Get the Right Stands for Your Wedding DJ Lights

by Chris Brower
Last Updated: August 12, 2025

In another article, we dug into the Complete Guide to Wedding DJ Lighting. Now let’s zoom in on another part of wedding DJ lighting – how your lights are hung and displayed.

As with all things visual, you want your wedding DJ setup to be clean and professional. You don’t want cords hanging all over the place or a messy DJ table that’s visible to everyone or anything in your setup that’s an eyesore. Ugh! The same goes for your wedding DJ lights.

So let’s discuss a few ways to display your DJ lights to get you a clean, professional setup that is also the most effective and won’t cost you a ton.

General Lighting Display Tips

First, let’s go over some basics.

For most dance-floor lights (as in, the lights that will be running during the dancing portion of a wedding reception), you want the lights up high to shine down on people on the dance floor.

Makes sense, right?

After all, you don’t want the lights shining straight ahead and directly into people’s eyes. And you don’t necessarily want the lights shining straight up, which is the case with uplighting. (View the “Uplights” section in the Complete Guide to Wedding DJ Lighting article to learn more about those.) With dance-floor lights, you want them shining down.

For most wedding-DJ situations, you’ll need to provide your own way to hang the lights up high. You can’t count on the venue to let you hang them from the ceiling or from their own built-in trusses (if the venue’s even equipped with such a thing). You’ll need to bring your own stand(s).

Now let’s talk about cords.

Make sure any cords used for your lights are essentially invisible or at least not hanging down in a visually unattractive way.

Hide them behind the back of the totems, or wrap them around the bar/truss (more on these in a minute) and secure them with cable ties* or through other means so they’re not dangling all over the place.

If the cords are on the floor, minimize them being in an area people might walk, including you. You don’t want anyone tripping! If it’s unavoidable putting them where someone may walk, tape down the cords using gaffer tape.

Now, let’s look at three specific display options.

Get Totems

For DJs using moving head lights, totem stands are a popular choice. These are shown in the photo below (the two tall columns on either side of the DJ table).

As you can see in the photo, totem stands position your lights up high so they can shine down on the guests as they dance.

Totems have a nice, clean look. In this case, the totems have a white scrim down the sides. Many companies sell them with black or white (or sometimes both) scrim options, such as the Rockville RTP32W.

But as you can also see above, this DJ company added an additional nice touch. They put an uplight behind or inside the totem to shoot up that magenta color. This fit well with the rest of the room lighting and added a pleasing, professional look to the DJ setup. Nice! (Note: This would only be possible with the white scrim, not the black scrim.)

So what’s the downside to totems?

Each totem can generally only hold one light. If you have several lights, this would require several totems.

And totems aren’t super cheap either. Expect to pay $200 or more per totem. This can really add up if you have multiple lights.

So let’s look at maybe a more cost-effective option next.

Use a T-Bar Light Stand

Like the name T-bar implies, this is a light stand with a long horizontal bar across the top. You hang your wedding DJ lights from the bar. Many have slots for up to four lights, if not more.

That’s what I use, as shown in the photo below (the stand and lights on the right side of the photo).

You can find many T-bars for under $100, such as the ADJ Products LTS-6.

Make sure the T-bar is durable and won’t tip over. This is especially true if you have several lights.

Don’t overload your T-bar with too many lights. Also try to balance the weight. Don’t put all the lights on one side of the bar, for example, which could cause it to tip over.

As you can see in the photo above, I have the T-bar up high so it shines down on where the guests will be dancing. To give it a secure base, I spread the stand’s legs wide but not so wide that the base is too low to the ground and the center of gravity is too low/unstable.

I then try to put the stand in a spot where no one is likely to trip over it (in the above case, right next to the speaker stand by the DJ table).

And finally, any cords are wrapped around the T-bar and the base, making for a clean look.

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

Hang Lights From a Truss

If you have several lights (say 5+ or more), perhaps a lighting truss is right for you. One example is the Odyssey 8′ Wide Portable Truss System.

Trusses are generally bigger and more heavy duty. They can likely hang several lights. That can be their main benefit over totems or T-bars.

The downside? Trusses are big and somewhat gaudy looking. Typically, you set the truss up so the long bar where you hang the lights goes across your DJ table (but high above the table). This can make it look like you have a cage above your DJ table.

Trusses will also likely cost you $150+ each, so they’re generally a more expensive option than T-bar light stands.

Still, if you have several lights or prefer a more heavy-duty option, maybe a truss is right for you.

Get Cases for Your Totem/T-Bar Stand/Truss

Don’t travel with your totem, T-bar stand, or truss without a case. Otherwise, your stand is likely to get scratched up and damaged in your vehicle. (Trust me, I learned this from years of traveling without cases for my stands before I wised up!)

Some companies sell their totems/T-bar stands/trusses with cases. But if not, get your own.

For my T-bar stand, I got this 58″ speaker stand bag from Gator, and it fits perfectly.

Conclusion

Whatever you choose, make sure you have a good, solid, clean way to display your lights so they shine correctly on the dance floor and look professional. And get cases to keep your display looking clean and undamaged.

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