Many people believe that a DJ will turn up, play music, fill a dance floor, say a few things on the mic, pack up and go home.
In reality, it is a lot, lot more when you are booking a professional and dedicated DJ who lives by their profession and doesn't get do it for beer money!
In May this year, we were booked to work at a Wedding in August at Southport Theatre and Convention Centre.
So how did we prepare, set-up and work at this event?
Well, it start with a one hour no obligation meeting to showcase what we could do and how we could fit in the budget of the couple. (1 hour)
After a week, the booking was confirmed and a booking form was printed and posted.
After a phone call to the groom to be that unless the form was returned the booking would be cancelled as we cannot continue to wait passed the confirmation date, we received our booking form back in the self addressed envelope.
A second meeting was then arranged to go through all the details in preparation for the big day.
Now we do prefer the meetings to be held well in advance of the day so that we can get a greater spectrum from you and your guests but this was left until two days before as the groom was always "in work".
This meeting again took an hour and all the information then needed typing and sending immediately to ensure the couple had details for their records.
The groom had decided that they wanted a few songs and emailed a playlist one day before the Wedding that took the DJ four hours to put together!
So all in all there has already been seven hours of work put in not to mention postage, phone calls and petrol and we haven't even got to the big day yet!
On the day itself, our DJ started at 9am checking all the equipment and lighting to ensure it was in working order before starting to load up for the evening at around 10.30am and job that takes around an hour.
We're at eight and a half hours now - it's a full days work and our DJ is yet to reach the venue!
Due to access, our DJ arrives at Southport Theatre and Convention Centre at 6pm - half an hour before the Wedding Breakfast is due to finish - and discovers that the Wedding is running about half an hour late.
So after waiting round for an hour, he is then allowed to unload and move equipment to the first floor where the room is situated and begin to set-up.
The set-up required was a standard eight-light Wedding set-up, although a cross bar was required due there being a stage for a band - extra wiring job!
In all the set-up took around an hour (rushed) so that guests could start to access the room for the Evening reception.
At 8.00pm, our DJ plays the first songs of the night welcoming guests into the room.
The reception lasts until 1.00am and the take down then begins.
With it being on the first floor, there is the added time of moving equipment in and out of a lift.
The final piece of equipment is loaded in by 2.15am and a short journey home before it all needs to be unloaded - a job that is complete by 3.00am.
So, from leaving the house at 5.45pm to actually being back home and unpacked it's been nine hours fifteen minutes already adding to the eight and a half hours that have already been put into the day before he started!
That gives a grand total of seventeen hours and forty-five minutes for a Wedding Reception for the Evening ONLY - with professional preparation and set-up.
You may only see the five or six hours as a resulting product but if it wasn't for all the extra work that went in around it, we would not have produced such good quality feedback.
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