Questions to Ask a Wedding DJ Before You Book

Twelve questions that separate one DJ from another, and what a good answer sounds like.

Most couples hire a wedding DJ after one phone call and a look at a price. That is understandable, and it is also how people end up surprised on the night.

These are the questions to ask a wedding DJ that actually separate one from another, grouped by what they tell you. Ask them of us too.

About the night itself

1. How many weddings have you worked at my venue?

Rooms behave differently. A timber barn absorbs sound, a brick and glass room reflects it back, and an open field gives you nothing to work with at all. Someone who has worked your room knows what it does when it is full.

If they have not worked it, that is not disqualifying. A good answer is specific about what they will do about it: visit ahead, ask the venue about power and load-in, plan placement around where the floor will actually be.

2. Will you be my DJ, or will someone else be assigned?

Ask directly, and ask when you will find out. Companies with a roster assign a DJ, which is a strength if it is transparent and a problem if you meet a salesperson and get a stranger.

We have seventeen DJs. You will know who yours is and you will meet them before the wedding.

3. What happens if you are sick that morning?

This is the question that reveals the most, and a one-person operation cannot answer it. Listen for how fast the answer comes and whether it involves a real person rather than a promise to find one.

4. Do you do the MC work as well?

DJ and MC are two jobs. The MC half cues your entrance, makes announcements, keeps the running order moving and coordinates with your photographer and caterer. Some quotes include it, some do not, and the difference is not visible in the price until the night.

About planning

5. Do we meet before the wedding, and do we get anything in writing?

A planning meeting that produces a written running order is worth more than any gear list. Ask what comes out of it and who sees it.

We meet ahead of the date and build the details into our client portal: song requests, the do-not-play list, the names in your wedding party written phonetically, and the running order.

6. How do you handle requests from guests?

There is no single right answer, but there is a right process. Ours is that guest requests are played when they fit what the couple asked for, and never when they contradict it. Whatever a DJ tells you, make sure it matches what you want.

7. What do you need from our venue?

A prepared DJ has a list: where power is, where the floor will be, whether there is a loading dock or a freight elevator, what time music must stop. If they have no questions about your venue, they have not thought about your venue.

8. How much setup time do you need, and is it billable?

Ours is a two hour window, and setup time is not counted in your booked hours. Ask, because if setup eats into coverage you are paying for less party than you think.

About money

9. What exactly is included at this price?

Get it itemized: hours, ceremony sound, cocktail hour, dance floor lighting, microphones. Dance floor lighting in particular is often an upcharge elsewhere, and a floor under house lights stays empty.

For reference, ours is $1,195 for three hours, $1,795 for five with ceremony music, and $2,295 for five with uplighting and the photo booth included. All three include dance floor lighting.

10. What is the overage rate, and what triggers it?

Additional time is $250 an hour with us, or $125 for a half hour. Ask for the number before the night rather than discovering it on an invoice.

11. Is there a travel fee, and how is it calculated?

Ask for the method, not a guess. Ours is no fee inside the Greenville, Spartanburg and Anderson areas, then $0.75 per mile round trip past sixty miles one way, calculated from your venue's actual address. If you are marrying in Asheville or Hendersonville, ask for the number up front.

12. What holds the date, and when is the balance due?

Ours is a 25% retainer. Whatever the answer, get the payment schedule in the agreement rather than in an email.

Two more that are worth asking

Can I hear a mix, or see you work? Recorded mixes tell you about taste, not about reading a room, but taste matters too. Video from a real reception tells you more.

Where can I read reviews that are not on your website? A vendor's own site shows the best five. Independent profiles show all of them. We are 5.0 across 145 Google reviews, 4.9 on The Knot with 68, and 5.0 on WeddingWire with 26. Read the ones that name a DJ.

What a bad answer sounds like

Not every vague answer is a red flag, but a pattern of them is.

• Price with no itemization, or a refusal to put inclusions in writing
• No plan for illness or emergency
• No questions about your venue
• "We'll figure out the timeline on the day"
• Pressure to book immediately at a discount, especially a discount with a deadline

How an experienced wedding DJ helps

Everything above is really one question asked twelve ways: is there a process behind this, or just a person with a good playlist.

The process is what survives contact with a real wedding. A ceremony runs fifteen minutes long, the caterer needs four more minutes before toasts, a speaker glitches, someone requests a song you specifically banned. Every one of those is normal, and every one is handled quietly if the plan was written down beforehand and the person holding it has done this before.

That is also why we start coverage thirty minutes before your ceremony rather than at it. Prelude music is running as guests arrive and the sound is checked before doors, so the first thing anyone hears is not a sound check.

Questions couples ask

Check your date

Ask us all twelve. If you have a date and a venue, we will answer them and tell you whether we are available before anything else.

Our packages and what they include are on the pricing page, the services themselves under DJ and MC and ceremony sound, more logistics on the FAQ, and the rooms we work across Greenville and Asheville.