How do you choose the entertainment, and what do you ask? Ask the questions that reveal experience, because experience is the name of the game: who exactly shows up on the day, who speaks on the microphone, how do they run the pace of the night, what happens during a break, how much say do we have in the music, and what have they changed lately. Band or DJ, the questions are mostly the same. Get to know your entertainers, and your guests will talk about your wedding for years to come. That's the goal, right?

Live bands

Live bands at weddings are great. Some are great, most are okay, some are terrible. What a band does that nothing else does is create energy in a room; when they see people dancing, they play better and longer.

Find out how they will play your special songs. Every band has its own style (even the best are cover bands), and your first dance will be similar to the recording, not the same. Ask to hear it. Find out their range: the new songs for the younger crowd and the classics for the older one? You'd be surprised how many bands book weddings with two genres in the tank.

Who makes the announcements? A good singer is not automatically a good MC; ask to hear them do a sample. What is the break policy? Imagine a packed floor and a sudden fifteen-minute break with no warning (think it hasn't happened?). Coordinate the breaks and what plays during them. Find out the meal requirements too; vendor meals get their own article.

The wedding DJ

DJs came to weddings later than bands, and today they are just as much a staple. The two are different tools, not a cheap version and an expensive one: a DJ plays the original recordings, covers every genre, and keeps the night moving with no breaks. The perception of wedding DJs is generally negative (obnoxious, cheesy, everyone thinks they can do it better), and there is some merit to it, because a ton of people bought a laptop and a speaker and started advertising. That said, there are plenty of good ones if you know how to look.

A good DJ reads your crowd and reacts to it, keeps your guests informed, involved, and entertained, and brings ideas to make the celebration yours. A DJ who can't come up with ideas is going to treat your wedding like another gig. Look elsewhere.

Find out how much say you have in the music. Ideally you can choose any song you want, and the DJ keeps the autonomy to read the room between your choices. If you want to script every song, save yourself the money and put a playlist on your phone. The DJ Sheet is where that balance gets written down: ceremony cues, the entrance lineup with pronunciations, the special dances, must play, do not play, and the three words for the room. It is what a DJ hands a couple, and what a couple can hand any DJ.

The questions that separate them

  • Who exactly shows up? The person you met, or a roster? And what happens if they are sick on the day?
  • Who runs the pace? Many DJs show up expecting somebody else to direct the night. To me, that's nuts. The DJ should control the pace and flow and help build the timeline. Ask how they plan to do it; if they do it enough, they can show you.
  • Will you visit the venue? Your DJ needs to know the room, the power, the load-in, and whether the ceremony needs its own sound. Nobody should discover those on the day.
  • What is the backup? Equipment fails. Ask what is in the vehicle if it does.
  • Requests, sound limits, and the mic. Do they take guest requests, and how do they filter them? How do they handle a venue's volume rule? Can we hear the MC speak, live, before we sign?
  • What have you changed lately? Look at their recent work, not their oldest. A provider who can't say what they have improved in the last few years has probably stopped improving. If they can't, I'd go the other way.

The entertainment sheet in this tool has those questions with room to write the answers, two candidates side by side.

Team players

Band or DJ, make sure they are team players: willing to cooperate with the other providers and with your guests (requests, volume, a grandmother who needs the speakers turned down). Don't wait until the wedding is happening to establish roles. Put every provider's contact and arrival time on one sheet and send it to all of them.

What usually goes wrong here

The band took its break during the fullest floor of the night. The DJ found out about the 10 o'clock cutoff from the venue manager at 9:45. The MC mispronounced a parent's name at the grand entrance because nobody wrote it down phonetically. The sheets above exist because of nights like those.

In this field, you get what you pay for, so be careful, and be clear about what you are paying for: ask any provider what is behind their number, and listen for experience in the answer. Those who have it will stand out. Take the time to find them.

Thanks! Chuck