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Wedding Entertainment Tips: Choosing a Live Band or DJ for Your Wedding

The music you choose for your wedding reception is a fairly major decision to make. Sometimes it’s what can make or break the event, so be sure to take time to decide what would suit you best and peruse all your options.

First, think about what type of wedding reception you’d like to have — formal, casual or themed — and determine what music genre best complements that style.

To help you find your way through the maze of entertainment possibilities, I’ve put together some of the pros and cons of hiring a live band or a DJ for your wedding.

A LIVE BAND

Whether you choose to be serenaded by an upbeat brass band, soothing string quartet or spirited cover band, your guests are sure to love it!

THE PROS:

Live bands can really help get the guests out of their seats and onto the dance floor because there really is nothing better than listening to a band play live. The sound and the energy is unrivaled by an other type of entertainment.

Bands can help you pull off a specific theme. A swing band, for example, would do wonders for a jazzy 1930s-inspired wedding.

THE CONS:

Bands can be expensive, very expensive, even ranging up to more than $20,000 for the night.

They can be a bit limiting. Many bands have only one style and may not appeal to the music tastes of you and all your guests, and some have only two volumes: loud and louder.

I suggest hiring a live band for larger, formal or themed weddings.

A DISC JOCKEY

DJs are pure professionals when it comes to dance parties!

THE PROS:

They’re much cheaper to hire than most live bands.

Most DJs have hundreds of songs at their fingertips, so chances are they’ll have the songs you and your guests want to hear, and then some! And they’ll play your favorite songs as you know and love them, unlike a band’s sometimes less-than-stellar renditions.

Unlike bands, DJs don’t need to take a break between sets so by hiring a DJ you ensure the music is non-stop all night.

THE CONS:

You’re at the mercy of a one-person show. A DJ with an enthusiastic and personable stage presence can really get the party going, but one that’s not so crowd savvy could make your reception a real drag.

And again, nothing beats the sound and energy of live music. Nothing.

I suggest hiring a DJ for smaller, more casual weddings.

No matter what you choose you should plan to hear the band or DJ you are looking to hire live before you sign any papers. That doesn’t mean you have to crash strangers’ wedding reception, just quietly pop your head in for a couple of minutes. The mood of the crowd should be a good indication of whether or not they’re the right entertainment choice for you. Happy weddings!

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Comment by Gerald Sousa on August 7, 2011 at 8:42am: Although some wedding DJ's certainly have great personalities and can give your wedding guests a good time at your wedding reception I personally think that I would rather have a live band at my own wedding just because it's LIVE music.

Comment by Jessica Fitzpatrick on August 7, 2011 at 10:10am: ~ L-I-V-E ~ B-A-N-D ~ Gets my vote! I love concerts more than listening to the radio, so really I can only say my choice would be a live band over a disc jockey, but in the last wedding I was at for my best friend's sisters wedding was such a great time and they had a DJ but then again I went to a wedding a few years ago for my cousin and her DJ was nothing more than a guy standing in front of a turn table. He was not entertaining at all and barely even spoke, and when he did his speech was slurred, we thought he was drunk! Stacey told me that she sent him an email complaining about his service after hearing disappointing comments from her wedding guests and he told her that he had just got a wisdom tooth pulled, maybe true, maybe not, but either way he was awful and he should have found her another disc jockey if he was in that condition or at least warned her ahead of time so she knew what to expect. so really i guess it just depends on the DJ because I have seen a really good one and a really bad one, but I still think I would pick a live band for my wedding over the really good DJ that my best friends sister had. I just now wonder which band I want, and if I want to pay a lot for a well known local band or if I want to go through the process of going out every weekend for the next couple months to watch bands perform, I love wedding planning! lol. - Jessica

Comment by Bianca Moran on August 11, 2011 at 3:02pm: I agree with Jessica, I would prefer a live band too. My fiance has a friend who is a radio DJ and he said that he would do our wedding for free, and we may end up using him just because he is well known and a friend of Jim's... but more because he is free (haha) but honestly if I had my way it would be a live band at our wedding. I suppose it's all about compromise though in a marriage and I thought this would be one way of getting a jump start on that, and besides letting my fiance have some control over the wedding planning has actually made him help me plan more of the wedding details.