In October of 2010 Eve and Lori of Bridal Insider contacted me to discuss the opportunity to provide lighting for their upcoming event, “An Evening At Mt. Woodson.” As many know, this year I was a featured vendor on Bridal Insider’s blogs, and they also featured one of my blogs on their ‘Real Weddings’ listings. Knowing that I’m knowledgeable with lighting, they asked if I could demonstrate lighting ideas, and I was happy to oblige.
The event took place on November 17th, 2010. To be able to effective demonstrate the flexibility of modern state-of-the-art lighting techniques, I set up 12 uplights in the Castle’s front patio area. For my more technical readers, they were all connected via DMX cable which then fed into a laptop. From the laptop, I was able to control the lights in many different ways. I spent days before the event creating different creative color patterns which changed with a click of a button. When I wasn’t consulting with a guest, I would pick a random ‘scene’ that I had set up and let the lights do their thing. When guests came over to talk, I would show them my ability to change the color of the lights instantly.
Here’s a couple pictures and some video from the event.
For those considering Mt Woodson Castle for their venue, I highly recommend good use of lighting. As you can see, it can really change the way the venue looks.
In June, Sarah Yslas contacted me to DJ her wedding. We discussed details over email since she was stationed out of state at the time. She showed particular interest in the monogram and uplighting, which I think was the main attraction to my services in the first place. Being that she was unable to meet in person, I instead scheduled a meeting with her fiancee, Curtis Little. Curtis and I met and instantly hit it off. Besides similar music tastes, we shared conversations of iPhones, Camaros (we both own one), and numerous other similar interests. Of course, we also discussed several details of their wedding, and Curtis was able to give me a good insight into what they were looking for, as well as the things that Sarah would be interested in. After a great meeting, we parted ways and I hit up Sarah a day later to get her input.
Amazingly enough, Curtis was spot-on when it came to Sarah’s tastes! If he said she wouldn’t care about it, she didn’t care about it. If he said she’d definitely be interested, she was absolutely interested. He really knows her well!
Sarah had distinct ideas about what she wanted for her monogram. Most DJ services only have the ability to get a monogram made from list of templates, but this wouldn’t do for Sarah. She was interested in a very unique monogram. She wanted Hawaiian flowers (Hibiscus) with butterflies of different sizes peppered throughout. Lucky for her I do monograms from scratch! I had her send me several pictures and ideas she liked, and we ended up finding one that fit the bill– A combination of butterfly made in the image of the hibiscus flower! Here’s the final design I sent off to be built. Note that it uses gradients, therefore cannot be done using laser-cut metal, so Sarah went with a glass gobo. I rarely have the opportunity to do glass gobos (they are twice as expensive as metal) so I was delighted at this opportunity.
On Nov 7th, 2010, I arrived early and set up the equipment and lighting.
My equipment. Clean and professional as always.
Table underlighting.
A unique method of displaying the monogram– I projected it through the linens of the cake table. It looked great, as you can see here.
The ceremony was held at Bali Hai’s Bayside Patio. I like to be as out-of-the-scene as possible, so I used a 50ft extension cord to position myself out of the picture.
I also positioned a speaker in the direct center of the ceremony site, hidden in the foilage. A very discrete setup, in my opinion.
The ceremony was short and sweet. Sarah and Curtis both had custom vows made to say to each other, which was nice.
Guests seating (Prelude): Various string quartet
Flower Girl and Ring Bearer (dog): “Kisses and Cake” by John Powell (from P.S. I Love You)
Bridesmaids/Groomsmen entrance: “Only Time” by Enya (from Sweet November)
Bride entrance: “To Get Me to You” by Lila McCann (from Hope Floats)
Recessional: “Forrest Gump Theme” by Alan Silvestri (from Forrest Gump)
Cocktail hour was done in the patio area. For this section, I played Hawaiian and island-themed music.
Grand Entrance: Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
Directly after Grand Entrance we began lunch. Towards the end of lunch, Sarah gave a tribute to her mom, who had recently passed away. After her speech, I played a tribute song as well.
Tribute to Mom: Carrie Underwood – Mama’s Song
We then began a video montage that was created by one of Sarah’s bridesmaids. I used my projector and screen, and even though it was daytime, the power of the projector I used was able to display the images clear and vibrant. I combined some pictures to hopefully give an idea of the layout and interest of the guests.
After the montage was done, I did a “seated introduction” of the bridal party, asking each person to stand up as their name was called. The introductions ended with the best man, which segued nicely into toasts, beginning with him. After toasts, we began the First Dance.
First Dance: Edwin McCain – I’ll Be
Father Daughter Dance: Heartland – I Loved Her First
Following the Father Daughter dance, I invited Sarah and her bridesmaids to the floor to perform their version of the Evolution of Dance. Sarah and I had worked together to put together this megamix of popular line dance songs, which took about four versions of my remixes to get just right. She then got together with her bridesmaids and they practiced a choreographed routine to the mix. Here’s some pictures of their dance.
I set up a video recorder to capture the dance as well. It’s not perfect, but still manages to capture a lot of the energy.
We had a short amount of time for open dance, and unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it…
After the wedding I did manage to grab the bride and groom for a post-reception picture before they went out front for their grand exit in a limousine.
Congratulations to Sarah and Curtis Little, and thanks for having me along on your special day. And special thanks to Curtis for introducing me to a very cool way to display monograms that I will be demonstrating to future clients!
In July, Karen and John Blazevich contacted me to DJ their wedding. We met to discuss details, and they were very excited that I knew the San Diego Botanic Gardens well so I could help them with ideas on how to best have a reception there. They also planned to use a live guitarist for ceremony and cocktail hour, but wanted my package of ceremony PA and microphone to use for their wedding ceremony.
The ceremony was held in the Walled Garden. I set up a wireless microphone and speaker which worked well for their needs.
Immediately after the ceremony, John and Karen left in a Rolls Royce to take pictures at the beach.
Cocktail hour was done in the Victorian Gazebo area, and the first hour was done by Miles Moynier.
Once Miles was finished, I took over for a bit since John and Karen were not back from the beach yet. For this venue, I used a JBL Eon speaker with my DJ Skirt equipment dressing. Due to venue sound restrictions, this was ample sound for their needs and conformed well with venue sound policies. I also set up a projector using a belly bar table in preparation for their wedding video montage.
Grand Entrance (Bridal Party): The Beatles – All You Need Is Love
Grand Entrance (Bride and Groom): James Brown – Get On Up
After a round of applause we began dinner. Following dinner, we started toasts.
Best man toast:
First Dance: Ben Harper – Forever
Video of the first dance (provided by Kristen Blazevich, John’s sister who also provided many of the pictures in this blog)
Father Daughter Dance: Temptations – My Girl
Mother Son: Barry Manilow – I Am Your Child
Stepmother Son: Frank Sinatra – The Way You Look Tonight
John and Karen took advantage of my video montage creation service, where they sent me digital pictures and I put them together into an incredibly vibrant montage video. Here’s a picture of them and their guests enjoying the montage. For some reason my clients who pick this venue always seem to want my montage creation service too, and it always goes over wonderfully!
And when we got to open dance… wow! Packed dance floor is an understatement. You can see in the pictures that people were dancing on the sides and off of the dance floor. That’s what I call a good dance floor!
After a while we took a break for cake cutting and tosses.
Cake Cutting: U2 – The Sweetest Thing
Bouquet toss: Beyonce – Single Ladies
<no picture of this yet>
Garter toss: Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On
Back to open dancing…
Great dance floor, huh?
After the reception was over, I got a picture with the wedding coordinators (Shellie Ferrer and Lacy Hunter) and myself. Shellie has since contacted me about some clients next year that are looking for a great DJ, so I know I’ll be seeing her and Lacy again soon.
And of course, my post-reception picture with the happy bride and groom. I asked John what him and his guests thought of my performance, his reply was, “I don’t think there was a single song that we didn’t enjoy. We gave you what? 12 songs? And you nailed it with the rest of them!”
I thought maybe one of my song choices wasn’t the best, but I’ll happily go with ‘the customer is always right’ especially when the customer’s claim is better than my own!
Congratulations to the Blazevichs’ and their families. I truly had a blast being a part of your most special day.
