DJ and Sax or a Full Band? Choosing Your Wedding Entertainment
I've been photographing weddings across Hinckley and Leicestershire for 14 years. My style of approach is documentary, which means I work by watching and responding to what's genuinely happening rather than directing the day. The dance floor is one of the best places for that kind of work. People react to music in ways they can't plan, and those reactions are what I'm there for.
Sax player at a 50th birthday party hosted at Bridge House Barn, Leicestershire.
Two options tend to dominate the evening at weddings in this area: a full group or a DJ with a saxophonist. Both can fill a floor. They just do it differently.
If you're weighing up the two, have a look at FixTheMusic's guide to DJ and sax hire.
How much space they need
A full lineup brings a drum kit, guitar amps, a PA system and usually a lighting rig. They need a performance area, power and time to load in and soundcheck. At a venue with a stage or a large function room, that's straightforward. In a tighter venue, the equipment can eat into the space available for dancing.
A DJ and sax setup is compact. A decks rig, speakers and a sax player who moves around. No drum kit, no amps, no cable runs across the floor. For venues where space is tight, that smaller footprint matters.
Drummer with limited space to play!
What they play
A band plays covers. Live versions of songs you know, performed by musicians in the room with you. There's an energy to performance that a recording can't replicate, and for a lot of couples that's the whole point of booking one.
A DJ plays the original recordings. Every track sounds exactly as you remember it, with the studio production value of the original. A sax player layering melodies over the top adds an element that recorded music alone doesn't have. You get the familiarity of the original track and the presence of a live performer at the same time.
A good DJ and Sax player or Band can fill a dance floor.
Playing through or taking breaks
Most bands play two sets with a break in between.
A DJ and sax can play continuously. There's no natural stopping point, which means the music doesn't stop. For couples who want the momentum to hold all night, having no gap in the music is a clear advantage.
DJ Spinning a House music session
What it looks like through a camera
This is where my interest in the question comes from.
A band stays on stage. The visual story comes from the performance: the singer at the front, the guitarist stepping forward, the drummer driving the rhythm. From a documentary perspective, the interaction between the musicians and the crowd is the image.
A sax player often moves. They step off the stage and into the crowd, playing among the guests. I photographed a 50th birthday at Bridge House Barn in Kibworth, Leicestershire, where the entertainment was a DJ with a live saxophonist, and the sax player moving across the floor created a completely different set of images to an act that stays put. Guests dancing around a musician in the middle of the room produces something a lineup on a platform can't.
Bridge House Barn, Kibworth, Leicestershire
Making the choice
Both options create brilliant evenings. The question is what kind of atmosphere you're after and what your venue can comfortably hold. The lineup brings the raw energy of musicians in the room. A DJ and sax offers continuous music, the studio versions and a performer who moves among your guests.
If you're planning a wedding in Hinckley, Leicestershire or the wider Midlands and want a photographer or filmmaker who documents the day as it naturally unfolds, I'd love to hear from you.
The birthday girls viewed through the Sax