Paul Michaels DJing at the booth during a Chicago event

I started carrying speakers in high school. I never stopped.

Paul Michaels Events is a Chicago DJ and event company. We're small on purpose, and I still know every couple and every client by name.

20+

Years in business

600+

Weddings & events

200+

Five-star client reviews

DJs, hosts & office team

How it started

In high school my friends had the usual part-time jobs. I wanted something different, and I've always loved music, so I got hired as an assistant at a DJ company in the Chicago suburbs.

I carried gear, ran cables and did setup and teardown at every event. I also watched how the DJs read a room: what filled the dance floor and what emptied it. Before I graduated, I was running events as a head DJ.

I also learned what I didn't want to do. Back then a lot of weddings ran on scripted games, props and song battles. So I started playing events under my own name, DJ Paul Michaels, built around reading the crowd instead of running a script. I kept that name through college, where I studied business, and kept growing after.

By 2017 we were doing much more than DJing and the team had grown well past me, so we became Paul Michaels Events. Today we do weddings, corporate events, karaoke, photobooths, uplighting and A/V.

Not a booking agency

We don't send out whoever says they have experience. Our DJs have worked a lot of our events together before they lead one, so they know our gear, how we run a night and the small details clients notice. Most nights your DJ has an assistant with them too.

You get to enjoy it

From the time our contract starts until the last song, you don't have to watch the clock or wonder what's next. We keep the night moving, handle the announcements and keep the dance floor going. At a wedding, that means you get to relax and actually be with your family and friends. At a company event, it means you get to host instead of managing the entertainment.

We work with your vendors, not around them

We're not there at 6am for hair and makeup or running your registration table. That's what great planners, coordinators and production teams are for, and we work from their timeline instead of competing with it. Before the event we connect with your planner, venue and photographer, and at corporate events with the venue's A/V team and any production company on site. On the night, we give your photographer a heads-up before every big moment, check in with the venue team and keep the catering staff in the loop on toasts, speeches and dinner. A lot of our clients come to us from planners, venues and photographers we've worked with before.

Why we do it

The nights I live for are the ones where the dance floor is packed from the first song to the last, whether it's a wedding or a company holiday party. It's a high that's hard to describe, and it's why I still do this after 20 years. I won't send anyone to an event who doesn't love this as much as I do, and everyone on our team is here because they do.

Paul Michaels, owner