You want your wedding to be memorable in every respect, for sale and you are willing to pay a reasonable fee to have an unforgettable experience. But will your desire for a memorable wedding make you vulnerable to overpaying for services you don’t need, sales without even realizing it?
In the case of DJ Services, all promise that the DJ will learn about your needs and desires in advance of your wedding–that’s unquestionably important. But many DJ services exaggerate the time and labor required to gain that understanding. This allows them to justify an exaggeratedly-high price for their services.
DJ Services promise all manner and means of learning about your needs and desires. This includes multiple meetings, lunch meetings, dinner meetings, meetings in your home, unlimited number of meetings, etc. It’s almost as though they need to live in with you until the wedding, just to know what you have in mind for music. And remember that although it’s not itemized in the DJ Service’s fee, you are paying for those lunches, dinners and all of that face time–every minute of it.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with extensive contact with any vendor. But as with anything else you are paying big money for, it’s appropriate and important to ask whether or not it’s necessary.
If you are willing to pay $400-$2000 more than necessary in order to have a lunch or dinner companion, have unlimited face time, have a visitor in your home, make a new friend, or just to have your hand held, then there is nothing wrong with hiring a DJ Service who will do that, and charge you for it. (Some people who have been scared about having their cars fixed exactly right, might be willing to pay an auto mechanic for five hours to learn how to fix their particular car before she/he lifts the hood–it doesn’t make it necessary though.)
On the other hand, an experienced professional DJ can thoroughly learn about your needs and desires from a well-designed worksheet and a conversation or two. He should not require you to pay for hours of his time to learn something he should be able to grasp much more expeditiously.
Don’t pay inflated prices by allowing a DJ Service (or anyone else) to create false needs and thereby prey on your desire to have a memorable, once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you’re smarter than that, you can save $400-$2,000, and lose absolutely nothing. Can you think of a better way to spend that money?