Lake DJ

Derek went above and beyond for our wedding. He was recommended by our venue and responded quickly to our request and was really easy to work with leading up to our wedding. He provided us options and worked to customize everything for us. Then we met him after our ceremony and he was so kind and personable. He was an amazing master of ceremonies and really helped make sure our reception was perfect. The music he played was exactly what we wanted and he made sure not to play requests that we didn’t want. I highly highly recommend you hire Derek for your wedding!

I cannot say enough great things about Derek. He was willing to go out on a limb for us and it paid off. He truly helped to make our night memorable. I am so grateful we chose to hire him!

My fiance and I had planned for a December 2020 wedding. Immediately upon contacting Derek he was responsive and helpful in terms of planning. We unfortunately, had to postpone our wedding due to the Pandemic. Once again Derek was extremely helpful and responsive when we reached out about setting a new date. He rescheduled our wedding with nothing but kind words! During these uncertain times, we feel so lucky to have Derek on our side!

Best DJ a Bride and Groom could ask for on their wedding day! Derek made the process so easy for us. Everyone loved the music, his commentating, and the organization of it all! Highly recommend for every wedding!

Derek is a true professional. He made an overwhelming part of the wedding process easy and stress free. We appreciate the guidance he gave us and created an amazing night for us!

Derek was absolutely fantastic! We received so many compliments about him during the wedding and after. It’s been two weeks and people are still saying we had a killer dance floor playlist. He was super charismatic, funny, and kept the schedule flowing all night long. He doesn’t miss a beat! Pun intended!

Derek was absolutely amazing!!!! When I say amazing, I mean he made my night magical and was so nice to us. His great personality is easy to get along with and just makes everything on what could be a stressful night, easy and delightful! He worked with me to get our vision. He found the video and audio that worked best for our first dance as we played the live video from the Beatles. I appreciated his hard work and making it a flawless night!!!!

Derek was amazing! He really took the time to understand us as a couple and ensure we had the perfect wedding. He was a great MC and kept us on schedule as well as made sure the party had a great feel. I would absolutely recommend him to anyone!!!! I honestly can’t imagine a better DJ.

Derek and his team did such an amazing job at our wedding at the ridge Tahoe resorts. Derek was our master of ceremonies and reception Dj and I can’t say enough great things. He made the day run seamlessly! Completely professional but knows how to have a good time! His communication prior to the wedding all the way up to the day of was stellar. Any questions I had he answered within 24 hours, which for a bride planning her own wedding, takes an enormous weight off her shoulders, being able to communicate efficiently with their vendors. If I could give more than five stars I would!

Best DJ in the Lake Tahoe area hands down. He is so accommodating and makes the process extremely easy. He did a great job knowing the crowd and he kept the party on-time. He had every song I requested and played them all. He went above and beyond by bringing my husband and me a drink while we were finishing up with photos. Everyone was giving my compliments on how great he was. Just a really awesome guy. Hire him!

Derek was the DJ at my wedding at Lakeview Lodge on Heavenly Mountain on June 15, 2018 and I'm telling you, my wedding would not have been as amazing and perfect if it weren't for him. He made the day so incredibly easy for me(the bride). He had everything scheduled and mapped out and was so incredibly easy for me to get a hold of when I had questions leading up to the big day/night. He met with me, my husband, and my father a couple of days before the wedding so we could discuss the music setup and the day-of timeline. We came from Las Vegas to have our wedding in Tahoe, so if this is also a destination wedding for you and you're unsure of how to plan a wedding from so far away, Derek will be your superhero! He was practically my wedding planner without even meaning to be. My family and friends still cannot stop talking about how much fun they had at my wedding. Family members who are normally wallflowers got up and danced the entire night! Derek got along with all of our guests, it was as if he was one of them because of how involved he was. I cannot rave about this guy enough. I want to have another wedding just so I could hire him again! Derek is the best and you will have the greatest day/night of your life if you have him as your DJ. I would recommend him to anyone and so would all of the guests at my wedding.

Derek DJed our wedding at the Beach Retreat this past Saturday. We cannot say enough good things about him and would highly recommend him to anyone getting married in the Lake Tahoe area! Leading up to the wedding he was extremely helpful, communicative and accommodating to our requests. During the wedding you had a great sense of humor that put us at ease, kept our reception on schedule (without being pushy) and helped get people on the dance floor and keep people partying. In the end it was the perfect day and Derek helped to facilitate everything perfectly and we got numerous compliments from our guests on how great our DJ was! Thank you Derek!!!

Derek was the best DJ i have ever worked with!! He did our wedding on July 6 at Edgewood. Every single person said how awesome he did the entire night! He kept the group entertained, energized and the music was perfect! He really knows how to captivate an audience! It was nice because he genuinely cared about my husband and I and he made sure our wedding night was the best day of our lives! He checked in with us to make sure we were doing okay, played every song we wanted, and kept the partying going into the late night! I could not have picked a better DJ for our wedding! Choose Derek for your next wedding or party! he is AMAZING!!

Derek was amazing! He kept everything on a time line to make sure all wedding festivities were captured by our photographer without it feeling like we were on a timeline. He engaged the crowd and kept the dance floor full all night with his playlists. He took into consideration our playlist and made an amazing track for our night!

Derek was excellent. He made our wedding one for the books. He was extremely attentive and kept the partying rocking to the end. Our dance floor was literally packed until the end of the very last song. He made sure everything was in order and kept our wedding on track (if you're a perfectionist, he's the guy for you!). Derek was kind, understanding, and made me feel really comfortable and confident in his abilities. I would recommend Lake DJ to anyone and everyone. As my husband (yay!) likes to randomly sing at the top of his lungs, "Lake DJ, he's my DJ!"

Wow! I cannot say enough about Derek! I knew he was great the second we met him but after we booked him he continued to blow us away. He responded so quickly to all e-mails. He created a FABULOUS wedding day timeline. Then came the wedding OMG he was absolutely AMAZING he was funny and easy going. He made use feel at ease and was always asking if we needed a drink or anything. He was a WONDERFUL MC and kept things moving. His music was awesome and he had us and our guests dancing until the very last minute. We ABSOLUTELY loved the photo booth and highly recommend it. I wish I could give home more stars he was just that great. Everyone he brought with him was wonderful and professional as well. Derek will make your event even better! He’s so wonderful.

Derek was the first vendor we met with on our wedding planning trip to Tahoe. It was a destination wedding for us. We found him on Yelp - 5 star reviews and hadn't really found many others in the area (the DJs we did find in the area didn't have many reviews at all). We were blown away from the start by Derek!! First off, his accent is awesome for MC-ing, he was super friendly, affordable, & he has many years of experience in Tahoe (very familiar with most venues and vendors)! When we met (very easy to meet up with him by the way) he preemptively answered all of our questions. He offered song lists and genre selections, and also said he could get any song/we could send him any song. We trusted him so much after our 20ish minute first meeting we asked him for suggestions on other vendors and their experience. He told us about some great vendors, and our photographers - Matt & Tara Theilen who were AMAZING. I think him and our photographers were our favorite vendors of our wedding! After we booked him, he was very responsive via email, he offered ideas for transitions and timeline of the wedding, suggested good points to have our photographers shoot photos. Also, he offered advice on things like what type of dance floor we should get, or if/how we should let guests request songs (we wound up asked on our RSVPs for a guest song they wanted to hear - then everyone's happy, it's just one song, and we can screen them for ones we didn't like). He did the sound/music for the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and party music. Our ceremony was on a pier, dinner inside the venue, dancing outside. He provided our officiant with the proper equipment for our ceremony, and then accommodated the sound in these various locations perfectly! He really took an interest in making sure he had the proper versions of songs we wanted. One song I'd found on you tube for the walk down the aisle, and he was able to clean it up to use so it sounded perfect day of. He verified the genre/style of music we were looking for for our ceremony seating/background (we wanted Hawaiian music and he wound up researching and buying a CD to play that he'd found on Amazon with great tracks for us). He followed our songs lists perfectly and filled in with a similar style. He didn't play anything on our do not play list. The special event songs were flawless i.e. cake cutting, intro to dinner. We also had a special mix we created to a choreographed dance that was flawless as well! A fun extra - he used an emulator which is a cool way to mix the music so he can watch the crowd response at the same time, and it had this function where you can write the your names (bride/groom) in a glowy font, which is a good photo op. He even gave us a bonus of our wedding songs on CD after our event! Loved him!!

Derek was really great to work with! He gave suggestions when we wanted them and was accommodating. Definitely recommend!

Derek is one of the best things that happened to our wedding. He ran the entire night seamlessly in the most fun yet professional manner. In addition, he made sure I was taken care of all night (and sweetly reminded me to do things like eat). He made sure everything was how I wanted it and we made night of changes and he rolled with it. He came highly recommend from everyone in the Tahoe area and I absolutely know why. He kept the party going all night and the guests loved him. He was literally the absolute BEST. I would hire him for any event. I can't imagine a DJ having as big of an impact on our wedding as he did and I can't say enough good things about him.

Looking for a DJ in SLT? FOUND HIM! Derek from lake DJ was an absolute pleasure to work with. We had a destination wedding so did all of our communication through email up until a few days before the wedding. His communication is prompt and professional. Once we finally got to meet him we loved his energy. He did an awesome job at figuring out who we were based on our music suggestions. He came up with a timeline of when things were supposed to happen and what songs were playing when which was very important to me. He was very personable and kept everyone engaged throughout the night, i had several people compliment the music and even my music picky best man told me "Dude, your DJ is killing it!!!" In addition to the music you should consider the LakeDJ Photobooth service. They provide all the props, photostrip printouts and a binder for guests to take funny photos and sign them in the book. Well worth it. Lake DJ is a must hire!

Derek was awesome to work with!! The ceremony music was perfect and everyone was able to all of our ceremony! He MC'd our reception and was great at keeping things moving & on schedule. We provided input but the music he played had everyone up and dancing majority of the night. We highly recommend Derek to any future bride/groom!!

We could not have found a better DJ for our wedding. Derek is so fun and easy to work with. He kept the wedding flowing while providing great music and a great atmosphere for our guests. We also did a photo booth through Lake DJ and everyone enjoyed it. It is such a great wedding take away for everyone and we loved looking through the photo album at the end of the night. Lastly, we purchased uplighting from Derek as well and it looked amazing in the tent.

Derek and Vicki provided DJ/MC and photo booth services for my wedding at Heavenly Lakeview Lodge on August 12th, 2016. They are amazing! We could not have asked for a better wedding and hugely thanks to Lake DJ. Derek is such a pro and a really cool guy. He made the entire evening run so smoothly and everyone had a blast! It was a destination wedding with 50 guests and he kept the energy high and dance floor full. Not only was he wonderful on the day of, but he was so helpful and responsive during the planning as well. He even did a few edits for our special songs which turned out perfect! The photo booth was definitely hit, everyone loved it! They had so many cool props and created a wonderful scrapbook of all the photos with messages from our guests. The print off was even customized to match our color scheme. Vicki is a sweetheart and did a great job! Derek and Vicki are awesome people and I cannot thank them enough for making our wedding so spectacular!

Derek is beyond amazing, we cannot thank him enough!! He went above and beyond for us!! Our wedding day would not be the same without Derek!!!

Derek with Lake DJ was the icing on the cake to our wedding. He was so tentative day of. Not only was his equiptment exceptional, he acted as our day of coordinator during the receoption, reminding me it was time to do x, y and z. We we so impressed. Prior to our wedding we compiled a list on songs and he helped us with the layout, timing and why certain things might flow better doing it this way instead. HIRE HIM. You won't be disappointed!

Derek Tarpey of Lake DJ served as MC and DJ at our daughter’s recent wedding at the West Shore Cafe & Inn. Derek was amazing!!! Our wedding planner was thrilled to hear he was doing the sound system for the ceremony and reception, telling us “he’s the best.” Every positive thing other reviewers have commented on was true for us, too. His demeanor was casually elegant and dynamic, never corny or overwhelming. He ran the entire reception with confidence and sensitivity to the energy of our guests. The music he chose reflected our daughter and son-in-law’s expressed preferences, and he magically paced the evening so that the dance floor was filled from start to finish! Most of all, his solicitous care for the comfort and joy of the bride and groom was truly a blessing. We are beyond grateful to Derek and his assistant for making the wedding a wonderful experience for all!

Our wedding night would not have been as amazing as it was without Derek. Derek kept the entire wedding running smoothly all night. He helped guide us through the nights activities as well as kept everyone on the dance floor all night. He knows how to keep the night exciting and romantic. We would 100% recommend using Lake DJ for whatever your event may be. You will not be disappointed.

Derek was an amazing DJ. He went above and beyond what we asked. Everyone had a wonderful time and he kept everyone out on the dance floor until the end. When we recall our wedding day, the dance party was such a key component and he made it happen. He also provided the microphones and audio for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner. Everything transitioned extremely well and all our guests had nothing but excellent reviews, which included their love of his accent. You cannot go wrong with choosing LakeDJ, and I doubt you will find anyone better.

Great music.

I could not have asked for a better DJ for our wedding!! Not only was he a great communicator and manager of time, he was so much fun and British :) . Everyone at the reception had a wonderful time and I know it would not have been nearly as successful without him. I cannot imagine a better DJ, honestly.

Derek was amazing! We just got married last weekend in Edgewood's North Room and Derek couldn't have been more on top of things. Not only did Derek do his job in making sure things flowed according to schedule (I'm VERY type-A), but he made sure to check in with my husband and I, making sure we were doing okay, including bringing us drinks while we were out taking pictures. Derek was also great in accommodation all of the Assyrian music and traditions that my mother-in-law wanted incorporated into the wedding reception. He worked well with our other vendors and everyone of our guests loved him! Plus, the emulator is super cool! I would definitely recommend Derek to anyone searching for a DJ in the Tahoe area; he will make your event memorable and easy!

Derek was DJ at our wedding three weeks ago and he was fantastic. From start to finish he kept the night running smoothly, prompted us gently when it was time to do the first dance, speeches, garter toss etc. He was entertaining, charming and funny. He stuck solid to the songs we didn't want played, and made sure to incorporate all the songs we requested. He also gave us a cd of our wedding songs as a memento at the end. I would recommend him to every couple getting married in the Tahoe area, he really is superb!

We couldn't have been happier with Derek! He has a lot of experience and he knew how to keep the show going flawlessly! A lot of guests commented that he did a great job with organizing everything and music selection. You will not be dissapointed!

Derek is an awesome DJ and Master of Ceremonies. He provided us with great advice and he has years of experience. There was never any awkward moments during our day, he kept the flow going, and had great energy the whole night. You can tell that he loves what he does and loves music, his equipment set up is amazing as well.

We have absolutely nothing negative to say about Derek, he was great. His pricing is reasonable and he provides excellent service. He had worked at our ceremony/reception location before and I could tell he had a great working relationship with the staff there. As both DJ and MC he worked with us to ensure we were comfortable with everything and that everything went smoothly. His made great song choices based off the list of our preferred songs. Our guests spoke very highly of him, they really enjoyed his humorous and casual nature. He was very good at getting everyone involved and engaged. At the end of reception he gave us two CDs. One had all the song choices for the ceremony and important dances, the other had our favorite songs that we had provided for him earlier. I thought this was a great little bonus keepsake. I would highly recommend Derek (LakeDJ.com) to any one looking for a great DJ in South Lake Tahoe.

Derek is simply a pleasure to work with. Not only did he perfectly tailor my music selections, he served as a wedding coordinator. He helped orchestrate the wedding party walking down the aisle, and helped me with timing for the reception. Immediately after the ceremony, while my groom and I were taking photos, he brought us cold drinks. He coordinated with the caterer to time dinner and champagne toasts, and even helped gather guests for our receiving line and our exit. He had a great sense of how to keep the party going - if he noticed that guests didn't seem very interested in a particular song, he would change it without letting the party die down. He is British, yet managed to nail my country-themed playlist perfectly :) I never had to look for him - he always was quite attentive to our needs. I loved working with Derek!

Derek ran our reception flawlessly and was a wonderful addition to our event. The dance floor was full all night long. We couldn't have asked for more!

Lake DJ, Derek, was by far the best DJ we could have chose for our wedding. He wasn't corny at all like some DJ's can be. He was nice, funny, down to earth, and met with us several times prior to the wedding to go over music choices. I was able to email him whenever I had any questions or ideas and he always got back to me right away. At the wedding everyone was impressed by him. He not only played excellent music based on our interests, but he pretty much coordinated the entire ceremony and wedding. When you hire him you don't need a wedding coordinator (which we did not have anyway). He was great and if you go with him you will not be disappointed. After the wedding our friends and family all commented on what a great job he did. We were so happy with Lake DJ!

Derek was soooo much fun. We had a pretty definitive "play" and "dont not play" list. Derek mananged to stay within our boundaries and have his own flair. I don't know what we would have done without his direction, master of ceremony 'duties' and his fun nature. We had a frickin' blast. And, to top off our great night............he gave us two CDs to take home that had all of our 'chosen' songs on them. We put them in and get to remember the whole night in an instant. Loved it!

The DJ is definitely the most critical part to the wedding, because the music sets the tone. If there's good music, people will dance and have fun. The DJ is also the wedding coordinator in a lot of ways. He works with the officiant, the photographer, and the venue to get the timing of everything. If he's slow, your reception will drag. Derek or Lake DJ was absolutely amazing. He made everything go really smoothly and was absolutely fantastic at getting the dance party going. I e-mailed him a zillion times to change song requests for certain parts of the reception, and he always emailed me back within an hour or two and said no problem at all. At one point, I apologized for makings so many changes and told him it would be my last one, but he immediately wrote me back and told me not to worry at all, he wanted to make sure it was perfect, so i could change things as much as i wanted. the music was fantastic, everybody commented on how great it was. something for everyone. he was very professional, did not charge me extra for having a beach ceremony, and was willing to stay as long as we wanted. I cannot recommend him enough, I am so happy that we hired him, the wedding would have been completely different without him. And he has a really cool accent!

Derek was phenomenal. He played the type of music we wanted, but kept people on the dance floor, and avoided the songs we didn't want. But thats not why he rocked! He kept everything running smoothly and we didn't have to think about anything. Because of some rain we got during cocktail hour, we had to switch some things up, but nobody would have known. He made sure to work closley with our photographer so that we got all the photos we wanted, and even threw in some surprises, so that we could get some great shots. At sunset, when we went to take pictures with our bridal party, and most of the younger folks were away from the dance floor, he changed up the selection, and kept everyone happy, and we we returned, he got right back into dancing. He was great to work with, and I didn't have to worry about a thing! We have been told by guests that they loved our DJ. I Highly HIGHLY recomend him!

He was very accomodating even when everyone was pulling him in different directions about playing things, He handled everything with ease