What should you look for in a wedding DJ? For most couples, entertainment plays a HUGE part of your wedding day. After all, it’s the DJ who sets the mood. It’s more than about just pushing play on an I-pad.

So think of a DJ like the master of ceremonies. That DJ engages with your guests and gets the par-taaayyy started. Much like a photographer, he is in charge of a timeline and flow of events that take place from the ceremony to the end of the evening at the reception, also while trying to keep the mood fun and running smoothly.

With a great DJ, you shouldn’t have to worry about anything after the ceremony except having fun and enjoying your new marriage.

So I am a professional on photography, but doing the music and entertaining the guests, is certainly not my speciality. So, I decided to ask one of my favorite professional DJs, Javier Carlos, with C West Entertainment, a few questions that maybe you should even be asking when picking out your DJ for your wedding.

What should the bride and grooms look for in booking a DJ?

The things the couple should look into are what services they provide. Will they be the MC? Is the person you are talking to on the phone the DJ? At our company, Javier Carlos, the owner, answers all the calls and speaks to all the clients. After that, we make sure that the DJ is a good fit when it comes to their vision and vibe for music. This is important as the DJ should know and understand their music like they do. If there’s some music that they don’t know of, the DJ should be willing and open to learning about what kinds of music they like.

Is there a contract?

A professional DJ must have a contract. This is the first way to tell if you’re dealing with a professional or a hobbyist.

How do you get the crowd dancing?

Here’s the thing, not every crowd likes to dance. This is something we ask our couples. “Are you expecting a lot of dancing”?. Occasionally, our couples tell us that they are looking for a more low key vibe with great music. Some people don’t want to dance!

For the majority of weddings, this really comes down to playing the right music. We collaborate with our couples and ask for them to get songs ahead of time from their guests to feel out the crowd. Also, our DJs can easily read if the song will get the people moving!

How do you keep your music collection up to date, do you allow requests? Do you have a do not playlists?

Our music is always evolving. Almost every event has a different crowd! We allow requests and encourage couples to send in their song requests for the cocktail hour, dinner, and dancing. Sometimes we get a few songs not to play, but oftentimes we have to ask in our planning meetings what artists they don’t like as much.

How do you plan with a bride and groom?

We like to start our journey with a call. Here we review their basic details and get to know each other. Then, we immediately send over our forms and set a follow up call about a month away from the wedding. We review their expectations, songs, details, and requests from us. Lastly, we will send the timeline to the venue and other vendors!

Is there a traditional order of events?

4:30 Prelude

5:00 Ceremony

5:30 Cocktail hour

6:30 Grand Entrance

6:35 First Dance

6:45 Dinner

7:30 Toasts

8:00 Cake

8:10 Open Dance Floor

Notice that we didn’t include Garter & Bouquet toss? Most of our couples are not doing this anymore!

9:50 Last song of the night

10:00 Exit

And then last thing – what would you want wedding couples to know?

Remember to party!!! It is your big day and no one should tell you how to celebrate.

So there you have it! DJ Javier even gave a little bit of how the traditional timeline works for the evening. Of course, it is your day – so anything goes. So you can definitely make it your own.

I absolutely love working with C West Entertainment. The first time I worked with Javier, I was blown away just in the fact that he reached out to me before the wedding just to introduce himself as we would be working together. Out of all the wedding DJs I have worked with, I’ve never had that. Seriously! Something so small made a huge impression on me.  I’ve worked with his team since then and they have been fantastic rock stars to work with as well.  A big thing that stands out to me about Javier and his team are their professional personalities. You gotta have some great personalities to engage with your guests! I highly recommend them!

As the wedding photographer, we kind of rely on the DJ for being the leader of the reception and to keep the timeline going. It’s kind of a like a pass off. And I’ve worked with some fantastic DJs, but I have also worked with some DJs that made a lot of mistakes. I kid you not, one wedding DJ that I have worked with handed the microphone over to the wedding videographer and made him do the toasts announcements for the evening. I was blown away by that. Then I have worked with other wedding DJs that relied on me to tell them when to do things such as cake cutting. Your DJ should know your timeline. You should send this to them and they should make any announcements and try to stick to that timeline and definitely not rely on other vendors to do their job. That’s just my two words. Hiring a professional DJ is one of the TOP VENDOR suggestions in my opinion.