Bringing Your DJ From Home to Your Oʻahu Wedding? Read This First
By DJ Nate Burgoyne
If you’re planning to fly your DJ in from home for your Hawaiʻi wedding, I’ll be honest with you: it usually doesn’t save you what you think it will.
I get why you’d want to. Maybe your DJ is a friend, or someone who played your cousin’s wedding and killed it, and you trust them. That makes total sense. I just want to share what I’ve seen happen when a DJ from off-island shows up to play an outdoor wedding here, and what it actually costs once you add up the gear and the help they need.
Bringing your own DJ to a Hawaiʻi wedding? It’s a different setup than back home
Off-island DJs tend to underestimate what it’s like to play outside in Hawaiʻi. The heat, the rain, and the humidity are all part of it. So is the wind. So is power, and so is getting good sound outdoors, which is a different thing from playing inside a ballroom.
Rain is a big one. You need a plan for how the setup works if it rains, and a DJ who hasn’t done it here may not be ready for that.
Then there’s thermal shutdown. In the heat, equipment can overheat and shut itself off. If that happens in the middle of your reception, the music stops, and someone has to figure out what went wrong while your guests are standing there.
None of this means a DJ from home is bad at their job. It just means Hawaiʻi throws things at an outdoor setup that they may not have dealt with before.
Renting gear here isn’t cheap
Gear rental in Hawaiʻi isn’t cheap. And the rental speakers you can pick up locally aren’t always reliable. Rental speakers from a big music retailer, for example, are unreliable, and your DJ can end up troubleshooting them at your wedding instead of focusing on your music.
The local-gear option costs close to just hiring the local DJ
The way to get around all of this is to hire a local DJ company to provide all the gear, manage it on-site through the whole event, and handle the pack-out at the end.
Here’s the thing, though. When you add that up, the price ends up close to what it would cost to just hire that local DJ to DJ your wedding. That’s because the gear is tied up for the entire day, and you still need a qualified person there for your whole celebration to take care of it. Whether that person is also playing the music or not, they’re there all day either way.
Talk with the Frobaby Productions DJ team
If you’re weighing whether to bring your DJ from home or hire someone on Oʻahu, the Frobaby Productions DJ team would love to hear about your plans. We’re super transparent about our pricing, and you can see all of our packages at pricing.frobabyproductions.com. If you’d like to talk it through, grab a zero-pressure, ask-me-anything chat with the Frobaby Productions DJ team at chat.frobabyproductions.com.
Can I bring my own DJ to my wedding in Hawaiʻi?
You can. Just know that off-island DJs tend to underestimate Hawaiʻi heat, rain, humidity, wind, power, outdoor sound, and how to set up for rain. Gear rental here isn’t cheap either.
What do off-island DJs underestimate about outdoor weddings in Hawaiʻi?
The heat, rain, humidity, wind, power, outdoor sound, how to set up for rain, and thermal shutdown, which is when equipment overheats and shuts itself off.
What happens if DJ equipment overheats at an outdoor wedding?
It can shut itself off. If that happens in the middle of your reception, the music stops, and someone has to figure out what went wrong while your guests are standing there.
Can an out-of-town DJ rent speakers in Hawaiʻi?
Yes, but gear rental in Hawaiʻi isn’t cheap, and rental speakers aren’t always reliable. Your DJ can end up troubleshooting them during your wedding instead of focusing on your music.
Is it cheaper to fly in your own DJ or hire a local DJ in Hawaiʻi?
Usually not by much. Once a local company provides the gear, manages it on-site all event, and packs it out, the price ends up close to hiring that local DJ, because the gear is tied up all day and you need a qualified person there the whole time.