There’s a lot of couples wondering, what is the average DJ price for a wedding in KW and the surrounding areas? Truthfully, it’s a pretty wide range, and it doesn’t make a ton of sense to use price as the only metric to sort the DJs themselves. However, there’s determining factors that create these differences, such as the specific type of DJ that they are, which should be identified and evaluated in tandem with price to make sure you’re getting the best DJ for you. Hobbyists and new DJs tend to cost the least. Traditional wedding DJs tend to cost a little more and mixing DJs will be slightly higher, with MC DJs generally being the priciest. If you were to think of the DJ in terms of housing, then you know your budget plays a big role in terms of the home that fits. The budget really helps to determine if you’re looking at a condo, townhouse, wartime house, new home sub-division, or luxury home. Now, with that, the market and availability would also contribute to the expected price. Additionally, with a DJ, their experience and training would also be very relevant factors.
You will find an extreme variation between the high and low ends for a DJ in the Kitchener-Waterloo area; it's anywhere from $450-$6000. This results in an average price of around $1650 with a standard deviation, or the average amount above that prices are above or below $1650, of $505. The first problem with extremes is that they skew the average. The second issue, being with averages themselves, are that they don’t account for the different categories of wedding DJs. At both extremes, couples should be doing more research beyond the cost. Personally, every wedding I’ve done because a DJ or DJ company canceled, the couple had originally booked someone for less than $1200. Now at the other extreme, you should be getting a well-known DJ with strong reviews, loads of experience, training, and very high grade equipment, all of which contributes to their price.
Less than 1% of wedding DJs will be hobbyists, and their prices range between $450-$1100.
Roughly 20%-25% of the DJs will be new, and typically they’re priced between $700-$2000.
Traditional DJs account for 30%-40% of the market, and are the most common. You can find prices from $750-$2200.
Specialized mixing DJs are 15%-20% of the available wedding DJs, and range from $1000-$5500.
Specialized MC DJs make up roughly 20%-25% of the market. These DJs normally range from $1800-$6000
For further transparency on average wedding DJ prices, I wanted to cite a reference from 2019, posted below, which was based on 2018 wedding costs as published by the South Western Ontario BBB. They noted the average wedding DJ price as $1442 at that point in time, and since then, we all know pricing has changed for just about everything. With 10 years of wedding experience, I can tell you there’s some noticeable differences that explain the discrepancies in pricing between DJs on the higher and the lower end. What’s best for your wedding day is going to be finding a balance between budget, what you value, and your acceptable risk levels for your wedding day. In general, the combination of price as well as the number of reviews mentioning the DJ by name, or lack thereof, is going to give you enough information to classify them and have a rough idea of what they offer. The best thing you can do is research DJs and make sure your choice is named in the contract, because training and experience varies from DJ to DJ just as much as price does.
If you wanted to reach out for quote, feel free to contact us at info@lnjdjs.com
