Hello, all! It's the end of July. How on the earth did we get here so soon? I keep hoping that the backlog of wedding updates I need to make (I'm thinking at least a post on Florists, the Dress, Bridesmaid dress shopping, the officiant, wedding diy projects, the save the dates, and the invitations....that's a lot of backlog) will somehow write themselves, but it's not happening. The reason I want all the "old" stuff out of the way is so that I can get to updating you little by little as things happen rather than writing about them so far after the fact. I GUESS the blog fairies are taking the summer off, though, so it's up to me to get this posting DONE!
In that vein, I'd like to tell you all about our DJ searching process. If I had to pin-point the most difficult vendor search, in some ways, I'd say it was the DJ search. My idea originally was to contact a minimum of five vendors from each category and then go from there, which we did with DJ's. Two NEVER got back to us... totally scratched off the list. Again, I state that I could be MUCH less picky. But... I'm not really all about second chances when this one really important day is on the line. Another DJ told us they were already all booked up for that day. Wow! Good for them... no good for us. So, it came down to two.
The first DJ - HMDJ - was love at first sight for me. Their website was REALLY well-done and featured a video starring the owner of the company talking all about why he views the DJ's role in the wedding as important. Here I suppose I should back up and note that a very popular money-saving trend is to have an iPod be your DJ. Before I saw this video, I was seriously considering this route. We've got a modest budget and we're cutting (small) corners where we can. I had horrible day-mares of a stuck-in-the-70's FM radio reject cheesing up each moment of the night. Though I'd recently been to a wedding with a decent DJ, I was still not sold on the whole necessity of a professional in this arena. After the video, though, I realized that the DJ is sort of the pace car for the reception. He helps to coordinate the timing of big events within the wedding - like the cake cutting, first dance, etc. Since I've only been to a few weddings and I want ours to go smoothly, I realized that we needed a good DJ.
The second DJ - PP - was a total backup plan. I was so sure that we'd love HMDJ that I was barely even interested in our meeting with PP. It just so happened that these two meetings got scheduled on back-to-back nights - PP first and HMDJ the next night. When we got to PP, the person we were meeting with was not available. I'm not complaining* for two reasons. First, I got to play Angry Birds for the first time. Umm... I was obsessed for weeks! It may or may not have been a big push for me to finally jump on the smart phone bandwagon. Second, it turns out that he was meeting with another couple and their meeting ran over. When our meeting ended up being over two hours long, I understood. A two hour meeting - especially when I see it here on the screen - sounds like a total nightmare, but I assure you, it was a blast! The meeting itself was like a little party and we got to know all about the music-selection process this company has** and we got to see the awesome personalities of one of their DJ's first hand. This company also offers lighting options and had an amazing slideshow of all the lighting options. He told us that we don't need to rent a dance floor because we can use lighting to define the dance floor area - genius!
In addition to pictures, they also showed us video of grand entrances into the reception, speeches, and different "special effects," like these CRAZY confetti canons they can shoot off. This DJ had wonderful ideas for the dollar dance***, the entrance into the room, etc. And... he had energy and was hilarious. I'm not saying he's not over the top; he for sure is. But, he's not cheesy, and that was my main concern. By the end of the evening, I really felt like he took time to get to know who we are as people (he suggested a book-themed lighting effect) and he really cared about making the event organized and fun. As we were leaving (starving for dinner because the meeting was SO long!), I said, "The company we're meeting with tomorrow had better really bring it. They've got a lot to prove****." What was amazing to me is that when the DJ at PP asked what other DJ's we were meeting with, we told him the name of the other company and he said they were very good and people always loved their service. There was an element of this whole process of seeing multiple vendors that made me feel very cheater-y and strange, but this DJ was so classy about it - it helped to really make me feel more comfortable.
Cut to the next evening. I was SO excited to meet HMDJ. I thought that if they were even a fraction as prepared and sensible as PP, we'd no doubt have a wonderful reception. Do you see where this is headed? Do you? If not, let me share the first detail that put me on alert: Their office was carpeted in scraps. No kidding. The "office" itself was a tiny room next to a MUCH larger and seemingly un-used room... the office included a gignormous leather couch, a coffee table, and a TV. Some people might feel at-ease in this sort of living room-esque office, but not me. Where was the conference table and deluxe sound and projection system of PP? After we sat down on the couch that tried to swallow us whole, the VERY FIRST thing the DJ said to us was, "Do you have any questions?" Umm... As a teacher I know that this is a really important question to ask... AFTER you provide some information. Thankfully, having been to a REAL DJ meeting the night before, I felt prepared to ask some big questions. I will say, the cool thing about HMDJ is that they have two DJ's for every event - one to run the show, and another to make sure the timing of everything works out. The DJ we met with said this second person would carry my plate through the buffet line, etc. While it's a cool service, it also seems a little unnecessary for me to have a DJ doing that for me...
After a very uncomfortable 10 minutes where the DJ was mostly asking questions about us, I asked about lighting options. He seemed very excited and explained that they had an awesome slide show on the computer that he could hook up to the TV. He tried to get it set up for about 2 minutes and then called in another DJ from the other room. They both tried for over 10 minutes to figure this out. At one point, the second DJ said, "If a man built it and designed it, a man can fix it..." Hmm... I don't know about you, fair readers, but I prefer my DJ's to be technologically savvy AND not chauvinists... I seriously almost walked out right then, but I really wanted to see this awesome slide show. Eventually, after another DJ showed up wearing sunglasses inside and talking about his "Kanye West look," the original DJ just handed us the laptop to watch the slideshow on... what a concept!! The slide show was 8 slides long. 8. 8... All this time to try and set it up, and it was 8 images. I can't really explain what went through my mind at this point, but I was past the point of frustration and moving on into inappropriate laughter brought on by the ridiculousness of the comparison between the two companies. After exchanging the briefest of formalities, we high-tailed it out of there.
After the laughter subsided, I actually started to feel really bad. The DJ that we met with at HMDJ was the brother of the owner. The owner seems to have worked really hard to build an online presence and a highly reviewed business, and the brother just really didn't seem to care. I actually thought for weeks about emailing the owner to let him know how really drastically different their site was vs. the in-person experience. Ultimately, I just wanted to be rid of the frat-house DJ's altogether. To be clear, from their online reviews, I'm pretty sure that we would've ended up having a good experience with HMDJ, but I was running scared after that meeting... too much bro-ishness and not enough professionalism for me! Oh - and get this... which was seriously just the last straw for me - when HMDJ asked who else we had met with, we told him PP. The HMDJ DJ claimed that the DJ we met with at PP tried to jump ship and join the other company when they met him at a wedding vendor event. I was SO PISSED. The DJ we met with at PP talked at length about how much he loved the company he works for and how he's been there for like 15 years helping to grow the business. I almost freaked out on the dishonest and just... LOW HMDJ DJ when he did that... just seriously inexcusable on every level - especially since the PP DJ had complimented them. I seriously wish I could express how unprofessional and frustrating HMDJ was...
So, we selected PP. Their company has a multi-tiered pricing option - you pay the lowest price for contracted DJ's who work just the events as booked, a higher price for dedicated employees of the company (like the DJ we met with), and the highest price for the owners of the company to DJ your event. Since we are having our wedding "off-season," we got a discounted rate and decided to spring for the DJ we met with. I just really felt like he got us and wanted to do everything he could to make our day special. I can't wait to continue working with him to decide on music, the timeline for the reception, and the lighting. I feel sure that he will really make the night an awesome one!!
Coming soon.... ALL that other stuff I listed above :)
*Not complaining?! Me?! Hey, there's a first time for everything.
**I don't know how other companies work, but this one has an online service where you can add things to a "maybe," a "yes," and a "no" list by artist or by song. It's awesome and really easy to use!
***Look, I love money as much as the next person (perhaps more??), but this tradition has always made me uncomfortable. For those not familiar, it's a dance where people pay to dance with the bride or the groom. The really COOL thing about it is that you get to spend a moment or two just with one guest at a time. At my friend's wedding, I paid to dance with HER and we just chatted about her big day for a second. It was a really special little bit of time. BUT... everyone's already bought 1 - maybe even 2 - presents, and it just weirds me out to then ask for even a little bit of money. Our DJ had a wonderful solution... I'll tell you all about it later ;)
****If you'll recall, this was the original "back-up" company!
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