When to Book Your Wedding DJ
Booking your wedding DJ is one of those jobs that’s easy to leave a little late — and just as easy to get right with a rough timeline. Popular DJs get booked up 12–18 months ahead for peak Saturdays, especially in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, where there are so many gorgeous venues of all types — manor houses, country barns, hotels and marquees — that the most popular dates go early.
Here’s a month-by-month timeline of when to book your wedding DJ and what to think about at each stage. It comes from 25 years of weddings and the hundreds of couples we’ve helped plan them — so you know what’s worth doing when, and what can happily wait.
18+ months before the wedding
What to do:
- Lock in your date and venue. Until both are confirmed, the DJ conversation is largely theoretical.
- Before you commit to a venue, find out what time the music needs to finish — most evenings run until midnight, but it varies venue to venue and it sets the shape of your whole evening. It’s also worth asking whether the venue has a sound limiter — and we’ll be blunt: we’re not fans. They kill the power every time the music reaches a set decibel level (each venue’s is set differently), and it takes us a couple of minutes to get everything up and running again. We can work with them, and we carry our own sound monitor to stay under the limit — but it often means the music is quieter.
- Start researching DJs — browse websites, real photos from real events, and Google reviews, and get a feel for who’s right for you — our guide to finding the right wedding DJ walks through exactly how. And if you’ve already found the one? No need to wait: we quote and take bookings 18+ months ahead, and popular dates go first.
12-18 months before
This is the sweet spot for booking a peak Saturday wedding DJ.
What to do:
- Shortlist 3-4 DJs based on Google reviews read properly (do couples mention the planning being easy and the floor staying full?) and real photos from real weddings at venues you recognise.
- Email each one with your date, venue and rough idea of what you want (just DJ, or DJ + photo booth, or full package).
- Compare what’s actually included in each quote — not just the headline price. See our pricing guide for what to compare.
- Then speak to them — it’s the best test there is. Pay attention to the questions they ask: a DJ who wants to know about your venue, your timeline, your first dance and your do-not-play list before quoting is already planning your wedding.
- Once you’ve decided, book and pay the deposit — with us it depends on what you book, but it’s normally between £50 and £100. In our experience a date is only truly secure once the deposit is paid, so don’t rely on a verbal hold.
9-12 months before
If the 12–18 month window has passed, don’t panic — but this is the time to move.
What to do:
- Book if you haven’t already, even if the search has been shorter than ideal.
- If your wedding is midweek or off-peak (January-March, November), you’ve still got plenty of options and no need to rush.
- Confirm what’s in the contract — date, hours, venue address, deposit, balance date, what’s included, what’s an extra. Get it in writing.
6-9 months before
The wedding DJ side mostly goes quiet here. You’ll be focused on the bigger decisions — invitations, flowers, food choices, the dress. The DJ is locked in and there’s not much to do.
What to do (light touch):
- Start a “songs we love” list between the two of you. Some DJ companies have online planning portals — we do — so if you’ve booked with us you can add favourite songs, artists and genres whenever inspiration strikes. The portal works as a phone app too, and you can listen to snippets of the songs — so if one suddenly comes to you, or plays on the radio, you can open the app and add it in seconds. (No portal? A shared Spotify playlist is the next best thing — just take care over which versions you add, as Spotify is full of remixes, edits and re-recordings that aren’t quite the song you remember.)
- Start a “do not play” list — there’s a place for this in our portal too.
- If you haven’t already, decide whether you want extras — photo booth, light-up letters, LED star-lit dance floor. Mention to your DJ that you’re thinking about it — extras are subject to availability, so booking them as early as possible avoids disappointment.
3-6 months before
The DJ conversation reopens. This is when planning gets real — and if you’ve booked with us, this is where the portal earns its keep: it has planning forms for everything below, so you can work through them as the details firm up.
What to do:
- Complete the planning form and timeline in your portal — key timings (guest arrival, speeches, the cake cut, the first dance, bar close, what time the music must finish) and the practical details (venue address and entrance, parking, where the DJ sets up, access times, your venue contact). The more information you can give your DJ, the smoother the night will run.
- Finalise your “love” playlist and your “do not play” list in the portal. We limit the love list to 100 tracks so that everything you choose can actually be played on the night, with room left for us to read the crowd and build the party — we’ll weave your list into the night naturally, not just play it back to you in order, and add floor fillers and guest requests at the right moments as well.
- If you’ve booked a photo booth with us, you can also pick your print template in the portal and customise the text on the prints — a small touch your guests take home. Within a week of the wedding you’ll also get a link to all the photo booth pictures — lovely memories to look back on, and easy to post and share on social media if you like.
- This is also a good time to share our guest song request link with friends and family — more on how we handle requests further down.
2 months before
Final balance time. Many DJs ask for the final balance one to two months out, so check your contract. With us it’s simpler: your balance is due two weeks before the wedding, the portal reminds you automatically, and you can pay by card right there in the portal — in one go, or gradually in smaller amounts as the wedding approaches, whatever suits your budget — nothing to keep in your head.
Decide on the moments you really care about — all of these are added through your portal too:
- First dance song (and any specific version — single, album, live, edit)
- Whether you want a choreographed routine — and if so, make sure we have the exact version you’ve practised to (artist, title, and which mix or edit), so the night matches the rehearsals
- Father/daughter dance, mother/son dance — songs and timing
- Cake cut song
- Last song of the night (closer)
- Any announcements you want the DJ to make (and who’s making them — them or you)
If you’re booking extras late: it’s sometimes still possible to add a photo booth, light-up letters or the LED star-lit dance floor at this stage — but they’re strictly subject to availability and weekends go first, so ask the moment you know you want them rather than leaving it.
1 month before
The final check-through. By now the portal you’ve been filling in since booking should be looking nearly complete — the timeline, the special songs, your love and do-not-play lists. This month is about the last few details and reading it all back with fresh eyes. No long meetings or 45-minute calls required — and if anything does need talking through, you can message us directly inside the portal. Anything still unfinished as the day gets close? The portal gives you a gentle automatic reminder, so nothing slips through.
Worth a final look:
- Read the evening timeline back minute by minute — are the buffers realistic?
- The vibe you want — which is rarely “wedding playlist”. Be specific: “loads of ’90s dance for our friends, ’70s and ’80s when my mum is on the floor, no rap because grandparents are there until 10pm”
- Anyone whose name needs pronouncing carefully when announcing speeches
- Any surprise moments (a surprise duet from the bride’s brother, a flash mob, a coordinated father-daughter routine)
- Microphones for speeches — when, where, who’s using them
- Double-check the practical details — our arrival time, parking, and who at the venue we report to
- Confirm the music finish time with your venue, not just with us. It sometimes happens that couples book us until 1am and even put it on the invitations — then midnight comes and the venue says music off. A two-minute check now stops a small mix-up spoiling the end of your special day
2 weeks before
What to do:
- Complete the must-play list in your portal if you haven’t already — make sure the 10-15 tracks you really want to hear are on there.
- Confirm who at the wedding party will be the DJ’s “point person” on the day — usually the best man or maid of honour. Not the bride and groom; you’ll be too busy.
- If anything’s changed (timings, song choices, surprise moments), tell the DJ. Late changes are fine if they’re shared in advance, panic-inducing if they happen on the day.
The week of the wedding
By this point everything is planned and safely in the portal — your timeline, your music, all the details. There’s nothing you need to do for us this week (the portal will already have nudged you if any form was unfinished), so you can be confident it’s all in hand and enjoy the build-up.
What to do:
- Have a last read of your timeline in the portal — partly to see it lines up with your venue coordinator’s final version, but mostly for the lovely moment of seeing your whole day laid out and done.
- Make sure we have your venue contact’s mobile number for the day — then anything practical happens directly between us and the venue, and none of it needs to come through you.
The day before
You can relax — everything is in hand, and we’ll be deep in preparation for your night. Enjoy the family arriving and the calm before the best day.
And if a timing does drift at the last minute, a quick text is all it takes — that sort of thing is bread and butter to us.
Wedding day
We arrive 60–90 minutes before your guests do — time to set up, sound-check, run through last-minute timings with your venue contact, and be ready well before the first guest walks in.
A few things that make the evening run even smoother:
- Guest requests are welcome — at the DJ booth on the night, or in advance through our guest song request link, which you can share with friends and family before the wedding. Either way, we quietly check every request against your do-not-play list, so you don’t have to police anything.
- Don’t worry if the dance floor isn’t full at 8:30pm — it rarely is. By 9:30–10pm it’ll be a different room, and building the night is our favourite part of the job.
When to book your wedding DJ at the last minute — the 4-week plan
If you’re reading this 3-4 weeks before your wedding because your original DJ just cancelled, breathe. It happens. Most established DJs keep 1-2 last-minute slots open in their calendar for exactly this scenario.
Email 5-6 local DJs the same evening, mentioning your date, venue and what happened. Be honest — the wedding industry knows that bookings fall through and most pros will go out of their way to help. We’re happy to be one of them, and if we can’t cover your date, we’ll usually know someone trustworthy who can.
Ready to book?
If you’re in the 12-18 month window and looking for a wedding DJ in Buckinghamshire or Hertfordshire, complete our request a quote form with your date and venue and we’ll send a tailored quote within 24 hours. We reply fast — usually the same day.
For more reading: how much does a wedding DJ cost in Bucks & Herts? and questions to ask your wedding DJ before booking.
