Dj's

Have you asked your other vendors? I was struggling, because our wedding is crazily multi-national (58% of the people on our guest list are coming from the other side of the Atlantic), and I wanted someone who was willing to look at not only the age range of our guests, but also their country of origin, since that affects the music they like. Our photographer ended up recommending three people: one of them was taking this year off; one of them was a pretty good fit; and the one we went with, who doesn't usually do Detroit weddings, but was willing to travel because he likes a challenge. Fiance chose this DJ because he has the entire discography of fiance's favorite Irish indie band.

In short: Ask your vendors who they've worked with before. If they've been around a while, they can likely give you some recommendations, as well as advice on who to avoid.

I don't have any vendors. I have a really small budget, we're having the ceremony and reception at the community center and it includes only the tables and chairs. We have to set it up and take it down, decorate, clean up bring in the food and drink. We don't have a caterer, we're getting food off the catering menu of really good chicken place. They do deliver. We thought we had a DJ, a good local one we went to school with, but my fiancee dragged his feet to long on the planning and he took another gig.

View Quoted Comment I get it. My first wedding was like that. I ended up borrowing a speaker system that we could hook up to a laptop (I think you can also rent them for under $100), and putting together a couple playlists in iTunes: dinner 1, grand entrance, dinner 2, special dances, dancing 1, cake cutting, dancing 2. A friend of ours was willing to make announcements, and switch the playlists as needed.
I think I still have the playlists if you wanted to see them.

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Sure!! I may have to go with that and it would save time. I have a few feelers out but you never know what will happen. I posted on Facebook looking for recommendations for an AFFORDABLE DJ and all I got were 650 and above..NOT affordable...one was a local band who charges 3500. that's more than double my entire budget

View Quoted Comment That's so annoying. This sounds like a terrible headache. I hope you find something within your price range. I'll let you know if I hear of anything.

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I'm still trying. I think I vastly underestimated what they cost. I know my fiancee for sure did. He says he'll only pay 300 dollars. Yes honey, that will work LOL

I was able to hire dj for the entire night.. I locked him in about a year ago for $495. Sure It's a good amount of money, but its100% worth it to me. In fact, I felt like it was a deal compared to what others were charging for "all night". 530pm until midnight... - that's a long time! Obviously he'll have breaks.. BUT I want to be able to sit back and relax and enjoy the party. It will be worth it to have someone announce for you and get the party going! I wish you the best of luck! Keep searching! If you're in SE Michigan check out DJ big gorgeous (lol) he is who we hired and he is awesome! I've been tonother events with him there and he's a crowd pleaser!
At the very least maybe hire someone who is just starting out so that you don't have to worry about "Manning the station" so to speak!