Ho, Ho, Holiday Parties: All About Our Non-Wedding Events!

Hey! Hey, you! Shh, shh – can you hear it? Can you hear what I hear? Is it…chestnuts? On fire?

Heh. See what we did there?

We digress, kind of. We’re big fans of the Holiday season around here. The lights, the music, the multicultural holidays, and the fun party times!

Whether you’re planning on giving a swankified supper to a potential client, giving your staff the most festive party on record, or hosting an intimate cocktail party – the Chicago DJs at Toast & Jam are here to make it happen.

Grab a goblet of nog or a mug of something mulled - let's dive into our non-wedding event services!

It almost goes without saying that good company culture is crucial for maintaining a successful business.

Planning a corporate party during the holidays is where the cracks may show for business owners and those in the upper echelons of management. Is there a good work/life balance for employees? What perks and benefits are they actually getting?

If you’re struggling to keep people - examine how you can adopt a culture that promotes hard work, fun, team unity, and blowing off steam.

Employees know if you skimp out on that long-awaited end-of-year party. They’ll know if you hire a crappy DJ, make them play cheesy games, and serve them not-so-great food at a drafty venue.

That’s where our team comes in. We know that it’s important to get your corporate holiday party right!

We’ve got great relationships with the most popular Chicago venues. Even if one of our DJs has never been there, we’ve got a pretty slick venue database that all of our DJs can reference for site layout and venue points of contact – so we’ll always be prepared to rock the house.

Whether you’re hosting a holiday party or a grand opening, we’ll work closely with you to make sure we’ve got the vibe of you and your team right – and make it a party worth remembering.

Cocktail parties, birthday parties, celebrations of life, private launches, museum galas - it’s all possible. We’re pretty flexible, and we want to make sure your event goes off without a hitch, regardless of whether it's for 10 people or 100.

As with our corporate events, our Chicago DJs will be prepped to rock your venue whether it's at a swanky Chicago locale or your private home.

We’ll also get to know you and craft your party soundtrack to fit the event energy - whether it's sober and relaxed or boozy and pumped up!

Our discovery process, while still focused on YOU, your needs, and your event, is not as intensive as our wedding discovery process.

For most private events, there aren’t as many moving parts; it’s unlikely you’ll move around as much as you would if it were a wedding.

Identifying the vibe

We’ll work with you to identify the following:

• Whether your event is private or corporate

• If there are certain guidelines we need to follow with our music choices

• Whether you need a Master of Ceremonies (which we offer!)

• Whether the event is more reserved or an all-out bash

• Where the venue is.

The bottom line is keeping things cohesive and bringing together a broad demographic of folks. Your holiday party will be a melding of executives and staff; so we'll use our keen intuition to read the room and ensure everyone’s feeling energetic and having fun.

As far as tunes go, the key difference between how we plan our weddings and how we plan our events is who the music is catered to.

While we want to ensure everyone is enjoying themselves at a wedding – our top priority tends to be the taste and preferences of the couple getting married.

For events, we try to tailor the song selection to all attendees. This is why it’s so important to have a good sense of your company culture and staff preferences!

Lead times for weddings can be long – usually 12 to 14 months.

However, unless we’re in the middle of wedding season, which usually spans from June to October, a 3-month lead time for events is ideal. There’s still plenty to figure out ahead of the event, but not to the extent of a full wedding.

However, 3 months ahead is only an ideal – if you’ve got an event and we’ve got the availability, we’re ready to get things rolling!

We’re Toast & Jam, and we’re pretty awesome Chicago DJs. The holiday party season is in full swing, and we want to turn your upcoming event into a total rager.

Sound cool? Cool. Fill out our short little contact form here so we can get a sense of your needs, wants, and desires - and we’ll go from there!

Bonus: We exist on social media! Here’s our Facebook, and here’s our Instagram. Happy scrolling.