When people are searching for the biggest part of their entertainment for their wedding day, the most commonly used phrase is “wedding DJ near me”.
“Near Me” may not be a Local Wedding DJ
It’s funny because Google doesn’t work like that! One guy who ranks higher than me for “Buckinghamshire” lives in Essex. Others may be agencies or directories with huge advertising budgets (and remember who ultimately pays for that!) and they supply DJs from anywhere in the country.
At some of my closest venues, agencies regularly bring in DJs from over 2 hours away whilst selling themselves as a local business.
You Deserve to Know the Truth
Now I have no problem with someone booking a DJ from miles away because they know them personally. Perhaps they offer a specialised service (if you need a specialist death metal DJ you might have to look further afield), or they’re multiple award-winners. I regularly travel over 2 hours each way for a client that won’t settle for anyone but me. Especially if the family have used me for other parties and they consider me as one of their group.
In general, I will travel as far as necessary for someone who really wants me. They may have been guests at a previous wedding or had a personal recommendation. Sometimes it’s because of my style of DJing. Often it’s my relaxed, informal Master of Ceremonies performance. The regular weekends travelling 2-3 hours each way to work at weddings for agencies are what made me take the leap to only doing my own events.
My advice
My advice is to choose someone you like as your number one priority and then find out if they are close enough. If you find someone close (Google Maps, Bing Maps etc. are great for this), make sure that your actual DJ is local and not just the company. A simple trick many use is to set up multiple websites targetting many areas but their address should legaly be on there!
Again we go back to the point of meeting them and asking a lot of questions.
Don’t settle for filling in an online form for your wedding music. Talk to a real person and get some genuine advice from an expert wedding DJ. Discuss how your day will run with a Master of Ceremonies and not just the venues that like to paint a rosy picture. I will give you real timeline estimates of how things work, especially if I’m familiar with your wedding venue.
