Jim Moore - Scotland's Party DJ has been providing high-quality musical entertainment in some of the best venues in the country for over a decade. With all his experience, he knows the right information to look for when hiring a DJ to make your event a successful one.

What do you need to know from an organiser in order to provide a comprehensive quote?

To give my best possible quotes I need to know what date the wedding or event is being held on, what venue has been booked (or if a venue has been booked at this point) and a rough idea of timings. This allows me to factor in travel time, how easy or difficult it will be to gain entry and set up in the venue and how much equipment will be needed for the size of space. Additional information is always great such as an idea of how many guests, what type of music you like (or don't) and if you want any additional services like mood lighting, dancefloors, LED lighting etc... Essentially, the more information I have, the better and more competitively priced a quote I can give you.

What advice would you give to a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?

CONTRACTS, CONTRACTS, CONTRACTS! - I cannot, both as a supplier and as someone who has married recently, stress the importance of making sure each and every supplier is legit, responsible and professional and one of the simplest ways to do that and keep them accountable is to have a written contract. If a supplier can't or won't show you their contract prior to booking, I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere. With regards to my own part of the industry, the type of DJ they are is very important too - you'll most likely never have booked a wedding or corporate DJ before and the go-to opinion may very well be that we're all like that DJ at your Auntie's birthday - the guy that turned up in a polo shirt and jeans with some gear from the 80s, sat on his phone all night, tanned a few pints and played rotten music but you can and will find DJs at all levels of service, experience and price points so make sure you get as much information as possible from their quote, website, e-mails, phone calls etc... and if they offer face to face meetings to have a chat about your wedding prior to making a decision whether to book them or not, all the better. You only get one chance at booking the right DJ for your wedding or event so do everything in your power to make sure you get the right one.

Please tell us a little bit about how and why you started the business.

I initially come from a live band background and played in various bands across Scotland in venues like King Tut's, The Barrowlands, Westport Bar etc... as well as your traditional wedding venues - castles, hotels, barns and some jaunts in the Middle East. I eventually got tired of the lack of professionalism I witnessed in many bands and decided that since I'm the only person I can be wholly responsible for, I'd strike out on my own and begin DJing. This is still true to this day and I refuse to 'dep' or pass on gigs to anyone else and take a cut of the money - if you book me, it's me you get from start to finish and I'm extremely proud of the business and reputation I've built up over the years. My approach to how I run the business is simple: I treat all of my clients the way I would expect to be treated by a supplier and the fact I have hundreds of weddings and corporate events to my name and have never received anything less than a 5 star review across numerous feedback and testimonial platforms speaks for itself. What drives me now is building on this and creating even better experiences for my clients both on the night but also in the entirety of the planning process.

Please tell us about a booking you've had through Add to Event, how did it go? Would you recommend us to others?

Being relatively new to Add to Event I've not actually performed any weddings yet - most of my bookings are for 12-24 months away but I have secured a number of bookings which will take place next year and I look forward to them. The Add to Event system itself is really nice and easy to use at my end and I can only assume that it's the same coming in as a client looking for suppliers - I'd definitely have used it for my own wedding if I'd known about it! It's a really handy way to save time and energy when looking for a DJ or any other kind of supplier and that is really helpful. I like the fact that clients can leave feedback too as it's a nice way to verify how suppliers have performed - I look forward to building some excellent reviews with my awesome clients I gained through Add to Event.