Booking a Wedding DJ  – What You Should Know …

by Nik Edser
In this article, we are going to put the magnifying glass over the crucial aspects of finding the right wedding DJ for your wedding.  We will give you some information on the right questions to ask to quickly separate the true wedding DJ professionals from the amateurs.  The questions we will give you to ask will not be the ones you probably imagine!

The one thing that continues to amaze me in this industry is how late many people leave it to book their wedding DJ.  It seems that the DJ is often the last thing thought about.  We frequently get calls requesting a DJ for weddings that are only a month or two away.  It is unfortunate that we can’t help most of these people.  I know they will definitely find a DJ somewhere that is available on such short notice, but … the question they should be asking themselves is … ‘Why are they available on such short notice?’.

There are a lot of DJs out there.  It seems today anyone with a notebook or couple of CD players and a cheap pair of speakers can call themselves a DJ.  Now, I’m not saying that these people are necessarily bad.  All of us in the professional DJ world had to start somewhere, but when it comes to a wedding I think it’s better to feel a sense of trust in your suppliers.

Here is a list of a few things you should ask any DJ that you are looking at booking for your special day.  Asking questions about the equipment they use is one of the things most people think to ask, but unless you actually know what quality equipment is, the answer probably won’t mean much to you.  Instead focus on the following points which help to get to the basics of their business.  Which is – How serious do they actually take their business?

• Do you require a deposit?   Hopefully the answer to this is ‘YES’.  Why?  Because it shows they are professional and once you pay a deposit are much less likely to let you down (as frequently happens with unprofessional companies).
• Are you a member of the ABIA? Again, the answer to this should be ‘YES’. The ABIA is a nationally recognised register of professional wedding suppliers across all categories (celebrants, DJs, florists, venues … you name it!). Membership in the ABIA shows that the supplier takes weddings serious enough to pay for an annual membership. If you can find a supplier that won an ABIA award (like us!) even better because these people are the best of the best when it comes to weddings.
• Do you have the legally required $20 million Public Liability Insurance?  This might seem like a bit of an unnecessary thing to ask, but it is so much more important than you might originally think for three reasons. (1) It is a legal requirement and if something goes wrong, you don’t want to be responsible for footing the bill for any damages.  (2) Many venues are cracking down on checking that suppliers have this insurance.  Without being able to present this insurance the supplier is legally not allowed to perform at the venue. (3) This is probably the most important of all points from your perspective.  It is simply that if a DJ doesn’t even have the insurance for their profession (as required by law), how serious are they really about their profession?

We hope these points have helped you in asking the right questions to ensure you are getting a quality wedding DJ for your special day.