AKA how to find the right wedding DJ for your wedding.
TL;DR - forget about 'best' and instead, focus on who is the right 'fit' for you, your guests, your venue and the experience that you want to create together.
Things to consider when choosing a DJ for your wedding
What type of music do they play?
For example, our preference is to DJ vinyl records, supplementing this with digital music. We suit couples looking for a range of classic tunes from across the decades, rather than 100% current Top 40 pop. We tend to play a wide variety of music at weddings.
In particular, we love soulful music (e.g. soul, funk, disco, jazz, house). We've also got plenty of records from the 60s-00s, across most genres (inc. pop, rock, RnB, hip-hop).
Also, if you want to avoid too much mainstream music, but don’t want to alienate your guests, we can help you find the sweet spot.
Experience
Have they DJ'd a wedding before? As we learnt when we were starting out in 2015, DJing a wedding is different to other events. But, every wedding is different in some way and DJs gotta start somewhere. Inexperience doesn't necessarily equal terrible. We learn a lot from every wedding that we DJ and are constantly tweaking and improving our services.
A few areas where experience can pay off are:
- the DJs ability to read the room
- how they handle guest requests
- keeping an awareness of the flow of the evening (e.g. what music fits best with dinner? What music will build up the energy before the dance floor opens?)
Professionalism
Weddings require skilled coordination. You want someone who can liaise with you, the venue and your vendors in a courteous and professional way. It is valuable if they can make the process of planning your wedding music easier and more enjoyable.
Does your DJ answer your phone calls and respond to your emails on time? What have their previous clients said about them in reviews?
Equipment quality
If we were hiring a DJ, we would expect their equipment to be professional grade. Be wary of small PA speakers (<12" size). They will struggle to reproduce high quality, full frequency sound. Also, they will cause listener fatigue by being 'overdriven' to create enough volume.
We recommend you talk with your wedding DJ about what equipment they use. Particularly if having high quality audio is important to you.
Wedding-only DJs vs. all-event DJs
There are polarising views about wedding-only DJs vs. DJs who play a variety of functions. One argument for wedding-only DJs is that they are wedding specialists.
Whereas, we fall into the other category. DJing a variety of events exposes us to a broad range of people and their musical tastes. This grows our musical knowledge and DJ skills. Which helps us improve the service we provide to our wedding clients.
Back-up plans
Luckily for us, being a DJ duo gives us a ready-made back-up option if one of us is unable to perform. If both of us are unable to perform, we immediately contact our DJ network to source a suitable back-up for you. This has only happened once in 7 years of DJing (...damn you, COVID!) and we were able to find a suitable replacement, with positive feedback from the client.
Unfortunately we cannot guarantee a replacement because popular DJs are often booked in advance. So if you want peace of mind, a DJ hire company with a larger roster of back-up DJs may be better suited to you.
Lighting and other effects
We provide basic coloured dance floor effects lights. Or, some couples prefer to use decorative lighting and we leave our lights at home.
If you want uplighting or ‘dancing on a cloud’, we recommend you ask other DJ hire services whether they provide these. We can discuss smoke/fog machine hire for your wedding. Though, these are not suitable for all events and would need consultation with your venue.
Availability
We recommend booking your wedding DJ at least 12-18 months before your wedding.
We book up quickest for dates in October, November and January. Followed by February, March and December. Between April-September we often have more last-minute availability.
We like to DJ no more than 2 weddings per month. This helps us maintain DJ-life balance and personalise our service to you. Rather than getting burned out and approaching your event as 'another wedding'.
So how do you know which Adelaide wedding DJ is right for you?
There are no right or wrong answers here. It depends on your vision for your wedding and whether a particular wedding DJ can help make that happen. Knowing what you want can be a helpful first step.
We recommend you ask friends for personal recommendations. Friends know your personality, musical tastes and vision for your wedding. They can keep this in mind when considering any DJs who suit you. Venues can also recommend wedding DJs who are their 'preferred suppliers', or others who fit the vibe you want.
There are plenty of DJs for hire in Adelaide. We have provided links at the end of this post for DJs who we have met or have seen DJing before. There are others who would do an outstanding job of DJing your wedding or event. We recommend taking the time to chat or meet with a few DJ hire services before making your final decision.
Good luck with your DJ hire search and feel free to ask any questions about finding wedding DJs or event DJs in Adelaide. You can also check out what some of our satisfied clients have said about us.
Here are some other DJs to hire in Adelaide, who we have met or worked with before: