10 Traits of the World’s Best Wedding DJs

Harry T. Prewitt
5 min readMay 3, 2019

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According to surveys, there are approximately 500,000 people worldwide that call themselves DJs. A small percentage, however, are actually seasoned pros. We believe your DJ is the most important factor in determining your wedding’s overall success. Below are the top 10 trains of the World’s Best Wedding DJs:

1. They understand the gravity of the situation

Your wedding is likely the most important day in your entire life. You cannot have a hobbyist or rookie with this type of responsibility, and you cannot simply teach someone this principle. The gravity of the situation must be understood through personal values. The most important friends and family from your life will be there, so you have to ensure your DJ understands this, and the best wedding DJs always do from their heart!

2. They understand how to avoid being cheesy

Five years from now, your guests will not remember every song played, the food you served, or the color of the flowers. They will remember if they had fun or not, or how your wedding made them feel. If your DJ comes off as cheesy in any way such as by having an annoying voice, or by playing way too many line dances and silly games, your wedding will be the example of how not to do it.

3. They pronounces all the names right!

The embarrassment of a mispronounced name can linger throughout the night and beyond, so the Best wedding DJs will go out of their way to phonetically spell a name and recite it to you prior to wedding day. Sometimes, practice is even needed, and a true professional DJ understands the importance of this!

4. They know when to push and when to pull

This is a rare skill that only the best wedding DJs will understand. There are different moments, moods, times, and places that gravitational situations happen at your wedding. Sometimes, the crowd needs a push with a little fun interaction, and other times your weddings guests need a breather and a slower BPM (beats per minute) song, like after a long dance set.

5. They are masters at rotating the dancefloor

This skill takes confidence, mastery, and years of experience to perform successfully. Rotating the dancefloor is important, because not everyone at your wedding will all love the same genre and subsets of music. Also, by not rotating your dancefloor, your event will get stale, and will alienate certain members of your group, family or friends. A properly rotated dancefloor can have ALL your guests dancing at the same time, creating the ultimate experience!

6. They play well with other vendors

DJ Forrest Houston, one of Houston top rated DJs and former catering and banquet hall worker, states that “not all DJs play well with others, unfortunately.” DJs have a really tough job to do, and without a professional personality, this can be a challenge. The best wedding DJ on the planet will discuss the event with the coordinator, caterer, photographer, and venue to ensure everyone is on the same page. In addition, if your DJ doesn’t work well or understand the importance of working with other vendors, you could find your event in chaos with a confused crowd, and a photographer and/or videographer missing key shots. Some DJs do not allow videographers to plug into their sound as one example, so working well with all vendors is critical.

7. They understand the importance of backup gear

As a DJ, things go wrong, even when they own the best gear money can buy. Equipment sometimes fails, setup locations vary by venue, and more. Countless gear, load-in, and electricity situations must all go just right in order us for us to perform at our peak. Because of this, the best wedding DJs have backup gear. Superstars could simultaneously perform two full events at one time in two different rooms if needed. This cannot be understated… back up speakers, microphones, cables, chords, lights, and more must be ready in the event of downtime!

8. They work from a timeline

The best wedding DJs all work from some sort of timeline or wedding planner sheet. This enables us to keep things somewhat organized, and on time. Within a typical four hour wedding, there is only 1.5 hours of actual dancetime, and without a timeline or organizer, you can easily find that your wedding has run out of time to boogie! In addition, timeline management is also crucial because formalities such as cake cutting and toasts get advanced and pushed back, so the best know how to roll with the punches and adjust on the fly to make up time or stall effectively as needed.

9. They pay attention to the “little things”

The “little things” dramatically separate the best from the rest, and are not little at all to the best wedding DJ on the planet. For example, does the photographer know the first dance is coming in five minutes so they can change lenses? Have they informed the staff to begin serving champagne because toast is coming soon? Did the DJ remind the bride and groom to walk the room? Did your DJ inform the guests to be seated prior to introductions? Did the DJ arrive early enough in case of traffic or equipment failure of some kind? Does your DJ have the skills to adjust the equalizer to the specific room you are playing in? Did the DJ remind everyone there is a photobooth? Did your DJ announce for everyone to sign the guest book?” Did the DJ make sure dad is ready before announcing the father daughter dance? The list goes on and on, and all these “little” things add up to greatness.

10. They realize every wedding and crowd is different

This may seem obvious, but the same sets of music played in the same order and time will not work the same for every event. The best realize that every wedding is custom, and will adjust his music mixing and selections accordingly to fit the situation. There are nuances from crowd to crowd, and even the exact same crowd will respond differently based on climate, social situations, hot songs at the moment, and a variety of countless other factors that the best wedding DJs in the world will pick up on!

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