One way to think about your reception entertainment is to consider it to be an insurance policy on the rest of your investment. The fact is it won’t matter how beautiful your decorations are, how delicious the meal is, how artistic the cake is, if your entertainment fails to meet your needs and expectations. The entertainment is the one factor that could “MAKE OR BREAK” your event.

While it’s attractive to shop by price, just as every other wedding service vendor, price alone is not the definitive factor in this decision. All DJ services are not equal; you don’t want to rush into this important decision based simply on price, some other matters you have to consider.

First thing to consider is experience, specially with wedding receptions, a DJ who does primarily club work will most likely not have the variety of music that is necessary to professionally emcee the reception events, a good reception entertainer has many responsibilities, he need to be an event manager, know the kinds of music that will satisfy your guests, and how to work with other professionals. A reception is a coordinated effort between many professionals; you want someone who has had experience working with caterers, photographers, and videographers so that everything runs smoothly.

One indication of an experience reception DJ is that he will have a thorough event planner for you to complete or that will be completed with you during a planning meeting. This will cover everything from the names of your bridal party, songs to be played for your formal dances, special requests, songs to not play and many other factors that will help things run smoothly.

Your disc jockey should have high quality, professional equipment that is designed for mobile use and that is neatly cased, cordless microphones are also a nice touch for the blessing & the toasts and this is another feature that you often don’t find with a budget DJ. Although you might not be familiar with brands for professional equipment, it will not be the brands that you find at electronics stores, while it is highly unlikely that your disc jockey will experience any equipment problems; he should have back-up equipment readily available.

This factor alone varies greatly amongst people who provide this service. Is their library all digital or does it include cassette? Compact disc is the medium of choice professionals who keep their libraries current. In addition, while it can be expected that any DJ have a variety of music that includes several genres, are they really equipped to play music that you and your guests want? While 300-400 CDs may sound like a lot compared to your personal collection that will almost always be insufficient for the professional. Even if the DJ is using primarily compilation discs, they will most likely not be able to handle many of your guests’ requests…