We’ve been having just a devil of a time finding a DJ for our wedding! During the wedding planning, it has come to our attention that we are pretty picky and specific in our tastes, which sometimes makes for long drawn out decisions…. like this one.
We don’t want a typical “wedding DJ” because our musical tastes range from reggae to rock, world music to funk, hip hop to 80s beats – and everything in between. We didn’t want any risk of chicken dancing at our party :) We don’t want just a straight up club DJ because we need to have someone who’s comfortable as emcee, and who is familiar with that natural progression from PG to PG-13/R that should occur (in my opinion) in order to keep the dance floor packed all night.
Now we find ourselves 49 days from the wedding with nobody booked in one of the most important roles of the night!
This week we’ll be meeting with a few companies to try and bear down and get this one nailed…. but its so different from interviewing other vendors. Normally you can see a portfolio, or look through a site full of examples. Only one of our 3 perspective DJs has samples on his site, and another is “making us a mixtape”. I just wish we could attend a wedding hosted by each and feel it out that way. It feels like a real leap of faith, but I am just so excited to get this major “To Do” done!
How did you find your wedding DJ? Did you hear him/her spin before your day, or was it a leap of faith for you, too?
We had the same prob…our musical tastes r the same as urs. Then I found a dj 4 our event @ an event we attended. He plays EVERYTHING n if he doesn’t have it, he’ll get it 4 u & he is a FANTASTIC EMCEE to boot. The dance floor was packed all nite & well past the alotted time that we had the venue 4. No one wanted it 2 end. His name is eugene macala. He travels everywhere becuz he is that good. U can find some work on youtube, but I wouldn’t take the video as evidence of what he can do. Good luck!
I don’t really have an answer, but wanted to sympathize, as we are going through the same thing right now. We really don’t want a traditional wedding DJ who’s going to make tons of announcement or spin the Chicken Dance. I’ve been reaching out to friends to see who they know, and have gotten a couple suggestions on cover bands that we’re going to check out… This seems like one of the tougher pieces to pull together, if you don’t know musicians.
Dana not sure where you are getting married at but I have a recommendation if you’d like one… and are getting married somewhere around the ATL area.
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Gigmasters.com has provided me with a dj and instrumentalists for my wedding. By reading the reviews of other people that have booked that talent, you can get a better idea of whether it is truly professional dj or just some guy with a can full of speakers.
We were the same way – music was one of the MOST important things for us. My fiance and I have varying music tastes and none of them fit in with your “traditional” wedding music. Add on top of that the fact that I wanted to make sure we threw in some Bollywood and bhangra for my side of the family, and finding a DJ was near impossible. One thing I want to recommend is asking around about your favorite club DJs. There are two DJs here in DC who spin at bars and clubs that I like (The Black Cat, Wonderland, Saint-Ex) that I found out also do weddings. Unfortunately both were booked on my wedding day, so I went with a DJ company, but my fiance and I are super thrilled with the guy we chose – he specializes in intercultural weddings and international music, and got rave reviews on WeddingWire, which is how we found him. We called a couple DJ companies, told them exactly what we were looking for and all of them had DJs that were more international or alternative in nature – so definitely ask around, I’m sure you’ll find someone you love! Good luck!!
We’re going the iPod route. We get to pick all our own music so no worries about anything we don’t like & we don’t really feel the need for an emcee. Although we do have a friend that’s a comic that may step in & do a little emceeing.
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I never been to a wedding that played music. Basically the bride and groom will have their first awkward dance, but the majority of the time was spent just chowing down on food.