LDS Wedding (Morman) – Adan and Arwen Martinez

Venue: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Cultural Hall)
Venue Address: 2255 Felicita Road, Escondido, CA
Number of guests: 150-160
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Monogram Lighting

Venue Coordinator: Jacqueline Thompson
Officiant: Bishop Shaffer
Photography: Doyle Terry Photo

In March of 2010 Jacqueline Thompson contacted me to discuss the opportunity to DJ her clients’ (Adan Martinez and Arwen Lott) wedding. Being on the Church of Latter Day Saints’ preferred vendor list got her attention, and she thought that I would be a good fit for their style. We spent some time on the phone discussing LDS standards, especially when it came to music selection. I actually learned a few tips from her that will assist me in future LDS weddings I’m sure.

Adan and Arwen and I met at a bookstore and discussed details. I showed them some examples of lighting, genres for cocktail and dinner, and monograms. Adan was particularly interested in the monograms. We had a great meeting with plenty of chemistry, and they decided to book right away. They also made sure to add the monogram lighting to their package.

On the day of their reception, I arrived at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Escondido and set up my main equipment on the stage. Adan chose to put the monogram on the rear wall of the stage, so I pulled the rear curtain shut, taped it as well I could, and used it as the background for the monogram.

For the ceremony, Adan and Arwen had one standard to LDS, consisting of stadium circular seating. This arrangement is very unusual to those not familiar with the customs, but here’s a picture of how it looks.

And the actual ceremony…

Seating Music: Vitamin String Quartet

Processional (Parents and Bridesmaids): Robin Spielberg – Canon in D

Processional (Bride’s Entrance): Vitamin String Quartet – Your Guardian Angel

Recessional: John Williams – Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)

Appetizer Hour (No drinking, so this wasn’t a cocktail hour!): Cocktail Jazz cover bands

Grand Entrance song: Olé- Bouncing Souls

Dinner was taking a little longer than anticipated, so we moved into their first dance.

First Dance: Time In a Bottle – Jim Croce

Father Daughter Dance: Rascal Flatts – I Won’t Let Go

Mother Son Dance: Juanes – Para Tu Amor

We then began a buffet-style dinner. During dinner, I got to chat a lot with the photographer, Doyle. Doyle was great to talk to, very professional and friendly.

After dinner, we kicked open dancing off with a hispanic traditional dance known as the La Vibora De La Mar. It can be done a lot of ways, but typically the bride and groom stand on chairs holding a veil between them. Since Arwen didn’t have a veil, they used a linen instead. While the song played, I sped it up and the challenge was for the dancers to keep up with tempo. We pitted the girls against the guys. The girls won. Easily.

I didn’t get many pictures of dancing, there were a lot of requests (I always welcome requests) so I spent lots of time interacting with guests. The hit genres for tonight were cumbias and spanish pop.

Cake Cutting: Jack Johnson – Better Together

Cake cutting got a bit messy…

After the cake cutting, we began the tosses.

Garter Toss: Flight Of The Conchords – Business Time

Bouquet Toss: Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman

After tosses we went back into open dancing. I ended up doing another 45 minute cumbia set.. Lots of good hispanic music!

Last Dance: <We just kept it upbeat>

Adan and Arwen left quickly after the reception was over, but I did get a chance to get my signature post-reception photo!

Congratulations to Adan and Arwen Martinez, and thank you for giving me the honor of being your Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Wedding DJ!

Military Ball Video and Pics

Client: Paul Quigg
Venue Type: Marriott Hotel in Del Mar
Venue Address: 11966 El Camino Real, San Diego, CA 92130-2592
Number of guests: 350+
Services Provided: Club music, premium dance floor lighting, wireless microphone

Creative Music DJs Equipment Setup for a Military Ball

Paul Quigg, a Marine stationed in San Diego in the Wounded Warrior Battallion-West, contracted us to perform at their annual Military Ball. We provided music for their cocktail hour, dinner, and open dancing.

Marine Corp Ball Cocktail Hour

For those that do not know, the Marine Corp Ball is also the Marine Corp birthday celebration. To symbolize this, they have a ceremony and then a ‘cutting of the birthday cake’ ritual. The cool thing is that they bring the cake out with a lot of fanfare and then cut it with a SWORD! Yes, a sword. There’s not many cooler ways to cut cake, right? I mean, maybe a laser cutter, or a circular saw, but other than those, a SWORD pretty much tops the cake (pun intended).

Marine Corp Birthday Cake

The gig was a lot of fun. It was a six-hour event, with cocktail hour and dinner, like all military balls we’ve had the pleasure of being a part of. For a few video snippets and highlights see the video below. To hire us for your military ball, please visit our check availability page.

Monthly Dance for the Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS)

Client: Cassie Lockhart on behalf of YSA
Venue Type: Gym
Venue Address: 1444 Lake Dr, Cardiff by the Sea, CA 92007-1002
Number of guests: 150+
Services Provided: Open dancing focusing on CLEAN music, adhering to the church’s ideals. Full lighting system 2 Quad Gems, 1 Mystique, 1 Vue III, 1 Scorpion Laser. Fog Machine [club grade, 1700w pushing 15,000 CFM (cubic feet per minute)]. Uplighting– 4 PAR36 LEDs.

After DJing a house party for Melissa (Melly), she and her guests were really pleased that I was able to play danceable club music but keep it clean. She referred met to her church, and Cassie from LDS called me. After negotiating, we met and exchanged paperwork. She signed my event contract, I signed her ‘promise to perform’ and ‘LDS rules for entertainment’. LDS dances are not like ordinary school dances — There are strict rules to the lyrics that can be played at a LDS church dance. I was given a list of songs that were acceptable, and another list of songs that were absolutely not to be played.

Cassie had been informed that we at Creative Music DJs specialize in custom-edited music, and so we agreed that I would adhere to LDS standards but stray a bit from the ‘OK to play’ list. I told her that if I stuck to that list the guests would never dance, and she understood.

For the dance, we went with a full-blown lightshow, including fog and lasers. The result was incredible. It seriously looked like “Club YSA” in that gym. Here it is before we started blowing fog:

Here it is after the show was going for a bit and we decided to let loose with the fog machine:

Admittedly, the crowd was a bit difficult to get dancing, but after going through some different genres, they really started to respond to the clever mixes and transitions, and the fact that I was playing a lot of songs that were catchy and ‘cool’ yet many had never heard. I went through an electro house set, a Baltimore-remixed (B-more) rock set, even played a few 90s TV show theme songs, cleverly mixed into break beats to make them danceable.

I was a little weary going into this because I had talked to a few professional San Diego DJs and they all said that in their experiences, the LDS community doesn’t dance at their events. Hmm… guess I beat the odds?

Afterwards, Cassie came up to me and said that the guests had a really great time and that she had talked to the other staff present at the event (there are a LOT of supervising staff at LDS dances!) and they all agreed and were going to add The Creative Music DJ to the list of YSA-approved vendors.

Hooray for custom-edited music, fancy lightshows, and dancing churchgoers!