Who's behind Alternative Wedding DJs?
Alternative Wedding DJs is owned by Brent Crampton and Elliott "Ness" Harris, two nightclub DJs from the Midwest, alongside Veronica Jimenez, who runs the daily operations.
Brent founded the company in Omaha, Nebraska, after a decade running a pop-up event and nightclub called House of Loom. Elliott built our Wisconsin operation from Madison, where he used to book talent full-time as Director of Entertainment at Harmonic Hospitality Group, and is now co-owner of the company. Veronica runs day-to-day operations and is the person you'll talk to first. Together, they vet every DJ on the roster across Omaha, Lincoln, Madison, and Milwaukee.
Why we started AWDJ
Brent owned and operated House of Loom, a former nightclub in Omaha. He won the "Best DJ" category three times at the Omaha Entertainment & Arts Awards. Spent six years as a Red Bull Music Academy representative. He shared decks with DJs like King Britt of Digable Planets, DJ Sabo (one of the creators of moombahton), and played rooms from Cielo in NYC to beach clubs in Playa del Carmen.
Then he started getting asked to DJ weddings. And he noticed something strange.
The skills that were required to play in a nightclub (mixing songs together, reading a crowd, having good taste) were treated like magic tricks at weddings. Couples would come up mid-reception asking how the music never stopped.
Here's the story that sums it up. Brent was at a wedding fair once, chatting with a DJ from another company. He mentioned that all our DJs beat-match and mix live at weddings. He looked at him a bit stunned and said, "Oh, I don't know many wedding DJs that do that."
Nightclubs are a more cut-throat environment to DJ. If you don’t do the basics well, you don’t get invited back. Weddings are one-off events, so you never get to make the decision on whether you’d use that DJ again. The wedding industry tolerates DJs who never learned the craft, and couples pay the price in awkward fades, crutch songs, and cheesey vibes.
So Brent built a roster of club-tested DJs who could handle the pressure of getting your college friends and your Aunt onto the same dance floor. But here’s the thing: not all club DJs are built for weddings. Some are too flaky to book a year out in advance, others are scared of the responsibility. Finding the ones in your city who can do both is the entire value of this company.
Elliott "Ness" Harris — Co-owner, Wisconsin
Elliott started DJing radio shows straight out of high school, earned a degree from Arizona's Conservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences, then landed at the legendary Can Am Studios in LA, the studio where Dr. Dre recorded (and that helped shape the sound of 90s hip hop).
Family brought him back to the Midwest. So the music came with him. In Omaha he became the go-to guy for curating shows, producing stages, and booking DJs for rooftop parties and hotel lounges. He also got really good at DJing weddings for AWDJ.
When Harmonic Hospitality Group hired him as Director of Entertainment in Madison, finding and booking DJ talent at Roxxy and The Stuffed Olive became his full-time job. Opening AWDJ's Wisconsin office was the natural next step, and in 2026 Elliott became co-owner of the company. He hand-picks every DJ on the Wisconsin roster and hosts most of our discovery calls. If you book a call, there's a good chance you're talking to him.
Veronica Jimenez — Operations
Every inquiry, every question, every "wait, can we change our ceremony time?" goes through Veronica. She runs the day-to-day communication engine: matching couples with DJs, coordinating with venues and planners, and making sure nothing falls through a crack between your first message and your last dance. Couples regularly tell us the responsiveness is what set us apart while they were shopping around. That's her.
How we vet our DJs
Every DJ on the AWDJ roster is personally approved by Brent and Elliott. The bar: they've held down real rooms (nightclub residencies, festival stages, hotel lounges), they can mix live across genres and generations, and they have the temperament, flexibility, and friendliness for weddings. Directional on the mic, not performative. Four of our DJs have won "Best DJ" at the Omaha Entertainment & Arts Awards. One won "Charlotte's Favorite Club DJ" four years running. One plays Forward Madison FC home games.
And because we're DJs ourselves, we know the difference between a good demo and a good night. We've seen these people work a floor before we ever put them in front of yours.
The stories we tell at parties
Ask Brent about the time he almost ditched his family's European bus tour because a pub in Belgium invited him to stay and DJ. Or about taking Ron Trent record shopping, or shaking the creator of house music, Frankie Knuckles' hand. Ask Elliott what it was like inside Can Am Studios. This is the part of the consultation call that runs long, and we're not sorry about it.
Ready to meet the team behind your dance floor?
Or check out the DJs themselves:
Omaha + Lincoln DJs // Madison + Milwaukee DJs
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