Helpful Thoughts Before Hiring a DJ

• A DJ is ABSOLUTELY one of the most critical elements of your day. It’s easy to think, “they just play my playlist - right?” NOPE! A DJ is the master of your party. They play an absolute critical role in your ceremony. If a DJ is doing a terrible job, it’s obvious and there is nothing anyone can do to fix it. We have seen this happen several times.

• On that note - PLEASE DO NOT hire a $350 Craigslist DJ. There are places to save money in the planning process, but I can almost guarantee hiring a super cheap DJ is not one of them for the reasons above. Quality DJ’s generally start around $1,500. We would suggest cutting out guest favors, koozies, a smores bar, too much cake, etc. long before hiring an unqualified DJ. 

• Make sure your DJ knows that all must-play music needs to be downloaded before they arrive onsite. Oehme Oasis typically does not have reliable enough service to stream music. In our experience, if your DJ expects to stream music, it is a “red flag” that they are not of the quality we would expect on a wedding day. 

• If there is a specific VERSION of a song that is important to you, make sure you are clear about that with your DJ.  There are a lot of popular songs with more than one version. *Example: Austin & I personally took dance lessons (they weren’t cheap) and had an amazing choreographed dance to our wedding song, our DJ played a remix, screwing up the entire thing... Learn from our many mistakes. 

• If you KNOW your guests will not be a dancing crowd, let your DJ know ahead of time. I would do this for two reasons. 1) So the DJ isn’t desperately trying to get them on the dance floor all night with announcements. 2) So your DJ doesn’t feel like they are doing a bad job if no one is dancing. (Vendors want to do a great job for you!)

• We’ve seen several situations where brides were SO HAPPY with their DJs after the wedding, BUT it was not a small business owner, but a company. That means that their DJ may have been awesome, but you may not be assigned the same DJ. You may have the same awesome experience, or you may not.

• If renting uplighting from your DJ, please make sure it is wireless. The majority of the outlets in the venue are scattered/spaced out and you likely won’t want extension cords all over behind your head for photos at the head table.  

• Do not follow your speciality dances with a bunch of slow songs. If you are doing an anniversary song, do that right after the specialty dances. Then go right into PARTY SONGS. Otherwise your guests (especially your friends and dancers) will assume it’s the style of the DJ & head out.

• There is a huge difference between a DJ, an Emcee and one who is BOTH: The actual definition of an emcee (MC) is Master of Ceremonies! That sounds like a title anyone should want for their wedding day! Make sure you choose someone who can work a crowd, as well as read the crowd. You won’t want someone who is just a jukebox DJ that lets one song play out before starting another one, etc. I have said it before, and I will say it again, we receive no kick-backs or incentives for suggesting any of our vetted/preferred vendors.