The Couple’s Wedding DJ Budget Is Low – What Should You Do?

by Chris Brower
Last Updated: April 13, 2022

Wedding DJs should put a lot of thought into their prices.

After all, your wedding DJ business isn’t just about providing amazing music and an amazing experience for your clients and their guests. It’s also about getting paid fairly (and well!) so you can earn a nice second income or maybe turn your wedding DJ business into a full-time career.

But inevitably you’re going to get contacted by couples whose wedding DJ budgets are lower than your prices. Sometimes comically low. Heck, sometimes they practically want you to do it for free or offer some discount seemingly just because.

When you’re an experienced wedding DJ getting tons of DJ inquiries, it’s easier to say, “Sorry, that’s below my prices” and move on. But when you’re new or just eager to get work, it can be tempting to take the job.

Should you?

Or is there any way you can convince them to meet your price or some sort of compromise?

Let’s get into some things to consider.

Do Couples Just Not Understand What DJs Charge?

Weddings are often wake-up calls for couples. Everything is more expensive and complicated than they thought. And certainly DJs aren’t immune to this.

Most people have never booked a DJ before in their life, so they may think, ah, a DJ costs, what, like $200 or $300? And then it’s a huge surprise when they see that many DJs in their area charge $1,000 or $2,000 or more.

Many people still don’t really understand what DJs do. They think we merely plug an iPad or whatever into a venue’s sound system, press play on a Spotify playlist, sit back and hang out, and occasionally make an announcement or two.

Of course, that’s not true at all!

I’ve heard stories of a couple’s DJ budget being $500, while their budget for seat covers was $1,500.

You’ll likely encounter this too – where people will spend a lot of money on something that seems silly (or at the very least, less important), while scrimping on the DJ, which – okay, we’re biased – is one of the most important parts of a successful wedding reception! No one’s fond memories of a wedding are about the seat covers or maybe even the food unless it really knocked their socks off. No, people are most likely to remember the amazing dance party with friends.

Weddings are indeed expensive, and not everyone can afford to throw a huge, lavish party, so I feel sympathy when someone’s budget is low.

It is frustrating, of course. You want everyone to want to book you and be happy to pay you your full price! But some can’t, and you have to understand this is a reality.

What I Encounter

In Kansas City where I DJ, I charge around $1,000-$1,200 for a wedding reception. This price is about mid-range for my city. Some DJs charge a lot more, but some charge much less.

When I encounter low wedding DJ budgets, I tend to see budgets of around $500, significantly below my price.

One place you can potentially find work is Facebook groups for couples in your town looking for wedding vendors. Someone posts what they’re looking for, and vendors respond with their info and prices.

I used to spend a lot of time on these sorts of Facebook groups and would always see impossibly low wedding DJ budgets.

People would post their $500 (or lower) budgets, and swarms of DJs would respond within seconds saying, “Sure!”

I soon gave up on this being a viable way to find DJ work. I won’t DJ for that price, so it’s not worth my time refreshing the page to be one of the first people to respond to these questions.

Now, okay, does that mean anyone who searches for vendors on Facebook has a low budget? Of course not! I have booked some good-paying jobs on Facebook. But as you build your wedding DJ business, you’ll find what avenues get you good jobs that pay what you want to charge.

Ready for the complete guide to becoming a wedding DJ? Here you go.

Are Your Prices Just Too High?

Of course, your prices may be too high for your market. If you’re having trouble booking wedding gigs, and you know that one reason is that everyone you encounter has a much-lower budget, you might simply be charging too much for your city.

Your prices can constantly fluctuate. It’s a lot of trial and error. See what price makes you feel good and gets you work. If it’s not working, try lowering your price or improving other aspects of your wedding DJ business that could, in turn, motivate people to pay your price.

Four Options for Low Wedding DJ Budgets

Okay, so let’s say a couple has reached out to you (congrats!), but their wedding DJ budget is low.

You essentially have four options:

Accommodate their budget (DJ for that price).
Haggle with them (try to meet them in the middle somewhere).
Stick to your price and try to convince them to pay it.
Pass on the job.

Accommodate Their Budget

If you’re eager to book the job and don’t mind getting paid less, you can always say, “Sure” and try to book it.

When you’re starting out, you’ll likely need to charge less, if not much less, than experienced DJs. You need to get some experience and start building up reviews. You’re not yet a proven DJ.

Reviews from clients are essential to growing your business.

When you’re starting out, or even a few years in, you may still not be getting a lot of DJ inquiries. If you want to work, you may not get to be picky. You may have to take whatever comes your way.

If that’s the case, it can make sense to take the job. Make the money, even if it’s much less than you’d like, hopefully get the five-star review, and continue to build your wedding DJ business.

And maybe you have a personal reason to accept the lower fee. Maybe you know the couple, or you want to help them out in some way because they’ve gone through hard times.

Remember though, you can only DJ one wedding a night. So anytime you accept a low-paying wedding, you’re maybe missing out on a much higher-paying job.

You just have to decide if it’s worth risking that you may not get booked at all that night if you turn down this lower-paying job.

Haggle With Them

Say your price is $1,000, and they want to pay $500 – you could try to haggle with them. Maybe you can at least get some more, such as $600 or $700. Maybe even $800 or $900. You never know.

Anytime you’re maybe open to accepting less than your normal rate, it’s worth haggling.

Techniques and considerations for haggling on your prices are covered in the aptly titled, Should You Haggle Over Your DJ Prices?

Let’s say you do haggle and they agree to your offer. Pay attention to how it makes you feel. Similar to if you simply accommodate their low budget, it’s worth analyzing what this does to you.

Do you feel totally fine about it? A little bothered? Resentful?

With myself, I noticed, well, I started to feel resentful! It was frustrating. Instead of making my usual, say, $1,000, here I was making $800 or less.

Even though I have sympathy that not everyone can afford a wedding DJ’s prices, it bummed me out that I was delivering the same product but making less to do it.

It also felt kind of unfair to my other couples who paid full price. Why do they have to pay full price, while this couple doesn’t?

You have to balance this with your feelings of not getting the wedding DJ gig if you won’t accommodate their prices. Which upsets you more? Taking the lower price or missing out on the gig because you wouldn’t take the lower price?

Stick to Your Price

You can stick to your price but still try to sell the couple on your services.

You can say, "I'm sorry I can't meet your budget, but let me tell you why I might be worth the additional money."

After all, hopefully your wedding DJ sales pitch is so darn good that the couple has to have you. They were hoping to spend just $500, but wow!, okay, fine, they'll pay your $1,000 rate because you seem so much better than the other DJs they've talked to.

You've probably seen a House Hunters type show where the couple is shown a house that's beyond their budget, but it's so amazing they decide to pay the extra money to get it.

We've all done this - wanted to spend a certain amount on something but then were convinced paying more would be worth it.

For this method to work - as in, you get your full price and book the gig - you'll really have to do a good job selling the couple on your services and pointing out what makes you better than the other DJs that fit their budget. Of course, you should be doing that anyway no matter the budget!

The risk with sticking to your price is that you don't book the job at all. Some couples are strict about sticking to their wedding DJ budget (totally fair). Or they might be annoyed that you're not willing to at least meet them halfway or offer some sort of compromise; they may think you're uptight.

It took me years and probably over 200 weddings of experience before I became strict about sticking to my price. I believed in my skills, my experience, and my prices, and gosh darnit, I'm worth it! I knew too that anytime I lowered my price to book a job that I felt kind of resentful. I also was comfortable with risking that I wouldn't book any wedding at all that night.

Pass on the Job

You could also politely tell the couple that your price is [whatever it is] and that their budget is simply too low.

This is similar to sticking to your price, but in this scenario you don't bother trying to still convince them to book you. You don't send several follow-up emails or try to schedule a meeting.

After all, if someone's budget is several hundred dollars below your price, they probably won't ever agree to your much-higher price.

I've also heard some DJs say that you should respect the couple's budget and not try to convince them to pay more. Again, weddings are expensive and not everyone can afford to spend a lot.

Plus, if someone's budget is low, it's fair to wonder if they could even pay your higher price. Could they agree but then the check bounces or they string you along for the remaining payments?

I've had couples say they're interested in hiring me but that, "We're going to have the money in just a month - we'll follow up soon." Guess what? You rarely hear from these couples again! It's not that they're lying, but maybe they're just not in a great financial position to hire you.

Conclusion

There's no right or wrong way to respond to a couple with a low wedding DJ budget. Your prices take a lot of trial and error as you see what works. When you're building your wedding DJ business, you may need to charge less or accept lower-paying jobs to build up reviews and get your name out there. But as you gain more experience, you may be in a position to stick to your prices if you don't mind missing out on potential work. In the end, see how it makes you feel and go with that.