Guests overwhelmingly remember two things from a reception: the food and the dj. According to QC Wed Me research, the average dj investment is $1100. Seems like a lot when you can just plug your phone into a speaker with an aux cord, right?

Well… not so much. There’s a lot more that goes into dj-ing a wedding. QC Wed Me has recruited Donnie Haggerty from Double “H” Entertainment to shed some light on the cost of hiring a professional dj.

Thinking of getting a really cheap DJ for your wedding day or attempting to do it yourself? I suggest you think twice. Why? Because hiring DJ based on his/her low price is not a great idea.

When it comes to hiring a wedding DJ, let's price it out in terms of time and money. Here's the amount of work that it really takes to prepare and DJ a wedding.

• First time meetings with couples: between 1-2 hours

• Phone calls and email conversations before the wedding to plan bridal party introductions, special dances, timeline, etc: roughly 1-2 hours

• Finalizing the details, i.e. compiling all the couples’ requests to make sure they're ready, creating a timeline, outlining how everything will run on wedding day: roughly 1-2 hours

• Getting the music ready for cocktail hour, dinner hour, special dances, and open dancing: 1 hour

• Hunting down specific music that couples request: 1 hour

• Loading up the DJ trailer: 2 hours

• The drive: varies

• Unpacking and setting up, hoisting heavy equipment up onto speaker stands, running wire, and positioning all the everything: 1-2 hours

• Actual wedding day events (ceremony, cocktail hour, reception): 5-8 hours

• Equipment breakdown: 2 hours

• Equipment unloading and storage: 1 hour

Being a wedding DJ isn't just downloading music off Spotify and showing up with a microphone on the wedding day. There is SO much more involved.

Are there wedding DJs you can hire for $250? Sure, but don’t expect get 20-24 hours of devoted planning and execution from them.

Your hourly investment looks like this—

• A professional DJ priced at $1,500 works out to about $60 per hour.

• $2,000 = $80/hour

• $2,500 = $100/hour

Expect to pay more for, dance lighting, up-lights, your name in lights, fog machines, or any other above and beyond services.

Let’s re-visit the DIY concept. Renting all the equipment you would need to pull this off would be around $750. Plus you’re setting it up, troubleshooting, planning, etc.

There ya have it, folks. Do you want to spend the days leading up to your wedding picking up equipment and learning how to use it? And then stressing during your wedding day about troubleshooting, song choice, volume level, etc? Or would you rather pay a professional to worry about all that for you? How much you’re willing to spend truly comes down to how much you value your time and sanity.

QC Wed Me thanks Donnie Haggerty at Double “H” Entertainment for his guest post.

We’re excited to be the Quad Cities region’s FIRST all-inclusive wedding blog and vendor directory! We are celebrating all things love in the QCA and helping couples plan their happily ever after!

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