Q: Why do you work so much more than other companies and get so many referrals?

A: We are a different kind of company. Just as your satisfaction is much greater driving a BMW than a Kia and your shopping experience is much better at Nordstrom than at Kmart, when working with Entertainment Northwest you receive a high level of service at a reasonable price point that leaves you feeling you made the right decision in hiring us.

Our clients show their appreciation with their thank yous—besides being thanked in person, we have hundreds of letters and emails our clients have sent us after their events, thanking us for helping them succeed and making their experience as stress free as possible. When friends and family members get married, they are often referred to us by our super happy former clients. Many couples hire us after being at a wedding where they have actually seen us perform and experienced our professionalism first hand. It is amazing how many of our brides end up hiring us again and again each year for their company holiday parties as well.

We also receive dozens of referrals each year from the top venues, photographers and videographers that we work with. They all work with DJ’s from different companies each week and they have come to realize that Entertainment Northwest delivers a consistently higher level of friendliness, professionalism and experience than the other DJ’s in the Puget Sound region. We have a small, elite group of wedding DJ’s that consistently deliver high quality events and, in a business where complaints about DJ’s run high, we get lots of positive attention and accolades from other professionals and wedding vendors. We currently are at the top of many referral lists, including Sun Mountain Lodge, Port Gamble Weddings and Tony’s Catering, as well as photographers like AWI Photography, Teddi Yaeger Photography and Natural Light Photography.

Q: Do you charge for travel?

A: There are NO travel charges in the six central Puget Sound area counties (King, Snohomish, Pierce, Kitsap, Mason and Jefferson). Some parts of Thurston, Skagit and Island counties require modest travel fees. When we do charge for travel, it rarely exceeds $100, even to remote locations like Sun Mountain (Winthrop), Chelan, Wenatchee, Leavenworth, the ocean and the San Juan Islands. Most of our competitors charge three to four times as much in travel as we do—that’s why brides love us and we are at the top of the referral list at elite destination venues like Sun Mountain Lodge and Port Gamble.

Q: How early do you arrive?

A: We arrive early, at least one hour before our contracted start time. We will have the sound system on and playing music at our contracted start time.

Q: Does set up time take away from the hours of music?

A: Not at Entertainment Northwest. Many companies charge you from when they first arrive at the venue. With us, set up is on our time and your paid time begins when we first turn on the system according the pre-arranged contract start time.

Q: Can we come and see you perform live at a wedding?

A: You wouldn’t want us inviting some couple you don’t know and their parents to your wedding, would you? We go about our business in the most professional manner possible, which means we will not invite you to someone else’s wedding. We’re sorry, but that is a request we cannot accommodate. This is our only strict policy—we book hundreds of weddings each year from referrals and inviting you to another couple’s wedding would jeopardize our reputation with our clients, as well as the catering companies and other wedding professionals we work with each week.

Q: Do you have a video?

A: We’re sorry, but we don’t have a video of our work that we can show you. While we DO have video, it is from other clients’ private events and we don’t have their permission to pass out copies of their personal wedding videos.

Even if we could show you the video, or if you come and see us in a nightclub, it isn’t necessarily a good reflection of what we could do for you at your event. Every wedding is custom designed with the client choosing the music selections and the style of the DJ. You may have us fill your wedding with songs of classic crooners and jazz and ask us to sit quietly in a corner all night, while your sister may want us to be lively and “on the mic” and play the latest hip hop for dancing. We are able to deliver almost any style of character and music imaginable.

The nightclub DJ business is so completely different than the wedding DJ business that we consider it irrelevant. While some wedding DJ’s become successful in nightclubs, most nightclub DJ’s make horrible wedding DJ’s and are responsible for many of the horror stories from weddings when they inflict their light show driven, fog machine enhanced techno clubfest on your Grandmother during an elegant dinner.

Q: How do you guarantee the quality of your services?

A: Like any profession, if you do this long enough you learn a lot of things. As an organization, we put our emphasis on recruiting the best DJ’s we can find, training them extensively in customer service and event planning and providing them with the best available equipment to ensure the reliability of our service. We have worked with over 25 disc jockeys, yet we only book the top 5 or so for weddings.

We train our staff to be friendly, helpful, flexible, prepared, professional and arrive early!

Q: What style of DJ are you?

A: I would peg our style as “we are friendly and we listen to you” style! Many prospective clients have told us their “we saw a horrible DJ at a wedding” story. We have seen them too—they usually are the obnoxious DJ guy that makes fun of people on the microphone and won’t shut up, or the quiet guy who sat behind his table and didn’t say anything all night.

We can be whatever you want us to be. On our Wedding Reception Planning Form, we let you choose from several different styles of DJ interaction based on what you think the best fit is for your event and your personality. At our in-person planning appointment, we go over this with you, as well as customizing formalities, timelines and play lists specific to your event. Once we have worked out a solid plan with you (which is 90% of it), then we just show up happy and deliver what you asked for!

Q: Will we get to meet our actual DJ?

A: We don’t insist on it, though we prefer it whenever possible! We feel the only way we can consistently deliver top shelf customer service and satisfy you is to have your actual DJ look you in the eye and discuss with you EXACTLY what you wish to accomplish, how you want the DJ to interact with your guests, which announcements you would like and what songs you want played. If you are an out-of-state or out-of-country bride (and there are many of you), we will do our best to work things out by email and phone. If our event planning forms are filled out in great detail, that is really helpful.

Q: If you don’t have a song, can we provide it to you or can you get it?

A: Absolutely. Since we use laptops, we prefer if you email us an .mp3 (it must be uncoded) or, if there are many songs, burn us a disc and mail it to us in advance. We will rip them into our computers before your event so they are ready to go. As a last resort, providing a store bought CD at the event will work. We do have over 25,000 songs in our library and access to over 1 million more songs online.

Q: Do you have backup equipment?

A: We bring what is necessary to provide great sound and adjust if a piece of equipment were to unfortunately fail. Backup equipment has become somewhat irrelevant because of changes in technology. The top equipment failures up until the last few years have been wireless microphones getting airwave interference, power amps blowing out, CD’s skipping and mixer cross faders going out. For the microphones, the wireless technology has greatly improved with multi-channel UHF systems (which we use exclusively) AND we carry hard wired backup mics with a 20 foot cord (just in case). Power amps have been replaced with new bi-amp speakers with the amps right on the speaker. If one amp goes, there are three others. The CD’s and cross fader issues are irrelevant as we now typically use laptop computers and cross fade directly on the computer—there are no moving parts and no discs to stick or skip. Just in case a laptop goes out, we do have CD’s or .mp3 players as a backup.

Q: Will you play song requests from our guests?

A: That is something we allow you to select on your Wedding Reception Planning Form. Some clients ask us to play guest requests no matter what the song is (scary!), others want us to play a guest request if it is “appropriate” or “danceable” and others ask us to stick strictly to their play lists and not play guest requests at all. We like to have you fill out a list of “do not play” songs for us too.

Q: If something comes up or our DJ gets sick, do you have a backup DJ to send?

A: There is only one company we are aware of in the Northwest that touts to have “backup DJ’s in the office”. Anyone who tells you so isn’t being completely truthful. With contracts that average $800 per event in the Northwest, there are no DJ’s sitting around an office when they could be working. If there is work, everyone is out working. If someone is in the office, it is because it is a slow night.

We emphasize hiring quality, reliable people to begin with—people that will ALWAYS show up and show up prepared. We spend hours preparing for an event, understanding the feel for your event, and working out timelines and custom play lists with you. Someone else can’t easily “step in” unless we have a day or two to get everything together and prepare. Having said that, we have the most reliable entertainers in the business and, to date, we have NEVER missed an event out of thousands and thousands of events over the last eight years. We will put our perfect attendance record up against anyone in any business anywhere, including your personal attendance record at your job! We are always there.

Q: Do we tip our DJ? How much?

A: Tips are customary if your DJ delivers as promised and you are happy with the result. Our tips usually range from $40 to $100, with the company record being a $200 tip (we will work for that couple ANYTIME, ANYWHERE). Unlike other entertainment companies, Entertainment Northwest doesn’t take a “cut” from the DJ tips—100% of the tip goes directly to the DJ to reward their stellar effort. As a company, we measure our success from tips, letters of recommendation and the referrals of brides, photographers, videographers, caterers and banquet facilities.

Q: I don’t know songs by their name. Where can I listen to your music?

A: We have over 25,000 songs in our library, but nowhere for you to be able to listen to them. If you are going to select music for your event, you probably should be very familiar with titles and artists of songs. Otherwise, it is best to leave it up to your pro DJ. Some online music services like Itunes allow you to listen to snippets of songs and Kazaa allows you to listen to an entire song in their peer-to-peer network.

Q: We want to choose all the music. Is that a problem?

A: Not with us. We understand that we know better than you what songs people will dance to (we have tracked them statistically over thousands of events), but the bottom line is it is your wedding and we work for you! If you want to give us a strict play list, we will stick to that even if your guests whine at us or request something else. For those of you that want ultimate control, we will work with you to make it happen. You wouldn’t be happy with anything less, would you?

Q: We have a group of singers at our ceremony and they need five microphones and want to use your sound system. Can you handle that?

A: We use DJ sound systems for wedding ceremonies, not professional band sound reinforcement systems. They are different. We have one handheld microphone for your event and one lapel microphone. How you wish to use the two mics between your officiant, readers and singers is up to you. Sometimes a solo keyboardist or guitarist can be accommodated and patched into our system. The details need to be worked out in advance. There are no “monitors” so the musicians can hear themselves or professional effects (like reverb and delay) that most singers are accustomed to. Most pro wedding ceremony performers carry their own systems and bring their own sound assistants.

Q: We have a singer at our ceremony who wants to sing “Name Of Any Song”. Can you take the vocals out of the CD so they can sing it?

A: I’m sorry, but that isn’t possible. The singer will need to provide us a karaoke CD for background (CDG format) and we prefer to have it a few days before the event so we can test it on our system and make sure it works. As stated before, there are no “monitors” for the singer to hear themselves, as well as no reverb or digital delay that is commonly found in karaoke bars. This is a DJ sound system, not a professional band sound system or nightclub karaoke system. We do have those systems available, though they must be rented and may require additional staff to engineer the sound.

Q: We can’t stand the traditional wedding songs like “Here Comes The Bride” and the traditional “Wedding March”. Do you have other songs we can walk down the aisle to?

A: We have some other commonly used songs and we can burn a CD for you to review. Songs like “Canon In D”, “Jesu, Joy Of Man’s Desiring” and “Air On A G String” are used just as often as “Here Comes The Bride”. Other clients simply select a popular song off the radio for us to play. As far as walking back down the aisle, we have played almost every imaginable song, such as “I Got You” by James Brown, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, “Another One Bites The Dust” by Queen, “At Last” by Etta James and even the “Theme From The Mickey Mouse Club”. They all work.

Q: We don’t want you to play “Name Of Any Song”, no matter what. What do you do if my cousin requests it?

A: If you place the song on your “do not play” list, we will not play it no matter what. When requested, we simply inform your guest that the song is on your “do not play” list and ask them to choose another song. If your guest becomes angry, belligerent (which they sometimes do when we refuse to put on their song) or tries to pull rank (i.e. “I’m the sister of the bride!”), we check with you first or tell them we will put it on if YOU ask us to.

Q: What do you do if it rains?

A: If it rains and your event is outside, we need to have all of our equipment (as well as any microphones) under a cover that does not leak. We also need a grounded GFI circuit for any outdoor ceremonies. This is standard by the electrical code and has a ground circuit breaker that trips and prevents shock if any of the electrical gets wet. It rains more often than not in the Northwest, so you need to have a “Plan B” either to move the event inside or have tents arranged for outside.

Q: Do we need a dance floor?

A: A dance floor is important if dancing is important to you. Some clients want a more relaxed event where we are instructed to just play background music or party music. This is especially common for outside events. Most banquet facilities have dance floors and they may also be rented from party rental stores. Surfaces of hardwood, tile, decks and smooth concrete work well too. People seem to struggle to dance on lawns or rough surfaces. Whenever possible, we like to be set up right next to the dance floor.

Q: We want you to set up before our guests arrive and then come back four hours later after dinner to play dance music. Is that a problem?

A: Anything over two hours requires a “standby” fee of $50 an hour. We wouldn’t ask you to “standby” for hours in the middle of your work day without compensation and it is unreasonable for you to ask the same of us. Most clients just have us set up before their guests arrive and play the cocktail hour and dinner background music too—it is much easier that way.

Q: If you do our ceremony, do you bring two sound systems?

A: We can, but it is usually cost prohibitive. An additional sound system costs you an additional $300 for the event. Most of the time, we just move our sound system from the ceremony site to the reception site, with the down time being only about 10 minutes (plus any travel time). Usually right after the ceremony, there is a cocktail hour or receiving line, so no one really notices that the music is off for a few minutes. Most clients agree that saving $300 for ten minutes of down time is well worth it.

Q: Do you eat at the wedding?

A: It is customary for your wedding vendors (officiant, DJ, photographer, videographer and event coordinators) to eat with you. This usually doesn’t cost you extra—even with RSVP’s and a final “head count” for your caterer, 3% to 10% of guests still don’t show up and the vendor meals don’t put you over your head count.

A typical Northwest wedding requires an hour or two of travel, a couple hours of set up and prep, four to six hours of music and a couple more hours of tear down and travel home. This routinely results in ten hour plus days to work your event—we need to eat.

For buffets, we usually jump in the back of the line after your guests have eaten and with formal sit down dinners, we typically are served a dinner or a boxed lunch at our table. If this happens, we stay there all night. Otherwise, we will need to leave your event for a short time in the middle of the event to go get something to eat. If this is an issue, please discuss it with our management prior to your event so our staff may make other arrangements.

Q: When do you take breaks?

A: We don’t take breaks, unless we need to leave the venue to get something to eat. We typically work straight through for the length of our contract and eat at our DJ table. We are able to play long songs or a series of songs if we need to use the restroom or take care of some other personal need at the event. If we have a second DJ at the event, we will sometimes trade off and take a short break.

Q: We had a horrible DJ at my sister’s wedding that wouldn’t shut up. He obviously thought he was the star of the show. Can you just play music?

A: We have some clients that ask us to sit in a corner all night, say nothing on the microphone and play songs exclusively from their play lists. We can do that. Most clients want a few professional announcements and a little bit of energy come dancing time, but otherwise keep the bride and groom in the spotlight. We don’t like those obnoxious DJ’s either—they bug us too and make our prospective clients suspicious of us!

Q: We had a horrible DJ at my sister’s wedding. He just sat in the corner and didn’t say anything. Can you tell our guests what is going on and announce things?

A: If your sister wanted them to be energetic and they were that way, she hired the wrong DJ. Some of these DJ’s have been instructed by their clients to be “low key”, so they may be getting a bum rap from you.

We can be whatever style you wish—really quiet, professional, upbeat or completely outgoing. Simply let us know on your planning forms and in your planning meeting what style you would prefer.

Q: You guys sound great and we are interested in your services. What is the next step?