So How Much Should Your Wedding DJ Cost?

Mine est. 900$ but he comes with my venue package so im only paying 400$ of the 900$ out of pocket cause the upcharges (uplighting, partner dj, ceremony)

These are south florida prices.

It really depends on what they offer and how much you want them to do, and how long you want them for. My Dj comes with up lighting along with strobe lights and what not for the dance floor. He will be there the entire duration of ceremony and reception, he will be our announcer, and he also comes with a photo booth (score!). It's costing us $700 total. We did find some for half the price but didn't come with all the extras. Photo booths in our area run about $600 so it really saved us some money there.

With that said, I had to meet with the DJ's and go over all of this info before I could get pricing. They don't want to throw numbers out there without knowing your expectations.

I'm in Southern California. That's what I'm hoping I can find because we don't have too much budgeted toward a DJ. @futuremrstex hm yah it definitely makes sense, I just wish they gave me some sort of number so I can even gauge if we will be able to afford them. I even listed in the information card the duration of the wedding and that we don't need lighting just a DJ. (We have a different company for the lighting that we're excited about).

They shouldn't be over 8-900$ if they are walk away.. reality mines only 400$ if u were in my area id give u 2 named djs. But im not sure if they travel

That is really frustrating. Mine is around $750 which is a deal in MD due to him being familiar with my venue.

But with what mrstex, find 5 (max) djs ur interested in meet them an inform then an get prices and narrow it down from there. And spotlighted ones are normally the expensive ones. Or hell go on craigslist and hire someone trying to start up their biz thats a cheap route to go, if your daring.

Ours was 600.00. This is for the Ceremony, Cocktail hour, and reception so about 6 hours. I've found 100.00 per hour to be fairly standard in the Metro Atlanta area. He has worked this venue many times and comes recommended, which made me more comfortable. He will also be the announcer, help keep the flow of the evening, etc. I think DJs are so important and the role the play to keep everything flowing correctly cannot be understated! I felt in the big scheme of things, 600 wasn't anything!

Wow, that's not annoying at all *eye roll*. I think on principle I would not use this DJ. I get that there can be a lot of factors that could affect a DJ's cost but I bet they have a base rate for x number of hours for a wedding. They could at least be like, our basic package starts at x number of dollars. This is exactly what makes wedding planning so frustrating!

Another good way to find a dj go to a bridal expo. They hand you flyers and information on prices and everything your looking for and you dont have to interview a million

@soontobemrs.p exactly!! I get how sales work and their trying to impress me or whatever but seriously I just wanted an estimate. Now whenever a vendor sends me something like that I automatically don't want to book them. Thanks @nicoles and everyone I will try different things and will hopefully find one soon!

Need anymore help, you know how to find us! Good luck

@Chelsea - yes! I get sales too but if your base price is 5 gajillion dollars I can GUARANTEE I won't be using your services! I'd rather not waste my time or yours if your base price is over my budget!

This is my biggest complaint planning. So many vendors don't have prices listed so you have to hunt them down. I end up gravitating towards ones who are upfront with cost. I hate when my time is wasted and so is theirs on something I could of done online. Perfect ex, a great ceremony place by my parents. Three days of emails to find out just the venue would be 2k. Yeah right now everything is 6k

I found my DJ at a bridal show and so far I am NOT impressed. He is so SLOW at returning any messages (if he returns them at all). He is also setting up a Photo Booth with a custom wedding design that will print for our guests AND a guest book that people will have a photo printed as soon as they enter and can sign. As of right now I do not know if these extras will take place, but I have paid my deposit so I am hoping he comes through. He is $****

My wedding is in Southern California and I booked a DJ/MC duo for just reception. I had a hard time finding a DJ so as soon as I found one that was decent, I booked them. The DJs I came across offered really silly extras in their packages that I did not need. I already have separate vendors for photobooth and up lighting.

So when we were looking, in WA state, we often found prices starting over $700 and up to $2000. If you want the uplighting, custom monogram, as well as the high end equipment most of them have invested in, and want them to also be your emcee, you're going to pay much more.

We only wanted someone to handle ceremony music queues and then generally play from our own selection of background music during the reception, so we found some for $600-750, with $100-$150 an hour being about standard for extra time.

The DJ we ended up booking was through a friend on FB, so he was willing to do it for us, as a favor to his friend, for only $500 for all night, which is a great deal. From my experience, S Cali is generally more pricey than the PNW, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see $750-$1000 being normal down there for a basic DJ/Emcee service.

"While I do understand that higher quality services cost more, I do have a set budget. Can you please send me a pricing estimate for xxx hours so that I can determine whether or not you are a viable candidate for our wedding? So far I like what you presented on your website, but I do not wish to take up too much of your time if unless I know if I can afford your services".

I hate when vendors don't give a cost :-(

I work with cheap dj's and expensive ones. Cheap dj's, usually, are late, sloppy, their setups look horrible, they miss ceremony cues, their equipment is shoddy, they are loudmouths on the mic, advertise during your wedding, may have other couples come to see them at your wedding, and throw in all kinds of crap so it looks like you're getting a good deal. (I don't recommend 'all in one' services; usually the sum of the quality of the parts is far from the best....) They don't know how to mix sound for the rooms they're in and they don't take into account environmental factors like frequencies and ambient noise, so very often their mics cut in and out. They may or may not have your music, may or may not do your introductions gracefully, and may or may not read your crowd.

Be aware that many 'preferred' dj's (like any other preferred vendor) are paying to be preferred. The plus is that they know the venue, but it's beneficial to the venue to refer them.

I'm in NY/NJ; the dj's I recommend run between ****. They all put a tremendous amount of time perfecting your play list (not just asking you for a list of what you like), act like pros for the process leading up to the day, the setup, and the party, and are worth every cent.

And don't 'be daring' by hiring a cheap ass new DJ on CL. They are one of the most important parts of the wedding, and when they're terrible, no one will care about the cute signs or little jars of honey.

I don't know why it's so hard to get a ballpark price from vendors; most of my sites have pricing, but even with my personal site, it takes one call or email to get a price. (the logic? Most of my couples are not specifically looking for price, and the variation between me and a mediocre officiant is usually 100-200.00) Even a ballpark would be helpful if you can be flexible enough to realize that, especially for a DJ, different locations are going to require different setups, load-ins and equipment. A ceremony/cocktail hour/dinner in three locations takes significantly more time and equipment than an event where everything is in one room and the ceremony may be in a church or temple.

Everything is onsite, my dj will have to move inside after cocktail hour. Since we cut out some traditional wedding things our rate is $85 an hour.

We are paying $810 that includes Karaoke.