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Your wedding day. You’ve dreamed of it, planned every detail, and probably gone into debt to make it happen. The gown –perfect. The flowers –perfect. The dinner –perfect.

So why is everyone leaving as soon as the cake was cut? This isn’t the fabulous party of the century you’ve envisioned all your life. People are supposed to be dancing in celebration of you and your brand new hubby, right?

Not every bride wants to party until dawn. But chances are you do want your guests to enjoy themselves. And you probably want them to go home talking about what a spectacular celebration you treated them to, whether your style is cool and classic party –till –you drop crazy. If you’re hiring a professional Disc Jockey, it’s probably because you want a reception nobody’s going to forget. You want an event that will have people mixing, mingling, and boogying until the wee hours –or at least until you make your grand exit.

So why do so many brides skimp on the entertainment? The average bride spends less than 5% of her wedding budget on entertainment, often hiring the cheapest disc jockey she can find or even letting a friend do the music as a favor. And why not? To the untrained eye, disc jockey’s all look pretty much alike –a guy who sits in the corner and plays music. Why, your brother’s friend’s cousin can do that just as well as some hotshot professional, right? And you can spend the money you saved on more flowers!

Actually, the disc jockey is probably the single most important vendor you’ll work with; he / she is the person who can single-handedly make or break your reception.

Todd Davis, owner of Sound Express Mobile Entertainment in Modesto know a thing or two about disc jockeys since his company has been in the business for over 25 years. A good disc jockey, he maintains, is a professional. He’s more than just a guy playing some music. A good disc jockey should work closely with you to plan every step of your reception from start to finish. “We meet every bride and groom in our office and give them the time and the tools to plan their event down to the last detail”said Davis.

A professional disc jockey will act as a wedding coordinator before the big day and as the master of ceremonies during it –and he / she will be comfortable, charismatic, and competent throughout the entire process. Avoid doing it for fun disc jockeys. They might find a funnier event to be at on your wedding day. He should be professional in appearance and demeanor. He / she should have references for you to look at. He / She should be using professional equipment and have back up procedures in place in case of an emergency. Davis goes on to say he / she should have legally owned music (This is important and a growing problem these days –you don’t want some kid showing up at your wedding with a backpack full of bootleg CD‘s. Regardless of your stance on pirated music, your wedding day is not the time to flirt with the wrong side of the law). You should watch out for the “I-POD DJ”. These kind of disc jockey’s are in this business for the quick buck. No expenses and no commitment to you or the profession. You know the saying here today and gone the next. “I-POD DJ”S” when amplifying their music to a suitable volume for a party of 100 people or more will lose the quality of the music and just like a photograph on your computer the bigger it gets the more pixilated it becomes, the music will have the same reaction.
           
Once you’ve found a disc jockey you feel is a professional, there one last requirement: You should like him / her. “The most important quality of a professional disc jockey is their personality.”After all, this is the person who will be interacting with your family and friends, He / She will become part of your family for a short time but an important time. This is a tough job and takes some savvy, some talent, and some experience. An armature disc jockey basically plays music like a jukebox.
 
Davis agreed: “The last thing you need on your wedding day is some teenage disc jockey who thinks he / she knows what you want t hear”.

 

A professional disc jockey has experience behind him / her: he / she knows instinctively how to read a crowd and play the perfect combination of music that’s going to get everybody on the dance floor, from your four year old flower girl to your 70 year old grandparents and everybody in between. And he / she has a wide variety of music with him / her, allowing him / her to create moods on the fly, from dreamy and romantic, to bump and grind sexy to chicken dance goofy.

When your brother’s friend's cousin offers to DJ your wedding for next to nothing, remember that entertainment makes up the bulk of your reception. You’ve paid good money to have that hall for several hours, so don’t let it go to waste with a room clearing disc jockey. The entertainment is the last thing your friends and family experience, and it’s what they will remember in the morning –more than they remember the gown, the flowers, or even the meal.

The man / woman behind the microphone is subtly steering your entire reception; he / she sets the mood, controls the pacing, and keeps the party going. You wouldn’t trust Joe Schmo with no experience or credentials to alter your gown, arrange your flowers, or bake the wedding cake; so why would you trust him / her with something as important as introducing your first dance as man and wife, your father for the toast of his and your life or why trust him with the biggest night of your life?