First, the day of the wedding DJ Sam was amazing. He did a great job, did everything as advertised, was such a help, and we loved him. The reason we are not giving 5 stars is because of the lead up to the wedding. I understand their model of pa...iring a local dj with your date/wedding. But the fact that we did not meet Sam until he arrived at the venue was extremely nerve-wracking and added a lot of stress to stressful wedding planning. I understand why they think they should do it - what if something happens to that person who you made rapport with, etc. but I think it could be handled better.
We were nervous booking because reviews either seemed to be 5 star amazing or 1 star bad and it depended largely on the DJ each couple got. We went ahead and booked because they offered a great value and really just a whole package, but it was a little scary too.
Our videographer had a similar model - you booked the company and they paired you with someone right before the wedding. But we were able to have a phone conversation with our person two days before the wedding and that just helped my anxiety about it so much. Yes we spoke with various staff members at DJ Connection leading up to the date - going over our details, helping us plan, etc. But it was nerve wracking knowing I wasn't going to meet the person until they were there. We expressed our concerns while booking and were told that while they normally didn't do it, we could have a phone conversation the week of with the DJ we were assigned. As we got closer, a different staff member said that wasn't going to happen because that wasn't how they did things and it didn't, which was a bummer.
Their website that we used to add songs was vey easy to navigate, if there was a song we wanted they didn't have you could just give them the iTunes link. They played the songs we wanted, matched our eclectic style well, and didn't play the songs on our do-not-play list. They arrived on time to set everything up, the DJ met with us to go over timeline and verify details, he checked in with us throughout the day, made sure someone made us a plate of food and that we took time to eat. He helped, as they promised, with event coordination and helped things to run smoothly. When we got out of sync of our timeline - due to no fault of theirs - he met with us and asked us how we wanted to adjust the timeline to fit the rest of the evening.
Equipment they used was great, had great sound quality, the uplighting looked awesome. Overall they were wonderful. And as stated above we didn't give 5 stars just because of not being able to talk with our DJ ahead of time, as we were told we would be able to. We know that seems small but it just added to our stress. It just took away some of the personal aspect of it, we know it was a random assignment but it doesn't necessarily need to feel that way. It removed the personal touches we were able to get with our other vendors. But again, overall very happy. DJ Sam was the best!