Pros & Cons of Hiring a DJ Vs. DIY Entertainment

Pros & Cons of Hiring a DJ Vs. DIY Entertainment

Written by: Josh Scott

Planning a wedding on a budget can be a difficult thing. In looking for logical and economic ways to cut the costs of putting on a wedding, more and more couples are turning to iPod’s or CD sound systems as the main source of entertainment at their weddings. While providing your own wedding entertainment may seem like an economical thing to do, there are definitely pros and cons to going the do-it-yourself route with your wedding entertainment. Here are a few things to consider as well as some helpful pointers when it comes to planning your wedding entertainment.

Recent polls of newlywed couples are showing that one of the most important things that couples neglect to do when planning a wedding is taking adequate time to arrange the wedding entertainment. You might be surprised to find out that upwards of 80% of all wedding guests are saying that the thing they remember most about a wedding reception is the entertainment. While the bride and groom are the stars of the show, the type and quality of your wedding entertainment is something that your guests are definitely going to remember.

The first and most important step in the process is to decide what type of atmosphere you are trying to create at your wedding. Is your event a more formal or traditional wedding, or are you looking to boogie down on the dance floor with your guests? It will be important that your choice of entertainment fits the type of atmosphere you are trying to create.

Creating your own play lists on CD’s or on an Ipod gives you the ability to customize the music to your own specific tastes. This is great, but you’re assuming that everyone at your wedding loves the same kind of music you do. That would be great, but probably isn’t going to be the case. Creating your own play lists allows you to choose songs that might be special to you and your future spouse, but you are limited to music that you personally know or have in your music collection. Unless you want to subject your guests exclusively to your musical tastes, chances are you’ll probably have to buy some more music to better suit all of your guests. Do-it-your selfers would have to spend hours on iTunes and sometimes hundreds of dollars on music to put together a play list just to last long enough to cover the average reception. Once you get to that point all of the cost savings of deciding to use an iPod have been lost and you’re out several hours of your time to boot.
The alternative to providing the music yourself would be to hire a professional wedding DJ. Besides the basic professional skills a DJ has to offer, the person in charge of the music needs to have a very broad knowledge of music and experience playing all different types of genres. Simply listening to the radio or owning a lot of CDs does not qualify someone as having a broad knowledge of music. Unless you’re a music collector, chances are you don’t have a music library with big band swing, the latest international salsa hits, current pop music chart toppers, oldies, classic rock, hip hop and dance tracks along with everything in between. A professional DJ will have thousands of title selections and the ability to match the right type of music to your guests.

One aspect of a wedding that is often neglected during the planning phase is who is going to run the show day of? Is it going to be the mother of the bride, a bridesmaid, or maybe a member of your wedding venues staff? Someone needs to be in charge of making sure everything runs smoothly. We would suggest asking someone well in advance of the wedding to basically run the show. If someone else is taking care of all the “fires” that are part of any wedding, that means the more time you and your loved ones have to enjoy your special day.

A professional DJs responsibility is to run the show. When a DJ is running the show that means that you don’t have to. A professional DJ is not afraid of speaking in-front of large crowds and is able to gain control of a room. A DJ is not there to boss you and your guests around, but rather to keep the flow of events that are already happening going on. A professional DJ truly is the Master of Ceremonies for your entire event. An iPod can’t make announcements (at least not yet, check back with me tomorrow…) A DJ knows how to do such things as: handle your grand entrance introductions with appropriate music cued in the background, introduce the first dance and parents dances, announce the cake cutting, and set up the bouquet and garter toss. Do you really want to worry about those sort of things instead of thoroughly enjoying your special day?

When it comes to your wedding entertainment, is it possible to do it all yourself? Sure it is, but be sure and take these considerations before deciding what you want to do for your wedding entertainment.

About the Author~ Josh Scott is the owner and Head DJ for All-Star Events DJ Services based out of Provo, Utah. With over 300 hundred events under his belt, Josh has experience in almost every wedding situation imaginable. For more information about Josh & his company you can check out his website at: allstareventsdj.com