Built from inside the booth

Gig Nest wasn't designed in a boardroom. It was built by Matt Rooney — a wedding DJ from Bolton with nine-plus years behind the decks and more than thirty North West venues in the book, from Colshaw Hall and Mitton Hall to The Midland and Tatton Park. Saturdays were the job he loved. Sundays were the admin it dragged behind it: enquiries answered too slowly, quotes rebuilt from scratch, planning forms couples never finished, deposits chased by text at 11pm.

Matt's other life is software — fifteen years delivering systems for telecoms networks, airports, retailers and a centuries-old auction house. So when he went looking for a booking platform that could read an enquiry the way a DJ would, check the diary, price from real packages and draft the reply — and found nothing could — he did the obvious thing with the skills he had. He built it.

“I built the thing I couldn't buy. The rule hasn't changed since: if it survives a wet load-in at Rivington Barn, it ships. If it slows me down on a Saturday, it dies on Monday.”— Matt Rooney, founder

That system became Gig Planner, and in 2025 it grew into Gig Nest — the home for all your event admin. Today it runs enquiries, quoting, contracts, payments, planning, music, rostering, reviews and analytics for DJ and event businesses across the UK — from £19 a month.

And the dogfooding isn't a slogan — it's checkable. Visit mattrooneydj.co.uk and you'll find a working wedding DJ's site whose “already booked?” link sends real couples to their planning portal — on Gig Nest. Every feature on this site answered his enquiries, drafted his quotes or briefed his crew before it was offered to you. If something's clunky at load-in, it gets fixed by Monday.

★★★★★“Communication with him beforehand was outstanding: every time I messaged him I had a response within the hour, I'm not joking.”— Shannon Rigg, wedding client of Matt Rooney DJ. That hour is the standard this product was built to protect.