amazed at what I saw sort of

No need. I hope you thought to take a few photos. That image would be invaluable in future sales presentations.

This is just another example of you get what you pay for. I used to have a pair of those speakers. Those were the first speakers I bought when I first came back. Nice speakers. They served me well till I changed things. Here's the big thing. Some clients just want the cheapest thing they can find. Nothing you can do about that. Just keep doing what you do and those who value what you do will pay what you want them to pay.

So they will have the wedding that they paid for and not the dream wedding they want.

Wow and can't say much more.

tunes4046 said:

So I had a potential client I had lost on price, this was a noon separate location wedding an hour drive from the reception venue, 3 pm cocktail hour separate room from meal 5pm dinner, dance ending at midnight 20 to 30 uplights DMXed ( had not seen room at time of quote), gobo projection, custom intro's for 13 bridesmaids groomsmen, My quote was just shy of $3000 ,

Honestly I thought I quoted too low and was somewhat happy about not getting the job, later on face book i saw her recommending the DJ she had hired said he only charges $700 for everything

I slipped into the venue today, I have a connection, what a sh%t storm, home stereo speaker and an Ipod in the cocktail room, two Ancient Peavey SP2 on poles in the main room a laptop plugged directly into a radioshack mixer, and 10 -15 mismatched par 64 cans for uplight with a mix of 1000 and 500 watt bulbs, The venue manger said the bride had not seen this yet as the DJ set up this morning, i almost wish I could attend

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When we lose out on price to other DJs we usually are quick to believe the DJ will be awful, and the event will suck. Often that is true, but often that is not.

If there are no cracks, major signal losses, or interference on the wireless mic, AND the DJ plays the right music, no big issues on the DJ's part, then the bride will be satisfied, and probably leave a great review online of the DJ saying everything went great and we was very affordable.

Most brides don't care about the equipment. Old Halogen Par Cans with color gels over them were perfectly acceptable for YEARS until LED became main stream. What makes any one think that par cans/color gels won't work at a wedding today? Price was more important to the bride/groom...if the DJ pulls off an acceptable show then the age or look of the equipment won't matter.

In 1998 I deejayed a couple of Sweet 16s with a Radio Shack Mixer, and 2 Portable Single Disc CD Players. I used JBL passive 150 watt speakers from 1989. I had a blue and red siren light as my light show. Everybody had a great time. I am sure I could pull off the same show, and get people dancing today if I had all that equipment still available.

Well, if she was getting quotes of $3k and then took one of $700, she may :
1)Only be able to afford the 700, so spending more wasn't an option in their opinion
2) it may simply not mean that much to them, they realize that they aren't getting great stuff. Lower quality is OK.
3)they are extremely naive and they are expecting top notch stuff for that price. If she is shocked when she sees the set up, it's probably her fault. I guess it's possible that this guy promised her the world, but she is somewhat responsible to make sure she is getting what she expected.

Scott Hanna said:

Well, if she was getting quotes of $3k and then took one of $700, she may :
1)Only be able to afford the 700, so spending more wasn't an option in their opinion
2) it may simply not mean that much to them, they realize that they aren't getting great stuff. Lower quality is OK.
3)they are extremely naive and they are expecting top notch stuff for that price. If she is shocked when she sees the set up, it's probably her fault. I guess it's possible that this guy promised her the world, but she is somewhat responsible to make sure she is getting what she expected.

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Probably a mix of 1 and 2. I am willing to bet the bride won't be shocked at the set up. She might if we were talking a high end wedding in a major metro area like D.C. or New York...Any suburban to rural area like Wisconsin, and I am sure most brides are laid back enough that the look of the equipment won't matter to her as long as things go well enough during her wedding day.

There are still lots of DJs I see in areas west and North of Baltimore, and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland using old equipment and still booking weddings. They probably aren't booking a ton of weddings, but they are still booking them here and there, and the outdated, old equipment works just fine for them and their clients.


Another issue with this whole scenario is that you can't expect a bride to dish out $3,000 on DJ services and up lighting on her wedding day in 2016. With technology the way it is, and the costs of being a DJ being much less than it was years ago have consolidated prices. Charging $3,000 for DJ+ UP lighting is simply an inflated price...even if the ceremony site was an hour away from venue, and it was a very long day.

Bottom line, there's room for DJ's at almost every price point. It's unfortunate that they didn't see the value in what you had to offer, but it's also likely that that is a good indicator that there may have been other problems for you on the gig. That's the thing that most people (non-sound/DJ/musicians) don't understand-- how much work goes into an event. If the average wedding is 5 hours, that's usually two hours set-up (or three or more, depending on the venue and what they need), and one hour tear down, which makes that 5 hour gig more like 8 or 9 hours. Add an hour of travel both ways if it's out-of-town, and you have a full day's work. I also have done my share of 16-hour or more gigs.

Charge what you charge, with a fair price and good rationale for why you are charging it, and don't worry about the clients that go with the lowest quote.

GJ

tunes4046 said:

I have it happen about 10times a year, it's around a 16 hour day all told with three sounds systems that require hiring an assistant due to the off site ceremony location, you may not be able to charge that much but I can and do on a regular basis, if you take out $500 for the assistant it just over $150 an hour

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An Assistant is important to have, and certainly cuts down on the work load, but it can be done without an assistant. Set up at the reception location first the night before, or early in the morning. Drive to the ceremony site an hour away. Use as small a system as you can, tear down quickly, and drive back to reception location. Very tedious, long day, but it can be done without an assistant.

I am working a 7 hour ceremony and reception quote today with up lighting included. The Groom has done his research. To rent wired LED lights, he can get them from a place in Virginia for $17 per light. He can get wireless lights for $24 per light. He wants 20 to 30 lights total to cover two floors in a salmon type of color. He has quotes from other DJs in the $900 - $1,800 range for DJ only. If he were to rent the wired lights at $17 a pop he would be at $340 - $510 on the up lighting.

He told me the $900 DJ doesn't offer up lighting. He had a quote of $1,100 from another DJ that was also DJ only, offered up lighting but his pricing was like $1,000 for 20 lights. The $1800 price included a up lighting package, but he didn't think it was 20+ up lights. He has to re read the quote to see how many were actually included. There was a $1250 DJ that said he would match the rental prices he got to add the up lighting to his quote. I came in at $1,500 DJ only booking my brother, and initially offered him reduced up lighting package prices on top of that. We had a good conversation, but he said that if there was a way I could include the up lighting at the $1,500 price he would be very inclined to book since that would save him time and money having to do the lighting himself.

If he were to book my DJ at $1500, and rent the up lighting, he would end up spending $1,840 - $2,010 total. ...That is for 20 to 30 up lights...He could book the $900 guy and rent the lights himself and spend $1410 total with 30 up lights but doing the lighting himself.

My point is that generally speaking $3,000 for DJ plus Up Lighting is in inflated price. If you are booking 10 weddings a year at that price in Wisconsin without a Photo Booth or other stuff added in, then I am impressed. Either your clients truly have money to spend, or they aren't smart enough to research up lighting enough to come to a conclusion on how much they should really pay for it. My clients tend to be research savvy, and somewhat techy. Getting them to pay a bunch for up lighting is near impossible. A few downtown D.C. brides who have Mom and Dad footing the bill at their $9,000+ venue will pay it if you get that kind of client, but outside of that up lighting is an aggressive sale.

I think it's saying if people try to shoot a giant puck with a regular size stick from ice-level, they will miss, or the puck will bounce-off of the big words that are in the way...

GJ

YES!!

GJ

I agree that the cocktail setup is pretty cheesy, and odds are if he is using the laptops sound card it's probably not the best, but nothing wrong with using old equipment as long as it is uniform. I still use old school par38 cans with halogen bulbs for dance floor and static colour ambient lighting, but they are all the same fixture and bulbs, not a mix and match hodgepodge.
Dynamic colour changing ambient and/or uplighting is an upsell for me and that's when I rent led's.
Guests don't know the difference.
I charge at the top end of my market range.

Granted, they may not be all on simultaneously, but I would be more concerned of the electrical capabilities of the venue, as according to your description at a minimum he would have at least 5000 watts of lighting to find circuits for.

rhythmgj said:

Bottom line, there's room for DJ's at almost every price point.
GJ

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But if you are not a higher charging DJ you must be a bottem feeding hack, is what I get from other DJ forums.

azdeejay said:

But if you are not a higher charging DJ you must be a bottem feeding hack, is what I get from other DJ forums.

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I think most DJs know that there is more than the 2, but they don't want to admit it because they are scared. How often do you see someone talk about price and put XYZ or whatever because they are scared to say how much they charge. Or the ones that do post and you just know that it isn't true.

Someone said in this thread or another that there are DJs for every price point for every event. Not everyone is going to pay $2000 and not everyone wants to pay $200. We as DJs do not have to all be the same. We do not have to charge the same, use the same gear, wear the same cloths and play the same music. We just have to do what we want. If "wanting" to educate other DJs in maybe how they could charge more is what you want to do, fine, if you don't want to hear it, change the channel.