What makes a great Wedding DJ?
These are the things that we believe make a great wedding DJ from start to finish. You can expect nothing less than this if you decide to book Element for your wedding!
Enquiry
All prices are on our website to save you the trouble of asking for a quote. We are more than happy to create a personal mix of your favourite tunes so you can hear us in action before deciding to book.
There are countless wedding DJ suppliers claiming to be “Best in the UK”. We won’t make any baseless claims; we hope our information, media and testimonials convince you that we are the right Wedding DJ for you.
Booking
Once booked, we’ll have great communication with you and your venue. There are a lot of logistics details that need to be confirmed as well as your music requests. We have an online portal where you can view and edit music requests, your contract and the invoice, all in one easy place. We’re happy to chat about your music too; any styles you like/don’t like, or if you’re struggling with ideas. We love couples who are as into music as we are.
Arrival
On time and smartly dressed! We aim to arrive at your venue at least 1 hour before we are due to start playing (even earlier if your venue is far away.) This provides plenty of time to setup and chat to the venue coordinator, plus a buffer to account for any major traffic incidents. After setting up we’ll work with your photographer to get the best possible lighting for the first dance shots. We’ll come and say hi and congratulations to you and ask how everything is going. Timings can change on the day and we’ll work to whatever schedule suits. Weddings can be physically and emotionally demanding so we won’t rush you.
Equipment
You’ve spent a lot of time and money making sure your wedding’s look and feel is on point, so you don’t want your DJ’s setup to ruin it. Our rig is sleek and modern yet highly functional. Active speakers which can handle any sized crowd a wedding can throw at us. Fully controllable lighting (colour, brightness, position) to achieve the best first dance photos and create atmosphere throughout the night. A bespoke DJ booth which no one else in the UK has. We custom made all of our cables so they’re the perfect length - no unsightly coils or leads to be seen. They’re even white to match our equipment! We PAT test all electrical equipment yearly and we have £10million Public Liability Insurance (PLI.) Most venues require PAT certificates and PLI proof from suppliers before allowing them to work there.
Complete technical knowledge of our equipment is vital. If something goes wrong the DJ needs to troubleshoot it and fix the problem FAST. This means knowing their gear inside out and having a solid understanding of cables, signal routing and the software. Weird buzzing? No sound? Erratic lights? The cause could be a simple fix if you know where to look, or something might be damaged which needs repairing there and then. Light and sound engineering is part of the service your DJ is providing. A simple technical issue could interrupt or spoil your evening if they don’t know their stuff. We maintain our rigs well and have the knowledge/spares to solve any issues that may arise during a wedding.
Comparing and announcements
The cake cutting and first dance is typically where a DJ will first address the wedding party and gather everyone for the start of the reception. They’ll be wrangling a tipsy crowd of around 100 people so it’s really important that the DJ is confident, well spoken and upbeat. Anything they say will be on your wedding videos forever so they better do a good job! You don’t want them talking incessantly over the music throughout the night. This is actually a very common fear for couples looking to book their wedding DJ. In my opinion, the DJ should only use the mic to make important announcements, pump up the crowd before an epic drop, or to strategically encourage people back onto the dancefloor during a lull.
Song choice and mixing
How many DJ bios have you read that began with “I have a passion for music”? Asides from being a bit cliché, a love of music isn’t enough to make you a standout performer. You need to understand harmony, melody, keys, metre, tempo, arrangement, EQ etc. Why do some mixes sound great and others a mess? Usually because one or more of those areas has been neglected. The most talented DJs will have had training as a musician/composer, or have taken it upon themselves to learn about these topics to aid their mixing. They will know how to transition from one genre to the next, from one mood to another, and they will mix between songs using techniques that keep your guests in the zone.
The ability to read the crowd is key. When the dancefloor tells you something and you react in just the right way, the room can explode. Every crowd is like a musical puzzle. When solved, the result is non-stop dancing and a wave of nostalgia: memories of clubbing with your friends, memories of growing up with your siblings, memories of your parents’ favourite tunes from back in the day. We want you, your friends and your family to remember the incredible atmosphere at your wedding.
Your music request form is super important. We make sure we have the correct version of your special songs (first dance, father-daughter dance, last dance etc.) We’ll then use your requests as a blueprint, aiming to play all the bride and groom’s favourite tunes and as many guest requests as possible throughout the night.
Weddings are unique in that there are people from different generations and backgrounds sharing the dancefloor. It really matters that your DJ is experienced in weddings and not just clubs and casual parties where crowds are more forgiving and less is at stake.
What if you and your guests’ music tastes differ wildly? You want to hear your favourite music on your wedding day, but you also want a great party where everyone is dancing and having a good time. It’s in tricky situations like these where a professional DJ is needed to make the call and if necessary, talk to the couple on the night to make sure they are happy with whatever direction the music is going in.
People might be making music requests left, right and centre, some of which won’t necessarily work. Important guests should be prioritised, for example if the father of the bride asks for a slow song to dance with his wife. It might be the last thing the dancefloor needs, but we’ll find a way that doesn’t disrupt the flow of the evening.
No DJ has a 100% full dancefloor all night at every single wedding. Anyone who claims to is fibbing. Sometimes there are lulls after the buffet or maybe your guests are a little shy. A DJ should have plenty of tricks up their sleeve to turn the situation around.
One final point; the couple are king!
Personality
The DJ is essentially another guest at your wedding. Whether or not you click with them will be a major factor in deciding to book or not. During the wedding, you want to see your DJ having a blast. If they’re dancing and animated during their set, this energy and charisma (or lack of) will rub off on your guests. You don’t want them on their phone, sitting down, looking bored or being indifferent to your guests. The same goes for their public speaking. You don’t want them talking on the mic constantly (very cheesy…) but when coordinating the first dance and making announcements, they should be confident, well spoken, charismatic. A DJ should have good people skills too. There are people of all ages at weddings and varying levels of sobriety. Our bespoke DJ booth is inviting and we’re always friendly - we don’t bite, except that one time DJ Neil was peckish after missing the buffet.
End of the Night
It’s important to us that the evening is wrapped up nicely, instead of just stopping the music and turning the lights on. For the last dance, we gather everyone on the dancefloor (they are usually there already!) We’ll say a final farewell and goodnight afterwards, and get a few cheers from your guests for the happy couple. We usually try and build in time for “one more song” after the last dance. It’s something that gets chanted at just about every wedding. We do this because wedding venues are very strict with their music license. Any DJ that goes past this will not be in the venue’s good books and it’s important for a professional wedding DJ to have strong relationships with venues in order to get work there. A venue risks losing their license and therefore the ability to run a business, so we always make sure the music is off by the agreed time (as much as we’d love to carry on playing.) Venues have been known to literally pull the plug on DJs playing past their license… Not the ideal way to end your perfect day.
Backup plan
We have a backup plan in the event of a crisis. In the unlikely event that your DJ is taken ill or caught in a major traffic incident, and the other two DJs are booked for weddings, we have a small network of DJs we know and trust who we can contact to make sure you aren’t left without a DJ at the last minute. All of your wedding details and music requests can be emailed to them instantly. We’ve never needed to use this backup plan but it’s vital to have.
If you’d like to know what makes a not-so-good wedding DJ, check out these Wedding DJ Horror Stories!
