Wedding Wednesday was a great idea in theory, but obviously not in fruition. This week I hope to catch you up on the wedding planning details I have failed to mention. :)
Today, I will start with our DJ selection process. Last summer when we started the DJ hunt I was primarily concerned with price and using vendors our venue suggested. I had initially contacted one DJ on the venues preferred venue list. They fell into my price range and seemed like a great choice. I had even set-up a meeting with this individual and decided not to worry about said meeting until after our photographer searching weekend.
Good thing I waited! As we met with photographers and our officiant for those preliminary meetings we would occasionally (if the subject came up) talk about other vendors. Two people I met with cringed and politely suggested other DJ's when I mentioned the individual we were meeting with. Yikes!
Needless to say, this experience was a wake-up call. Thankfully both vendors provided other DJ suggestions, but in the end we narrowed our choices down to two DJ's based on our officiant's preference. We figured the officiant has to interact with the DJ the most therefore we would prefer if she was comfortable with our selection.
We met with two DJ's, Frank from Friendly Entertainment and Don and Sue from Dance Masters Entertainment.
Both of our initial meetings went very well, but it was evident that we were dealing with two completely different DJ styles.
Frank is more mainstream in what I traditionally think of as a DJ. He will play great music, can read our guests to transition the music if necessary and will make all the necessary announcements. One of our other vendors told us that he is the "most intuitive [in] sense of timing and skill as far as djing goes".
Sue and Don are VERY interactive and engaged. They have been known to join the party, help with line dances like The Cupid Shuffle and will ensure your guests are dancing. They really run the event themselves.
My mom and I were torn! So I emailed a few vendors to get their opinion. I was pleasantly surprised when both vendors wrote back and said "you can't go wrong either way" and "tough choice". Both of their e-mails came down to the exact same thing my mom and I concluded, the DJ's just have VERY different styles.
It was time to ask my friends. One of my bridesmaids put it best, she said that with all the young people at the wedding, we will have no problem getting people to dance, so we should not take that point into consideration. She graciously decided that would be her job (thanks Bri!). We also realized that while its nice that Dance Masters essentially provides our music and day of coordination, that is not what we wanted. We wanted just a DJ who will work with the day of coordinator at Elkridge.
In the end, we went with Frank from Friendly Entertainment and we have not had a regret. He has been super responsive and great to work with. He was even nice enough to take a meeting with just my mom and Jay. Unfortunately, I had to miss our last meeting so my second and third command took the meeting. From my end it was comical, as I received texts throughout the meeting from Jay as to who was doing what when. As you can see they love to attend meetings without preparing. We are both super excited for our DJ selection and can't wait to start the party this weekend!
How did you select your DJ?
