Pick the DJ if you want the price you were quoted, and the band if you want live sound badly enough to pay for it.

Every all-inclusive package at Saxon Manor comes with a DJ. It is one of the nine items built into the price you are quoted, alongside your ceremony, reception, chefs, bar staff, photographer, and officiant. That means if you do nothing, your wedding already has music, transitions, and an MC handled by someone who works this room regularly. You are not choosing whether to have entertainment. You are choosing whether the default entertainment is enough for you.

A band is a different decision entirely. It is not part of the package at any tier, in the Barn, the Garden Room, or BoHo. Bringing in live musicians means bringing in an outside vendor, coordinating their arrival and setup separately from the rest of your day, and paying them directly and separately from your venue invoice. None of that makes a band wrong. It makes it a deliberate add, not a swap you make for free.

This is where the honest answer lives: if a DJ fits what you want from your reception, take the one already in your price and spend the difference elsewhere. If you want the specific feel of live instruments, a bigger sound, or a band’s stage presence, that is a real reason to add one. Just know going in that it is an addition to your quote, not a substitution inside it.

Saxon Manor’s package pricing runs $15,000 to $21,000 all-inclusive for the Barn or Garden Room, and $9,500 to $12,500 all-inclusive for BoHo. Both ranges already include your DJ. That is the whole point of the positioning here: the price you are quoted is the wedding you get, down to the entertainment. If you keep the DJ, your entertainment cost is already inside the number you agreed to and will not move.

If you add a band, your total moves outside that number, because the band is billed separately and is not part of the all-inclusive figure. Live bands vary widely in what they charge depending on size and hours booked, and that number is between you and the band you choose — it is not something your venue quote will absorb. The right move is to get a firm number from the band before you finalize your budget, not after, so the switch from DJ to band is a decision you make on purpose, with real figures in front of you.

This is also a coordination question, not just a cost one. Your venue’s event staff plans around a DJ as a known quantity — timing, equipment, load-in. A band adds another vendor to schedule alongside your photographer, caterer, and florist. Bring it up with your coordinator early, not the week of, so your timeline accounts for a longer setup and sound check rather than squeezing it in around everything else.