Celebrity Birthday Party – David Justice

Venue: The Justice Residence (private address)
Number of guests: 50
Services Provided: Party DJ

Event Coordinator: Laura Villalobos
Hair Stylist: Laura Villalobos
Client: Rebecca (David Justice’s wife)

In April of 2011 Hairstylist for the Stars, Laura Villalobos, contacted me via phone to discuss DJing a private party. Her DJ was from Orange County and had cancelled on her. Upon further discussion I discovered that this was a surprise birthday party for a former outfielder and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for the Atlanta Braves (1989–96), Cleveland Indians (1997–2000), New York Yankees (2000–01), and Oakland Athletics (2002). For those that haven’t followed David’s career, he was listed in People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People issue (Vol. 41 No. 17), and also helped his teammates to victory in the 1995 World Series against the Cleveland Indians with a crucial home run in Game 6 to provide the only run in a 1–0 game that clinched the championship. I was honored to be given the opportunity to provide the entertainment for his birthday party.

On the day of his surprise birthday party, I arrived at David Justice’s residence and set up my main equipment in the middle of the great room. Rebecca had also hired a casino company and there were casino tables all around in adjacent rooms. Caterers served sushi and sashimi all night long. I love both, and went back a few times for more.

I did sets of lots of different genres all night long. I would say the best reactions were to new jack swing, ghetto hip-hop, and 90s R&B.

Since David Justice is a bit of a celebrity, I won’t post any pictures of the layout, but I do have a few pictures of Laura, David, and David also did a testimonial video for me after the event was over.

A photo of Laura and myself:

David Justice posing with me during the party:

And of course, the video testimonial from David Justice himself!

Happy birthday, David, and thanks for allowing me to provide the entertainment for your birthday party!

Athens Market – Lisa and Brian Brinig Birthday Party

Client: Lisa and Brian Brinig
Venue: Athens Market Taverna – Mary’s on First, John Pappas Room and Bar Room
Venue Address: 109 West F Street (1st and F), San Diego CA 92101
Number of guests: 300
Services Provided: Disc Jockey, Dance Floor Lighting, Cake Lighting

Venue Coordinator: Mary Pappas (Owner)

In November of 2010 Lisa Brinig contacted me to discuss a dual birthday party for both Lisa and her husband Brian. She was turning 50, while he was turning 60. She called it the 50/60 party, and said it would be themed. We discussed it a bit more, and she decided to book immediately.

Thru future discussions it was discovered that although the theme was 50/60, the music choices were more along the lines of 60s and early 70s. Lisa and Brian supplied a playlist of around 80 songs using my online song selection portal.

The day of the event I arrived at Athens Market Tavern and set up. To complement the theme I set up enhanced dance floor lighting, but also added an authentic mirror ball.

Lisa and Brian set up many cool tables of various nostalgic items. These ranged from Rubik’s Cubes, to Duncan yo-yos, and even to Slinkys.

As always, a clean setup. It doesn’t matter if it’s a wedding or private party, I just have to have my equipment looking nice!

They also had a large birthday cake, which I illuminated with a LED cake light, set to slowly change through different colors.

Before the cake light.

After the cake light.

There was also a sign-up poster for their 2021 birthday party.

For cocktail and dinner hours, I played a lot of their playlist, which was composed of many great classic songs that were great to listen to but not dance floor material. Songs such as:

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – Beatles
I Say A Little Prayer – Aretha Franklin
Scenes From An Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel

When it came time for dancing, I was asked to make no announcements, just change to some dance music and see how it went. Well, that’s pretty much my style anyway, so I complied and got the dance floor packed rather quickly. Since Lisa and Brian’s song requests were mostly non-danceable tunes, my plan was to play many of those artists, but play their more popular dance songs. For instance, with the list above, the selections I used for dance floor time were:

Twist and Shout – Beatles
Freeeway of Love – Aretha Franklin
We Didn’t Start The Fire – Billy Joel

As expected, it went over well and the dance floor was active all night long. A few guests came over with requests, but most seemed content to let me surprise them time and time again with great danceable tunes.

Some pictures of the dance floor at various times of the night:

There were so many more great dancing pictures, but I don’t want to overwhelm this posting with them.

Guests also had a lot of fun with the nostalgic props.

Lisa and Brian had their own special pair of glasses…

OK, I’ll admit it… I can be a fun guy sometimes too. Shh… Don’t tell anyone!

So to sum it up: An incredible night full of nostalgia, fun, and dancing. As always, I took an opportunity to get a post-event picture with my clients, Lisa and Brian.

Oh! I have to mention that the staff at Athens Market are great! They’re so much fun and nice and accommodating. After the guests left and we were all cleaning up, they actually grabbed all the props and were doing some silly poses with them for another employee to take photos of. I got my own picture.

Happy birthday to Lisa and Brian. Thanks for having me as your DJ for dual birthday party, and best wishes for many more happy birthdays!

Bahia Belle – Wedding of Yaron and Luis Pruginin-Jaramillo

Client: Yaron Pruginin and Luis Jaramillo
Venue: Bahia Belle
Venue Address: 998 West Mission Bay Drive • San Diego, California 92109
Number of guests: Approximately 60
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Wedding Ceremony DJ

Venue Coordinator: Kristin
Wedding Coordinator: Jamie
Photography: Emilio Azevedo Photography

In July of 2010 Yaron and Luis contacted me to DJ their wedding. Being a same-sex couple, I’m assuming that they were drawn to my work through other same-sex celebrations I’ve had the privilege of DJing– everything from weddings to anniversary parties. California is one of the few states with cutting-edge ideals. As such, being an accepting and liberal individual allows me the unique pleasure of working with clients of all inclinations. I’ve worked at the Bahia Hotel, but I had never done a wedding reception in the Bahia Belle, so after they booked we met at the venue to go over the unique needs of the Belle. They really wanted to do some lighting for their wedding, but the Belle has limited electrical outlets, and it is difficult to block sunlight, so we had to omit those from their package.

Yaron and Luis decided to design their own ceremony. Being of mixed ethnicity, they went with many Jewish traditions, combined with a few other ideas. Since I always express that I love implementing different ideas, I was excited about the opportunity to witness their unique ceremony.

At the beginning of their reception, guests met on the second floor to mingle for a bit. After a while, they moved down to the bottom floor for a meal. During this time I worked on the upper deck, setting up equipment for their ceremony. The upper deck of the Bahia Belle doesn’t have an electrical outlet, so I had to run an power cord from the upper deck down around the stairs and into the windows of the middle deck to get power for my equipment. Due to my venue visit earlier I was readily prepared for this though, and set up was smooth.

After their meal, guests were invited to the upper deck for the ceremony.

Seating music: Vitamin String Quartet – The Gay Wedding Collection
Processional: Emmylou Harris – A Love That Never Grows Old
Recessional: Jorge Celedon – Esta Vida

The ceremony started with the officiant (Jamie) talking about how special it was to be present to witness the union, and then explaining the Jewish Huppa and getting guests to help put it together and erect it. The entire ceremony was performed under this Huppa, per Jewish tradition. After the procession, Yaron and Luis were given a lei to wear together.

Several readings took place.

And here’s a picture of the newlyweds right after being pronounced married. They look so happy!

After the ceremony, we went downstairs to the middle deck for dancing. Here’s a picture of the dancing guests doing something similar to the Vibora De La Mar but without chairs.

During cake cutting they did toasts.

Cake Cutting: Frank Sinatra – Love & Marriage

Here’s them receiving toasts from their guests…

…and here’s them thanking their guests.

Afterwards we went back to open dancing until the end of the reception. A lot of the second set was Columbian cumbias, by request.

For their last dance, guests held hands in a circle around Yaron and Luis.

There was a lot of farewells and we needed to get equipment off the boat to make room for another event that was taking place the same evening, but I did manage to get a post-reception shot using my iPhone.

Congratulations to Luis and Yaron, and thanks for the opportunity to be a part of your special day!