The DJ from Paid 2 Party was a part of a total package for my wedding in June 2014. Our DJ was Michael, but we had some contact with Cliff during the planning process.
We started communications with Cliff and Michael on June 2nd for our June 28th wedding. I completed Paid 2 Party's online submission form, which was very easy to do. I received a very prompt response from Cliff saying that he received most of the information they needed for the wedding, and he CCed Michael on the email who was to be our DJ for the event. I was told Michael would reach out to me shortly to schedule a call or meeting to go over our event. In this communication, I told Cliff that we had songs that we preferred to have played during the cocktail hour, dinner, and reception and I asked whether we needed to provide those songs. Since I didn't choose this vendor on my own, I wanted to make sure we were on the same page in terms of the kind of music we wanted played at the wedding. Cliff said we could just provide a list of songs and they would get them on their own. Pretty easy. I spent a few days gathering up the song titles and artists and put them in a spreadsheet so that it was easy for them to go through and sent it over on June 12th. I hadn't received a response, so I resent the email on the 18th in case the email never went through. Cliff promptly emailed back saying that he had checked that he had all the songs but would need the custom edit of our first dance. We wanted the song shortened to go with our dance, so we made that on our own and sent it over in an email. Everything seemed to be set by the 19th, and I spoke with Michael shortly after to give him details about the wedding timeline, the music, wedding party names, etc.
Cliff and Michael were flexible about setting up an extra set of equipment for the front of the house to use for the ceremony, and they thought about how they could use the speakers to drown out potential noise from the street.
Throughout the event, Michael was very polite, patient, and professional. He kept the event going at a good pace, but we didn't feel rushed. He also made all the announcements that we asked for. Additionally, we wanted to give away our centerpieces, so he played this fun game to give them away.
The only reason I gave Paid 2 Party two stars was because we didn't like the music (which is pretty important since they are a DJ company). I would have given three stars because their service was good, but three stars is for an A-OK rating while two stars is for meh, I've experienced better and that's more accurate for me because I'm still annoyed 2 months later. I also wouldn't recommend them to my friends given my experience, so I didn't think it was fair to give a three star rating for something I wouldn't recommend.
A lot of the music that Michael played was not what we had requested. It wasn't bad music at all, but just not what we had intended for it to be. My husband and I spent several days looking up music, so it was very disappointing to not hear a lot of it. Throughout the event, I was a bit weirded out by some of the songs played (mostly because I would have never picked them) and the transitions were a bit rough, but I was so busy that I didn't really have time to react or ask for different stuff. Several of my good friends commented after the event (not in a mean way) that they were surprised by the music because the music didn't seem like stuff that we would normally pick, which infuriated me even more because people noticed! I get that DJs should have the freedom to play whatever they want and not have to follow a set list that people provide for them, but I feel like a wedding is different. We were trying to set a certain mood with the music that we chose.
The worst part was Michael did not play the correct song for our first dance, which really bothered me. We had spent over 7 months taking dance lessons and we choreographed a dance to go with the shortened song, but he played the original unshortened version! That made the end of our dance so awkward because we ended our dance with me popping up from a dip, but the song just kept going and our guests were confused as to whether they should start dancing or whether we were going to do something else. It was very disappointing to put all this work into the first dance and it was messed up by the music.
On a normal day, I wouldn't really care about the music. If we had gone out to a club or to someone else's wedding and heard the same music, it would have been fine. But, it bothered me that we spent so much time picking out music and preparing for our first dance, and a lot of it wasn't played.
The TL;DR version of this review: The DJ service was good; very polite, professional, and everything was done in a timely manner. We are unhappy because a lot of the music we picked was not played and they played the incorrect version of our first dance song. read more
