TLDR: Paul's a nice guy but, if you're looking for a wedding DJ, look elsewhere.
I wanted to let some time pass after my wedding before writing this review because I was pretty upset with how many things went down. I'll just stick to the facts.
The Good:
My wife and I met with Paul a couple times before the wedding. I give him credit for being available to meet with us beforehand. He attended a couple conference calls with my wife & me and our wedding coordinator before the wedding as well.
The day of the wedding, he showed up earlier than expected which I give him credit for too.
The Bad:
When we spoke with Paul months before the wedding, we asked him how he would like for us to send him the music we would like to be played (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.). He told us that we can send it to him however we like. My wife & I had created several Spotify playlists (1 for the ceremony, 1 for the cocktail hour, 1 for the reception, etc.) and, since he said that Spotify was fine, we shared them with him.
When he arrived, I told him where to set up a speaker for the pre-ceremony. I asked him to start playing the Cocktail Hour playlist once it's set up. He said "OK".
My wife and I then went off with our photographer to get some pictures taken. When we were coming back to the pre-ceremony area, we heard an ad coming out of the speaker. Paul did not have Spotify and had just downloaded the free version right after I asked him to play the playlist.
We tried to connect other devices that had ad-free Spotify but inexplicably his speaker would not allow them to connect and/or play anything.
Now it's almost time for the ceremony and he's sitting there signing up for a free 7-day trial of Spotify Premium so that he can do his job.
This took a very long time. All the guests were seated and the whole bridal party was gathered and ready. We were just waiting for Paul to finish signing up for Spotify so we could carry out the ceremony without any ads playing.
Then the Ceremony playlist just starts playing without the bridal party being notified. We were just hoping there wouldn't be any ads playing and went into the procession.
Paul had been given very detailed instructions on when to play certain songs. He did not follow any of them. This was most noticeable at the conclusion of the ceremony. He was supposed to play the last song in the Ceremony Playlist right when my wife and I were publicly declared husband and wife by our officiant. When the announcement was made, there was applause followed by silence. We just stood there, looking over at him, waiting to walk out to our song.
After about 30 seconds of all of us just standing there awkwardly, I actually hollered up to him, "play the song, dude!" Some more time passed and eventually he pressed play so that we could exit the ceremony.
After the ceremony came the cocktail hour, during which time the entire bridal party went off to get more pictures taken. As we were joining the cocktail hour, we heard the music cutting in and out like an out-of-range radio station. Paul had left the cocktail hour and took his phone with him which was still attempting to play the Cocktail Hour playlist but was too far from the speaker now to properly connect. One of the groomsmen approached Paul to alert him to this. His reply was simply, "Eh, there's only about 5 minutes left until the reception".
Then came the reception and Paul was announcing the bridal party as they entered. Remember, we had met with Paul on a couple of occasions prior to the wedding and had a few calls with him as well. But, when it came time to announce the bride and groom, he mispronounced the bride's name. The bride has a simple name, Lana. It's pronounced LAH-nuh. Paul said LAY-nuh. (I have personally never seen so many people groan in unison and roll their eyes simultaneously) One of the guests immediately ran up to correct him. He then made a correction announcement. Despite this, he proceeded to mispronounce the bride's name twice more throughout the evening.
After dinner, right when the reception started and the music began, Paul made the announcement that he was taking requests. Even though we had already sent him a 4.5+ hour long "Dance Track" Spotify playlist, we were fine with this. He played a few songs from the playlist we had sent him and then abandoned it to play what he wanted.
Several people approached him throughout the reception to request songs and he told them that he couldn't do it. Even the groom requested a song and Paul's reply was that he "didn't have it".
A large number of the guests approached me to say that we should not pay him considering everything that he did. We did pay him what we agreed to but, in hindsight, we definitely would have gone with a real wedding DJ.
After the wedding, without telling us and certainly without our permission, Paul posted a couple pictures of the wedding on his website where he misspelled the new couple's last name. read more