My wife and I hired Eric from All Around Raleigh as our wedding DJ. He was awesome. First and foremost, he was totally professional. He worked with us well in advance of the wedding to get a list of important songs to play at different times, including a song that I edited for our first dance. When he arrived day-of, he had all of them prepared and hit all of the necessary cues perfectly. When he needed to make announcements, he was funny and kept everyone in a good mood, but didn’t talk too much or try to control the room or anything like that. During the reception, he did a great job of playing most of our suggested songs, but also keeping the party going. When someone requested a song that we didn’t want played (because no thank you, electric slide), he was really good at evading it politely. At the end of the day, all of our guests danced and had a good time.
Two other things to note: In addition to DJ services, Eric rents out a photo booth, which was super fun at the reception. Also, for toasts and such, he has a really cool, vintage-y microphone that people can use, which makes for fantastic photos. These aren’t totally essential, but they’re very nice touches.