time in order to give you a chance to meet with them. They should also give you ample time after your meeting to make a decision and give you time to interview other DJs. Some DJs will use pressure sales tactics to hard close you at your meeting, offering a special sale that ends that day, or claiming that another couple is meeting with them for the same date attempting to pressure you to make a decision on the spot. Any DJ that uses these types of tactics is unprofessional and is most likely doing so in order to keep you from meeting other DJs (whom they know youll like more than you like them). One week is a reasonable amount of time to expect your date to be held for you following an initial meeting. At MyDeejay, we give two weeks. 5. Do you work exclusively for this company? Most large agencies use independent DJ subcontractors to perform their events. Often, these DJs work for several agencies and also accept bookings directly. A disc jockey, or the agency through whom he is booked, should be able to explain the DJs obligation to that agency and what will happen if he leaves that agency. Often, there is nothing more than a verbal confirmation between the independent DJ and the agency for each booking a frequent cause of problems. If you choose a DJ who subcontracts for several agencies and books his own events, you need to be clear on what will happen if he is accidentally double-booked for your wedding date, or what would happen to your event if you contract the DJ through an agency and he decides to skip out on your event to book something else for a higher price. To find out whether your DJ is available independently or through numerous agencies, try performing a web search for their name and the word DJ. 6. How long have you been a DJ and how many weddings have you done? A wedding is such an important occasion, and you dont want your DJs first wedding to be your own. The number of years someone has been a DJ will give you some indication of their experience level, but some DJs only perform for a few events (and fewer weddings) each year. A DJ with half as many years in the industry may have many times as many weddings under his belt, so you should also ask how many weddings the DJ has done. Also be sure to ask if the DJ has any formal training, either from a DJ company or a DJ school. 7. How many weddings do you do each year? Just like any other profession, performing for weddings requires ones skills to be in top form. If a DJ performs for only a few weddings per year, they may not be at the top of their game by the time your wedding date arrives. Asking how many weddings they do per year will give you an indication of their level of commitment to your type of event. 8. How many other types of events do you do per year? Different DJs focus on different types of events some consider themselves a jack of all trades and claim expertise in all types of events, and others are specialists. The ratio between the number of weddings a DJ performs for and the amount of other, non-wedding events they do will tell you where their focus lies. If you are looking for a low-key wedding DJ and someone you meet with does mostly school dances or Bar Mitzvahs, they may not be very focused on the type of sophisticated presentation you want for your wedding. 9. Do you perform for more than one event in a day? Some DJs will do as many events as they possibly can, and often try to pack their weekends with all types of DJ work. If a disc jockey has already done an event in the afternoon before your wedding, they will likely be physically exhausted by the latter half of your wedding, which is exactly when they need to be the most alert and active. This is most common at large agencies, where weekend warriors may perform at four to six events over a three-day period. It is hard to believe that any DJ could give that many couples an adequate amount of attention leading up to, and on, their wedding day. 10. What makes you different from your competitors? Any professional wedding disc jockey will take pride in their work, and be able to answer this question honestly and communicate the things that make their services unique. Some DJs, however, will take this opportunity to bash their competition and say negative things about specific DJs or agencies. We consider this type of behavior unprofessional (in fact, doing this is strictly forbidden for members of the American Disc Jockey Association), and is a poor reflection on them. In fact, you may want to consider making it a point to meet any DJ that they say something bad about DJs that engage in this type of thing will often target the DJs theyre afraid youll book instead of them, and theyre probably right! 11. Have you played at our reception site before? Wedding experience is important, and so is familiarity with your reception site. Every site poses different challenges different load-in and security procedures, different room sizes and configurations, different acoustics, even antiquated electrical outlets that need to be grounded manually. Hiring a DJ that is familiar with your site will give you peace of mind that you wont have any surprises on your wedding day. Obviously, even the best DJs cant have performed at every site in the area (since there are hundreds available in any area), but if he hasnt been to yours, he should be willing to adequately prepare himself prior to your event by visiting the venue and/or speaking with the site contact and studying a floor plan. 12. Do you act as the emcee and make all of the announcements? Any professional wedding disc jockey should be comfortable with making announcements and serving as the emcee for the wedding, it is a standard part of the job. Some DJs, however, are not comfortable with this and prefer to pass these duties on to someone else, such as a site manager,