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.

Update (7/4/09) - Tom did a great job DJ'ing our wedding! Everything was exactly as we'd requested - he got all the songs we wanted, and it was clear that he'd really paid attention to all of our requests prior to the wedding. We had a morning wedding, so I told Tom we didn't expect a lot of dancing - no problem, he just gauged the vibe of the wedding and went with it. All of his music selections were great and the our reception went seamlessly - he even nailed all of the pronunciations of the last names :D

Tom was very accommodating and met at our location. He was very organized and showed us how he outlined and worked a wedding. We also were up in the air in regards to choosing our DOC at the time and he ended bringing a time line, what he called " A very organized DOC", it ended being the DOC we were meeting with that weekend! Soon after our meeting we hired him and also hired the DOC! I will update you after our 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.

Tom totally rocked our wedding!! He did a fantastic job. We hired him to do all the music for the wedding (ceremony, cocktail hour, reception). Everything flowed smoothly and he managed to keep my crazy friends and relatives away from the mic :-) Honestly, we had a very short 'do not play' list, and he totally stuck to it. In fact, one of our guests actually tried to pay him money to play a song on our 'do not play' list, but Tom didn't budge. Plus, he did it in a cool way so everyone still loved him :-)

Tom kept the dance floor hopping the entire night. Seriously, some people didn't even leave the dance floor long enough to eat cake. One of my bridesmaids came up to me at the end of the night and said, 'What happened to the cake? Didn't they serve it?" Yeah....she only left the dance floor a couple of times to take a quick breather and totally missed the cake. Plus, I bought a large basket of flip flops for the guests. One of my friends told me that every time she tried to leave the dance floor to change her shoes Tom would play another great song and she would just run back out on the dance floor. So, she never actually changed into flip flops because she didn't sit down long enough to change her shoes :-)

Our friends and relatives (even grandparents) had a blast dancing the night away. Tom really knows how to read the crowd, and there is '0' cheeseball factor. I highly recommend him!

Tom Chandler just DJ'd our wedding this past Sunday and he was amazing! My husband and I have gone to many weddings in the past few years and just were not happy with the DJ's at them or the song lists, so we took it upon ourselves to make an extensive song list for the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing and Tom was so easy to work with. He respected our choices and even showed enthusiasum for our taste! We basically just told him this is what we like and left it up to him to make a playlist and round out the music with suggestions for the night. We got so many comments about the music from our guests and they loved the variety. In fact our photographer said to me at one point in the evening "the music is uncommonly tasteful".

In addition to good music, Tom was not cheesy, he did not scream into the mic and say anything unessary just to fill dead silence. He was respectful when guests asked that the dinner music be turned down and he understood that the site (which was outdoors) had recently had sound complaints so he positioned the speakers to keep the sound at our party and not reverberating to the neighbors houses.

We were worried about the timing for the entrances and our 1st dance but he listened to how they were going to go and waited for the cues that we had instructed him on and it went off without a hitch!

Tom is clearly a professional and I would recommend him for all brides who do not want your typical cheesy loud DJ.

Tom did such an amazing job!
I spent a lot of time making my timeline, but not everything went the way I planned it. He gave us great suggestions and ran everything smoothly so that nobody noticed anything.

I highly recommend him!!!!!!

Tom Chandler is AWESOME! I could not believe how easy he made the whole process of choosing songs. I did not have to worry about one thing. He ever did the sound for our ceremony and was there almost 3 hours prior to the start of the event. The first time we met with Tom we knew he was the guy to do our DJing. What an awesome choice! He kept everything moving all night long, there was virtually no empty space on the dance floor. He isn't cheesy at all, my guests loved him. I can't wait for my sisters wedding next year, he is a must! I HIGHLY recommend him! If you talk to any other knotties they all say the same.

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.

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.

Just what our reception needed!! DJ Tom made it all happen! The energy was perfect and everyone had a great time!! I looked at my wife and all our guests and everyone was smiling and laughing dancing. Just what I hoped for!!

Tom, a Knottie favorite, was simply fantastic. I refused to hire a day-of coordinator because I didn't think it was worth the money after putting together so many of my details on my own, so my husband and I created our own detailed day-of timeline. Tom took that document and ran the entire reception right on schedule for us. He came up to us often to let us know that we should be moving on to the next item on the agenda, and he kept the dance floor hopping all night. He also could tell that the Greek dance music my mother and my aunt insisted on fell flat after the first song, and right as my husband said "We should tell him to cut that off..." he faded it out and played something fun to get everyone out on the floor. Tom organized our grand entrance, instructing everyone on the best pathway through the room, and he choreographed our cake cutting and locked-arm toast. He did a great job with all of it. I recommend him 100%.

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 originally only corresponded with Tom by email and phone because I was planning from out-of-state. When I unexpectedly got to make a short trip home, he was very willing to work around my hectic schedule in order to meet me at my venue and scope everything out in order to give me a firm quote. He also agreed to hold my date and inform me if anyone else inquired while I made my decision.

Tom was always very prompt and friendly when answering all of my questions and returning my many emails. I also appreciate that he charged by the event, not by the hour, and was willing to give me very straightforward pricing.

For the reception, he showed up early and got right to work setting up. I pretty much gave him free reign to come up with the playlist with only a few guidelines and he played great music and worked wonderfully with our DOC to keep things on schedule, all while being very non-intrusive. I'm sure that if I didn't have a DOC, he would have managed our entire reception for us. Tom was just all around great to work with. Honest, patient, not cheesy in the least, and obviously loves what he does. He even remembered a comment that my mom made about wanting some swing music played (6 months prior during our initial meeting). You won’t regret hiring him!!

USE THIS DJ. Tom did a great job keeping the party moving without being "in your face" He played every single song we asked him to play and left off the ones we put ont he "do not play list". I live in the Conjeo Valley, he drove from Monrovia to come out here, without charging a travel fee! He also had the best price compared to the DJs in my area.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I planned my L.A. wedding from San Diego, and Tom drove all the way to Irvine to meet with us to go over everything. I booked him solely off of his reviews on PW and the Knot, and I am so happy I booked him on the spot! He books fast for a reason - he knows what he is doing, will run the reception if you don't have a DOC (I didn't), and is extremely affordable. He played everything to perfection and was very low maintenance & non-cheesy. I highly recommend California Sounds!!!!

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!

Tom is a great guy and a great DJ. We have worked with him at a few different weddings and I would highly recommend him. He gets the party going, and is also a great MC!!

Tom is so great to work with! He is fun and upbeat and will always deliver a great party! He always makes my brides and grooms happy:)

I'd definitely recommend Tom for any wedding I'm coordinating. He does a great job entertaining and is very easy to work with.

I've worked with Tom a few times and my clients are always thrilled with him. I will recommend Tom Chandler with Cal Sounds to all of my clients looking for a laid-back, non-cheesy DJ for their wedding! Tom knows how to keep the dance floor packed all night! He's friendly, easy to work with and a true pro!