4.9 out of 5 stars and 25 reviews
4.9
(25)Northern and Central Virginia, DC and Maryland
About this vendor
Based in Gainesville, VA, Sound Wave Entertainment offers DJ services at weddings in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC. This family-run business brings the dance floor to life. They have been pumping up parties in the local area for over 20 years. Their experienced DJs know how to create a fun atmosphere that fits couples’ visions.
The DJs at Sound Wave Entertainment first started spinning the decks in 1997. Since then, they have fine-tuned their service to entertain all kinds of guests. These talented professionals pay close attention to the personal details. They do their best to produce a DJ set that reflects couples’ themes and tastes. Owner Chris Rao has had a love for music since childhood. He started out his career as a DJ at his college radio station. From here, Chris started offering his services at weddings and special events. Eventually, he progressed to launch his very own business. Along with his team, this passionate DJ offers great customer service and top-notch entertainment.
This talented group works with couples to come up with an amazing set. They meet each client in person to get to know them a little better. This lets the team get a good grip of the client’s needs and tastes. On top of this, they are happy to coordinate with planners and other vendors. These skilled entertainers want to help the celebrations run as smoothly as possible. The team is on hand to help couples every step of the way. Each of the professional DJs at Sound Wave Entertainment has an impressive collection of songs. With over 100,000 tracks available, couples will be spoilt for choice. They have the hottest hits from a range of genres. This includes jazz, golden oldies, and today’s chart-toppers. Each DJ will show up on the day fully kitted out in formalwear. They will be fully equipped with top-quality technology for maximum enjoyment. With these talented entertainers around, the dance floor will be filled with footloose guests.
Details
Equipment
- Sound Equipment
Music Genres
- Dance
- Disco
- EDM
- Flamenco
- Folk
- Hip-Hop
Music Services
- MC Services
- Recorded Music
- Sound Equipment
Wedding Activities
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
- Ceremony
- Reception
Awards and Affiliations
2021 'Best of Weddings'
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
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Reviews
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4.9
out of 5.025 reviews
We had Chris emcee our wedding at Stonewall Golf Club last month and he did an amazing job! He was very easy to work with, used all our song suggestions, and kept the dance floor a...
live all night! He helped keep our wedding on schedule and was flexible with any little changes that happened during the night. Would highly recommend!
Chris was fun and easy to work with, and very well priced. Only complaint is that I had requested our wedding playlist that my spouse and I made to be played before the ceremony, a...
nd not just after. Instead there was "pre-ceremony" music played which went against our alternative music and was too hymn-like for our tastes.
Chris Rao and Sound Wave Entertainment did an absolutely INCREDIBLE job DJing our wedding! Our dance floor was bumping from beginning to end, which is entirely a credit to Chris. C...
hris is super kind and easy to work with as well. My partner and I had extensive Must Play and Do Not Play lists, as well as a few complicated events during the wedding (Indian baraat entrance into first dance, surprise group dance on the dance floor), and Chris executed them just perfectly. The music flowed seamlessly between classic, 80s, hip-hop, Bollywood, and reggaeton songs. Moreover, Chris was an integral part of our wedding night as a whole being a success: When our wedding was falling behind schedule, Chris worked so helpfully with our vendors and made sure our speeches and reception continued onward and smoothly. Chris was an absolute pleasure to work with, and we feel lucky that we were able to have him DJ our wedding. My partner and I even say that we wish we could throw another party just so we could hire Chris again! We highly recommend Chris and Sound Wave Entertainment if you are looking for a DJ for a wedding or any other event.
Phenomenal DJ experience!! Chris was nothing short of a miracle. He stayed with us despite us having to postpone due to COVID - keeping us on and working with us all the way from e...
arly 2020 through our big day on April 30th, 2022. He was so nice, responsive, knowledgeable, upfront, honest, and provided amazing music choices. He chose a fantastic playlist within all the numerous parameters we set, mixed the processional beautifully, and MC'ed the reception flawlessly. *Chefs kiss* Everyone had the absolute best time, in large part to his working the crowd and knowing what dance songs to push next. He is punctual, diligent, and an absolute must to hire for your next event or wedding!
Chris was wonderful to work with! He accommodated our rescheduled date due to COVID with no hesitations or complications. We met a few weeks prior to discuss genre selections but t...
o be honest, he pretty much nailed it without us having to share much with him. The dance floor was packed and we had a blast! Highly recommend using Chris as your DJ!
Chris was the best to work with! Not only was his pricing very reasonable, but he was patient and super flexible. I was trying to coordinate an east coast wedding from the west coa...
st and it was quite the endeavor, but Chris was very accommodating and made the whole process a breeze. He took our song suggestions and made a fantastic playlist that we and our guests loved. I would highly recommend him!!
Our wedding vision was to have a beautiful ceremony and a massive dance party. Sound Wave did an amazing job keeping the dance floor full! At no point was the dance floor empty, an...
d it was fabulous! Chris was a great master of ceremonies from introductions through scheduled dances, he has so much knowledge and experience with sequence of events that really made the night go smoothly. Note: services were for reception only.
Chris was awesome. From the first call getting to know him while searching for the right DJ it didn’t take long to realize we picked the right guy. We picked the general parameters...
of our music style and he ran with it perfectly. He was a pleasure to deal with, very properly priced and even better than expected. He ensured our special day was incredible from a music and ambiance perspective.
Chris did an amazing job for our wedding! He was very professional, guided us through the process, answered all of our questions in a timely manner and most importantly kept everyo...
ne on the dance floor all night! Chris was great to work with and I would highly recommend him to everyone!
Chris was fantastic! He was very helpful throughout the planning process- he answered all our questions when we were looking for a DJ, kept track of our song requests, and met with...
us in person to plan our reception timeline about a month before the wedding! The day of Chris was early, very organized and fun! He kept our reception going on time and got people on the dance floor. I highly recommend working with Chris for your wedding!
BEST DJ EVER
Chris was great to work with!! In the planning stage, he was very responsive and organized. He gave us an outline to work with that was very helpful. We had this idea of how we wan...
ted the music to be at our wedding so that it represented us as a couple but would also be enjoyable for our guests. We provided him with a list of songs that were our "must hear" songs. Chris played those songs and also picked complimentary songs that we loved. After our wedding, everyone commented that the music was great and that it was the most fun, laid back wedding they had ever been to! Exactly what we wanted and we couldn't be happier!!
My husband and I are still on cloud 9 from our wedding! The music was perfect! Chris was professional and easy to work with. He really listed to our ideas and put together a perfec...
t playlist for our big day. I repeatedly said “I love this song!” throughout the night. Thank you for helping us throw an awesome party!
Chris was awesome from start to finish! He helped take away stress from me on the day of the wedding. Not only was he a DJ, but he helped coordinate so that things ran smoothly t...
hroughout the entire day/night. He was there to help me plan every step of the way and always answered my emails or phone calls with any questions we had. As if this wasn't enough reason to hire him, he was also very affordable, which is hard to find in a market (bridal), which can be quite expensive. I highly recommend Chris and Sound Wave Entertainment.
Chris did amazing job as the sound & lights guy. Between the small ceremony setup to the larger reception entertainment, he handled it all! He was punctual, well-priced and a sol...
id performer (the kids especially couldn't get enough of his tunes!). Once again, he's gone over & beyond what you'd expect from a typical DJ service.
My husband and I chose to use Chris for our wedding ceremony music and reception. I met Chris at an open house at our wedding venue and he came highly recommended. Chris was person...
able and easy to work with. He was very organized and helped us map out a timeline for events and offered song suggestions for things when we were at a loss for what to pick. He had all of the songs we wanted to use for our special events and played a track we provided to him for a solo during the ceremony. Everything went according to plan throughout the day and evening. He followed our must plays and don't plays and got everyone up and dancing. The only reason why I decided to give him four stars overall and for service is based on complaints I had from family and friends after the wedding. I was told by my mother that he was asked multiple times to please turn the music down slightly during the reception and he was unwilling to do so. Many of my guests left our wedding early because it was too loud, which is disappointing. My mother, sister, and our coordinator all asked him to turn the music down and he refused. I understand it's a party and the music is loud; however, if multiple guests are complaining, I would have preferred it be turned down a notch or two. I will say that we had the same issue with the loudness of the music during dinner and he did turn it down when requested, so that guests could talk more easily. All this being said, overall I was very pleased with Chris' services and still would highly recommend him. He did a great job and was affordable.
Dan was the DJ for our wedding and he was fantastic! It rained right before our outdoor ceremony, so we really appreciate the fact that he was willing to set up in the rain and get...
his equipment a bit wet. During our reception, he kept the dance floor busy the whole night and even got the older folks dancing for a while! Chris Rao and Dan Trencher were so professional, patient and very organized when my mom and I met with them. I felt completely confident that Sound Wave Entertainment was going to do a great job on my wedding day, and they definitely did not disappoint! Thank you Chris and Dan!
Enjoyed working with Soundwave. Dan was really friendly!
Chris kept the dance floor packed our entire wedding which is just what my husband and I wanted. Alex and I also wanted two different songs for our first dance and Chris was able ...
to put them together. It was great. The only disappointment was that we were supposed to have a mic for the ceremony but didn't have them for some reason....
Chris was wonderful, made everything fun and comfortable and was willing to do whatever was needed to make it a perfect night. He kept people on the dance floor all night, and mad...
e sure everyone had a great time. The best man in our wedding ended up asking Chris to emcee his wedding a few weeks later and Chris did a wonderful job there as well! Awesome DJ :-)
I met with Chris a month before the wedding and discussed the theme and how we wanted the whole day to go. I'm not a big music person, so I mostly relied on Chris, and boy did he ...
come through. The only things I gave him were a list of my favorite songs, and an explanation of our Steampunk theme. Not only did he incorporate the feel of the theme in a non-corny way, but he also had the dance floor packed the entire reception. It is was so much fun, we were reluctant to get away for some additional photos. Too my surprise he managed to work in every one of those songs from my favorites list, and again, somehow blended them into the rest in a non-jarring way. Over all Chris did a fantastic job of taking a unique idea, very little instruction, and running with it in a way that really fit perfectly to what we were wanting, while keeping it fun for the guests. He really tried to make everything fit our wedding, rather than trying to impose his own style, as I've seen other DJs do.
great DJ! Great selection of music and tip used Chris. He went over all of my questions with my husband and I and even sent us songs to listen to when we weren't sure what we want...
ed. Very professional and wpdid a great job at the wedding!
Finding a DJ is extremely important for your big day because it really can make a huge difference on how your reception flows. The minute I met Chris at a bridal show at Bristow Ma...
nor, I knew he was the perfect guy for the job. He absolutely did not disappoint me. I loved that the dance floor was packed the entire night. Our night flew by because we had so much fun! Chris did an amazing job both during our ceremony and reception. He played a variety of music and also took requests. I am thankful I booked him in time for our event! I would highly recommend him for any event because he takes the time to sit down and talk with you one on one to get a feel for your type of music! Thank you so much for being a part of our special day! :)
Chris provided the music for the ceremony and the reception. I met with him two times before the wedding and worked out all the details. Chris was always available to answer my que...
stions, give me vendor ideas, provide tickets to bridal shows, and provide me ideas for the reception. Chris became my wedding coordinator for the day and handled the schedule for the day with the reception staff. He had the timeline for the whole event and did a great job keeping things moving. We got ahead of schedule before the reception, so he adjusted when certain dances and events were going to happen. I didn't have to worry about anything during the wedding.
Chris did a great job. The dance floor was never empty. We had kids, parents, grandparents, and friends dancing all night long even though they hadn't planned on it. He had a great variety of music and did a great job figuring out what the guests wanted to hear.
He is funny plays to the music people are dancing to he can sing and makes you feel he really cares about your day and making it special.He also gives out fun light up stuff to ...
the kids and has hats boas and other dress up things people can use.;He has a strong personality so if he has to work with a cordinator make sure you let him know up front and make sure you can get them both on the same schedule for the reception.
Contact
Northern and Central Virginia, DC and Maryland
Sound Wave Entertainment