Hiring a Wedding DJ, Research is No. 1

As a wedding professional I generally know when something isn’t right with a vendor, and as a DJ, I definitely know when a DJ is exaggerating or just making something up. I thought I had a good handle on what was true and what was not in regards to DJs; however, there was a time, once, when a DJ fooled me. Early on, this DJ had me convinced they were something they were not because I accepted the things they told me as the truth. Having had this experience, I can really sympathize with and understand how brides and grooms would believe them too. You would be compelled to believe that you were getting a “top DJ” as this person spoke with absolute authority on the subject of DJing, reinforced by their bold, and baseless, claims about their experience and skill that sounded true. They used terms and had a level of knowledge on subjects that only an experienced DJ typically would. While there had been some red flags, I pushed them aside because my introduction to this DJ came from another trusted DJ. In retrospect, I realize this DJ was extremely good at deflecting direct questions that would expose the truth. Their level of self confidence and composure was so high that I figured they had to be legitimate; they literally said all the right things to make them appear as an expert DJ.

The first red flag I ignored was a major one, and I should have known better. It’s not uncommon for new DJs to claim to have years of experience that are grossly exaggerated or that they don’t have. This DJ was claiming to have more experience than I had, which at the time was more than 15 years. They added onto this by claiming to be the one of the top DJs in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, which isn’t necessarily an uncommon practice, as many DJs in the area will often do the same. However, the real top DJs are well-known and well-established by name. Prior to my introduction to them, I had never once heard of this DJ, and when I questioned why that was, they explained that they had worked for various companies, but eventually ended up stepping away for a couple of years. They then quickly changed the subject, returning to listing reasons as to why they were the best and could do things that other DJs could not. Their level of conviction and dedication to selling this idea of their supposed superiority was what made it sound real at that particular point in time.

There was another big red flag, one that in the moment I ignored. Reflecting back on it now, I realize that this was my biggest mistake with regards to this DJ and I will never give another one a pass on it again. This DJ had no reviews that mentioned them by name, zero. In contrast, all the top DJs in the KW area and elsewhere are consistently mentioned by name in their reviews. To explain the disparity, this DJ again told me they had accumulated several reviews from their time working at various companies, but that those never mentioned the DJ by name. All they could offer to support their claim was a collection of generic reviews that said, “the DJ was great, everyone had fun.”  These could have been for any DJ, not necessarily them. As a warning to couples, and I cannot stress this enough: if the DJ is not named in their reviews, you might get this type of DJ instead, and that is not what you want on your wedding day. This DJ still maintained their story, but in my mind this raised some serious doubts about their credibility that I should have taken more seriously. Later on, once this DJ began accumulating some authentic reviews, the truth about their level of skill and experience was testified to by couples.

The first time I met this DJ in person, they immediately critiqued me and everything I was doing. This encounter happened at a meet up with a few other DJs that all shared a similar set of motivations; they all had the best intentions of helping each other. However, there was one caveat: if you’re going to claim to be able to do something, then you need to be skilled enough to do it. This DJ set their equipment up and began mixing, and as they did, things very quickly went from bad to catastrophic in front of some of the top DJs in KW. After that display, the DJ that had introduced us turned to me and simply said, “I didn’t know.” He had believed the story about this DJ to be true as much as I did.  Even afterwards, the DJ continued critiquing another DJ, while continuing to their attempts to sell themselves as the top DJ in the region. I can only describe this encounter as the ultimate attempt at applying the phrase ‘fake it ‘till you make it’

This interaction ultimately left me bewildered and somewhat disappointed in myself for abandoning my own research principles. I gave this DJ a pass because they sounded knowledgeable when, in reality, this was a skilled and persuasive sales person, not a DJ. Sure, they had clearly spent time around DJs, but they absolutely lacked any skill and experience as evidenced by their performance. Nonetheless, they had indeed convinced more than one DJ that they in fact were a great DJ. I learned that this person was better at selling their image as a DJ than any real DJ I had met prior, and concluded that this would be terrible news for couples. That prediction later proved true, based on the reviews eventually left for that DJ by real couples. The reviews were generally very poor, with one going so far as to demand a complete refund. I could relate to how mislead those couples must have felt. This cemented my belief that to be credible as a DJ you need social proof (i.e. reviews mentioning you by name), no exceptions, not just self proclamations. Anyone not reading 3^rd party reviews is making this mistake. If you’re not looking at reviews from Google, the WeddingWire and Facebook and you get a bad DJ you’re partly to blame. If you don’t know the name of your DJ and they’re not what you expected, then you failed to do enough research to mitigate risks. This is preventable, so take a bit of extra time for research and book your DJ by name.