Jamie Wolfer breaks down wedding audio costs: hire a DJ for $800–$1,000 or rent speakers for $300 and DIY it. A professional DJ reads the room and handles announcements, but a Spotify playlist with a microphone can work if you're willing to manage the setup yourself.
DJs are the unsung heroes of a wedding day. Bump up your price point to $800 to $1,000 and find a professional in your area, and by area I mean a radius of like an hour and a half to 2 hours. Or bump that down and rent speakers from your local Guitar Center or your local music store. A lot of times they will have this as an option. You'll need a set of speakers for your ceremony, a single speaker likely for your cocktail hour, and then a set of speakers for your reception. If we're DIYing, someone's got to set this up, someone's got to tear it down, someone's got to be moving some things around. You can take your speakers from your ceremony location and and put them at your reception location and just keep the solitary speaker in the cocktail hour space should you want to. You could also have a family member, a friend, play guitar just acoustically during that time, so you could save a little bit of money there if you have someone who's willing to do that or talented enough or both. But renting speakers, you're probably looking at the $300 range. Between that and a Spotify playlist that will fade in between the songs, you will still have a very DJ-like experience. You'll just need to likely have someone be available to make announcements. So if you can, make sure you add a microphone onto that rental so you can have a family member or friend do the seeing for you. DJs are the unsung heroes of a wedding day. I will die on this hill. I love them so very much. They are worth every single penny, especially if you're not having a coordinator. Having a good DJ who knows how to read the room and handle the flow of your event is very, very important.
