Questions to Ask a Wedding MC Before You Book

The questions to ask a wedding MC before you book come down to five things: whether they have hosted a room like yours, how they will run your night, what happens when the plan changes, what the fee actually covers, and what you get if they cannot make it. Ask those well and you will know within twenty minutes whether this is your MC or just a confident person with a microphone.

Below is the full list we would put in front of any couple, grouped so you can work through it on one call. Most of these are the same things we ask on the first call with you, because the answers decide who belongs on your shortlist. Where a question has a "good answer" and a "worrying answer", we have spelled both out. Copy the list, take it into your calls, and trust the specifics over the charm.

Why ask questions at all? Isn't an MC just a nice voice?

A reception is four to six hours of small decisions, and the MC makes most of them in real time. When the entrees go out relative to the first speech. Who holds the room while the DJ resets. Whether the father of the bride's twelve-minute speech gets a gentle landing or drifts into dessert. None of that is on the run sheet. It lives in the MC's judgement, and judgement only shows up when you ask about specifics.

Questions to ask a wedding MC: the full checklist

1. Experience and fit

1. How many weddings have you hosted, and how many were about our size? A hundred guests in a Balmain warehouse and 350 in a Lidcombe banquet hall are different jobs.
2. Have you worked at our venue, or one like it? They do not need to know your exact venue, but they should be able to say how they would handle a two-room layout, a long outdoor cocktail hour, or a hall with a stage at one end.
3. What tone do you naturally bring? "Warm and a little cheeky" and "polished and formal" are both fine. What matters is that theirs matches yours.

2. Languages and culture

1. Which languages will you host in, and are you fluent or working from phrases? This matters if you have grandparents, relatives or a whole side of the family who will spend the night in Mandarin, Arabic, Greek, Vietnamese, Hindi or anything else. We speak with every MC in each language they claim before they join us. You should ask too.
2. How do you mix two languages on the night? The good answer is that the two languages are mixed wherever it suits, not repeated sentence by sentence unless you ask for that. The worrying answer is "I say everything twice", which doubles your run time and halves the energy. We wrote about why a bilingual MC does not mean everything gets said twice.
3. Which cultural formalities have you run before? Tea ceremonies, a zaffe, a money dance, a sangeet, a Greek first dance with the plates. If your family has traditions, ask how they would introduce and time each one, and listen for whether they ask you how your family does it. Traditions vary house to house, and a good MC knows to check rather than assume.
4. How will you bring in the guests who do not share the main language? Friends, colleagues, plus-ones, the kids' table and the older relatives all deserve to be in the room, not just the two families. At one of our English and Mandarin weddings, a big, quiet room of 300 to 400 guests got restless while speeches ran long. The MC walked the floor, spoke with tables in their own language, did short interviews, asked for a show of hands for each language, and cracked jokes in both. The couple were surprised how the night turned out, and friends later asked them for that MC. That is the answer you are hoping to hear.

3. How they will run your night

1. Will you build the run sheet with us, or just read ours? The best answer: "Both. Bring me what you have and I will tell you where it breaks." An MC who has run a hundred receptions knows that speeches before mains, not after, keeps the room awake, and that a first dance at 10.15pm is a first dance to an empty floor.
2. How do you handle speeches that run long? There is a graceful technique and a rude one. Ask them to describe theirs.
3. Can you translate speeches live if we share the scripts beforehand? For a bilingual room this is gold. The right time to share scripts is the pre-wedding meeting, so the MC can prepare rather than improvise.
4. How do you work with the DJ, the band, the photographer and the venue? Listen for someone who talks about handing over cleanly, checking the photographer is in position before a cake cut, and giving the kitchen a heads-up when the timeline moves. The MC is the hub. If they only talk about themselves, that is a sign.

4. What happens when things change

1. What do you do if we are running 40 minutes late from the ceremony? The good answer walks you through it: shorten the cocktail hour cues, move a speech, tighten the gap between courses, and keep the guests informed so nobody is staring at an empty stage.
2. What happens if you are sick on the day? Ask this one plainly. For our bookings, if an MC falls ill we vet a replacement, and that person only steps in with your permission. A solo MC should be able to name their backup arrangement, not just promise it will be fine.
3. Who is our contact in the week of the wedding? You want one person, one phone number, and a clear answer about when you will speak.

5. Preparation before the day

1. Do we meet before the wedding, and how? The standard we expect is a phone or video meeting before the day, where the MC goes through the run sheet with you, gets to know you as a couple, and plans your ideas with you.
2. How do you learn and practise the names? An MC who gets a mother's name wrong at 8pm has lost the room for the rest of the night.
3. What do you need from us, and by when? A clear list (run sheet, speech order, scripts if you want live translation, music cues, key names) with a deadline is the mark of a professional.

6. Fees and what they cover

1. What is the all-up fee, and is that plus GST? Make them say the number. In Sydney, a reception-only wedding host runs about $800 to $1,200 plus GST. A full wedding with an established MC sits at $1,400 to $2,200 plus GST. Senior hosts and premium bilingual briefs run $1,800 to $2,500 plus GST and up. Each extra language adds roughly 10 to 15 per cent. The full breakdown is on our pricing page.
2. Is travel included? Within Sydney it should be. For Wollongong, Newcastle, the Blue Mountains or the Hunter Valley, ask before you sign. We discuss travel with you first for anything outside Sydney.
3. What is not included? Extra hours, a ceremony as well as a reception, a second day of celebrations. Get the edges of the fee in writing so the invoice holds no surprises.
4. What are the deposit and cancellation terms? Boring, essential, and best known before you fall for a showreel.

How do we know if the answers are good?

Three tells. First, specifics. A good MC answers with timings, examples and names of roles ("I check with the head waiter before I call the speeches"), not adjectives. Second, questions back. The best MCs interview you as much as you interview them, because they cannot plan a night they do not understand. Third, honesty about limits. "I would not be the right host for a formal Cantonese banquet" is a better sign than "I can do anything".

If the person you are speaking to is also your DJ, add one more question: how will they be at the mic and the decks in the same minute? We compared the two roles in MC vs "our DJ can just do the talking", and the short answer is that it depends heavily on your room and your speeches.

When should we be asking these questions?

Couples usually book their MC about a year ahead, and the popular Saturdays between October and April go first. The shortest turnaround we have filled is two weeks, so it is never hopeless, but it is easier when there is a choice. If you go through a concierge like us, most of the questions above are done for you: on the first call we ask which languages are spoken in your room and by roughly what percentage, who is coming and the age range, the venue, start and finish times, any ceremonies or traditions, the tone you want and a rough budget. Then we hand-match a shortlist of MCs who are available on your date, within three business days. If you do not love the shortlist, we keep shortlisting. The whole process is on our wedding MC Sydney page.

Quick answers

What is the single most important question to ask a wedding MC?

"How do you handle it when we are running late?" It reveals experience, calm and whether they think about the guests. Anyone can perform when the night runs to plan. You are paying for the other nights.

Should we ask for references or a video?

Yes to video if they have it, because it shows tone and energy in a real room. References are useful but take them lightly; a couple who had a wonderful night will say so about almost anyone. The questions above tell you more.

Do we need a bilingual MC if only the grandparents do not speak English?

Often, yes. Those are usually the people you most want to feel included, and they are the ones who will otherwise sit quietly for five hours. A fluent bilingual MC can bring them into the room in a few sentences at the right moments without slowing the night for everyone else.

If you would like a shortlist of Sydney wedding MCs who can answer every one of these questions properly, send us an enquiry. A real person will call you, ask about your room, and come back with hosts who fit it. The quote on your shortlist is the all-up fee, plus GST.