Libby P. Sent on 10/19/2022
-
Quality of service
1.0 out of 5 rating
-
Average response time
1.0 out of 5 rating
-
Professionalism
1.0 out of 5 rating
-
Value
2.0 out of 5 rating
-
Flexibility
2.0 out of 5 rating
Didn't prepare, was late, and wasn't that great
I originally hired Jay Battle who was recommended by a friend, but he bailed after receiving my deposit and basically said here's this guy, Benny. Definitely my fault for not looking into Benny further before going along with it. I brushed it off and thought Jay would make sure we were in good hands. I sent multiple emails with details about our wedding show flow, put together playlists, and even had a phone call in which I outlined what needed to be looked over in prep for our event. I PRINTED the schedule and show flow for Benny to use as reference as well. On our wedding day, it quickly became clear that Benny didn't read emails or listen to the playlists before our event because here's all the things that went wrong:
One of the playlists I put together was "the party playlist" - Basically everything my husband and I wanted to hear which wasn't part of our key moments, dances, etc. Benny completely missed it and had been playing music we weren't really interested in hearing for the first part of our reception/during dinner.
Mother/son dance - There was a specific version (in my playlist) that my husband and his mom prepared their dance to. Benny played the wrong version and they had to do their dance to some other mix and were embarrassed that it didn't go as planned.
The entrance to our reception dinner just flat out didn't happen - We had a song picked out for it to be a moment for us to walk in and find our seats at the head table. Instead, we awkwardly walked into the dinner hall and quietly took our seats and waited for Benny to start calling tables. That's not necessarily how I'd planned for that to go down, but it was fine.
We also wanted to do a photo relay with every table during dinner, but no communication was had about trying to fit that in before or after speeches. I texted Benny about the idea weeks before the event and had it in writing as something we were interested in doing, but again, just didn't happen.
Aside from that, here were some other things that didn't go great.
- Benny put his phone on do not disturb the week/days before my event. Being a bride and feeling like I wasn't able to communicate with my DJ in the days before the wedding was pretty stressful for me.
- Benny showed up AN HOUR LATE and my groomsmen missed photo opportunities because they had to help him set up all of his gear. I asked him to stay an hour later, which he agreed to.
- Isn't the DJ supposed to guide the party? Because Benny didn't, unless he was told to. Unfortunately, my poor sister was constantly helicoptering him into keeping the show moving along. Again, missing photo opportunities and just generally killing the vibe for her.
All that to say, my honest opinion is that Benny's strengths don't align with weddings. Corporate and smaller private events I'm sure he's great for, but definitely steer clear, brides!
I originally hired Jay Battle who was recommended by a friend, but he bailed after receiving my deposit and basically said here's this guy, Benny. Definitely my fault for not looking into Benny further before going along with it. I brushed it off and thought Jay would make sure we were in good hands. I sent multiple emails with details about our wedding show flow, put together playlists, and even had a phone call in which I outlined what needed to be looked over in prep for our event. I PRINTED the schedule and show flow for Benny to use as reference as well. On our wedding day, it quickly became clear that Benny didn't read emails or listen to the playlists before our event because here's all the things that went wrong:
One of the playlists I put together was "the party playlist" - Basically everything my husband and I wanted to hear which wasn't part of our key moments, dances, etc. Benny completely missed it and had been playing music we weren't really interested in hearing for the first part of our reception/during dinner.
Mother/son dance - There was a specific version (in my playlist) that my husband and his mom prepared their dance to. Benny played the wrong version and they had to do their dance to some other mix and were embarrassed that it didn't go as planned.
The entrance to our reception dinner just flat out didn't happen - We had a song picked out for it to be a moment for us to walk in and find our seats at the head table. Instead, we awkwardly walked into the dinner hall and quietly took our seats and waited for Benny to start calling tables. That's not necessarily how I'd planned for that to go down, but it was fine.
We also wanted to do a photo relay with every table during dinner, but no communication was had about trying to fit that in before or after speeches. I texted Benny about the idea weeks before the event and had it in writing as something we were interested in doing, but again, just didn't happen.
Aside from that, here were some other things that didn't go great.
- Benny put his phone on do not disturb the week/days before my event. Being a bride and feeling like I wasn't able to communicate with my DJ in the days before the wedding was pretty stressful for me.
- Benny showed up AN HOUR LATE and my groomsmen missed photo opportunities because they had to help him set up all of his gear. I asked him to stay an hour later, which he agreed to.
- Isn't the DJ supposed to guide the party? Because Benny didn't, unless he was told to. Unfortunately, my poor sister was constantly helicoptering him into keeping the show moving along. Again, missing photo opportunities and just generally killing the vibe for her.
All that to say, my honest opinion is that Benny's strengths don't align with weddings. Corporate and smaller private events I'm sure he's great for, but definitely steer clear, brides!
