California Sounds

Tom DJ'd our wedding ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. He rocked! I gave him a long list of songs and gave him the freedom to fill in what he thought matched the mood. The ceremony ran flawlessly. We used non-traditional ceremony music like The Beatles, John Lennon and Elvis.

He was AWESOME during the reception for the grand entrance and announcements. He was very laid back, fun and not cheesy at all. He took some requests from my guests and my brother & sister. They requested New Kids on the Block "The Right Stuff" and dedicated it to me to embarass me. I didn't care! It was a ton of fun and I did the whole kick leg thing in my 4" heels and gown. A ton of fun!!

Tom worked so well with my coordinator, Paola. They've done a few weddings together now so it all went together very smoothly. I'd book him! He's relatively inexpensive compared to the rest!

We booked Tom Chandler to deejay our wedding next year. He seemed very professional and prepared when he met with us. He drove out to meet us, which was really nice too. He has very reasonable prices and seems very laid back, not cheesy at all. I'll update this after my wedding.

Tom was great. I gave him a couple of songs I want him to play and gave him the idea of the entire music we are looking for, and I led everything up to him pretty much. But I did not have to worry about the music a bit, he did a great job making our wedding fun and got the dance floor going. Great&very organized guy.

I focused on the dinner time music (our quartet played during our cocktail hour) and only gave him a few must-plays for the dancing, along with DO NOT PLAYS, which he really stuck to. My brother (he and I aren't close) really wanted Tom to play some country song for us, but country was on our do-not-play list. (Brent and I loathe country, as do most of our guests.) Tom had promised he would only play anything on our do-not list if I personally told him it was ok. So Tom wouldn't play the song and I told my brother that we did not want to hear any country. I really appreciated Tom sticking to his guns!

He was exactly what we wanted - there for the announcements and not cheesey at all! Even my very proper FMIL said he was great! (And she's hard to impress.) One of my BMs, who is a country FANATIC, said that for a non-country songs wedding, she really enjoyed all his dance music.

The only thing I'd do differently is I would have paid him ahead of time instead of putting my FFIL in charge of it. He hadn't given him the check yet and it was almost the end of the night (I had promised Tom he'd be paid before the night was over), so he had to ask me who was paying him. I think FFIL was waiting to see how big of a tip he'd deserve. So, if I could change it, I would have paid him ahead of time and then had my FFIL give him another check for a tip at the end of the night. I don't blame Tom at all for asking - I can only imagine how burned he's been by not knowing who was supposed to pay him but didn't.

TIP: I collected all the songs I wanted to hear during dinner (from my iTunes collection) into one playlist and did a screenshot of that for Tom. I listened to that playlist again and again on our honeymoon (while lounging by the pool), which was like a mini-time machine back to our big day.

I just booked Tom Chandler to DJ my wedding reception next August. His prices seem reasonable and he was very nice. He's willing to play (or not play) anything you want and has offered to check out my reception site for no extra charge. He does not charge by the hour, but by the event. He isn't a typical "MC," cracking jokes, etc. but he will announce whatever you want him to announce, which is the kind of DJ we were looking for. I will make an update after the wedding.

My fiance and I met with Tom about 2 months ago. I found his through this website, and chose to meet with him based on positive reviews. In the height of soaring gas prices, Tom offered to drive to meet with us. He was very professional and answered all of our questions. He seems very down to earth and seems to be a hard worker. He is very responsive via email. The price is affordable but can get pricier if you add on all the extras (lighting, special effects, etc). Also, when asked about vendor meals, he told us frankly that he and his assistant do not eat vendor meals because they are there "to work and its too expensive". I appreciated that.

Update:

Tom was very good about calling me a week before the wedding to touch base, which made me feel better. He did a great job at our wedding (Dj for cocktails and reception). Our dance floor was full the minute dinner. He was very professional and worked well with my coordinator. I highly recommend him to others. He's also very inexpensive compared to others.

Tom was the only vendor that we hired without actually meeting him in person beforehand. He came so highly recommended, and was able to do everything that we had requested of him, so we hired him right away. In the preparation, Tom was excellent—he attended the walk through at the venue to check out the set up, was extremely responsive to phone calls and emails, and had a great attitude, especially a few days before when we made changes to the set up. On the night of, Tom was exceptional. We used his equipment for the ceremony and it was excellent. At the reception, he was the perfect combination to make sure that everyone was dancing but that there was no annoying or cheesy banter. He handled all of our requests and even when our timeline got delayed, he coordinated well with the other vendors and kept everything moving. It was a pleasure to have him.

I interviewed Tom and really liked his personality. He even drove out to meet with me. He seemed very put together and I was excited for him to DJ our wedding. We booked him (with the deposit) on the spot. The next day, he calls me telling me that he did not check his email before coming to meet with me. Someone a few hours before our interview, booked him on my wedding day! He obviously had to DJ the other client's wedding, but I think that he should have checked to make sure that he wasn't booked on my wedding day before driving 45 minutes to meet with me! He wasted his time and mine. In all fairness, he was very apologetic and refunded the deposit very quickly.

Easy going and fantastic to work with. Professional, on time, not cheesy, and has a diverse selection of music. We had a few surprises throughout the wedding, and Tom went with the flow and never complained. He was a great MC (when we wanted him to make announcements) and helped move the party along. He has there every step of the way, reminding us about the cake cutting, speeches, bouquet toss, etc. My DH and I are music snobs and provided Tom with an eclectic list of songs. We were surprised that he had them all and then some! I highly recommend Tom. He is an affordable and wonderful DJ.

My wedding was on 11/10/07 at L.A. Farm in Santa Monica (I do not recommend this reception site). I DO recommend Tom from California Sounds as my DJ. I had concerns about my venue and the management there, which I conveyed to Tom and he did a great job of putting me at ease before the event and also of handling everything the day of. Before the event, I gave him my "play" list of about 5 songs and all five of them were played. My guests made requests throughout the evening and he honored them. Once, a request cleared the dance floor and he simply faded it out and started another song. Other than this song, Tom kept my reception dancing!!! Everyone had a great time and I spend the last 2 hours of my reception on the dance floor! The only slow songs he played were the first and last dances (I recommend this). He didn't have my first choice for my last dance song, but immediately had an alternate that was also one of my favorites and it worked out just fine. All around a great vendor to work with, fees were reasonable (I think we paid about $900 for a full 6 hour event), he was pleasant, NOT CHEESY, professional, and easy-going.

Tom DJ'd for our wedding a couple of weeks ago and we thought he did a great job. He was very professional and made me and my husband feel very confident in his abilities. The best part about Tom is that, although he is very professional, he is not cheesy or high strung.

I totally recommend him.

Tom Chandler is the best. We booked Tom as our DJ for our wedding reception in Marina Del Rey, and not only was he flawless, he was even more than we expected. Not only is a really a supercool, friendly, professional, easy-to-work-with guy, but he is incredibly responsive (he answered phone calls and emails essentially immediately), helpful (he went far out of his way to try to get every one of the songs we requested, even when we had told him it wasn't a big deal), and just flat-out great at his job (he was on location & set up super-early, hit all the songs we wanted and more, nailed every single one of his cues, had the schedule down cold, spoke just the right amount and in the right way (not a bit of cheese - thoroughly professional and fun), played awesome music, and just totally took care of us). Seriously, I hear horror stories about dj's missing cues, dropping songs, showing up late, equipment not working, etc - and that's big stuff that can really have an impact on someone's wedding day - so that makes me appreciate Tom all that much more. If there was an Academy Award for DJing, I would totally nominate Tom, and if I were ever going to put on another big event, he would be the first guy I'd call. Tom rocks. He's a superb dj of the highest caliber and I'm really grateful that he does what he does.

I have worked with Tom on several weddings, and it is always a pleasure to work with him. He is a total professional and really goes out of his way to accommodate the bride and groom.

We always enjoy working with California Sounds, they are professional, on time and flexible.
Great team!