The person who books the company holiday party usually needs one thing from a DJ's website before anything else: a number they can put in an email to whoever approves the budget. Most DJ sites in New Jersey do not give one. This one does. Below are our prices for a corporate holiday party, what each package is actually for, what moves a party from one package to the next, and what December does and does not do to the cost.
The three packages, applied to a December party
We sell three packages. Each one covers up to four hours of DJ performance, event-specific music preparation, and setup and breakdown. Sound and microphone coverage are confirmed against the venue, so a 40-person private room and a 250-person ballroom are both covered without a separate sound line.
| Package | Price | The holiday party it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Corporate Mixer | $2,500 | One room, a straightforward schedule. Dinner or drinks, a toast, music that keeps the room social. No formal program, dancing optional. |
| Corporate Celebration | $3,500 | The standard December party. Arrival, dinner, a few speakers or awards, then a floor. Music programmed from the first guest through the last song. |
| Corporate Premier | $4,500 | A gala-style party or one with clients in the room. Full run of show, timed cues, walk-up music, a planner or AV team to coordinate with. |
Most company holiday parties we play in New Jersey are the Celebration. Smaller offices and restaurant rooms are usually the Mixer. Premier is for the parties that are produced rather than thrown. The pricing page has the full list; the rest of this post is about which one you are.
What moves a party up a package
From Mixer to Celebration
The line between the two is the program and the floor. A Mixer party has music in the room and a microphone for a toast. A Celebration party has a shape: people arrive to one kind of music, eat to another, sit through a program that needs the music to drop on cue and come back on cue, and then, if the night goes well, dance. Building a set that does all four in sequence is different work from keeping a room pleasant, and the preparation before the night is most of the difference in price.
Three signs you are a Celebration: there are awards or more than two speakers, the plan says "dancing" rather than "maybe dancing," and the party has a start time and an end time that are more than three hours apart. A run of show that does not drag is usually a Celebration by definition.
From Celebration to Premier
Premier is the package for a party where something has been scheduled to the minute. A video plays at 8:12 and the music has to be out before the first frame. Twelve award winners each have a walk-up song. The CEO enters to something specific. A planner is running the room with a headset and wants a DJ who reads the same cue sheet. Clients or press are in the room and the tone is not negotiable.
Scheduled-cue preparation means we sit with the run of show in advance, build the cues, confirm name pronunciations with whoever has the list, and coordinate with the venue's AV team about who owns the microphone feed during the presentation. If your party has a run of show with times on it and someone whose job is to keep to them, that is Premier. If it has a rough order and a good sense of humor about it, Celebration is enough.
Add-ons, and whether a holiday party needs them
Lighting is the add-on people ask about most, and the answer depends entirely on the room. Small Venue Lighting starts at $450 and covers the booth and dance area with LED fixtures. Room Up-Lighting is quoted per room. Intelligent Moving Heads are quoted per event. A bright restaurant private room or a daytime party does not need any of it. A hotel ballroom with the house lights down and a real floor is a different room with up-lighting than without it, and it photographs differently too. If you are not sure, send a photo of the room with the lights as they will be on the night, and we will tell you plainly whether it is worth it.
The other add-ons are priced on the quote against the specifics of the event, so we do not print a number for them here:
- Extended Hours. Beyond the four in the package, by the hour. December parties run long more often than any other kind, because people have had a drink and nobody has to be up early. Worth agreeing a rate in advance so that the decision at 10:45 is easy.
- Cocktail Hour Coverage. Music in a separate reception space before the main room opens.
- Second Sound Zone. A feed to a second space, a terrace or a lounge, from the one DJ. Background in room two, not a second floor.
- Early Setup / Idle Time. When the venue's schedule forces load-in hours before the event. A hotel ballroom that hosted a lunch conference may only offer a load-in window at 2:00 for a 7:00 party, and the alternative is rolling cases through your cocktail hour.
- Additional Microphones. Every package includes wireless microphone coverage for the program. Most holiday programs run fine on one handheld passed between speakers. The point you need a second is when two people talk at once: a presenter reading the next name while the previous winner is still thanking the room. Count the moments, not the speakers.
Does December cost more?
Our package prices are the same in December as they are in June. What December changes is availability. OpenTable data reported by Restaurant Business puts December 10, 16, and 17 among the five biggest group-dining days of the year, with prime dates filling from Labor Day. The Fridays and Saturdays of the second and third weeks go first for us too, and once a Saturday is booked there is no price that reopens it, because there is one DJ.
Where December does cost more, it is on the venue side. Restaurants and event spaces in North Jersey and Manhattan are busier and their minimums reflect it. That is worth knowing when you compare a Thursday quote against a Saturday one from the same room; the entertainment line does not move, the room does. Midweek dates are often the better party anyway.
The other December cost is the one nobody budgets: overtime. Plan the end time to be the time you actually want people leaving, and decide before the night who has the authority to add an hour. That person should not be the one holding a drink at 10:40 who has just been asked by forty colleagues to keep it going.
Getting a number you can forward
A quote from us reads as one line for the package and one line for each add-on, with the lighting stated as a price and everything else stated against your room and program. Your approver can see what they are paying for without a phone call. To get one, send the date, the venue, and roughly how many people. If you know whether there is a program and roughly how long the party runs, add that, because it decides the package. Use the contact page or call (201) 705-3139. We reply within 24 hours, and an inquiry holds nothing until you confirm.