How long to hire for a Dj?

Welcome and congratulations!!

Most DJ packages around around 6 hours. How you use that time is up to you. I lucked out and for my upcoming wedding the DJ is a longtime friend, and he's playing the music for the ceremony too, he would have been a guest anyhow.

As far as the wires, you can ask that he use a table cloth to hide all of that, and you can probably provide that so that the color goes with your decor.

We have our DJ for 5 (technically 5 1/2) hours. He includes half an hour before the ceremony start time for pre-ceremony music. That being said, we're using the DJ for the entire wedding, ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception. Our ceremony is outdoors so he'll have a small setup out there for the ceremony and his main setup inside the reception area.

Most DJs with experience are probably skilled at making their setup look presentable, especially if they do lots of weddings. If you don't have the DJ for ceremony music, would you hire a live musician?

When I first hired my DJ the contract was for 6 hours. We have since changed it, he will be providing the ceremony music and music for the cocktail hour. So will now be working from 2-11 PM with a meal provided for dinner. The 2:00 time is just for his set up, with the ceremony at 3.

I had mine for five hours. Start of reception til the end.

We just hired ours yesterday. He will be playing for about 5 hours even though he is paid for 6. We have music provided by the church for ceremony and a long time friend is playing acoustic music during cocktail hour so the DJ starts at the time of our grand entrance and play for the rest of the night.

We have ours for 6 hours. He’s starting 30 minutes before the ceremony, 30 minute ceremony, 60 minute cocktail hour, then 4 hour reception. Do you have another plan for ceremony music if you don’t use the DJ? What about microphones for the ceremony?

I had my DJ for 6.5 hours. We had him for 1 hour of ceremony which mean guest arrival for 30 minutes and our 30 minute ceremony.
For cocktail I had a saxophonist playing so the DJ didn’t cover this.
Then DJ kicked in back for reception entrance and was playing until the end.

I also had an outside wedding and never saw the DJ cables or speakers. They’re prep to be with a good distance of your decor and still be able to hear it all.

We hired our DJ for our entire wedding, so 6 hours. That didn't include set up or take down. It included a few minutes prior to the ceremony, the ceremony, the cocktail hour, and the entire reception including the grand exit. I didn't notice the DJ's set up at all, it didn't seem in the way. Most venues have places for DJs to set up so they aren't in an odd place with chords & plug ins in places they shouldn't be.

We booked an 8 hour DJ package. That is for 7 hours of playing time and half an hour for set up and breaking down equipment and dance floor. We hired a guitarist for cocktail hour and still haven't figured out ceremony music. DJ will start playing music during dinner.

So our cocktail hour/reception is 6.5 hours. Our DJ typically booked 6 hour packages with additional hour charges but because we used a photographer that they share an office with they gave us, essentially, an extra hour free (30 minute ceremony - that will be more like 15 minutes - plus the extra half hour of reception) which is a $200 value! If your DJ's packages fall just a little short of what you wanted, try talking to them. You'd be surprised how willing some companies are willing to work with you.