Top Five Important Questions You Should Ask Before You Hire a DJ for Your Wedding

Sandy Stillman-Alvin

It’s probably one of your biggest fears as you contemplate your wedding day and all the surrounding events. You imagine your reception as being a fiasco, with family members downing way too much alcohol, making ridiculous and embarrassing toasts, and to top off the evening, you and your new bride or groom in a circle doing the chicken dance.  Rest assured, you CAN create a more planned, controlled environment and eliminate fears of a ruined reception. 

Before you begin your first Google search or make the first phone call, decide what you do and do not want as part of your special day. More often than not, people know more what they don’t want than what they do want. So, start there.  Make a list of what you know you don’t want. From that, it will be easier to list songs and activities you and your spouse would definitely want to include. If you’re a computer savvy person, go ahead and burn a disc of all your “must-haves” to give to your DJ. That will eliminate any fears of not having your first dance song or that hard-to-find copy of the song you want playing while you cut the cake. Take charge!

There’s only room for one chief on a wedding day, so decide who will be your chief of entertainment.  From the entertainer’s side, he or she will be most comfortable having one person to direct the flow of the event, whether that’s the bride, the groom, or some other pre-determined person. Left unassigned, your DJ will be taking orders from your third cousin’s ex-girlfriend on what to play next, which may or may not be your idea of how things should go.  You can even go so far as to request that your DJ not take any requests from the floor at all but to stick with your list exclusively.  Bottom line is, the clearer you are about how your event should look and sound, the easier it is for those who are making it happen for you.

Think of yourself as a hiring manager and your prospective DJ’s as candidates for your open position. Your interview questions should provide a way for you to screen candidates in a way that allows you to make rather quick eliminations, leaving you with usually one to two very good choices.  Your questions should also require more than a “yes” or “no” answer. This line of questioning allows people an opportunity to tell you what they think you want to hear.  You should instead ask prospects to describe certain experiences and how they handled the situation.  For example, you might set up a scenario: “In the middle of the reception, a guest comes to your table to explain how, back in high school, “Endless Love” was the couple’s favorite love song and requests that you play it for the next slow dance. How would you handle the situation?”  His or her answer will give you insight as to whether or not your DJ is inclined to follow your lead or the lead of your guests.  The answer won’t be “right” or “wrong” per se. It will just give you an idea of whether or not this person is the right kind of DJ for YOU.

So, the five most important questions you should ask before you hire your DJ are not questions you should ask of him or her.  These are questions you should ask yourself:

1.                  What ten (or fewer) songs are most important for us to include in our event?

2.                  Do I want my reception to be a free-for-all, or would I like it to flow like a program, with certain activities scheduled at certain times with particular music to accompany each activity?

3.                  Who should be the contact person for our DJ during the reception to direct any activities or special requests?

4.                  Will I trust the judgment of my entertainer to choose songs for dancing or do I want to create a play list by which he or she should adhere?

5.                  What will my budget allow me to reasonably afford in the way of time and equipment for entertainment?

Once these questions are settled, then you can begin making your calls, armed with the confidence of knowing exactly what you want and just how much entertainment you can afford!  The investment of making these preparations will pay off in a lifetime of warm and wonderful wedding day memories for you and your entire family.