Booking a DJ looks like choosing music and is really choosing a host. The playlist is the smallest part of the job: the person you book will hold the timeline, handle the microphone, read a room that spans four generations and decide when to change what is playing. This page is about how to buy that rather than how to buy a speaker stack.
Work out the hours before anything else
Start from the first dance and end at the time your venue's licence ends, then add the setup and the breakdown, and you have the booking. Setup is the part that is usually inside one quote and outside another: a DJ who arrives two hours early to set up during the meal is giving you those hours, and one who arrives at the changeover is not. Ask what time they arrive, what time they leave, and what an extra half hour costs, and get all three in writing. On an hourly rate, ask for the minimum as well, since the minimum is the floor beneath the quote and it is what a flat package should be compared against.
What separates a wedding DJ from any other
A wedding DJ is running a room with a schedule in it. They will announce the speeches if asked, hold the floor while the cake is moved, and pick the moment to shift from the older half of the room to the younger. That is a skill and it is why wedding rates sit above party rates. Ask how they take requests on the night, what they do with a do-not-play list, and how they handle a floor that empties, because those three answers tell you whether you are speaking to somebody who has done fifty weddings or five. Ask what they wear, too, which sounds trivial and is not.
The practical questions nobody asks until it is too late
Ask what backup equipment they bring, since a failed mixer with no spare ends the evening. Ask what they need from the venue in power and space, and pass the answer on. Ask for the venue's sound limit in decibels and tell them before booking, because a limiter that cuts the power mid-song is the commonest avoidable disaster of the night. Ask whether the person you are speaking to is the person who will attend, which matters enormously with agencies. And ask whether lighting is included or a separate line, because it is priced separately by nearly everybody who prices anything at all.
Questions people ask about dj for wedding
How many hours do we need a DJ for?
From the first dance to the end of the licence, plus setup. Most couples underestimate by an hour, so work it out from the timeline rather than from a package name.
DJ or band, or both?
Both is common and it is two bookings with two sets of hours. If the budget only covers one, a DJ plays longer for less and handles the microphone duties a band usually will not.
Will they play our playlist?
Most will work from your must-play and do-not-play lists and fill the rest by reading the room, which is what you are paying for. A DJ who agrees to play a fixed list end to end is agreeing to something that rarely works.
What is a sound limiter?
A device at venues with noise conditions that cuts power when the volume passes a set level. Get the figure from the venue and give it to the DJ before you book, because it changes what equipment they bring.