How much should a deposit for a DJ be?

JS888

Our DJ is asking for a 50% deposit for our wedding that is next August. My dad said he thinks this is way too much to pay for a deposit. I wanted to ask you ladies what you have found with your DJs before going back to the one we want to hire and asking if we can pay a smaller deposit. The deposit would be $625

Also, any insight on deposit percentages for other services such as photographers and florists would be helpful as well.
 
Thank you! 

Katiekakes03

We just paid a 50% deposit ($750) for our DJ for next October - most vendors have been asking us for between 30 - 50% as a retainer.

NikNak11

We also paid 50%.

Lauren6277

We paid a 50% deposit for our DJ then made the final payment on the day of

Florist: $500 to confirm the date, then 50% of the balance a month before the wedding and final payment on the day of

Photographer: 1/3 to hold the date, 1/3 about a month before the wedding and final payment on the day of.

A lot of vendors request final payments before the day of. They say things get confusing on the actual day. We asked to make final payments on our weddin day because we wanted to make sure each vendor showed up. But, it seems to be standard wedding industry practice to request payment up front.

ctag416

We paid  30% but I don't think 50% is too high.

arp815

we paid $750 for a $2500 package

emma5500

We also paid 50% deposit for the DJ, and 50% to reserve the photographer.  Deposits for the other vendors (florist, cake) have been less than $200 though.

october010bride

We paid a 50% deposit for our dj and everything worked out fine.  

jonchrissy

I think we paid 40-50%

blaharn

We paid a third, which was $600 for our package.

dovesweet07

We paid 50%

crazybrittni

We also paid 50%

aschmidtboston

we paid 50%, $625 for a $1250 package, DJ from boston area and our wedding is in spencer.

JS888

Thank you girls!  This was very helpful.

sboston06

We paid 50% deposit for our DJ, which was $400 (2008 prices).  I think that's very reasonable especially if the DJ has been burned in the past by clients cancelling.

Florist was a 25% deposit, and Photographer was around 5%, but those were fixed dollar deposits ($100 and $200 respectively).

bmoruzzi

I only had to put down $100 and total price for DJ is $800.  Only $50 to hold date for florist.  Photographer was a third, about $750.