There are a bunch of articles going around social media that claim that it is super easy to DJ your own wedding. Now, I’m all for saving money, but I’ve attended too many weddings that try to run a dance floor without a DJ. It is just awkward. If you are having a small reception where you don’t except people to dance, then you don’t need a DJ. Having your friend/cousin/whoever try to run a wedding from their iPhone is a recipe for disaster. Here are 17 reasons why:
1. You’ll Have to Do a Lot of Prep Work
Being a DJ may look easy from the outside, but it isn’t. DJs have spent years honing their craft. They have the gear, skills and music to make your reception magical. If you want to replace this experience, you will have to do a lot of work for even the simplest of weddings.
You will need to build multiple playlists for each section of the wedding: ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing. You’ll need to figure out both what you want and what your guests will like. You’ll need to find the right equipment, test it in advance and then test it again on your wedding day. If you want to make any announcements or toasts on a microphone, you’ll need even more equipment. Be prepared to do a lot of legwork to DJ your own wedding.
2. Guests Will Mess With Your Music
Even if you get everything beautifully arranged in advance, you will need to either watch the equipment yourself throughout your wedding, or recruit someone to do it for you. For the ceremony, you need someone to start and stop the music at the right time. For the reception, you need a music “bouncer.”
If you leave your music unattended, it is highly likely that some well-meaning guest will come along and try to help. They will skip a song or two (or ten) trying to find what they think will be better. Now your whole playlist is screwed up, and you can’t go backwards because then you will be repeating songs later. These “helpful” guests will throw off your whole event if you let them. You or one of your guests will need to be watching the music throughout the reception.
3. One of Your Guests is Working the Whole Time
If you want to actually enjoy your reception, you now have to recruit Uncle Bob or Cousin Jane to watch your music. Congratulations, you’ve just promoted them from guest to unpaid vendor. If they are doing a good job, they’re really not going to have too much time to enjoy the reception. They will be constantly looking over their shoulder to make sure the music is okay.
So, you’re thinking, why don’t I just recruit or hire someone else who isn’t a guest? From that angle, you either have a volunteer or a low-paid vendor. Either way, you’re not going to get much commitment out of that person. You get what you pay for. If you pay little or nothing, that’s what you should expect in return.
4. Your Recruit May Flake
OK, so you found someone reliable to run your ceremony and wedding music. And, they are extroverted, so they even volunteered to make some announcements. Great! But, what happens if they get sick, or get super nervous, or just don’t show up? Now you are scrambling to find someone else to fill in. Good luck with that!
Every good DJ has a backup plan, and then a backup to the backup plan. It should say right in your contract what will happen if your DJ is sick or can’t make it for any reason. I have a whole roster of people I can call at the last minute to fill in for any reason. Your one guest running your iPad will not have those resources.
5. Guest Expectations
When your guests come to your reception where there will be dancing, they expect good music and a professional environment. Have you ever been to a house party and the music stops, or the wrong song plays next by mistake? It ruins the vibe of the dance floor, and people scatter. And if your guests don’t feel confident in the experience, they will be hesitant to dance. There’s nothing worse than a wedding where the dance floor is open, music is playing, and everyone is sitting on the sidelines.
6. Lack of professionalism
If you don’t have someone with at least some experience as a DJ, there are a lot of potential pitfalls. Having the right equipment is a big factor. Any decently large group of people will need professional-grade speakers. It is very easy to completely destroy home stereo equipment if you push the volume too loud.
The little things make a difference too. I was at a wedding where a friend of the bride was playing music from an iPod. They forgot to disable the sounds so every time they selected a song, you could hear all of the clicks. Another potential pitfall: imagine someone DJing from an iPhone and getting a text alert in the middle of a song. Ugh!
Also, it can be difficult to get edited versions of current music unless you have access to DJ music pools. I spend a lot of time ensuring that my music is acceptable for all. There’s nothing more embarrassing than sitting next to your great aunt Myrtle while the DJ is dropping f-bombs. Nobody wants to be in that situation.
Plus it is very hard to make smooth transitions between songs with a single device. Now every two songs you play has an agonizing moment of silence in between while you are trying to cue up the next song. You can solve that a bit by using a playlist, but then you have…
7. No Ability to Respond to Mood
Playlist will keep the music playing, but you are stuck with whatever you think will work ahead of time. How much of a mind reader are you? Do you know what kind of music all of your guests like? A professional DJ can learn how your crowd reacts to the music and find more songs that they will like to keep the party going.
8. A DJ Can Take and Filter Requests
You probably know what kind of music you like, and what you will want to play at your reception. But, do you know what your guests like? You might have a rough idea, but acting as your own wedding DJ means that you need to know every song in advance so you can build it into a playlist.
Even the world’s best DJ doesn’t know exactly what a crowd likes until they meet that crowd. A great DJ can take requests from your guests and get them dancing to music that they like. They can also filter out the requests that aren’t appropriate or just don’t work. And DJs have a ton of experience politely declining requests.
9. $300-$500 for Rental Equipment
If you want to make any announcements or toasts, you will need a microphone. You can’t just plug a microphone into consumer speakers. If you have more than 50 guests, you will need professional speakers. If you expect people to dance, you will need music louder than a Bluetooth speaker can provide. All of this requires professional equipment.
Many venues will rent you speakers and a mixer that you can just plug a phone or tablet into. This rental equipment will typically cost you between $300 and $500. The average DJ for a four-hour reception is around $850. You really aren’t saving that much money.
10. Awkward Silences
Silence will kill the mood at a wedding reception. Picture this: your reception is running smoothly. Your guests are dancing and having a good time. Suddenly, the music stops. Nobody’s sure why. You or your designated guest goes over to the tablet playing music and taps a few things. Hmmm, it looks like it’s playing. Your guests are standing awkwardly on the dance floor thinking, “Should we sit down?”
Thirty seconds pass. It feels like an eternity. Some guests start to wander off. Others start chitchatting with each other. Finally, you get the music fixed. But all that good party momentum is gone. And all you have to fix it is whatever song is next in your playlist.
A professional DJ can’t guarantee that nothing will go wrong. But they have the tools and experience to get your reception back on track. I once played an event where we kept losing power. I was able to simultaneously restart the party each time the music stopped, troubleshoot the power issues to a faulty breaker, and get my guests laughing about the silliness of it all. The event was even more fun with the power issue because I was completely in control of the situation.
11. Your Music is So Memorable to Your Guests
There are certain things that guests remember from every wedding: how the bride looked in her dress, the first kiss as a married couple, the food and the music. The majority of your wedding entertainment will be the music.
Acting as your own wedding DJ leaves too much to chance. Your guests could like the music you selected and have a good time, or they could just stand around awkwardly. Worse than that, they could decide to just leave early. You are paying a ton of money to host a reception that you want your guests to enjoy. It just makes sense to put a professional in charge.
Find other places to save money. Your guests will not notice fewer flowers or a smaller cake. Spend your money on the things they will enjoy: food, drinks and music.
12. One More Thing to Be Stressed About
You have enough to deal with on your wedding day. Trying to be a professional DJ to save money shouldn’t be one of them. If anything, your DJ is money well spent. For typically less than $1,000, you can find a great DJ who will run your entire ceremony for you.
If you are going to be your own DJ, you have to worry about playlists, and scheduling the reception. You have to watch your music, or recruit someone to monitor it for you. Even brides who were “successful” as their own DJ said they spend hours building playlists, and then 2+ hours the night before the wedding making sure everything was going to work. This is additional stress that you just don’t need.
13. No MC
One of the best roles a DJ brings to your event is acting as your Master of Ceremonies. They can keep the event flowing nicely by letting all of your guests know what’s happening at once. Without someone directing the crowd, you will have friends and relatives missing out on important moments because they didn’t know what was going on. You will hear a lot of, “You cut the cake already? I missed it!” from your guests.
And without at least a microphone and professional speakers, it is impossible to do any sort of formal introductions, or announce the first dances, or dinner being served, or any number of things. These announcements become very simple with a professional DJ.
14. Technical Difficulties
This is probably the most important reason, and the most overlooked. There are a million things that can go wrong with you wedding music. The device stops working, or the battery dies. The cords are not compatible. The music files didn’t download properly. The speakers are making a weird noise. This list goes on and on. These are all things that a professional DJ can handle easily, that an amateur will struggle with. If a major problem arises while you are DJing your own wedding, you could be stuck without any music at all. Why add that stress to an already stressful day? A professional DJ will give you one less thing to worry about.
15. A Good DJ Can Redirect
Not only can your DJ fix technical issues with the music itself, but they can also get the party back on track if something else goes wrong. Let’s say dinner isn’t ready yet, or the bridal party is running late. A good DJ can keep your guests happy and entertained while they wait.
Or, say something really awful happens, like somebody knocks over the cake. A good MC will refocus the crowd’s attention and get the party back on track. “No worries folks, our catering staff will clean that mess for us. In the meantime, who wants to dance?”
DJs are party insurance. You never know what you’ll need them for, but you’ll be glad you had one.
16. Learn from Other People’s Mistakes
If you don’t believe me, just do a quick Google search for “Can you DJ your own wedding?” Skip past the bridal magazines telling you it is just so easy, and look at the message boards where real people are responding.
Like here: https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/diy-dj/e3fe15fd5a943cb2.html
There you will see how many people have been to awkward weddings without a DJ where they were expected to dance. Direct quote responding to the question “Can I DJ my own wedding?”: “Oh boy… please don’t. A good DJ is essential to a wedding. They set the tone, they keep the flow of the wedding; they don’t just play a set playlist. They edit songs & make everything specific to your day. I’ve attended weddings with horrible DJs and well it was just that…. a horrible time.”
Everyone from wedding coordinators to photographers to your guests think this is a bad idea. Just don’t do it.
17. It’s Less Than 5% of Your Budget
Look, I get it. A wedding can be expensive, and you are trying to save money anywhere you can. But skimping on your entertainment is not a good decision. The average wedding budget in the US is around $33,000. The average DJ cost for a four-hour reception is $820. That’s 2.5% of your typical budget. You really shouldn’t be spending much more than 10% of your budget on a DJ anyway.
A good DJ will cost you just a few hundred dollars more than just renting the sound equipment you need to play music and make toasts. If you want your guests to dance and have a great time, spend just a little bit more and get a DJ. You absolutely have the right to make sure you are getting your money’s worth. Ask for references, get referrals, and ask for demos or videos. Make sure you like what you are getting.
Best Low Cost Solution: Hire a New DJ
If your wedding is big enough to need a DJ, the minimum you will need to play music on your own device is professional speakers, a mixer and a microphone. Renting this equipment will cost you nearly as much as a DJ. My recommendation: find a DJ who is relatively new in the industry and can give you a great price. Maybe there’s someone in your family or circle of friends who has been DJing in their bedroom and just needs a chance to break out. You can give them their first shot.
You want someone who at least has experience with DJ software and knows how to mix songs together smoothly. If they are really new, you can have them audition for you. Have them mix between a few songs for you. Ask them to give a sample announcement. Give them feedback on what you expect. If they don’t have their own gear yet, share what options your venue might have. Mostly, make sure they feel like a good match for your wedding.
You should be able to find a good DJ for just a little more that the cost of equipment. And that extra money will take away so much stress from your big day.
Do you agree with these reasons? Have you seen other DIY disasters? Let us know in the comments below!
