Los Angeles Wedding DJ Prices: What exactly are you paying for anyway

If you’re planning a Wedding or other Special Event I’m sure you’re interested in how much it’s going to cost. And if you’re hiring a DJ in the Los Angeles area, we know you are certainly concerned with your budget – knowing how much the wedding dj costs is important. The old saying “you get what you pay for” applies here, of course.

In this article, I want to point out some of the factors that influence DJ pricing so you will have a better understanding of how we determine our prices and you’ll realize that we truly can work with almost any budget. We believe having some kind of entertainment is better than none at all, but great entertainment and hiring a great DJ is paramount to the overall success of your event.

First I’ll list the “5 Most Important Questions” a Professional DJ should ask you to help determine your needs. If you can answer some of these questions for us, we’ll know exactly how to price and plan for your event.

5 Main Factors that influence Wedding DJ Pricing:

1. Q: What is the date, time, and location of your Event?
By Knowing these details, we determine which of our DJ’s are available, what type of equipment you’ll need, the level of difficulty of set-up/tear-down, and if we’ll need to asses any other fee’s.

2. Q: How Many Hours of DJ Services do you require?
We build our prices first by determining the number of hours of Entertainment you need. As a rule, Most Receptions are 4-6 hours, Ceremony & Receptions are 5-7 hours.

3. Q: Do you need the DJ for the Ceremony & Reception?
If you require Music and/or microphones for the Ceremony and the Wedding Ceremony is in a different area than your Reception, we will generally need to provide an additional sound system.

4. Q: What is your overall vision for the Event?
Your Event is unique, and we want your vision and personalities to shine through! By knowing the “feel” you’re trying to achieve for the event we can pair you with the perfect DJ to meet those needs. In addition, our Event Planning/Coordination staff can help you locate other vendors and offer great tips to help you achieve your dream of a perfect event.

5. Q: What is your overall Budget for Entertainment?
We believe Great Entertainment is Priceless, but we can custom tailor a package to suit most budgets. Being up front about your budget will save you a lot of shopping hassle.

Other factors to consider:

Should you hire based only on price? Looking across the services we pay for as a business, that seems like a bad idea – We choose our vendors by balancing quality of work with results. You should consider doing the same. Some of the lowest price DJ’s are part time or just getting started, and their prices are often less to offset the risk you take by hiring someone without a proven record. At Elegant Event we have a long track record, we believe being a Wedding DJ is a career, not just a job, and we love what we do.

What else am I paying for?
The Experience of the DJ-
Most of our DJ’s, myself included, have been in this business for 10-20 plus years. We’ve each DJ’d thousands of events and have made the primary focus of our DJ career as Wedding DJs. We also understand the technical aspects of being a DJ and we purchase rugged, reliable, professional DJ sound and lighting equipment to bring to your event. A lot of “fly-by-night” DJs simply buy the Red-Tag Clearance Specials on the low grade equipment, so again they keep their overhead very low, but their equipment might also fail at an event, and unless they’ve come with plenty of backup gear as our company does, you’ll have a silent party.

Experience is Key:
Many of our DJs do not have a desire to OWN their on DJ firm, they don’t want to spend thousands of dollars and years of dedication to build brand recognition and build a business that other event industry professionals will know and respect. To achieve this level of success requires a tremendous amount of hard work, capital investment, and endless dedication. Our company is designed to find talented Los Angeles DJs/MCs and train them to our very high standards. We provide them with the tools necessary to be successful at any type of event. In addition, our business works very hard to increase it’s exposure, so clients who are looking for a DJ or Entertainment can find that entertainment and book them through a trusted, time-tested company. Our system for gathering and storing the details and song requests for an individual client’s Wedding or Event is another aspect of how structured and professional we strive to be. We don’t simply rely on an email with event details or a piece of scrap paper with your songs requests, we use a fully automated web-based Event Planning Software. Our clients use this along with help and input from their DJ or our event planners and that information is stored safely and securely for your event and for many years to come. If you call us in 10 years to ask what your 1st dance Song was, we can most likely tell you within minutes, but hopefully, you’ll never forget that!

Keep in mind that our company and your DJ will spend a lot of time preparing for your event. This includes driving to and from the event, setting up and tearing down his gear, putting together song lists and time lines, gathering your personal song requests, meeting with you to discuss and finalize event details, answering your questions on the phone and email or in live chat sessions, and on and on…your wedding DJ works much more than the “6 hours” you hire him to entertain.

Not all DJs are created equally.
Even within our roster of DJs at EEE, there are different personalities and talents. Some of us are trained musicians and can add that your event, some can speak multiple languages, others are extremely talented with Club Style Dance/Pop mixing, while others have an amazing knack for knowing and mixing music from All Genres for all types of listeners. We try to keep the “cheesy DJ” out of our personalities. However, we are a LOT of fun! There won’t be any polka dot vests on our DJs. Look at our DJ Bio page and you’ll see that our DJs are very professional.
Don’t be confused by some of the LA Hipster DJs who attempt to distance themselves from the “typical” wedding DJs, these guys may not have any idea how to effectively run and execute a Wedding. Your DJ should make announcements such as Grand Entrance, First Dance, Father/Daughter & Mother/Son dances, cake cutting, etc…and you need to ask if he does this because we have heard about some Club DJs who are trying to DJ Weddings and who refuse to make those important announcements, perhaps because they are “too cool”. Your DJ is also responsible for organizing the flow of events behind the scenes, with your coordinator if you have one, but it is his job to keep the party moving along in a fun/upbeat and professional way without bringing his EGO to your most important day.

Average Cost of a Los Angeles Wedding DJ

Think about how important the Entertainment is and make sure you’ve met with or had a long phone conference with your DJ before you contract him or the company representing him and make sure his name is on the contract you sign, he should be listed as the DJ.
The average price of a wedding in the US these days is still around $26,000.00 and the average cost of a great Los Angeles wedding DJ can be anywhere from $1200-2000.00 or more depending on your needs. Knowing the details of your event and by Using the 5 Factors I list above, you and the DJs you interview should be able to determine exactly what you need and how much it will cost.

If you’d like a free consultation with one of our DJs, please call us or fill out our Online Contact Form.

Click here to Read our “7 Steps for Hiring a Wedding DJ”

Happy Planning!