southernplayalisticaddilacmuzik
3:47 PM - 28 May, 2015
Hey fellas,
This thread went WAY off topic but as always, very entertaining. Just thought I would add some insight from someone who has DJ’d in clubs, and now DJs 98% weddings. 1st off, not all wedding DJs can transition and DJ in a club…and be good at it! Me, I’m one that could and still do every once in a while. Most can’t. I would say that this applies more the other way around though… in my opinion. I am friends with some of the best club DJs in my city and I KNOW 100% without a doubt they SUCK at DJing weddings, and the few times before I figured that good club DJs don’t always translate into good wedding DJs, I got burned because of it when I booked them under my DJ company name. There is just way too much going on at a wedding for MOST club DJs to handle. I’m not saying there aren’t exceptions, but for the most part I would put money that a club DJ who goes and tries to DJ an “upscale” reception(by upscale I mean not one at a community center where you can treat it as a club and no one will care)…I’m talking about one where the couple paid you $1799 to DJ…the typical club DJ would most of the time screw something up. Just too many wheels spinning all at once. This is why it is hard to find a GOOD wedding DJ and in general just saying the word “wedding DJ” makes us all picture a guy in a tux with a bow tie and a cheesy ass voice who plays the Macarena, Hokey Pokey, and Chicken Dance. Most guys that are professional enough to handle the multi-tasking and organization aspect of putting on a “production” that we call a wedding and truly running a business are just not “cool” in the eyes of most club DJs. And most club DJs that aren’t “D-bags”, aren’t professional enough to keep everything it takes to DJ over 60 weddings per year organized and never drop the ball, and run your own company. Job of a club DJ in general once you have the job: Show up, plug laptop in, read crowd, mix, drink, mix, drink drink, get bj behind booth, mix, unplug, go home. Am I missing something? Job of a wedding DJ, one that truly does it right, involves e-mailing contracts, meeting with couple to figure out if you’re a good fit for each other, have a 30 day pre-reception meeting face to face to customize itinerary and talk about music, keeping track of deposits/payments, what other options were booked with your DJ services and make sure they are ready…uplighting, photo booth, secure one of your booth attendants to work the booth, monogram, video projectors, etc., load up equipment, unload, set up DJ equipment, photo booth, uplighting, monogram projector, etc, complete sound check of DJ equipment, check of photo booth(props, paper, printer), and make sure wireless DMX software is programmed for grand entrance, cake cutting, and formal dances(might as well take advantage of moving heads), maintaining a good rapport with the couple(no one wants to work with an asshole), help keep the flow of the reception moving smoothly, and make sure everything is organized…all night…EVERY time. When you get paid $1799 for a reception, you can’t mess up by not replying(or taking 2 to 3 days to reply) to e-mails/texts, not have certain music, be a cheese ball on the mic, mess something up on the itinerary. These couples are picky and you literally cannot mess up anything. And if you're a true professional you are 100% ok with that and expect that from yourself anyways. When you charge $1800, you better follow through….EVERY time. I’m guessing…and this is just a guess…that most guys on here clownin on Joee don’t charge $1800 to DJ a reception. And if you genuinely wouldn’t take a reception even if you had to play a few songs you don’t like, then hey, you have the right to do that and if taking a stand is that important to you, who can say you’re wrong for that? Me, I can make almost any reception even fun for me so I rarely turn down any weddings…they just pay too much when it’s all said and done to do that. For me, $1799 to DJ, then $750 for the photo booth, another $400 for uplighting, and just there alone I made damn near $3000 in about 20 hours total worth of work. Sorry, but I’m just not turning that kind of money down myself. I can honestly say that at most weddings I DJ, I do about 30 minutes of old school(Temptations, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Whispers, Gap Band, BeeGees, etc), then I slowly start to mix in some “light” hip-hop, and in the last hour I'm on to Jeezy, Kanye, some DJ Unk, a little Biggie, some 50, a little errrybody in the club get Tipsy, some Q-Tip, I drop some Wanna Be a Baller, some Youuuu, you got what I neeeeed, some Snoop, even some Move Bitch. So I don’t get where so many people think weddings suck. Sorry but not for me.
So, why not keep an open mind about it? Not everyone DJs “just for fun”, and not everyone DJs to make a living. Neither is wrong. Some people seem to be doing it more as a business and if clients are happy with it, and the DJ is happy with what he does, I don’t see anything wrong with that? I myself book 65 or so weddings per year, my wife does about 15(because we have 3 kids and apparently they need some attention too, lol) and I split another 40 between my other 2 DJs. I usually charge $1100 for one of my other guys, and I keep $200. They know EXACTLY how much I charge and how much I’m keeping. Most of the time I also book more uplighting for their reception and/or the photo booth, so I make even more by booking them. I’m a DJ/entrepreneur who also wants to make money while doing this and I won’t apologize for that. Anyways, my DJs are happy, I’m happy, everyone eats. Just some insight from someone who handles the wedding DJ game, and who has mad respect for the club DJ. The true scratching DJs out there do AMAZING things and have skills on turntables that I will never have. I have a lot of respect for them and the hard work it took to get where they are. Wouldn’t it be something if a true mixing/scratching DJ would say the same thing about a wedding DJ? It will just never happen and that’s ok. : )
