Hi all, I am just looking for some advice on a DJ timeline.
We budgeted our DJ for about 5 hours and we are looking at a ceremony time of 3:30 pm, Cocktail hour 4-5ish, and then dinner & dancing from 5-10pm (or possibly ending earlier since it is planned for Sunday). We already decided against having the DJ for the ceremony (we figured we can play a nice playlist and ask a family member to help) but we are struggling to decide what to do for cocktail hour. Initially I wanted to just continue the playlist and have the DJ set up at that time and be ready to start at 5 for Dinner, but he mentioned that setting up during cocktail hour may make guests think that he is late or something or that it is bad timing. However, I don't even know yet if he will be in the same room as the other guests at that time anyways or if they would even see him setting up (we could probably keep people in the second ballroom during this time), so part of me thinks he was trying to just get the extra hour booked, but he also made a good point that he could start to "get a feel for the crowd" during cocktail hour. I am just not sure I want to pay the extra money for that time (although it is only $150 extra per hour, I am trying my best to stay in budget).
So I am stuck - do we pay the extra money for him to do both reception and cocktail hour so he can feel out the crowd and already be set up? Should we condense the schedule so as to fit both reception and cocktail hour in the initial budgeted 5 hours (maybe ending sooner or having a shorter dinner schedule)? Or do we just say oh well and have him do only the reception like we planned and hope that the set up time/process doesn't interfere with our guest's enjoyment during cocktail hour?
And that generally feeds into a bigger question of: Is the timeline too long in general for a Sunday wedding? I think ending at 10 isn't terrible, but I've suggested ending earlier and most people have said something like "but its a wedding!" suggesting it needs to go late, hence our initial 5-10pm reception timeline. Any advice is appreciated!
