The 5 Most Important Things to Look for When Researching Wedding Entertainment

The Internet is a crowded place where everyone is fighting for your attention (or your business) all at once. It’s easy to pull up endless pages of results for various search terms or keywords. Typing in “Wedding Entertainment” returns about 1.28 billion results. Billion?! Chances are, you aren’t going to make it past the first few pages of results and making the distinction between competing entertainment companies is a feat in and of itself. Here are 5 important things you should be thinking about as you go through your search results and start sending out inquiries to companies that catch your eye.

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There’s a lot you can tell about a vendor from their website. First, do they even have one? How well is it maintained? Is it current or stale? Websites are the modern storefronts and usually the first stop when researching a business. If a company doesn’t have a good one, this might be reflective of the work they do and the service they provide. If you arrive at a website that doesn’t look good or feel good, why on earth would you want to give them your hard earned money?

Read a handful of recent reviews on Wedding Wire and The Knot. These are the industry’s designated platforms for reviews. They cannot be removed or tampered with. They are as real as it gets! Notice how many reviews the company has. If they only have 5 or 6, it may mean they just got in the game. Not always bad, but something to take into consideration. The companies who have thousands are usually collectives that are combining the reviews of many busy DJs, which can be misleading. Look for the authentic quality of the review and the way the client expresses their satisfaction. Some things just can’t be made up unless they are experienced and felt from the heart.

In this day and age, there is no excuse for anyone in the events industry that provides a service and does not have plenty of high-quality examples of their work. This goes for anything from MC’s to DJ’s or lighting.Unless you physically experience an entertainment company in person at another wedding or showcase, high-quality videos of the services you’re interested in (more than one video!) are merely a starting point. The video you see should get you excited to work with that person or company.

Social Media Marketing on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo is very important. These sites are the platforms companies use to catalog and showcase their content. A reputable company should be keeping up with them all and representing their brand uniformly. You should see their clients interacting with them on social platforms like Instagram and Facebook via likes and comments. You’ll be looking to see if they are posting consistent, high-quality content. High-quality content isn’t just photos and videos of their services, though! Their personality, vibe, and energy should all be readily apparent.

There is a reasonable amount of time it should take for a business to get back to you. What is the timeframe, you ask? It’s a simple equation:

Sorry to break the math out on you! Everyone’s ideal response time is going to be different. 24 hours might be your magic number. Maybe you move slowly and aren’t worried if it’s been a few days or even a week. Or maybe you want instantaneous feedback. There is no wrong answer here, but make sure that the company you choose operates at a pace you are comfortable with and accustomed to. Chances are you’ll be talking with them A LOT and FAR in advance of your wedding. You want to know that they will be attentive to your questions or concerns and there is no better way to tell than your very first email or phone call.

Don’t be intimidated in your research process. You are in control! When you know the right questions to ask, you immediately improve your chances of selecting the vendor that is right for you. Remember that these tips are merely a starting point to help you narrow the research portion of the process and much more information will need to be processed and taken into consideration when you begin your dialogue with a potential entertainment provider. At the end of the day, you should feel 100% comfortable with your selection and proud to show off the entertainment that you’ve secured for your wedding.