Nearly anywhere in the country, Saturday night is the most popular day of the week for wedding receptions. Additionally, the most popular months of the year for weddings are April, May, October, and November (at least here in mid-west Florida, including Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice, Englewood, Siesta Key, Longboat Key, Lido Key, Anna Maria Island, Lakewood Ranch, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Brandon).
If you are getting married, and on a limited budget, you can save 10-30% on many of your Florida wedding service vendors, simply by choosing any day of the week besides Saturday, and your wedding during the months January-March, or June-September.
budget (…or not?)
West Florida DJ is the exclusive DJ for David’s Bridal in Clearwater, and we speak with approximately 1500-1800 brides every year!
I can’t tell you how many of them start the conversation with something like “How much would it cost, for a DJ for Saturday Night, October 10th, at the Ritz Carlton Beach Club, for a 6-hour ceremony and reception for 200 guests, from 5-11pm?. …Oh, and I’m on a really tight budget…”! Are you kidding me?
They’ve picked a premium venue, the MOST popular day of the week, in a premium month of the year, for an unusually large number of guests, and also are including two additional performance hours of service above the standard Florida 4-hour wedding!
I’m not sure how these particular brides are determining ‘their budget’, but more often than not, it is definitely not realistic (especially for the ‘dream wedding’ they’ve outlined in their initial request).
how much is ‘reasonable’?
Budgets really need to be based on how much services typically cost, not simply by how much you want to spend.
So how to you find out typical costs? There’s a wonderful web site called Cost Of Wedding, which gives you costs based on actual spending, as reported by recent brides. For example, In Tampa, Florida, recent brides have paid, on average, between $525 and $850 for four hours of DJ Services.
What this illustrates, is that when money is no object, then a Saturday wedding in October, for 200 guests at an upscale venue for six hours makes perfect sense, and the bride will probably spend upwards of $1200+ for DJ services.
But if a bride is truly “on a tight budget”, with limited funds to spend, then planning a Friday night wedding in March, for 70 guests at an American Legion Hall or Moose Club for just three hours, would reduce the DJ cost alone by more than 70%!
Of course, I’m demonstrating extreme situations, and a more economical solution would be somewhere in between. Most wedding service vendors offer tremendous discounts if you’re willing to plan a non-PEAK wedding!
West Florida DJ offers a wide variety of packages to accommodate nearly every reasonable budget, allowing you to get the BEST VALUE locally on Officiant, DJ, Video, Cake and Photography Services!
Call us today at (941) 479-0059, and let’s plan YOUR perfect wedding day together!