Band vs. dj

Bands are nice. But depending on space it can be tight. You also have to think of for each band member there is a vendor meal to go with if. As well as the songs. Most bands are only good with a certain number/style of songs & can’t realy go beyond that.
A DJ is, usually one person- so one meal, takes up a smaller space and has a ton of songs in all styles.
A lot of DJ’s also can lead people in dances and have “props”......

Personally I don't like live bands because the majority of the time it's too loud/the acoustics are off and gives me a headache. So choosing a DJ was a no brainer for me.

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I've been to a couple of weddings at your venue (fellow NOLA bride, here) and both have had bands and were super fun. The venue of course has the perfect set up for a band. The fun vibe just depends on what kind of people you hire - I've witnessed some awful, and worse, cheesy DJs. But, I don't think you can go wrong either way as long as you choose something that's a good fit musically. Good luck!

I'm in a wedding band, and I'm also getting married. :-) A lot of bands are honestly not that much more than a DJ. We charge $3000 to do weddings and there are 5 of us (and many of the DJs work solo and around here start at $2000). In my experience, bands bring a TON more energy to a celebration. A good wedding band will learn songs for you if they don't know them, play a huge variety of songs from all genres/decades, have experience playing weddings, have an emcee/announcer, and work closely with you to give you what you want for your reception. Also keep in mind, a band can do things like shorten or edit songs, customize a song for you like slowing down your fave pop-punk tune, do a mash up, play/DJ songs for you on breaks, etc. I feel like a band is more bang for the buck and people talk about it for years to come (we are friends with a lot of the couples whose weddings we played and they still talk about how we made the night). It depends on your personal taste, but consider allocating a little bit more for a band. PS - some bands are ridiculously expensive because they are selective with their gigs (i.e. they don't play much anymore and only take the big gigs). Find a band that plays out often, plays weddings regularly and isn't charging for the name recognition or a 12-piece horn section (more musicians = more $&dollar. You can save a little money that way. Go see them first, too, to make sure they are together. :-D Good luck!

View Quoted Comment This helped SO much. Thank you!!

Hi! I lucked out and came across this amazing trio that will play for the ceremony and cocktail hour, and afterwards one of the guys also mc’s and djs for the dancing part! Well worth it!

If you have the money, get both. They can overlap each other so neither has to work as hard. An excellent DJ can do their job well enough that you may not miss having a band—those are rare, but they do exist. The nice thing with a band you could also use them for your ceremony.

We are just going with the two trumpeters and organist for the ceremony. My FMIL plays the flute so I’m letting her do the bridesmaid processional.

If you have talent, like real talent in the family(taken lessons for 10+ years talent) you can also tap them to help with the music. It’s one of those win-win situation because a “professional” will charge you while a family member will see the opportunity as encouragement.

Me and my HTB couldn't decide whether to go with a DJ or band for our wedding this summer and struggled to find any infomration about it. This blog really helped https://www.elasticlounge.com/wedding-dj-or-band and we ended up booking a wedding band and Dj package so have the best of both worlds. Now just can't wait to our big day

View Quoted Comment This is why we are consisting a band cause you actually get a little of both with the bands set breaks

I don’t think we’ll be doing either. I think we’ll just have a playlist made up, and have some speakers! That may change though 🤷🏻‍♀️