Monastero Entertainment

Roberto and his staff were a pleasure to work with from beginning to end. We had them do a wedding for us a few weeks ago and everyone loved the music and had a great time. They mixed songs together and had a wide variety of music, from Sinatra to EDM to hiphop to Korean folk music. They were very laid back and flexible throughout the planning process and I always felt comfortable communicating with them. Even if you don’t know exactly what you want, they will provide you with everything that you need. As Roberto said to me, all I had to do is show up and he was right!

We cannot speak highly enough of Roberto Monastero and his DJ’ing. We recently celebrated our marriage at Salvage One, and Roberto was beyond accommodating, friendly, and fun! Roberto is extremely responsive and worked with us throughout the wedding process to answer any questions and get a feel for our taste in music. He even helped me plan a surprise for my husband (who was turning 30 the night of) — he led our guests in singing happy birthday and then helped me present my gift (a northern lights tour of Iceland) in the funnest way possible. Our wedding party grabbed his wireless teal and green lights to act out the northern lights, I hopped on stage to make a speech, and bam! Gift delivered. It was epic.
Most importantly, the dance floor never stopped moving thanks to Roberto’s music selection. We were on the dance floor the entire night. We told Roberto that we wanted oldies/​soul/​80s/​90s jams, and he nailed it. Guests of all ages were dancing like crazy the entire night. Countless guests told us that they loved the music and had never heard a better DJ. All of this being said… if you want a night of amazing dancing, music, laughter, and great memories, hire Monastero Entertainment! You cannot go wrong.

Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? We had our wedding on November 7 and booked Monastero Entertainment in February. Roberto and his team all went out of their way to accommodate our crazy schedules so that we could be comfortable with who would be working our wedding. We ended up having John C. as our DJ for the ceremony and reception and he was the perfect fit.
On to the day-​of. John arrived with all of his own equipment and immediately knew who to ask questions to – not the bride (me). He went straight to our coordinator and he was ready to go. He set up his own equipment and took the initiative to make sure our keyboardist and officiant were set up comfortably. We also used their uplighting for our venue and it was perfect — I also must add that it is some quality equipment… I don’t know how many people accidentally ran into those lights as the evening went on… There were no glitches (that I knew of!) and everyone had an amazing time with John as the DJ. He even came out and sang our last song of the evening, «Take Me Home, Country Roads,» with us.
Overall, Monastero Entertainment is INCREDIBLY professional and really handled their own shit (excuse my language, but it’s true) — we never once had to remind them who we were or the date of our event… We met with them, checked in a couple times to make sure we were on track, and they showed up on time. I will definitely refer them to anyone who needs DJ services.

We met with Rob when looking for a dj. He unfortunately was not available for our wedding, but his co-​dj, if you will, was. Peter and Brian were absolutely amazing. They had everyone on the dance floor all night. They knew what music to play. Our emcee Brian was fabulous! He is so funny and outgoing everyone loved him. Peter was great with the music! The photobooth was a hit. It’s nice they have someone managing the photobooth and putting in the guest pictures in the album. The dance floor lighting was great. Rob did a slideshow for us with our pictures that was on all night for guests to see. They are such professionals and have great experience. I would recommend them to anyone!

We used Monastero for our wedding DJ (Sept 6^th) and they KICKED ASS!
Peter was our DJ and he was AMAZING! Our dance floor was packed ALL night.
We still have guests telling us, 2 weeks later, how amazing our dj was.
They mixed songs really well so there wasn’t any awkward silences in between, played a huge variety and most of what we had on our list. The Grease Mega Mix was a COMPLETE hit!
I heard a few people say their song requests weren’t played, which is probably for the best. haha
There was one point, where they put on a country song and the floor cleared out, so they switched it up and packed the floor back up.
We had an amazing time! I would recommend them to anyone and everyone!
Thanks again guys!
Made our wedding one for the books!
O’Connell Wedding 2015

Roberto can’t be beat — our wedding reception wouldn’t have been as AWESOME as it was if it wasn’t for him. He was a joy to work with from start to finish, and we’re beyond thrilled that he helped us celebrate our wedding day. Everyone kept commenting about how great he was (and we agree!). When my husband and I first met with him, we could tell we already liked him, and our cousins who recommended him had nothing but amazing things to say (we now see why). He listened to what we had to say, got to know us, and made suggestions for our program and music. He was super responsive to all my emails — and there were a LOT — and was so patient with us, especially when we weren’t sure about what we wanted or thought of changing things. Fast forward to our wedding reception… words can’t even describe how happy we are with Rob and his work. The whole reception flowed smoothly, people were on the dancefloor the whole time, everyone was enjoying the music, his voice is wonderful (he did something really special for me for my father-​daughter dance)… Take me back to our wedding!!!
Thanks so much for everything, Rob!!! You were amazeballs. If anyone needs a DJ/​MC for their event, you HAVE to get Rob!

Roberto was recommended to us by another wedding vendor we used. When we met with him, he had already been booked for our wedding date and introduced us to his colleague Peter Garcia. I couldn’t find any reviews about Peter so I wasn’t sure what to expect (although he was extremely nice when we met him). My husband really liked him from our first meeting so we decided to have him play at wedding last month. Peter is AWESOME! He plays great music and has a great quality of being able to feel out the crowd. Our MC Brian also get everyone pumped up. We entered our venue on escalators and were told he «announced as if it were a hollywood event.» We had friends and family on the dance floor from beginning to end and we never left the dance floor ourselves. What I really enjoyed was that he never played the full song so you never get bored. He played alternative, jazz/​blues, latin, swing in addition to the current pop hits (and of course some Chelsea Dagger for the Hawks win!) and somehow no matter what was playing, everyone loved it! I hope this recommendation confirms your decision to go with Peter. We have and will continue to recommend him and have already been asked for his information for friends’ weddings next season.
Thanks to both Roberto for helping us set everything up and Peter/​Brian for making our wedding a blast!

Roberto DJ’d our wedding 2 and a half years ago and I feel compelled to post now because people still tell us, to this day, that it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to. People danced from the first song until the very last… and then were begging us to extend it! And when I say people danced, I mean, the floor was packed. We also had a potentially awkward situation as my husband’s family is from another country. So in addition to trying to please everyone that normally attend a wedding – older people, young people, couples with slow songs, people who love the hokey pokey, people who hate the hokey pokey and everyone in between – he also had to appease a large group of people who like kompa music (which I’m sure he was not familiar with ahead of time) and keep my family on the dance floor while he played that. I don’t know how, but he did it and in through it all everyone was dancing to everything. I can honestly say that having an empty dance floor was my biggest stress when planning the reception and I had absolutely nothing to worry about. Roberto took care of it all and made it look easy. He went out of his way to find songs that would please my husband’s family and keep my family on the dance floor. I was amazed at how closely he paid to the little details by playing songs that my husband and I mentioned to each other, but forgot to officially request, during our planning meeting with him. Overall, I cannot say enough good things about Roberto and his company. I highly recommend them and my only warning is that you will not want the night to end. :)

I wish I could plan another wedding just so we could have Roberto as our DJ again. Our reception was amazing-​the up lighting was beautiful, the dance floor was never empty, and the photo booth was so much fun for guests of all ages.
So many guests commented on how great Roberto was. He helped coordinate last minute events and guided us with ease through dances, speeches, etc.
Thank you so much for helping make our wedding so memorable, and we cannot wait to see you again at our family and friends events!

Roberto DJ-​ed our wedding on ¹²⁄₁₃ and was absolutely AMAZING!!! He was a pleasure to work with during the planning process and kept our 200 guests on the dance floor for the ENTIRE reception. We got so many compliments from our guests on Roberto and how wonderful our wedding was because of him! Thank you, Roberto, for making our wedding so much FUN!!!

Wow! Where to even start? We met with Roberto and Joe and immediately signed a contract with them (they were the only DJs we met with), because they were so genuine and personable. They were both very knowledgeable about music and weddings and made our lives easy from day one.
Joe was our DJ for the wedding, so we met with him one other time to plan. Again, he was so approachable, knowledgeable and fun to work with. We felt very confident that he would be fantastic on the day of the wedding. We didn’t want to make the playlist ourselves, so we just told him our music taste and goals and he turned that into gold!!!
The music at our wedding was PERFECT and the dance floor was full the entire night! Even while we were dancing, guests were telling us how great our DJ was. How amazing is that! When anyone asks what our favorite part of the wedding was, we always say «the dancing!»
We would DEFINITELY hire this same DJ and STRONGLY recommend this company to everyone!

Roberto!!! You kicked major A$$ saturday night. Our guest can’t stop talking about how well you mixed the songs together. You kept that dance floor moving all night! Marjie and I spent more time dancing then going around to our guests! lol I know the guests didn’t mind it. You played the perfect songs at the right time for the right amount of time to keep the guests into it. We are so glad we picked you for our wedding and allowed you to do exactly what you needed to do.
We told Roberto to do what he does with little input from us. He is the best in the industry, if you do not pick Roberto, then your making a mistake!!!

Well as you can see already Roberto is the man. After going to a wedding and loving the music my wife asked who the DJ was and we were introduced to Roberto. He was great in working with us since we did some different things at our wedding (remixed first dance, etc.). He also did a great job coordinating with both our photographers and videographers. However, the most important part is the music. After having gone to at least 20 weddings in the last 3 years, I’m of the mindset that music either makes or breaks the wedding. He plays music that gets people out of their chairs and on the dance floor while mixing the end of one track into the beginning of the next so that people just keep on going. Our wedding was supposed to end at 12 but he stayed and played with us until around 2 in the morning. I would recommend him to anyone who likes to party.
Thanks again Roberto, you helped make our wedding day unforgettable.

Roberto DJ’d our wedding last Friday and I pretty much will echo Amy and Chuck’s reviews. AMAZING. Dance floor was never empty and many friends (frequent wedding goers) said it was the best wedding they’ve been to. Exceeded our expectations in every way. If you need a DJ, book him… now!

This review is long overdue… Roberto himself DJ’d/MC’d our September 2013 wedding at the Chicago South Shore Cultural Center. From the very first time we met Roberto we knew we were in good hands. Roberto’s website made everything very simple to plan (e.g., timing of events, playlist etc.). Leading up to the wedding Roberto was super prompt to answer any question we had and accommodated all of our requests. Our guests (both young and old) had a fantastic time, and to cap it off, Roberto serenaded us at the end of the night (he has a great voice)! I really appreciated how Roberto worked with us to accommodate our needs without nickel and diming us. For instance, we got into a bind at the last minute with our video setup, so Roberto offered to provide us with video services at a very fair price, removing a lot of stress from the day. We especially appreciated the small things Roberto did: he was dressed very nicely (I can’t tell you how many weddings I’ve been to where the DJ was disheveled), made sure how to pronounce each name (mixture of Chinese, Korean, Indian, and Caucasian names), looked for subtle gestures from me during the evening to either cut songs short or extend them, dressed up the video booth so it didn’t look like a mess in pictures, was quick to work in sound bites at the exact right time w/​o any notice (he played the «Jeopardy» theme during my brother’s Best Man speech while my brother was quizzing my wife), etc., etc., etc. In closing, we couldn’t have been any happier with Roberto and will continue recommending him to our friends!

Whooohoooo! As good as it gets is right!!! Roberto is the BEST. He DJ’ed my friend Sarah’s wedding in 2011 when I was a bmaid and I remember him being so good and it being a rocking party. When I got engaged in February 2013, he was one of the first vendors I contacted so I could lock him down. He DJ’ed our wedding last weekend and it was honestly perfect! He had everyone out on the dance floor and mixed up the songs really well. He even played the song «Africa» by Toto as he remembered that we were going to Africa on our honeymoon. Also instead of only playing boring Sinatra type music during dinner, he mixed it up with soft indie rock, Amos Lee, Joe Purdy, and Ray LaMontangue (a few of my groom’s favs). Not to mention, he’s a very sweet guy who makes brides feel at ease during a very stressful time. Hire ROBERTO!!!

Went to a wedding last night and our table pretty much agreed that the DJ was really really good. Kept the dancing going with no dead time and was overall a really nice guy. If I could re-​do my wedding, I would hire Roberto.

Roberto Monastero was a FANTASTIC DJ! Our wedding was kept pretty minimal, so the dancing was pretty much the main event. He did an amazing job of playing the songs we requested as well as choosing music that flowed well from song to song so people stayed on the dance floor all night. A few people mentioned that they’ve never seen so many people dancing at a wedding. (I would argue that this was because of my sweet dance moves, but I think the music had something to do with it too) :) A+++, HIGHLY recommend.

Roberto DJ’d our wedding at the end of August. Pretty much echoing the sentiments of Amy A’s review (read that one, it’s better written). Saw him perform at a friend’s wedding a couple of years ago, and it was perfect.
He’s a really great singer with the old rat-​pack-​y type songs (that’s all I’ve heard him sing, but it is great). I’d encourage him to sing a couple if you can, it adds a little bit of a live act to the vibe.
Dancing — Awesome. I’m not a dancer in any way, so I had nothing in mind. He did a phenomenal job of keeping an eye on people and seeing what they were and weren’t dancing to, mixing things up and keeping everyone entertained.
He’s great to work with in every aspect of the process. Couldn’t recommend a better DJ.

Roberto Monastero just DJ’ed and MC’ed for us at our September 1, 2013 wedding. We saw him DJ’ing at a friend’s wedding a couple years ago, and knew we had to book him right away when we got engaged. He was the first vendor we booked — he is that good! He is BY FAR the best DJ I have ever encountered, and I have been to MANY weddings. He was very thorough and covered all the basics before the wedding. Then at the wedding, dinner music was spot on, and then he kept everyone dancing on the dance floor through the night… there not a single moment when the dance floor was empty. Song transitions were seamless while keeping in mind the audience on the dance floor. He played songs for the older crowd, younger crowd, and everyone in between. People were complimenting us all night on how fabulous he was, and how much fun they were having. As a surprise to us, he even sang a couple songs himself! That was amazing! He was so good, we thought it was part of a track! We would recommend Roberto to anyone looking for a DJ. He’s awesome!