Pun the DJ

his DJ was a significant disappointment to our wedding day. We hired him based on a rec & bc he was affordable, but repeated issues before & during the wedding left me frustrated & heartbroken. One of the first red flags was our final planning call. Myself & coordinators joined from computers, while he joined from the bleachers of his daughter’s softball game on his phone. Had he communicated a scheduling conflict, we wouldve rescheduled so everyone could give their full attention. It felt unprofessional and foreshadowed the lack of preparation we experienced on the wedding day. Furthermore, all vendors were instructed to wear all black for our black-tie formal event; he arrived in denim jeans and a gray coat, which felt noticeably out of place. The biggest disappointments though were the execution of important moments. For our grand entrance, we had planned the exact point in a song to walk in, but the DJ continuously spoke over the microphone, making the music hard to hear. There was little coordination with our planners, and our families were left waiting/hollering (for minutes) while we stood confused outside the ballroom, essentially missing the moment we had envisioned for months. Throughout the reception, transitions between songs were simply faded in/out rather than being professionally introduced w/ beat-matching. While I wasn’t expecting a nightclub experience, I did expect professional-level transitions & energy management. There were also multiple moments where meaningful songs were played at the wrong times. When I stepped away to the restroom before dinner, he played my alma mater’s fight song—something I’d been excited to experience with fellow alumni. I could hear everyone celebrating from upstairs while I missed it entirely. He replayed it later but didn’t feel the same. I’d provided a list of every song I’d wanted played; a catalog of hundreds of songs color-coded by section, w/ notes on which to play in their entirety. My friend & I were excited for the bridge of a song, and he switched it before the bridge even though it was identified as a song to play through.  Another painful moment involved our anniversary dance. I noted that I wanted all couples invited to the dance floor, not only married couples, bc we had loved ones in long-term relationships there, who even traveled from NY to TX. Despite those instructions, he invited only married couples who the dancefloor, and I caught glimpses of our friends/family sitting alone at their tables as we exited to change. It broke my heart. Finally, during the last hour, I stepped into the hallway & heard one of my favorite songs playing while I wasn’t even in the ballroom. Instead of feeling joy, I ended up crying in the bathroom; so many moments I had carefully imagined felt mishandled. No wedding is perfect, but music and flow shape so much of the emotional experience. Unfortunately, this DJ felt consistently disorganized and inattentive. I had spent *hours* creating a detailed guide; to have those details overlooked was heartbreaking; these are moments we can’t recreate. I’m sharing this review bc I think couples deserve transparency & weddings are *deeply* emotional, once-in-a-lifetime events—professionalism, preparation, communication, & attention to detail matter immensely.