What makes a good DJ?

Tricky. I reckon it's to do with judging the crowd/mood, knowing what to do if it's not working, being confident and flexible and having enough music choices available to allow you to be flexible. Weddings must be hard as you are playing to such a mixed crowd who might not necessarily 'get' you.

From my perspective, the only things I wanted from my DJ is for them to be fairly easy to contact in the run up to the wedding, for them to be able to locate and play any 'special requests' that I want included in the night (with advance notice), and for them to be able announce things like when it's the first dance, and when we want other couples to join us on the dancefloor during the first dance etc.

Also, for them to know enough about what songs will be 'crowd pleasers' when it comes to putting together the rest of their playlist for the night.

Not sure what other people would expect from their wedding DJs but for me I just wanted reliability and a certain amount of knowledge about what they're doing.

Maybe some people have more specific demands, but I can't think what those would be?

Good luck to your OH in making a decision.

That is a tough one. I think as someone else pointed out, the main problem is that the guests haven’t ‘chosen’ the DJ so if you get a mismatch of styles, it could mean an empty dancefloor.

From my own experience, a good wedding DJ and really anyone providing you with a service is someone with experience, who listens to what you want and who is responsive and easy to deal with) much like the previous poster said.

We picked our DJ based on a recommendation from the venue and the first time we met him, I wasn’t sure – he seemed pretty old-school (he even had dark glasses and a medallion) and mentioned swing music several times (just not our bag) but he was actually perfect. Totally flexible, just wanted to play the sort of music we wanted to hear and he took (and played) requests on the night. He had a questionnaire with must-plays, definite ‘no-plays’ and general music we liked, which was great. He was brilliant on the day too.

I think the perfect DJ is someone who works with the couple's wishes. For instance, I *hate* DJ's who constantly talk - it makes me cringe, I just want a DJ to play music and play it well. I've been dancing since I was 3, so a lot of people at our wedding will be my dancing lot - as such, we have a lot of unusual (isn) songs that we will dance to - and mean something to me (Don't worry, I'm not talking full on cabaret - more, old fashioned sequence dances which are really easy to join in with!) but, it means I have a list of songs I definitely want played. I spoke to one DJ who just proclaimed 'no, you don't want to give me a list, weddings like that don't work, no-one gets up and dances. you are better to leave it up to me.' Ummm.... No. I don't want to dictate what he plays, but these are things I know I want at my wedding!

I think someone who talks openly to the couple about what they want from a DJ - do they want announcements? Do they want a specific style of music? Are there songs they want and don't want? Do they want requests (and announcements for them)? (again, I met a DJ who categorically said that he does not do requests because 'people don't want to dance to them.' Uh?!? Isn't that the point of a request?) Are there special songs for the bride/groom/other members of the bridal party? And really takes note and responds to these things. If they - the DJ - know something might not work (it is only a might - my friend had a techno style rave at their wedding, and that really worked because of who they were and the majority of their guests were - but it probably won't work for a lot of people!) then suggest other ideas, but ultimately, the best DJ for me is someone who does as we, the couple, actually want (but maybe has a fall back idea just incase!!)

Oh, and also, I want to be able to borrow the mic so the BM can announce first dance as it is just a bit more personal to us!

Nothing worse than a DJ with an empty dance floor that still won't take requests.

A good DJ doesn't change the style of music for the sake of it if the dance floor is full and buzzing. Seen so many dance floors empty..........

A good mix of styles of music is good - but not the cheesy Birdie Dance etc. Room for Motown, Dance, 70s. 80s. 90s etc. Be sensitive to the audience though. The Bride and Groom should be able to give you some pointers. And avoid inane chatter - requests are good especially if it will keep people dancing and having a ball.

Our DJ has asked us to pick our first dance song and 10 other songs so he can get an idea what type of music we like as we'll as ensure he's playing a few of our favourites.

He also said the tip to keeping the dance floor full is he plays the cheesy/older generation songs first, this gets the older crowd up dancing meanwhile the younger ones are generally at the bar and then the younger/fancy type tunes later on, never start with the dance tunes as you end up with no one on the dance floor!

This. I have heard about some DJ's refusing to take requests which l think is quite off. I also think they shouldn't talk too much and should do a mix of different songs and genres.

What a great question, in my opinion after accompanying Baz to a lot of weddings is his ability to read, not only the dancefloor but also the room. There are some guests who will never dance but it doesn't mean they wont enjoy the music, and often come over late in the evening to say so. Having vast musical knowledge in order to play crowd pleasing tunes to all of the generations that will be represented, and most of all the discussions with the bride and groom before the event to understand their vision for the evening and working with them to achieve that.

Baz is also a club DJ, but the audiences are very different, when he plays in Pacha or Egg, he chooses his set in line with the club atmosphere, is never expected to take requests and needs to be able to mix and beat match. Although those skills are still very useful in a wedding environment, he also needs to be able to interact with guests, taking requests and making announcements if required and personality becomes more of an issue than in a club.

If your H2B is the DJ for the whole evening in the clubs he does, he can use the same principles for the wedding disco, splitting his set into three parts, warm up, headline set and end set, and if people ask for request to do his utmost to play them as soon as possible, most people dance to the songs they've asked for

I cannot believe there are DJs who won't take requests! That's bizarre. At the club H2B regularly DJs at he sometimes closes off requests after a certain number cos of time constraints, but at the last wedding he did he literally only had 3 or 4 all night, apart from the list the bride had given him in advance. I think the added difficulty was that it was four days before Christmas so he wanted to find a balance between Christmas songs and not-Christmas. We had a big debate about whether he should play Blurred Lines or not - I think he was worried about offending people (he dislikes it more than me and thinks it's "rapey"), but it was the song of the year, after all. I don't think he did play it in the end.

We went for a non-weddingy club DJ in style we wanted. Knew exactly what we were getting.

Blurred Lines is on my 'do not play' list, along with anything by the Black Eyed Peas (just because I hate them).

Our DJ was under strict instructions to not play any disco or cheesy 70s, under pain of death. Nor was he allowed to play any cheesy 80s.

As an indie club DJ, I don't think it would have been a problem for him.