But you said...
"If someone says they just want a party, I will quote them the party price. If they then try to turn it into a full blown wedding reception with all the extras and interaction involved, they broke the contract and I can terminate it and they would owe balance in full."
What if someone had a small wedding affair and they just wanted you to play a couple of hours of music in their backyard for 20 or 30 people?
They have to ask for the party package because they don't want your full wedding package. But all you ask is if it is a wedding (which it is) and give them the wedding package.
Mike
That's a very legitimate question - and in a perfect world where everybody said what they meant and meant what they said, we would be able to be the "super-ethical" and upfront dj who "only" charged them for the "backyard party" that they said they wanted - regardless of the nature of the celebration itself.
But experience as a dj will tell you this is not practical at all.
I've only been dj'ing for 5 years now, and I know this to be the case, and anyone else doing this longer knows it even more so.
The "it's '
really' just a '
party' for family and friends even though it's a wedding... we don't want all that... you know.... '
wedding stuff....'"
If they meant this in the beginning and it never veered from that, I WOULD be the first to charge them for a backyard barbecue instead of a wedding.
But it is invariably the case that they either said that stuff about it being so casual and "not really a wedding" either because they were cheap and didn't want to PAY a wedding rate, or simply out of naivete as to what a wedding entails or without thinking about what they REALLY want. Sometimes it's politics and pressure from family and friends who suggest they simply must or "should" do this and or that since its a wedding.
Before you know it, it has morphed.
Realizing this plain matter of fact, and being wise enough to avoid the whole confusion later on and the negative customer experience of having to hit them up for more when the event involves into something more formal, I just charge it as a wedding right off the bat because let's face it - that's what it is. Just because you have me doing introductions and introducing dances in your uncle's backyard doesn't mean I should charge less than I would to do it in a venue.
Now, what I WILL do or occasion, even though I won't do a wedding at a party rate regardless of circumstances, is START from the base wedding rate, and discount them accordingly if they are not doing certain things. Even this only if they are willing to stipulate in the contract what is and is not to be included.
But bottom line is that the increase for wedding rates (in my case) is based on the pre-event planning aspect, and any wedding, regardless of how informal, requires some degree of additional formalities and the drafting of an itinerary for it. As long as that is the case for the event, they are getting charged more to work all that up - it doesn't matter if they're doing 4 traditional wedding dances and events instead of 8 or 9 - that legwork is still there, and hence an increased rate, however slight.
I have yet to see one of the "its really just a party" weddings that did not end up morphing into more.
