Questions to Ask Wedding DJ

Questions to Ask Wedding DJ

Questions to Ask Wedding DJ |  Over the last 20 years. One thing that I’ve noticed is that brides, or clients in general, ask some of the hardest questions to answer… Not because they are hard on us, actually they are easy to answer. Every bride asks the same questions over and over… but because the answers are extremely technical… One question really stands out… “What type of equipment do you use?”

Well if I were to say, Denon, Pioneer, HP, QSC PLX Series, Electrovoice Speakers… Then I’m sure I would get a look like… ??? HUH? I think nowadays there is such a vast amount of DJ gear, Professional and Non-Professional, that it’s hard for us as DJs to even know the difference, let alone brides. Even the Non-Professional equipment is very reliable and really good that some DJs use non-pro equipment and do a great job djing.

I try to focus the attention, not on the equipment, but the quality of service, reputation, and my client receiving the exact service that they are hiring me to do.

That can be simple, fun, and enjoyable… To Extravagant, Elegante, and Memorable… Each client has an outlook of what their event is, so it’s my job to get that out of them, find out the best way to do it, and then with my talents (not my equipment) set out to do it the best that I know how to do…

Below is a short video on the top 10 Questions to Ask Wedding DJ.

The Top Questions to Ask Wedding DJ

• 1. What Will You Wear?

  We always dress up for all events. From Weddings, Quinceaneras, Sweet 16s to Corporate Events. We always wear a Dress Suit, Business Suit, or Full 3 Piece Tuxedo

• 2. What Type of Equipment Do You Use?

  We believe in buy once, cry once. So we always buy the top-of-the-line, Professional, Reliable Brands.

• 3. Are You Insured?

  We can provide a certificate of insurance if your venue requires the DJ to be insured. Simply have the venue contact us and we will send them over our insurance certificate.

• 4. Will you play requests?

  Requests are always welcome from your guests. We also accept also a DO NOT PLAY list from you.  Not all DJs do, so make sure you ask this question to all your DJs. This way you can control what can or cannot be played based on your taste.

• 5. Do you provide a written contract?

  Yes, all our events are secured with a contract and a down payment towards your event. The contract will state everything from the time we start until the time we are done. 

• 6. Can we come see you at one of your events?

  We are not allowed to invite our clients to another client’s wedding. Weddings are private events. We do not and will not invite outside guests to your event either. We respect your privacy.

• 7. Do you provide back-up equipment?

  Yes, we do. We take a backup set of speakers, a backup laptop, a backup microphone, and anything we feel has the potential of stopping from working due to external events. Examples, lighting strikes, power outages, miscellaneous unforeseen events.  

• 8. Will you be the one who DJs and MCs our wedding?

  Yes, but you have to book me early. Unfortunately, I can only be in one place at one time. The best thing about that is that if you do book me, you will have my attention on the day of your event. We do work with several DJs in our company, so if I am booked, I can put another one of our wedding professionals to perform at your event. We will tell you before you book, if I’m available or if someone else from my team will be at your wedding.

• 9. Will you be the one making the announcements?

  Yes, when you hire Elegante Entertainment, your DJ will be the Master of Ceremonies at your event. We will make all announcements and Introductions. 

• 10. How long prior to the event do you arrive?

  We like to arrive at least 2 hours before your event. In the case that you have booked our bigger packages, and if available, we may arrive up to 4 hours before the event starts. We want to make sure everything is set up and ready to go before our scheduled start time.

• 11. How Much does a Wedding DJ Cost?

  This one can vary. On average, people are spending an average of $1,000 on their Basic DJ packages (source: WeddingWire.Com). With most brides spending anywhere from $780 to $1495. Most DJs in Houston charge anywhere from $400 to $4,000. We tend to fall in between with our most popular package right at $1,700 (DJ, Uplights, Monogram) Our recommendation is to at least try to spend $1,000 for a professionally trained Wedding Entertainer/DJ.

• 12. BONUS: Can you help us plan our Wedding Timeline?

  Yes, with 20 years of wedding entertainment experience. I  have been able to stay proactive about planning the wedding reception.  If you don’t have a wedding planner, I am able to step in and plan and help you run your wedding reception. In fact, one of my most popular videos on youtube is an old Wedding Itinerary Planning Tutorial (with over 25k 26k views).

Questions to Ask Wedding DJ Video

Please Excuse the video, this video was taken back in 2011, but the principles are still the same. 

Questions to Ask Wedding DJ Transcript

Hi, this is Francisco Perez with Elegante Entertainment.  Today is Wednesday, March the second 2011 and I wanted to make a quick video on the top 10 questions that I get asked is a DJ.  Recently in the last couple of months inquiries and calls and meetings have been pretty high. The number of questions that I get asked is pretty much the same over and over. I wanted to get you that these top ten questions that I get asked. Maybe you can use them and maybe you already have them on your list. If you don’t then maybe you can add them. Some of these questions are really good however some of them are going to be not necessarily the best questions to ask. If you have the time make sure that you get through all these questions next video that I want to make is the top five questions that you should be asking your DJ.

So let’s go ahead and get started and the first question that I get asked a lot is what will you wear.  I guess I get asked this question quite a bit because of the number of DJs out there that don’t dress appropriately for your event. You just want to ask this question just to make sure that if you’re having a wedding reception or a quinceanera that the DJ doesn’t show up in shorts or blue jeans and a t-shirt and you just want to make sure that they’re dressed properly I usually wear a tuxedo to weddings and a dress suit to most quinceaneras and you know private social events whether it’s a birthday the party that’s you know that you’re taking the time to do and make it really  nice so you want your DJ just show up dressed accordingly

Number two what type of equipment do you use now this is one of the questions that I usually, as I wrote on the blog, try to refocus their attention from that question to a question that is going to be better suited to answer or more to give an insight into what the DJ is providing because if I were to start naming brands of equipment you probably wouldn’t know if it’s professional or nonprofessional or you know in between it’s not really going to help you a lot.

Number three is are you insured and I do get asked this question a lot but I get a task mainly from people whose venues require insurance and they’re just asking it because without that insurance obviously, the DJ is not going to be able to show up and perform.

Number four, this is one that kind of surprised me and I do get asked quite a bit is that will you take requests so I would imagine that you want a DJ that takes requests that are able to play the music that you want to hear and not the music that he wants to play that way obviously, you’re hiring somebody and you want them to play the music that you want to hear at your event.

Number five do you provide a written contract and that’s a good question to ask but also, make sure that on the contract it states everything that they may have told you that they’re going to provide make sure you put it you have them put it in writing.

Number six can we come to one of your events to see you and this one I usually do not allow people to come to my event and the biggest reason is if you’re if you let’s just say you at your wedding reception you have you know limited space and yet I want to have brought 10 people or a people or four people that you’ve never met just so they could see me perform I’m pretty sure most people are not going to feel comfortable with that having strangers at their event so for that reason not respect to you my clients I do not allow people to come in to see me perform.

Number seven do you provide backup equipment and the answer is yes we do but more importantly not just having backup equipment but also having a back-up plan of action that you can let the DJ can go through just to make sure there’s no interruption to music and if there is that it’s only a few seconds as opposed to a few minutes so we have a back-up plan and we should be up and running within 30 seconds have some music going and so that’s what you want you don’t want only backup equipment but also, a back-up plan.

number eight is will you be the one who deejays and emcees our wedding reception and the answer is, for the most part, yes if I’m not available for that date and I’m going to hire somebody or bring in one of my DJs you’re going to have the chance to meet that person so the biggest thing is since there’s a lot of DJ companies who just book of it and don’t really tell the client who the DJ is going to be then that’s what that question is in there you just  want to make sure that somebody that you’ve never met doesn’t show up to play music at your event

Number nine is will you be the one who does the announcements and I get asked this one quite a few quite often is and apparently, it’s because some DJ’s charge more to make announcements or somebody just in general do not do announcements so it’s a good question to get out of the way.

number en is how long do you arrive prior to the event are we try to get there two hours before as I heard the saying we like to hurry up and wait and the reason we do that is just to make sure that everything is working if not we have about an hour to go you know to make sure that we can get it fixed or you know just some work some playtime in there a lot of the time we just sit in there and waiting play music but you know just you can rest assured that by the time I guess to get there everything’s going to be taken care of.

There you have it those are the top ten questions that I get asked the one that was going through my mind as I was this is how much do you charge and that’s one of those questions that I usually, answer once you’re here so I hope you enjoyed it I hope you found it useful and stay tuned for the next one which is going to be the top five questions that you should ask your DJ and that’s all I have today so have a wonderful day thank you ten minutes