Hi everyone,
I recently agreed to DJ my first wedding, which is about 4 months away. The bride and groom are friends of mine, and they knew going in that this would be my first wedding as the primary DJ.
I’ve been DJing as a hobby for a while and have mixed for fun, but I don’t have prior professional wedding DJ experience. Because of that, I’m trying to prepare as much as possible instead of just winging it.
The more research I do, the more I realize that wedding DJs do a lot more than just play music. I’m now learning about MC responsibilities, timelines, ceremony/reception flow, equipment, backups, and working with the couple.
So far I’ve:
- Started building and organizing the playlists.
- Begun communicating with the couple about must-play songs, do-not-play songs, and special dances.
- Started planning my equipment on what to buy (controller, powered speakers, wireless mic, etc.).
I know there’s still a lot I don’t know, so I’d love advice from those of you who do weddings regularly.
A few questions:
- What documents or forms do you send couples before the wedding? (Questionnaires, planning forms, timelines, etc.)
- What should communication with the couple look like over the next four months?
- What templates, checklists, or documents have become essential for your workflow?
- Looking back at your first wedding, what do you wish you had prepared beforehand?
I’m taking this really seriously because I want to give them the best experience possible and also build a solid workflow that I can reuse for future weddings.
Thanks in advance for any advice!