Now that you know how a DJ performs, it is important to make sure they perform the way that you saw on a constant basis. This is done by acquiring a couple references from the company and/or DJ. It is best to get phone numbers of prior clients and vendor coordinators, but copies of recommendation letters are acceptable as well. Most DJs can give you a really good sales pitch, so you need to check references to ensure that what they are actually telling you is true. Any reputable DJ will have at least a few reference letters or client phone numbers available to show you the quality of work they have done. If you’re hiring a company, make sure to ask for references for the exact DJ that will be performing at your wedding. Also make sure that the references they provide are recent, most likely within the last year. It is better if you can get reference from the last three months, but many established DJs aren’t actively petitioning their clients for references all the time, so keep that in mind as well. Do not accept references from years past. If a DJ or company tries to offer that to you, they are most likely trying to give you their ‘top’ references, which will only show you what they are like at their very best.

Most great DJs were trained. A good DJ uses a lot of intuition in order to make an event flow well, but they were still trained by someone in the beginning. Find out who. Simply ask the company or DJ what training the DJ has. How many weddings has the DJ done since their training? After 10 shows with a very good trainer a DJ will have a decent idea of what to do at a wedding. In contrast, without training a DJ will be decent after 50+ shows. Of course, there are always those that stand out and learn quickly, but these are hard to find and even harder to figure out for yourself over the phone. A DJ that has been trained is going to know the little things that the untrained DJ had to stumble across themselves. These are things like announcing events 10-15 minutes before they start, or how to hype up the crowd for a successful money dance.

Can the DJ read a crowd? A great DJ knows how to read a crowd and knows what song to play next based on the crowd’s reaction to the current song being played. Because they can mix, they can quickly but smoothly get out of a song that isn’t working, and leave one that the crowd is enjoying for just a bit longer than normal. The concept is simple—If the crowd likes the music they’ll be on the dance floor, and if they don’t, they won’t. Of course the dance floor population fluctuates all night long, but a great DJ can keep a good average number of people on the floor at all times. Ask the DJ how they would read the crowd and pay attention to specific things in their answers. Do they size up the number of guests and their age groups? Do they mention multiple genres of music? A great wedding DJ knows that a wedding reception dance event is much different than a club or house party setting. There’s always parents, grandparents, friends, and even siblings and grandchildren. Playing the top-40 hits on the local R&B station isn’t going to appeal to all of these groups. A great DJ knows this, and knows the popular songs for each of these groups and when to play them. There’s also a progression of genre changing throughout the night. The DJ should mention this in some fashion. The older generation tends to dance early and go home early, while the younger generation sticks around all night. The songs being played should cater to this trend.

Make sure the DJ has a wide range of music including the most chart-topping songs, but also including hits from the 90s, 80s, 70s, and even earlier. Beware of DJs that claim they can obtain any song you want for your wedding by downloading it online. Even though the majority of the major population obtains music from peer-to-peer internet download programs, this is not acceptable for a DJ to do. The music obtained via P2P is often low-quality, and plus it is just downright stealing for profit. It can seem strange to ask a DJ, “where do you get your music from?” but it is an important demonstration of character so you should find out. Plus, some of the larger companies are actually being shut down for duplicating their hard drives for all of their DJs. A great DJ should subscribe to at least two paid DJ-exclusive services (music pools) such as PromoOnly.com or TopHitsUSA.com so that they can be sure to legally have the most up-to-date songs being released on a weekly or monthly basis. Ask to see some of their most recent songs and verify that they are the ones that have just started being played on the radio or at least that they are by artists that are currently being played on the radio. Really good DJs get songs before the radios start circulating them, so the DJ may even have songs that will become hits in the next few months. If the DJ is exceptional they might even be able to tell you which ones are going to be hits!

Of course, no DJ has every song in the world so make sure you get a list to your chosen DJ prior to your wedding. This will allow them time to legally acquire them and have them on hand for your special day.

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Part 1 of this series - Part 3 of this series