John is AWESOME! Cannot stress how much you should hire him. He is not only a DJ, he is a wedding coordinator and lighting extraordinaire! He was so pleasant to work with throughout the whole process and we could tell that he really cared about our wedding and making it as successful as possible. He spent time going through the details of our wedding day with us multiple times in person. He navigated the difficulties of working with our venue without complaint and ever served as our advocate and pushing back on the venue when they weren’t completely aligned with our wishes. He visited our venue and had great lighting ideas, which were AMAZING beyond belief and truly added to the experience of our wedding. Our guests were on the dance floor the entire night and several commented to me on how great the music was. John was the perfect emcee- I did NOT want a cheesy DJ. During planning, John offered up great ideas, but was always clear that we should tailor everything to how we wanted it. John was professional, but charismatic and truly exceeded all our expectations. Throughout the wedding, John checked in with us to make sure we were doing ok and having fun – he is so thoughtful! We are so thankful and so glad that we picked A2Z Music Factory for our wedding!

My wedding was SO much fun, and John was by far the biggest reason. First, he's a FANTASTIC DJ. The playlist all night long was perfect, with a great mix for the older and younger generations. He got people out on the dance floor, and having a blast. He played music at a good level during dinner (which is one of my pet peeves, I hate when the music is too loud and you have to shout). And during the rest of the night it was just perfect. During planning he had several great ideas to make our reception unique, and involve the guests a little. For instance we played the dating game, where my husband and I sat back to back and he asked funny questions while we held up a Barbie or Ken to answer me or him. Everyone thought it was hilarious, and it made the evening interesting. He was also incredibly helpful. I'm a Type A personality, and he kept reassuring me that he would take care of everything, so I just relaxed, and the night went off without a hitch. He offered to do anything that would help us out (make menus, programs, etc), and he even helped my mom and my husband bustle my dress when I got to the reception. Have you ever seen a DJ bustle the bride's dress?? He's also just a genuinely nice guy, and you can tell he loves what he does (plus he's fantastic at it!). I would recommend him to DJ any event without hesitation. Wonderful!!

John was awesome! It's been a few weeks since our wedding, and people are still talking about how awesome the reception was! John was attentive and made sure we were having a good time and was taken care of (he stopped by the bridal party room after the ceremony asking if we needed drinks or food, seriously the dj did that!) Music selection was great and the candy toss was one of the best ideas ever! Thanks John for all your hard work!

I don't even know where to begin to highlight all of the fabulous talents of Mr. John Howard! He was absolutely amazing to work with and clearly worked so hard to ensure we had an amazing experience on our wedding day! "An experience" is really what John creates for your wedding day rather than just showing up to be a "DJ" for the event. My husband and I met with John and another one of his team members in April and immediately knew we had to figure out a way to ensure he was our DJ for our wedding! During the initial consultation he really focused on getting to know us and what we were looking for in addition to sharing tons of examples of his work on so many levels throughout our discussion. Upon confirming we would be moving forward with securing his services for our big day, we met with John several times before the wedding to ensure the experience was successful. John was flexible in meeting with us whenever we wanted to do so and always spent several hours with us each time (probably because he's very easy to get along with and hilarious so I'm sure there were moments of digression in there somewhere!) He made sure we were comfortable with everything planned for our big day along the way. John provided not only our music, but uplighting in our tent, which was absolutely beautiful and created such a magical effect throughout the evening. It looks amazing in our pictures too! In addition, John pulled off surprising our guests with a bubble machine right after we were pronounced husband and wife at the end of our ceremony, which was such a fun touch for our wedding day! Guests loved it, especially our ring bearer and flower girl who couldn't stop laughing considering all of the bubbles surrounding them (it was thousands of bubbles practically!) The bubbles looked awesome in pictures and video too! One of our favorite suggestions from John & the wonderful memory we'll always remember from our wedding day as a result of his suggestion is focused on sharing personal messages with our parents during the father/daughter & mother/son dances. John had us record special messages to our parents during one of our meeting sessions prior to the day of the wedding and inserted these over the music in the middle of our song selections with my father and my husband's mother. It was so special and I'll never forget my Dad's eyes welling up with tears of happiness! My husband's mother never stood a chance...she was in tears the moment she heard his voice! John also helped us to implement "entrance music" for each member of our bridal party that suited their personality best. It was alot of fun and he made it a competition and awarded $20 to the "bridal party couple" with the best entrance. He also motivated the bridesmaids by putting $20 in the bouquet prior to the toss, which made it even more hilarious to watch the girls fight it out on the dance floor. It's one of our favorite parts of the wedding video! These are just a few examples of how hard John worked to ensure we had an amazing experience! He also visited our wedding site a few days before the wedding and what should have taken him 1 1/2 hours took him over 4 hours considering he was traveling in the remnants of a Tropical Storm and there was over 11 inches of rain that day, which just demonstrates his committment to his work considering I would assume most DJs would have just turned around and not put forth anywhere near the effort he did under the circumstances. I was late getting there too and he still waited around and didn't leave until late to head back home to ensure we covered everything in advance of the wedding day. He arrived early on the wedding day to ensure he had more than enough time to set everything up and assisted with the flow of our event too by coordinating with our caterer, photographer, etc. I can't say enough wonderful things about him! He's amazing at his craft and his committment to creating a memorable experience on your wedding day demonstrates his passion for the craft! The dance floor was packed all night and guests can't stop talking about how much fun they had! If you're looking for an amazing experience for your wedding day, look no further than John Howard and A2Z Music Factory!

If you want your event to be flawless then hire A2Z Music Factory they will make your wedding day perfect! After seeing John be a DJ at weddings before I knew he did a great job and had heard that everyone he worked with seemed to love him. I had already hired a band for the music but I knew that A2Z Music factory also did up lighting. I was talking with John on the phone about doing the up lighting and he let me know that he also has a photo booth.It was only 2 weeks before my wedding and I was so lucky that he happened to still have that day free for the photobooth. I hired A2Z Music Factory to do up lights and the photo booth. Not only did the lights look amazing but the photo booth was such a huge hit. The photo booth had more props then any booth I've seen.If you book John for any part of your wedding he will make you feel so important. I felt like his pricing is very good and he's not like other companies that try to pressure you to book right away. I would recommend the photobooth and lighting to anyone. I have seen John DJ before and I know he's also a great DJ!

I would highly recommend John Howard and his company A2Z Music Factory to anyone wanting an amazing DJ for their wedding reception! John was so understanding during our planning process. I was not living in Virginia during the planning of my wedding, and my husband was deployed in Afghanistan. That made it difficult for my husband and I to discuss details of the reception and get those details to John in a timely manner. Thankfully, John was so gracious and patient. He was flexible, professional, and so personable throughout the whole process. John was adamant about making our vision come to life and he really made the reception personal to us as a couple. Our reception was everything we wanted it to be and more, thanks to John and his team! Our guests talked for weeks about how much fun they had, and I think the music had a lot to do with that! We had about 200 guests there and the grand exit with glow sticks was incredible with that many people! John is easy going and extremely organized. He made sure that the important things in our original plan were included even if we were running out of time during the reception. He is great at what he does and I strongly urge you to book him if you can! Thanks John for making our wedding reception so amazing!!

I was given the responsibility of finding an appropriate DJ for our wedding. I was asking around and looking on Yelp to see the 5 out of 5ers and how much they cost. We were on a $20,000 budget with hopes of spending more towards $15,000. I found one DJ who was $1,000 and without even meeting him, was about to sign a contract and send him a check - I thought all DJs were generally the same. Before I did that though, I wanted to make sure I spoke with a couple of other DJs, one of which was John Howard with A2Z Music Factory. He was referred to me by a mutual friend in my church small group, but I was told that he may have retired. After a couple of attempts to reach him, John called me back and confirmed his retirement but that I should come over because all DJs are not the same and I need to know what questions to ask. I went there solo because my then fiancée, too was under the same impression that all DJs were the same and I could handle it on my own. I got to John's house and told him about my situation. He advised me to meet with the DJ and showed me videos of his past weddings to show me how they're done. As I watched the videos and listened to him speak of the intricacies, I realized that DJs may be far from the same. When he was done with me, I had spent 2.5 hours at his place and had a full page filled out front and back with questions. I was a little nervous that the DJ was going to let me send him a contract without even meeting him so the first thought that came to my mind was "wow John, I wish you could DJ my wedding". This seemed to spark a flare in John and as his wife arrived, he asked her if they were doing anything on my wedding date. She said no and he said that if the other DJs didn't work out, he'd make an exception for me. On the way back from speaking with John, I gave my fiancée an earful about what we had talked about. I got hold of the other DJ, asked him to meet, and was sure glad that I had John's questions. To the unsuspecting person who doesn't know what John taught me, the DJ would've seemed great; but with the questions in hand, he fell far short of what I was looking for. I told John that I would like him to DJ and he thankfully said yes! And it was for a price that was within our budget. He sat down with my fiancée and I and helped us put our “simple yet elegant” vision together. We had a good time collaborating on what we wanted to happen during the reception, how we would get people to dance, and what type of music would promote a good time and a celebration of God’s goodness. We were going for a big dance party and talked about how we could make that happen on a Sunday afternoon. He didn’t just talk to us about music, he talked to us about the experience and how the food, pictures, music, etc would all come into play. He had plenty of ideas but let us decide exactly what we wanted; it was very fun and painless to go through this process. Come wedding day, John arrived roughly 2 hours before he was supposed to and essentially saved the ceremony! There was a lot of feedback in the speakers so he hooked his up to use for the ure reading, songs, etc. It was perfect. During dinner, John made sure we were okay and that we were having a good time. It was simple, yet elegant, just like we wanted. It was a very calculated approach with its own free flowing feel that is hard to explain. We knew exactly what was happening, yet it seemed very natural. My wife’s Dad has cancer and John made sure he was attentive to his energy level for the Father/Daughter dance, which was perfect. John, my wife, and I all worked together to start the party. Once it got going, John took it from there and it went just like how we wanted, it was perfect. People who we didn’t expect to dance were dancing and I got to bring out some old moves that have hung in the closet. Everything was very smooth and I’m glad to say that I’ve gained a new friendship from working with John, out of his genuine care for one of the most important times of my life. We got a bang for our buck to say the least and its an understatement to say that John went above and beyond his duties. My wife and I were totally taken care of and will be sure to recommend John to everyone we know who is getting married in the DC area. I'm happy that he has decided to continue to DJ and share his gift with the world; do not miss the opportunity to work with John, you will be so happy you did!

- John P.

Let me begin by saying you NEED to choose A2Z (John Howard) for your wedding!!!!!! Not only do we know John personally (he's my parents' next door neighbor) and can say that he's just a great person in general, but he's also seriously an amazing DJ!

John worked with us to plan out the unique, fun parts of our reception to make it a special experience rather than just any old wedding you may attend, from the lighting (made an already beautiful room look even better!) to the slideshow (we were sosososo happy with it) to the belt dance (hysterical!) to the Newlywed Game (my guests are still talking about how fun and different that was). We had a very random assortment of guests and we heard from everyone how great the music was! John really does go above and beyond to make sure that you don't have ANYTHING to worry about at your reception. I really can't say enough good things, so stop researching those other crappy DJs and just go with John because I PROMISE you'll be happy you did :)

"John" from A2Z Music Factory was simply amazing. My husband and I have never met any DJ with the stature that "John" has. He was extremely professional, organized, creative and spent a great deal of time listening to what my husband and I wanted to make our wedding day extra special. John would always state, "You have to set the tone for your ceremony and reception and when you do that, the guests will follow your lead". With John's help, our wedding guests did just that. Marques and I set a fun celebratory tone and John provided the music for my ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. Guests were taken back down memory lane to the 1950's and 60's hearing classic hits that some knew the words too (Smile), while transitioning into a little smooth jazz during the reception dinner to add a little flavor to the evening and after guests had a little food in their systems, than everyone hit the dance floor where all of the latest hits were played to keep the crowd on their feet.

John provided the suggestion of the "Bridal Party Belt Dance". My husband and I had no idea what this was but once John explained the details and we were instructed to pull guests on the dance floor with the belts while dancing to "Mambo Number 5", we knew that everyone would be in for a special treat. When it came time during the reception for the belt dance, everyone was on the dance floor from children who attended the wedding, up to senior citizens who had a little pep in thier steps. John helped us create an atmosphere with great music, fellowship and fun were all guests felt comfortable and enjoyed themselves.

John is so passionate about his career and enjoys meeting couples. We met John many months ago and have developed a really good working relationship.

John, provided lightening to make the ballroom where the reception was held, that added a special touch to the evening. While my husband and I were dancing to all the wonderful hits John was playing, we could hear guests saying "Wow", look at these lights! How nice! Look at the different colors. The lightening that John provided really made the night even more special, including the sparkles for our grand finale.

John so happy to have found you on Wedding Wire. You made my wedding day so special and Marques and I thank you so much and appreciate all that you did to make our vision come true.

Thanks & Look Forward To Working With You Again,

Rashanda L. Jenkins
Married October 16, 2010

John provided an awesome experience at our wedding. He was able to really entertain our guests and generate a wonderful evening for all who were in attendence. I highly reccomend him for your next event. He took the time to sit down with us and systamatically orgainze a play list for our wedding. He has all the technology to be very creative and even did a wonderful job at creating a photo montage' for us. Many of our guests gave us compliments for this creative work that John did. Don't look any further than A2Z. You found the best right here.

Hi John,

I wanted to just take a moment and send a HUGE thank you for all you did for our wedding. We had a fabulous time, thanks to you! The music and DJ can make or break a wedding and you made it for us. Everyone has said it was one of the best weddings they've been to in a long time and were very impressed that people were up dancing all the way until the end. Thank you also for all of your help with the "Running Man." People are still talking about it and it turned out so well! It'll make a good story for years to come!

Thank you again for all you did. You were so helpful with everything from coming up with ideas for the day, to helping us choose songs, and were even accommodating to our last minute changes even during the reception. When you said you're there to help is throughout the event, you were right. I was so appreciative of the times you found me during the night when I had a down minute just to make sure everything was going right and see if I needed anything else! You spent to much time with us and we never felt rushed. I can honestly say the music/DJ was one of the only thing about the wedding that I don't have any complaints about after the fact! But, we can still walk away saying we had a fabulous time and a wonderful party thanks to you!

Please have anyone with any questions contact me, I'd be happy to help them make a decision on their DJ!

If you are wondering if A2Z is the DJ you want for your wedding, well then your mind is heading in the right direction. John goes above and beyond your expectations. As soon as you sign your contract and pay the lil small deposit of $300 get ready to be blown away. Because you basically just got a wedding planner and a DJ for the price of one. John takes care of everything so that you dont need to worry about anything. You will be able to meet with him pretty much whenever you want. His hours are really flexible. So dont worry about that. You will never have the issue of three days before your wedding when your trying to get in contact with a vendor and they are no where to be found. You are programmed into his cell phone like you guys have known eachother for years if not decades. That was the best thing i like about John.
Upon your first meeting with John you pretty much go over everything you will need to know about your big day. And John is very easy to talk to so dont be afraid to tell him exactly what you want. You will receive a song list of many different genres of music for you to pick and choose from. And if you dont want it played just put an "X" through it. Its that easy. You dont need to go home and do a bunch of song searching on the web because John has already done it for you. Now John only has one rule.....He doesnt have anything to do with your 1st. dance. He wont even give suggestions. That song is for you and your groom to decide 100%. And i thought that was great. It really gives you the feel that he actually cares for you and how important he would like you to take this special day. Once all the music is picked the hard part is over. Then its on to slideshow and wedding itinerary, and dont forget name pronuncation of brides maids and groomsmen,hahahaha! John has a projection screen and theater system in his basement so you will be able to listen to your music before hand as well as see your slideshow as it will look on your big day.
The one on one experience is what makes John and his buisness excel. He makes you feel so comfortable and so right at home. So if after all that ive said you still havent made up your mind on what Dj to pick for your big day, Then your crazy! It would be a big mistake to even look any further because you wouold be missing out on the best wedding of your life. Remember this...."John makes your wedding" trust me!
Im going to continue this review even if you have made up your mind yet because ive saved the best for last. From the moment all of the wedding party entered the room John kicked it into high gear. From the lights, sound sysem, and perfect stage presence John took control of our wedding. Everything flows so smooth and everyone knows what is going on.There will never be a dull moment during your wedding. So be prepared to party. It was the best experience ever for us. So just sit back relax and dont worry about anything, and remember have fun and John will take care of everything.
So get ready to have a relationship with A2Z(John), you would be a moron not to choose him. I would put my life on it you will have the same response. And if not then your just way to picky and cant see something great if it smacked you in the face.
I hope my review has helped you in your wedding journey, your already headed in the right direction if your reading this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Howard was an absolute pleasure to work with. All our guests were raving about him, and he kept our friends and family out on the dance floor all night long. The lights he provides add a ton of ambience to the room and put the guests in the mood to party. We ended up extending our reception by an hour and John kindly stayed on. He plans out and directs the entire reception, going above and beyond to make sure everything is as stress-free as possible for the bride and groom. He was even bringing drinks to us during dinner! John will find any song you request and has so many great ideas to really personalize your wedding reception. We met with him several times before the wedding and at each meeting, he made helpful suggestions that really enhanced our reception. He is extremely reliable, organized, and hardworking. I’d have to agree with previous posters that he is much more than a DJ— he really runs the show at the reception. We were thrilled with how our wedding reception turned out and would recommend John Howard and A2Z Music to anyone looking for an excellent wedding DJ and an all-around helpful wedding planner extraordinaire!

Working with A2Z was probably the best thing I could have done when it came to my wedding! John was amazing and incredibly professional. He worked with us in everything we wanted and even added some Korean music for us in the mix for our belt dance (it was a blast with the Korean adults at the wedding). The up lighting that John did for us was beautiful and our slide show was amazing! John made sure everything ran smoothly during our reception and I did not have to worry about the small stuff cause he took care of it all! Thanks again A2Z! The BEST wedding DJ ever!

Our wedding was 5/2/10 and John was absolutely amazing to work with!!! He gave everything we asked for and more. The light show he designed was spectacular and definitely thrilled the crowd - I can't say enough about how we all enjoyed the show. My husband, who is an electrician, was delighted with the light show. We had a fantastic wedding - exactly what we wanted and John played a huge role in that. We wanted everyone, including us, to just have a great time and dance. John made sure that the dance floor was packed from start to finish. He created the timetable/schedule for everyone's reference yet allowed us the flexibility to set the pace on the fly if we wanted to. He worked closely with the hotel staff and the photographer to make sure everything went smoothly and it did. John and his team are extremely professional and fun to deal with! He was kind enough to create a dvd that included our introductions, first dance and a "performance" by a family member that will no doubt be watched over and over throughout the years. He even is sharing photos with us that his team took that we admired. If I could give 10 stars I would....I highly recommend John Howard and team of A2Z Music Factory!

After meeting with several dj's and getting a general idea of who/what was around, a friend recommended John...best phone call I made! Upon meeting him there was no question he would be our DJ. First off, the level of professionalism at the first meeting was above and beyond what we had experienced with other vendors. We were confident he would do a great job and he did.
John kept in close contact with us, listened to all we wanted, had a great selection of music, offered to help in any way needed. His use of technology was impressive as was the optional slideshow he created.
We arrived late to our reception due to traffic and John had it all under control. It's awesome when the guests compliment the dj and how he started the party, kept the party going and got us all organized.
John mentioned that it's his job to make sure all goes well and he followed through. I would strongly recommend his services ( as would my photographer who was just as impressed as we were).