What Goes Into Preparing To DJ A Wedding Reception

Why do Wedding DJs charge so much?  They only work for about 5 hours, right?   Exactly what goes into preparing to DJ a wedding reception?  Let me break it down for you.

After “the sale” and during the final detail stage of preparing for a wedding, this is typically what we will put into your wedding.

• Final detail meeting – as we cover a large geographic area (MA, CT, RI and beyond), we will typically drive an hour on average each way for our final detail meeting with our client.  (3 hours travel and meeting time)
• Typed Up Questionnaire – after the final detail meeting, we will type up all the information we went over into a neat form that we work off of.  We will send you a copy of this to review and approve. (1 hour)
• Music Updates – each week we have to download and preview all the new music out (about 100 songs each week).  We will update all our hard drives with the new music (Main computer, 3 portable drives) for complete back-up  (1 hour)
• Music Preparation – We will review your music choices and create play lists for your pre-ceremony music, ceremony music, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing in our DJ software so we are fully prepared for your day  (2 hours)
• Music Sets – Many times we will take your dance music selections and work on some mixes ahead of time in our studio so that we create a perfect beat mixed dance set ready for your wedding. (1 hour)
• Changes – over the course of the two months leading up to your wedding, we will be in contact via email and phone and will work with you on filling in missing details and changes to your itinerary.  We will update our music lists and paperwork each time that a change comes in (10 hours)
• Final Check In – the week prior to your wedding, we will do a final detail confirmation with you via email and over the phone.  Any last minute changes will be made and we will take care of outstanding balance on your account.  If need be, we will contact your facility or other wedding vendors to confirm plans (2 hours)
• Gear preparation – we create a pull-list for all the gear (and back up gear) that we need for your wedding.  We have about 16 different speaker sizes and styles to choose from based on the acoustics of your venue.   Wireless microphones are prepared and batteries replaced.  (1 hour)
• Gear loading – All that gear doesn’t just jump off the shelf and into our truck and trailer so the week of your wedding, we will unload/load our vehicle specific for your wedding.   We will reconfirm all gear and back up gear are loaded and ready to go.   Don’t forget the tuxedo!   (2 hours)
• Lighting – if we are providing lighting for your wedding, that gear also needs to be programmed, packed and loaded.   With our up-lighting, we would pull each of the 20 fixtures, test it and program your custom color before we ever leave the office.  Specialty dance lighting or name in lights projection lights also have to be tested and boxed for transport.  (1 hour)
• Day Of Event – A final double check of gear is made.  The 14′ trailer is attached to our vehicle and we leave hours before your event.   We need to arrive between an hour and 3 hours prior to setup (based on the size of the job).  Maybe I am traveling alone or I might have 3 other staff with me (assistant, light technician, photo booth operators). We probably have an hour travel time to your reception and quite a few man hours for setup.    It’s probably 40% likely that we will not be fed at your wedding (timing is off between when they want us to eat and when we are free, facility never offers or has a place for us to eat), so we will have to sneak a little snack to get through this 10+ hour day.   Don’t worry – our focus is on making sure you have the best time at your wedding.  (12 man hours)
• Tear Down – Your guests and you have left, but our work is not done.  We need to tear down everything and repack the trailer and drive an hour or more back to our office (4 man hours)
• Restock – The next morning, we need to be up early and unload all our gear and put back in stock.   Anything that broke is placed on our repair bench and we either replace, repair or retest it.  (1 hour)
• Recordings – Come Monday, we are not quite done with your wedding.  We need to review the digital recordings we took that night.  We edit our recordings of your introduction, toasts, etc and put on flash drive and mail off to you.   If you had our photo booth at your wedding, all the photos need to be uploaded to facebook so that your guests can grab digital copies of their favorite photos.  (2 hours)
• Blog / Facebook – Part of being in business for yourself is all the post event activities.  Social media is crucial to our continued success so we need to blog about your wedding, post images on facebook and instagram.   We need to tweet and G+ those articles as well.   We will send out our thank you cards and survey forms so that we can get your feedback. (1 hour)

If you add that all up – we spend between 20-30 hours not even counting the 5 or 6 hours of performance time for each and every wedding we perform.

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Rob Alberti, event director, lighting designer, author
Rob Alberti’s Event Services, DJ & Lighting
1310 Russell Road; Westfield, MA 01085
www.robalberti.com