How much does a wedding DJ cost?

We get a lot of people asking us for our prices (nothing wrong with that – everyone has a budget to work with).
 
But with something as important as the entertainment for your wedding, there are more considerations than just who has the cheapest price. Keep reading through to the end for what else to consider when choosing your wedding DJ.
 
But pricing first!
 

In Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and surrounding areas, wedding DJ prices vary widely. Knowing what you’re looking for in your DJ will help you put aside the right amount of your budget to cover their rates.

Budget DJs

A budget wedding DJ will cost between $600 and $1000.

When we started DJing weddings back in 2012, we priced ourselves accordingly until we gained more experience. Some weddings we smashed, but others could have been better. We didn’t have enough experience DJing weddings at the time to know what we didn’t know.

It’s up to you if you’re happy being a guinea pig for someone just cutting their wedding DJ teeth. You may get lucky and get an awesome experience and an awesome bargain (but you may not).

It’s also worth acknowledging that a DJ who’s not charging much for their service will not have as much money to put back into their business. This means they’re less likely to have high-quality sound equipment or invest in industry training, insurance and legal music files.

A cheap Brisbane DJ may DJ weddings as their weekend job to earn a bit of extra money, rather than it being a full-time passion with the skill set to match.

Mid-range DJs

A mid-range wedding DJ will charge from $1000 to $1800 and should have more experience and professionalism to offer than a budget DJ.

A mid-range wedding DJ should dress professionally for your wedding and have a decent quality sound system. They should also tick the boxes in terms of insurance, legal music and have a couple of years’ experience under their belt.

However, be aware that they may not offer a full DJ performance that includes on-beat and creative mixing. We’re seeing a growing trend of celebrants and live musicians offering DJ services as an add-on but, with limited DJing experience, this might mean just playing one song after another, rather than delivering a skilled DJ performance.

But, if you don’t have enough in your budget for a high-end and experienced DJ (or music isn’t a super high priority for you), then a mid-range DJ is a great choice.

High-end Brisbane Wedding DJs

If you’ve booked a luxury Brisbane wedding venue, and an amazing photographer and videographer to record your day, you’ll want a wedding DJ who can bring it!

For a high-end wedding DJ, expect to pay between $2000 and $3000 for your wedding reception (sometimes even more).

At this level, you can expect your DJ to entertain and perform, to know how to mix creatively (rather than just play one song after the other), be familiar with a wide range of music genres and to have several years’ professional experience DJing weddings and other types of events (including clubs, bars and festivals).

The best Brisbane wedding DJs will be able to advise you on your timeline of events to give your dance floor the highest chance of success. They may also offer professional MC services and will proactively work with your other wedding suppliers to make sure everything runs smoothly.

A top-notch DJ will not only complement your wedding but will value add by crafting the soundtrack to your big day.

Expect real entertainment, not just playing music.

Additional costs

As well as the cost to hire a wedding DJ for your reception, there may be additional fees to take into account.

These may include travel (if your perfect wedding DJ is based further away from your venue) and additional equipment hire (if you need something outside the ‘normal’ set up).

You may also have the option of adding on additional services such as ceremony music, MC service and fun stuff like CO2 cannons and confetti (like we have)!

We truly believe that your music and wedding entertainment play a massive role in the success of your wedding reception. With this in mind, we recommend booking the best wedding DJ you can afford. If money is tight, see what other areas you can shave money from that have less of an impact on the success of your day.

But there’s a lot more to booking the right wedding DJ than just knowing how much they cost.

 
Since most people have never booked a DJ before and might not know what questions to ask, we’re going to go with an example that you’ll be more familiar with (buckle up – here comes a sandwich analogy).

How to choose a wedding DJ (using a sandwich analogy)

You call up a sandwich shop to order a sandwich but all you ask is:
 
‘How much for a sandwich?‘
 
They tell you ‘$20’.  This sounds pretty expensive, after all, you just want a sandwich, so you call up another place and they tell you their sandwiches are $2.
 
Great price for a sandwich, right?
 
You go and pick up your $2 sandwich and you find out it’s a cheese sandwich.  You didn’t want a cheesy sandwich!  You wanted an amazing, gourmet sandwich!  This wasn’t for just any kind of lunch – it was an important, once in a lifetime lunch.  
 
And it’s too late to change your mind.
 
Oh the disappointment!
 
If only you’d chatted with the first guy, you would have found out he was a master sandwich maker and was going to make you the best damn sandwich you’ve ever experienced, the kind of sandwich you’ll be talking about in ten years time – for only $20!  
 
In fact, if you’d taken the time to meet the guy, you would have realised it was Gordon Ramsay making your sandwich!  Suddenly $20 doesn’t seem so expensive after all.
 
You probably know where we’re going with this… but in case you don’t, go back and replace the word ‘sandwich’ with ‘DJ’ and the word ‘lunch’ with ‘wedding reception’ (you can leave the word cheesy as it is).
 
There are a few ways that DJs are not like sandwiches.  You can’t just walk into a DJ shop, have a look at their DJs and say “That one looks delicious” (ok maybe the sandwich analogy isn’t working any more…).
 
 

If you’re still not sure how to figure out which DJ will tick all your boxes, do some research, starting with their website and socials.

  • Does they include pics from actual weddings or is it full of stock photos?  
  • Is there a picture of the DJ or is it a mystery who this person actually is?  
  • How do they present themselves?  
  • What do they dress like?  
  • Do they mix well? 
  • Can you listen to examples of them performing at weddings?  
  • Can you see videos of them at weddings?  
  • Do they interact with guests in a fun way, or do they sit in the corner waiting to just press play on the next song?  
  • Do they have ideas and experience in creating a timeline that keeps things moving in a fun and interesting way?  
  • Do they invest in ongoing training and education?  
  • Do they invest in high quality equipment, and have backups should something fail?  
  • Do they have public liability insurance?  
  • Do they purchase their music legally or use crappy sounding YouTube audio rips?
  • Do they come highly recommended by your venue/photographer/celebrant etc?
When you’re checking out DJs for your wedding, don’t just ask how much they charge.  Find out what goes into their service.  What are they actually bringing to your wedding?  
 
Talk to them or meet them. There’s a time and a place for a cheese sandwich, and it’s not at your wedding.
 

Once you’ve found the perfect person to manage your wedding entertainment, you’ll know how much to budget for your DJ – exactly what they charge.

Let’s chat so we can find out if we’re the right sandwich for you.

Bon appetit!

Enough sandwich analogies already. How do I book?