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Navigating A New Normal With This Wedding Market Correction

25 May 2024

After listening to some industry-leading wedding professionals speak on their podcast this past week, it was very refreshing to hear about a correction that had occurred after the post-COVID wedding boom of 2022 and into parts of 2023. And actually, I should correct myself in saying that this correction is still in progress and could be lasting for the next few years.  What can I say? I'm a savvy wedding business owner who has spared no expense over the past several years to attempt to attract modern brides and grooms who are looking for the best wedding DJ for their most special day.  I've spent a lot of my time and financial resources putting together a brand for my wedding DJ company and how I'd like to present myself as a wedding DJ.  The focus of my wedding DJ business is easy; it's a complete focus on the music. It is absolutely the music that matters on your wedding day. A lot of the discussion in these podcasts placed an emphasis on refreshing your memory on what it is that separates you from the rest of your competition.  While I navigate this wedding market correction, I've been trying to focus less on how saturated the wedding market truly is, and what it is that has brought hundreds of brides and grooms to my business over the years.  I get a smile on my face when I think about all of my past clients. They love their music just like I do.

In the past, I've spoken about how saturated the wedding market has gotten. Well, it still is and even worse than it was when I brought the issue to the forefront before the COVID-19 pandemic. <--CLICK HERE to review that article. Unfortunately, we've seen so many people began their wedding businesses in recent years, which has diluted the business and taken away market share from some of the seasoned, top wedding vendors who were actually here during the first wave of the wedding boom in Charleston in 2011. Those vendors who were here in 2011 were the vendors who made Charleston one of the top wedding destinations in the Southeast.  Since wedding market saturation is here to stay, it's important for me to focus on how I got to where I am today as a wedding DJ in Charleston.

My Focus is STILL On The Music

YOUR wedding day should sound outstanding. From start to finish, modern brides and grooms should be wow'ed by every song they hear. You should hire a professional wedding DJ who is well-versed in all types of music to help you create the perfect vibe for each section of your wedding day. If you need to hire me for your wedding ceremony, there are lots of options for wedding ceremony music that we can discuss.  I can help you put together a wonderfully elegant set of prelude music for your pre-ceremony, as well as all of the important key songs for your wedding ceremony. Then, as your guests leave your wedding ceremony and begin to relax with a cocktail at cocktail hour, we can create another vibe. Each part of your wedding day represents an opportunity for the modern bride and groom to design the music the way that they would like so that lasting memories are created forever. I truly believe that any wedding DJ who takes what they do seriously is going to put the music first, and after all of these years, this is what separates me from the rest of the wedding DJs in my market. It's the music that matters. No one will remember if you had uplighting or a photobooth, but they will remember how much they danced on the floor all night long. For great lighting services and photobooth companies, be sure to check out my Preferred Vendors page.

Nothing BUT Your Wedding Music

From the first time I stepped foot into my first wedding venue and nervously DJ'ed my first wedding, I've cared about nothing else but spinning and playing your favorite music for the biggest day of your life.  I still do not bombard my clients with the constant upsell of lighting and photobooths. While some people in the wedding industry may look at this stance and think that I may be hurting my business, I don't believe I am because I don't care about uplighting and photobooths. I don't look at my clients and drool because I can upsell them additional services. Instead, I actually look at my clients and wonder what kind of music is in their Spotify playlists. If a client wants those services, we have plenty of great businesses who "specialize" in those services and don't offer everything under the sun.  When I say that I have no desire to offer these services, I truly mean this, and 99% of my clientele supports me 100% in this viewpoint.  At this time of reflection of my business, I've realized one thing ---- I've been successful as a wedding DJ because of my undying passion for the music. When I am not DJing a wedding or preparing for an event, my face is buried in blogs and doing research. The brides and grooms who have hired me over the years have allowed me to curate some of the best wedding playlists I've seen. They've also introduced to some amazing music that I've been able to incorporate into future wedding playlists. Even as a seasoned wedding DJ, I'm always open to discovering new music and will continue to operate in this fashion as long as I am in business. What's interesting is some wedding planners have taken notice at this stance and have been impressed.  No tacky lights or lasers ever.

The Perfect Emcee Voice For Your Reception Announcements

I don't want to brag but my voice tends to be a great conversational piece when I meet people. Whether it's for an in-person consultation or a quick call to discuss your wedding, people compliment me on my voice. They do this because I have the ideal, perfect emcee voice for your wedding reception. What exactly does this mean? 

**This does not mean making announcements in a boisterous or unnatural way.
**This does not mean talking like an auctioneer at your wedding reception.
**This does not mean talking like a game show host at your wedding reception.
**This does not mean screaming on a microphone like you are cooking up MCs at some bar gig or for a frat party.

YOUR wedding is a classy and elegant event. YOU should have an emcee with a classy and elegant voice, who is polished in their delivery. I learned how to be an emcee from a veteran radio DJ who made his way across the country and worked in close to 20 markets. For information on this, you can click over to my About page. Part of a wedding DJs brand and appearance has everything to do with how they "sound" when making announcements. YOUR wedding could be destroyed with a terrible sounding wedding DJ, and trust me, there are lots of wedding DJs out there who really don't do the industry any service by continuing to load in and sound horrible when cracking the mic.  You want a great voice at your wedding just as much as you want the perfect mix of music. It's the wedding DJs who have no voice that try to overcompensate by saying mixing music is more important. Yeah, it is very important, but so is having the perfect voice for your wedding reception. So, when you can find a great wedding DJ with a great voice who is passionate about the music, you need to hire them :)

Owner - Operated DJ Service And STILL Proud Of It

One of the things that I've come to accept is big companies will always book more weddings than me. I mean, if you have 15 DJs on staff, and I only have 1 (me), the math is going to be looking better for the bigger company. I don't care about this. I never got into the wedding industry to train a bunch of wedding DJs so I could make a ton of money. It was my desire to keep my company small that has attracted brides and grooms over the years. From the moment I performed at my first wedding, I was determined to keep my company small. I am the owner of this company. I control the marketing, and I will be the guy loading in on a hot, Charleston wedding weekend. The reputation you see that is displayed all over Google and the other wedding websites is all ME. No one else.  I heard an interesting angle that was the perfect tie-in to why I keep things small on one of the podcasts last week. A luxury photographer had mentioned that she did not want to bring anyone else into her photography business. Outside of an occasional need for a second shooter, she had a desire to keep the creative force to herself. That's sort of how I've managed to run my business all of these years. In crafting my brand over the past several years, I've determined how I believe the best wedding DJs should conduct themselves. And to be honest, I don't want to bring other wedding DJs into my business, only to possibly have one of them destroy my reputation. No thanks.  Operating my company in this manner has allowed me to focus on "quality" and not worry about the "quantity". It's quite obvious that I cannot be in two places at the same time, so when a couple hires me to be their wedding DJ, they don't need to worry about a no-show because I dedicate the whole day to them. And I don't engage in risky behavior on a couple's wedding day either; so if your ceremony begins at 5:00pm, you won't see me jumping out of any airplanes at 11:00am. I've never cancelled on any of my clients in my entire history as a business owner and NEVER will as long as I remain in business. YOU can have this kind of track record when you focus on "quality" of performances, rather than "quantity" of performances.

Conclusion

When you combine all of these parts of my business together, you truly have a very passionate wedding DJ who has managed to set himself apart from all of his competition. In a very crowded wedding market you've got to find a way to separate yourself. I hope that you read over this post and begin to understand some of the lengths I've taken over the years to separate myself from my competition and maintain the focus on the music. If you are searching for wedding DJs, you'll see me on Google and under the organic search result you'll see "Classy & Fun Wedding Receptions With A Focus On The Music."  I'll be still speaking more about this shift that the wedding industry has been seeing and how things are probably going to be in the coming months and years. I'll also be speaking about some of the geographical shifting I've been noticing in inquiries for Charleston weddings in the past few years and express my thoughts as to how why this is happening. Thank you for making it all the way to the end of the blog post. I truly are humbled that I was able to catch your eye. The next step is for you to head over to my main website and fill out a contact form and tell me some details about your big day. We'll then set up a time to discuss your wedding day soon.  Just click the link down below to contact me now. Thank you again and congratulations on your engagement. 

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