How to Choose The Best Wedding DJ

To choose the best wedding DJ, start by researching vendors on trusted wedding sites and narrow your list to a few top options. Compare reviews, pricing, and style, then schedule consultations to see if they match your vibe. A good DJ will help plan your timeline, ceremony, music, and overall flow. Clear communication, planning forms, and a venue walkthrough ensure everything runs smoothly so by the wedding day, your DJ is fully prepared to deliver a seamless experience from ceremony to dance party.

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Wedding

As an entertainment company in Portland, Oregon, we know that brides and grooms have the ability to search Google, but we think some of the best tools to find vendors in our area are The Knot, Wedding Wire, Oregon Bride Magazine, Brides.com, and other wedding related sites. I suggest that couples narrow their search down to about five different vendors for each category, compare the reviews, portfolios, and pricing, and then reach out to the top three to see if they're a good fit for your wedding.

This is one of the reasons why we decided to advertise all our information and pricing right on the website. After you have found a couple of candidates, the next thing is to set up a consultation. You can also read our article on tips for hiring a good DJ.

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Consultation

In my opinion, an in-person meeting or video call is the best option to make sure that our company is a good fit for your needs. During the consultation, we will go over all the details of your event starting from the ceremony and ending with the dance party. The first part of this call I like to get to know you as a couple and find out what style you have because this is going to dramatically affect the flow for a wedding.

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Timeline

One of the biggest factors for the cost of a DJ is going to be the length of the event and how long you'll need the DJ there. At DJ Cutt Entertainment, we start our time 30 minutes before the bride walks down the aisle until the end of the last dance. Our package prices only cover the time that we are actually needed to play music. Check our full pricing packages to find what

Ceremony

The ceremony is usually between 15 minutes to 45 minutes depending on the type of wedding you choose to have. At DJ Cutt Entertainment, we offer lapel microphones and handheld wireless microphones for our clients. It's important to discuss these details so we know what mics you'll require so everybody can hear everything while the ceremony is going on.

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Cocktails and Dinner

We like to go over the cocktail and dinner details to find out where these are going to be located in relation to the ceremony site. The overall length of the cocktail hour is going to be dependent on many factors, such as how long it will take you to finish up photos with the photographer.

When it comes to the music for dinner and cocktail hour, we usually get a list or ideas of artists or genres of music that you would like during this time. You can explore our music planning tools to get started. Also consider the essential questions to ask your DJ to make sure nothing gets missed during the planning process.

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Booking and Proposal Process

After we have received the contract and your payments, you will get a booking log so you can start filling out all our forms. These forms include one for the ceremony, one for the reception, and a form that has an event timeline with all the events that we need to know times for. There's also a form for the music requests for the dance party.

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Online Planning Forms

After we have received the contract and your payments, you will get a booking log so you can start filling out all our forms. These forms include one for the ceremony, one for the reception, and a form that has an event timeline with all the events that we need to know times for. There's also a form for the music requests for the dance party.

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Site Walkthrough

Between 30 to 60 days before your wedding we like to set up a venue walkthrough with you to go over all the final details. This is a great time to get all your other vendors together so we can all meet each other. Strong DJ and vendor communication at this stage ensures everyone is on the same page and the day runs flawlessly.

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Final Details

The week before your wedding we like to set up a phone call to go over the last minute details with you guys. We will set up a phone call, go over the planning forms, and discuss any last minute changes. This is where we can answer any last minute details to make sure everything flows smoothly and we have no hiccups on the wedding day. After this is done we ask you to submit all the forms. This tells us if there is going to be any more changes made to your wedding. Then we can send off our forms to the venue manager or the planner so that everybody has the same copy of all the details and everybody is in the loop of what’s going to happen and when.

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Wedding Day

On the day of the wedding we like to show up to the venue early. We are typically one of the first vendors that gets to the venue. The first thing we like to set up is our ceremony site since that's usually the first bit of equipment that we need to use. Once the ceremony site is all set up we will do a sound check and mic check to make sure everything is working properly.

Ready to book? Contact us today and let's start planning your perfect wedding day together.