What your Dallas / Fort Worth area wedding DJ should be asking and telling you
It's your special day and your wedding DJ should want to be a valuable part of your special memories (for all the right reasons). They are, after all, a part of your wedding team (just like the photographer and the venue) and they should truly want to make it special for you, your partner, and your guests. Here are a few tips on how you can help them help you.
#1 THEY WANT YOU TO COMMUNICATE EARLY AND OFTEN:
A professional wedding DJ will always want to interact with you well in advance of your wedding date. They should be asking you about your music preferences and may even ask you to prepare a list of 10-20 (sometimes more) songs that you, your partner and guests would like to hear. This gives the DJ an opportunity to assess your preferred musical palette against their technical knowledge of that genre of music. It is important that your wedding DJ be asking for your participation in planning the music performance for the night. After all, it is your special day, not the DJ's. This should be one of the first tasks that you and your DJ perform together.
Some DJ's may not be well versed in a particular music style, and thus they may not be the best choice for your event. Your wedding DJ should always be truthful and ethical and will actually need to decline the job if they lack the specific expertise necessary to do the job right. This is why it is so critical to have these conversations early. Most DJ's can refer you to an affiliate or associate if they are not the right fit for you.
#2 THEY VALUE TIME, MORE THAN MONEY
The majority of DJ's want to do a professional job at the lowest possible cost to their clients. They need proper time to set-up and dial-in the equipment before the event as well as time to properly tear down and reload afterwards. Setting a reduced timeframe for load-in or load-out significantly impacts your wedding DJ's ability to provide you with the best possible service. Allowing your entertainment team a little breathing room with at least 2 hours before performance and 1.5 hours load-out is optimal. While we realize that this is not always possible, it allows the wedding DJ to do a proper set-up and sound check and enough time to vacate the venue without having to charge you for additional personnel costs to meet stricter timeframes. A typical wedding DJ does not profit from these fees and quite frankly would rather help you avoid them.
#3 THEY WANT TO KNOW WHO WILL BE ATTENDING IN ORDER TO BEST PREPARE
Age groups and culture matters. Your DJ wants to be prepare in advance with a variety of music to please everyone in attendance. Your DJ may ask about any traditions, cultural norms etc... that they will need to prepare for. While a professional wedding DJ will cater their services to the bride and groom (and abide by their desires), we know you want to consider all of your guests in the planning. Uncle Joe loves the chicken dance? Maybe a 3 minute deviation from format will delight him and add to the overall success of your event. Remember that people in their 60's and 70's will have a different view of "good" music and different musical memories than those in their 20's. A few minutes dedicated to the diverse tastes of your guests (while the majority of the time is catered to the bride and groom) helps ensure that everyone has a great time. Again, the choice is left up to you but your wedding DJ should be getting your input on these matters. One of the best ways to accommodate this is to allow your DJ to take requests during the event. He or she will be prudent in balancing out the desires of all involved.
#4 THEY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE VENUE'S WI-FI
A wedding DJ loves to have available Wi-Fi and/or strong cellular coverage at the venue. Attuned Events DJ's always arrive prepared with enough music "on-board" to more than cover your event needs. Think of the old crates of vinyl records being brought into your venue for your event, only in digital form. However, it is practically impossible for us to bring every possible song we have rights to on a single hard drive. We love to know in advance if we will have access to the venue's wi-fi or what the cellular coverage is in the area. If your venue cannot accommodate, it is absolutely, positively going to be OK. It just gives us limited vs. unlimited ability to accept requests (or get that one song that everyone forgot to mention as a must-have). We assure you that your event will be successful either way. Wi-Fi or cellular coverage simply gives us a few more options. We would never want to rely on it if coverage is limited. Did you know that some DJ services have their entire content library in the cloud? How would that work if there were no coverage? We bring the majority of our catalog with us, no cloud required.
#5 YOUR WEDDING DJ WANTS TO KNOW WHAT NOT TO PLAY
The right Dallas / Ft. Worth Wedding DJ's will ask you about songs that you do not want to hear during your event. This is most often referred to as a "do not play" list. The best DJ's will certainly recognize that there are numerous personal and preferential reasons for this. A great wedding DJ will certainly want to avoid bringing any negative vibes to your event. Maybe you have some negative history with a particular song (it was "your song" with a past interest or family member that brings on particularly bad memories that you do not wish to relive). Attuned Events DJ's are very sensitive to your personal desires and will avoid playing those songs. This will be part of the information gathering process prior early on in the process. For other requests (such as "we don't like Country, Rock, Rap or whatever genre") we might ask you how firm or flexible you are on those items. This is not to question your tastes. We will always, absolutely honor your desires. We ask because if you allow us to not accept requests from entire formats it is almost guaranteed that someone will request that format during the event. A simple "the bride and groom has requested that we do not play that song/genre etc...." is fine with us. But we also know that many times this leads to an early departure for some of your guests and possibly an early end for your event. We tell you this out of experience and a desire for your event to be a success.
#6 ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON EQUIPMENT NEEDS AND PERFORMANCE
Many brides, grooms and even wedding planners may not realize that the physical environment that an entertainer or DJ performs in can have a direct impact on their ability to provide you with the best service. Knowing whether you expect the DJ to perform indoors or outdoors (including patios, decks, etc....) is extremely important. It impacts not only the type of equipment that should be specified for the event (and sometimes pricing) but also the amount of shelters, fans, etc... that will need to be brought to or provided by the venue. Most all professional grade equipment is designed to shut down under excessive heat to prevent permanent damage. All speakers require some type of amplifier to produce sound. High powered amplifiers produce heat. Unsheltered equipment used for hours in the Texas summer heat is subject to shutdown by design in the absence of shade or other heat remediation. We can greatly reduce these risks if we know in advance that we are going to be setting up in an area with direct sun exposure during daylight hours.
Location of the ceremony to the reception can also be a factor. For instance, if the ceremony is outdoors, and the reception indoors, or the ceremony is distant from the reception, one set of equipment will not be sufficient in most cases (at least not without an awkward, significant delay to move from one location to the other). Even all indoor or all outdoor situations may require additional equipment set-ups in some cases. It is always best to have great communication upfront so that your entertainment service provider can provide you with an appropriate assessment for the best possible service. In many cases, your DJ will know the venue well and can help with the planning. Proper planning and honest discussions with your wedding DJ can save you dollars!
#7 DJ ENTERTAINMENT IS A BUSINESS
A professional wedding DJ should be established as a business (in most cases an LLC, partnership or corporate entity). Your wedding DJ should be able to provide information regarding his/her business registration with the state. In addition, business insurance information should be made available to you and in many cases is required by the venue. Our business is our livelihood and not a hobby.
Your wedding DJ wants to be budget friendly while still being able to make a living. A typical professional DJ setup will involve equipment costing $5,000 or more and a professional DJ will have a back-up system in tow in that same price range. Typical rentals for a similar single setup could exceed $500 or more for a 24 hour period. An average wedding day for a DJ is 8 - 10 hours of setup and performance as well as numerous hours of preparation (creating specially procured setlists, loading equipment, equipment maintenance, planning, paperwork, accounting etc...) before and after the event. It is our passion. We also have business insurance, health insurance, marketing, software/music licensing, self-employment taxes and other overhead costs that are not mentioned above. We truly want our services to be affordable for you and within your budget and hope you understand that we are not just "playing music". Otherwise, we have no business and you have no entertainment.
Attuned Events, LLC would be honored to be a part of your special day. Visit us at www.attunedvents.com and request a quote today!
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