E l Cortez – Barbolla Wedding

Client: Andrew and Carmen Barbolla
Venue: El Cortez – Don Room
Venue Address: 702 Ash Street, Suite A, San Diego, CA 92101

Number of guests: approximately 150
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Enhanced Dance Floor Lighting, Wedding Video Montage

Wedding Coordination: Kelly Hath

This was the first of two weddings I had this week.

Carmen Mosley and Andrew Barbolla contacted me in May to inquire about wedding services. They were getting married at El Cortez, and wanted someone who could DJ and MC, knew their genres of music (70s disco & 80s funk, as well as current hits and some latin). Carmen was out of town but arranged a phone meeting with her fiancee. After talking with him, they decided to book with me.

Months later, Carmen returned to San Diego and arranged to meet in-person. At that time she learned about my wedding video montage creation service and decided to add it on to their package. For those that are not aware, I provide a service where clients can give me up to 100 pictures and I will create their montage for them, using professional video editing software to create eye-catching montages complete with custom transitions, including effects such as ken burns and book zoom. At the wedding I will then project the created montage using high-powered projectors and large projector screens.

When I arrived at El Cortez, the band that was scheduled to play had already taken up their spot. I set up my system next to theirs, and placed my speakers on either side of the stairs. Because of the shape of the room (octagonal, and rather round), bass has to be kept minimal or else you get an echo effect that ruins the sound. I set my subwoofer on “1″ and it seemed to work great.

Since I use vinyl, many times I like to ask my clients what their wedding colors are and try to match their decor with a similar shade of vinyl. They told me that their main color was purple so I brought my purple vinyl. What they didn’t mention was that their secondary color was a brownish orange. How fateful it was that the labels to my purple vinyls were almost the exact same shade! I couldn’t have planned it any better if I had tried. Check it out!

For ceremony, Carmen and Andrew went with a string quartet.

Seating Music: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Processional Bridal Party Music: Three Divertimenti
Bride’s Processional Music: Pachelbel’s Canon in D
Recessional Music: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

After ceremony, guests went outside to enjoy a cocktail hour while I played some light listening music for anyone who might venture inside.

Introductions went well, as Carmen and Andrew chose to only have themselves introduced as “Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Barbolla”.

Dinner began, and afterwards we started toasts. This is when the rest of the bridal party was introduced. Toasts were done in the following order.

Best Man: Dennis Kavanagh
Matron of Honor: Vivian Boos
Father of Bride: Jerome Mosley
Mother of Groom: Diane Barbolla
Bridesmaid: Danielle Egan

After toasts, we began dances. Instead of using my camera, I let my video recorder run and recorded the dances. Here’s some frames from the video I captured.

First Dance Music: Adele – Make You Feel My Love

Father/Daughter Music: Frank Sinatra – The Way You Look Tonight

Mother/Son Music: Toby Lightman – Better 

 Halfway through the dance, the groom switched to dancing with his grandmother, and the Best Man graciously took over dancing with his mom.

..

After the dances it was time for open dancing, and this was a good dance group. They shuffled their feet to 70’s, 80’s, even some 50’s.

After about 45 minutes, it was time for their friend’s band to play. They were known as Bedford Grove, and had a blues/folk sound to them. They played for about 45 mins, and then turned the dance floor back over to me. They were actually really cool people, and when they weren’t playing they were on the dance floor getting their groove on. One of two of them even made some requests, and I was able to get one of their requests into my set.

I started my second set, but with a twist. The bride and groom had arranged a “crazy half hour” in which I brought a pre-planned bag of props to the dance floor, dumped them all out, and told guests to grab whatever they wanted because we were about to do a bunch of follow-along songs in the next “crazy half hour”. The guests loved it, and it was fun to watch them dance wearing masks, hats, and other assorted apparel. I mixed songs like a madman, weaving through all the classics (cheesy and non-cheesy), and watching the dancefloor with amusement. After the crazy half hour was up, I transitioned into some good dance music and kept the floor going with guests who were even more enthusiastic than the first set. So enthusiastic, in fact, that when it came time for cake cutting, bouquet toss, and garter toss, they asked if they could just do the cake cutting and then skip the rest so they could dance more. I had no problem honoring that request.

I actually have video of the dancing, including the “crazy half hour”. I will post it up as soon as I go through it.

Cake cutting was done to a combination of Rathergood’s “Cake” and Eileen Barton’s “If I knew you were coming (I’d have baked a cake)”.

Open dancing commenced and they danced right up til the very end, after which Carmen and Andrew were happy to pose with me for a post-reception picture. I love the fact that she still has on her mask from the crazy half hour! As a matter of fact, she never took it off during the whole time after that half hour. I think she even has it on in her cake cutting photos, but I haven’t received any to verify that yet!

Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina – McKay Wedding

Client: Colin and Michele McKay
Venue: Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina – Bay Tower – Catalina Ballroom and Terrace
Venue Address: 1380 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego California, 92101

Number of guests: approximately 130
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Event Uplighting (8 lights), Enhanced Dance Floor Lighting, Monogram Lighting, Wedding Video Montage

Wedding Coordination: Stephanie
Photography: SoCalSunshine Productions
Caterer: Sheraton Hotel

Wow, we had ourselves quite a time this weekend! But before I get ahead of myself, let’s backtrack a bit…

Colin and Michele contacted me in February to inquire about wedding services. Coincidentally, this was right after I had just booked another wedding at the Sheraton with Adam and Kela Karlsgodt! We met at a nice brewery restaurant and discussed details. They were particularly interested in my lighting expertise, and my ability to design a monogram personally, using whatever styles and designs that a couple can invent in their minds! Our initial meeting was very productive. Soon after, they contacted me and booked their date. A few months after they contacted me and asked if we could meet again. Since their wedding package was quite extensive it made sense to me. We met a second time and worked out most of the details, even taking the time to let them sample music personally while we sat together. At the end of our second meeting, I could tell we were both comfortable with each other, and it felt good.

Colin and Michele chose Sheraton San Diego’s Garden Terrace for their ceremony and the Catalina Ballroom for their reception location.

Like the last time that I worked at the Sheraton, I placed the speakers behind the guests and taped the wires down almost invisibly. The speakers you see in the front of this picture are not mine, they belong to the Sheraton.

During the ceremony, Michele carried on conversations with the officiant, and was found laughing several times, and making others laugh at other times. That pretty much set the mood for the night. I think everyone had the same thought– With a ceremony as entertaining as that, this night was going to be something else!

This is priceless!

Once the ceremony was over, the guests were shown to the Catalina Ballroom. Three sides of this fourth-story room have windows on them. The center windowed wall goes out onto a large outdoor patio. Their wedding colors were purple and silver, so they chose to include the uplighting package and I complemented the room with 8 purple uplights. Eight seems to be the magical number when I provide my services at the Sheraton!

I proudly displayed their custom-made wedding monogram on the wall above the bridal party table… which looked brilliant as it went through the sheer curtains they used.

Here’s a first for me. I took video of the room, and then made still shots to create a panoramic image for you to really see how the room looked. Click on the picture below to see it in more detail.

Introductions were incredible entertaining as well. When I went out into the hallway to line up the bridal party and instruct them on how to enter, it was obvious that this was not the group that wanted to do a simple classic entrance. So, I gave them cues to head to the dance floor, do a fun little dance, then step to the edge and form a circle around the dance floor in anticipation of the bride and groom. The bridal party was introduced to Living On A Prayer (Bon Jovi) and the bride and group came out dancing to Panama (Van Halen). Each pair of the introduced bridal party did their own little dance/routine as they hit the dance floor. And yes, I got it on film! Here’s a little collage I made of the McKay’s introductions.

After introductions, the father of the bride gave a welcome speech.

After the toast, salad was served while guests enjoyed a dinner playlist mixed with rat pack, swing, ballroom, classic rock, adult contemporary, and even some newer songs that work well for dinner playlists.

Following salad, toasts began, and then we started the video montage. I have two pictures here. One is of the video being shown in a decently lit room. I include this one so you can see just how powerful the projector I use is. Even in a nicely lit room, the whites are white, and the picture is bright and vibrant. The projector retails for $4000, and it will outperform any typical home projector or even the projectors used in corporate offices.

Oh and I also used a new wireless transmission to get the sound to the main speakers. No wires were needed, nothing to trip over or have to tape down to keep guests from tripping!

Following dinner and toasts, Colin and Michele had their first dance. They danced to All We Ever Find (Tim McGraw).

Colin and Michele's First Dance

Followed by parent dances:

Father/Daughter Dance: Hole Hearted (Extreme)
Mother/Son Dance: My Wish (Rascal Flatts)

And then it was time for open dancing! And these guests loved to dance! Unfortunately, my video camera had just about run out of power so I saved it for the end. But to give you an idea of how well the night went, here’s a picture of the dance floor about 15 minutes before the end of the night (ABOUT 12:15 AM!)

The McKays purchased my enhanced dance floor lighting package as well. This looked surprisingly well with the uplighting.

Cake cutting was done to Pour Some Sugar On Me (Def Leppard), and then we did a garter toss to Single Ladies (Beyonce) and a bouquet toss to Legs (ZZ Top).

Since it is my job to pay attention to details and keep in mind ideas to make the night memorable, I caught on to the fact that Colin and Michele had been together a long while (seven years). As such, I surprised them with a little activity called the Shoe Game which tests their knowledge of one another, and it went over really well. All the guests seemed to enjoy it as much as they did!

The end of the night we surprised guests with a few sing-alongs that Colin and Michele had planned for the remaining guests:

Second to last song: Total Eclipse of the Heart (Dan Band)

Last song: I’m On A Boat! (The Lonely Island)

After these, the guests were yelling “encore” and “one more song” so after checking with the hotel staff to make sure it was OK, I gave them one more song– The Way You Move (Outkast).

They yelled one more song again after that, but I wanted to be respectful of the hotel staff (it was 12:40AM, after all!) so I shut down.

Since guests were mingling about afterwards, I took the opportunity to get a picture with Colin and Michele.

I asked Michele what she thought and her response was, “Dude this party was all you! You realize that right? You totally killed it”! She then stated (complete with hand gestures) that they expected this much (hand raised decently high) but I gave them THIS much (hand raised as high as possible). I replied that although I have a decent part in it, it is a combination of their family and guests, the vendors, and the venue that made up their wonderful experience. She argued the point, but really… although I like to believe I’m good at what I do… I couldn’t do it without all of them and their guests, and other quality wedding vendors! And I wouldn’t continue to do it and be successful at it if there weren’t more “Colins” and “Micheles” with wonderful family and friends who make me feel good about what I do, and understand that if you take the time to invest in me, I will take the time and invest in you!

Congratulations to Colin and Michele and their families, and thanks to both for inviting me to help plan and execute a wonderfully special night!

The Wood House at Woodland Park in San Marcos – Evan and Natasha’s Wedding

Client: Susan Dewindt on behalf of Evan Dewindt
Venue: The Historic Wood House at Woodland Park
Venue Address: 1148 Rock Springs Rd., San Marcos, CA, 92079
Number of guests: 115
Services Provided: DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, Video Montage, Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Coordination: Opal Martin of Allie’s Party Equipment Rental
Photography: Sage Taylor Photography
Catering: Allie’s Party Equipment Rental

Earlier this year Susan Dewindt contacted me for her son’s wedding. We met at the wedding venue to discuss details, and worked out the details. The Wood House is a historic building located at the top of Woodland Park in San Marcos, directly below the public pool area. I wish I could supply more information than that about this venue, but the history of it seems to be rather secret, and I haven’t found a single website that elaborates on it.

The Historic Wood House in San Marcos

We sat down at the venue to discuss additional enhancements for the wedding (we are a full-service entertainment company, after all) and Susan decided to add the video montage package after viewing some of the recent slideshows that I have created for clients.

The ceremony was a lot of fun. Natasha and Evan were not looking for a traditional ceremony with traditional music, and to make sure that happened they spent time with their bridal party choreographing a bridal party introduction routine to Black Eyed Peas’ “Alive”. Although my camera wasn’t in a good spot to get some of the details, I did manage to get a decent amount of the routine on video. Enjoy!

The reception area at the Wood House is nice and large and guests enjoyed great appetizers from Allie’s Party Rentals while I played a customized playlist well-tailored for this particular crowd. Song choices included Reasons to Love You by Meiko and You Look Wonderful by Slightly Stoopid. As you can tell, this wasn’t your ordinary cocktail playlist. It was many of the couple’s requests, complemented by similar songs with similar themes. Truly a challenge, with a rewarding outcome.

Since this was an outdoor wedding and it was a bit sunny and hot, precautions had to be taken to protect my equipment (and me!) from the elements, all the while keeping the clean and professional set up I’m known for.

My view…

The wedding started a bit late so we had to adjust the timing of events to compensate. Luckily , I was not alone with the planning. I had the help of their day-of coordinator, Opal Martin, to work with. It’s always nice to work with a competent and friendly coordinator. Together, we were able to mitigate some of the scheduling issues and make everything work well. When we needed some extra time, I threw in the “Shoe Game” to entertain the party, and it went over really well. We also did the “Anniversary Dance” since there were a lot of married couples in the guest list. The winning couple had been together for 60 years!!!

Dances:

First dance – Can’t Help Falling In Love (UB40)
Father/Daughter – I Loved Her First (Heartland)
Mother/Son – Beautiful Boy (Celine Dion)

After the sun set, we were able to project the slideshow. I used my DaLite projector screen, which is 7′ wide and 7+’ tall. The projection was beautiful. My projector is extremely bright and as such doesn’t let me take pictures of the projection well, but here’s a shot of the set up and the guests and bride and groom enjoying the montage.

For open dancing, I was given a rather eclectic playlist of the bridal party’s favorite songs, largely centered around electronic dance music (EDM). I really enjoyed my set because it was definitely out of the typical wedding genre. I actually enjoyed it so much that I ended up hitting ‘record’ on my system, and after tossing some ‘drops’ in it, I’m posting it here for all readers to listen to and even download if they wish.

Creative Music DJs – July Live Wedding Clip

The reception ended with a fast dance, and the mother of the bride actually requested an encore song which I obliged with, and then the mother of the groom came up and wanted ANOTHER encore song. This group of guests just did not want to stop dancing!

After the reception, guests gathered around for a group picture, which I became a part of as well. It was pretty dark so I had to do some editing to make everyone visible.

And I just LOVE the happy expressions of both Natasha and Evan in this one.

Congratulations to Natasha and Evan, thanks for having me along for the celebration, and best wishes for continued years of happiness. You both have known each other since second grade, and you answered most of the questions the same during the Shoe Game. I’d say this one is going to last!

After the big day, I contacted Susan, the mother of the groom, who posted a review on InsiderPages (http://www.insiderpages.com/b/15250648840/creative-music-djs-san-diego) which says this:

“Dennis did such an incredible job at my son’s wedding. Even with some very last minute changes minutes before the wedding started, Dennis was able to pull it off. He is great with the crowd and kept everyone dancing up to the very end!”

Marriott Mission Valley – Cristina and Gerardo Rangel Wedding (Cabrillo 1 & 2 combined)

Client: Cristina and Gerardo Rangel
Venue: Marriott Mission Valley – Cabrillo Room
Venue Address: 8757 Rio San Diego Drive, San Diego, California 92108
Number of guests: 130
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance floor lighting, Uplighting (8 lights)
Photography: Frank Papini Studios
Banquet Captain: Claudia

Cristina and Gerardo (“G”) were referred to me when the DJ that they had won a free wedding reception with was booked. Cristina contacted me and we decided to meet at their house to discuss details. While sitting with them, I found out that they were really into freestyle, and I got excited. For those that know me, I have always loved 80’s freestyle, as is evident by one of my lastest mixes which I’m now posting here for free download:

DJ Dennis J – Back In The Day We Called This Pop (12″ vinyl-only freestyle mix)

Since both Cristina and Gerardo are mexican, they wanted around 50% spanish music, and the rest 80s rock, freestyle, pop, with some top 40 included as well.

Arriving at the Marriott, I found the hotel staff to be extremely accommodating. From helping me navigate the narrow parking lot lanes, to finding me a place to park after I had unloaded, the staff was very helpful and it was appreciated. I got in, and set up quickly. Cristina and I had discussed with the Marriott that we didn’t want to use the table layout they are used to (DJ in the corner, sweethearts table in the other corner). Cristina was actually really adamant about this. “No one puts my DJ in the corner!” she stated firmly. Gotta love it when your client gets your back, right? So the final layout had me on the side wall, right next to the sweethearts table which was on a raised platform.

The Cabrillo room had four pillars in the center of the room, and these usually end up being the four corners of the dance floor. They lend themselves well to uplighting, and the Rangels were wise in opting to add uplighting to their package, because it completely enhanced the look of their reception, as you can see here. I put two uplights per pillar, making for 8 uplights total.

Cocktails were held outside, and towards the end of the cocktail hour, we invited guests into the main reception room. The introduction was done to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” and included a Marine Corp Sabre Arch ceremony which the couple passed under as they reached the dance floor.

For dinner, we started with Mariachi music, and after a good playlist of that, moved into 50’s oldies. It was a good combination for this particular guestlist, and several times I overheard guests singing along to songs such as Angel Baby by Rosie & The Originals.

Toasts went well, as well as their first dance. Instead of parent dances, I performed a new twist on a old classic– We began a money dance, but the beginning of the money dance was an announcement of parents while bringing them to the floor to dance before the other guests got their turn. It worked really well, and so did the money dance! The lines were so long that I ended up coaching the MOH and BM to shorten the duration between cut-ins, and we still went through 7 songs!

After the honeymoon/money dance, we did an Anniversary dance to Banda Limon’s “Y Sigues Siendo Tu” (A spanish version of Shania Twain’s “Still the One”). The winning couple had been married for 40 years! That’s quite an accomplishment, and we gave them an extra round of applause for this.

Cake cutting was next, using Sade’s “Your Love Is King” for music accompaniment. We then began the bouquet toss, but “Mexican style”! I invited all single ladies to the floor, but before the bouquet toss, we did a special version of “La Vibora De La Mar” done to Rednex’s “Cotton-eyed Joe”, led by the Maid Of Honor. After that, we did the bouquet toss, and then began the garter toss. With the same enthusiasm, the Best Man led the “La Vibora De La Mar” before the garter tosses. Although I didn’t manage to get pictures of the female La Vibora De La Mar , I caught a few of the men.

The male La Vibora ended with the groom being hoisted into the air and crowd surfed across the single men. What can I say? This was one enthusiastic and fun bunch of guests and family!

After tosses were complete, I began open dancing with some bandas and then some cumbias, and eventually some salsa. The dance floor was quickly filled, and guests danced to all forms of spanish music. After a bit of spanish music, I transitioned into some 80’s american music, and the rest of the night was a combination of spanish and american hits. The groom’s favorite band is Red Hot Chili Peppers, so during the middle of the night I transitioned into a mashup of “Give It Away Now” and Mim’s “This Is Why I’m Hot”. G instantly saw the connection and gave me a big smile showing he appreciated the consideration. That one event pretty much summed up the energy and excitement of the whole night. Smiles everywhere you looked, so much dancing that at the end of the night my speaker cables were stuck under the dance floor (seriously!), and just a really fun celebration.

After the reception was over, the guests gathered in the middle of the dance floor for a group picture. I thought I was going to a casual observer but started hearing everyone saying “Get Dennis in here!” and “We need Dennis in this picture!” so I became part of the last fun pictures of the reception!

Afterwards, the bride and groom posed with me for a post-reception picture.

So in summary, this was one fun celebration! G has informed me that I am now a permanent part of his life, and I’m sure I’ll see Christina and him again. Thanks to both of them for inviting me to participate in their night of celebration, and thanks to all the guests and family for making me feel so welcome and appreciated.

Oh and as an additional note, I had a chance to talk to Claudia, the Event Captain for the night. She took several of my business cards, and said she would be happy to recommend me to others. So, I may be back at the Marriott in Mission Valley soon!

More from Creative Music DJs

• Hard Rock Hotel Wedding – Roxana and Jeff Brown
• Tom Ham’s Lighthouse – Asaro Wedding
• Admiral Kidd Club Wedding – Shannon and Jason Fouts
• Coronado Candelas Wedding – Ruby and Antonio
• San Diego Botanical Gardens – Allen Wedding

Creative Music DJs Recommend

• There is no vaccine for fear, and it’s contagious  (Mile High Mamas)
• A bear, hail and other camping calamities  (Mile High Mamas)
• African music, Marriott points, Steve Jobs and Avs musings  (All Things Colorado Avalanche)

San Diego Botanical Gardens – Melanie and Tim’s Wedding

Client: Melanie (maiden name: Lehman) and Tim Allen
Venue: San Diego Botanic Gardens – The Walled Garden (ceremony) and The Victorian Gazebo (reception)
Venue Address: 230 Quail Gardens Drive
Number of guests: 75
Services Provided: DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, Video Montage, Wedding Ceremony

Wedding Coordination: Creative Music DJs (hey, it happens.)
Photography: Rachel Wattson Photography
Catering: Sombreros Catering

In January of this year I was contracted by Melanie and Tim to provide services for their wedding. They had reviewed my blog and were ready to sign up at our first meeting, which was nice. After viewing some example slideshows that I have created for clients, they decided to add that to their package as well.

Melanie and Tim selected the San Diego Botanic Gardens for their venue. The Botanic Gardens is in Encinitas and covers around 35 acres. In those acres, there’s several great spots for weddings, and they went with the gazebo area. Both are very picturesque.

The ceremony was beautiful. Melanie and I had met a few weeks beforehand to finalize wedding details, and she opted the ‘tearjerker’ ceremony package. This is a package which comes with a customized version of the processional song. It’s a package designed to induce tears of joy for all attendees, especially the parents.

The bridesmaids entered to Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”, and Melanie walked down the aisle to Matisyahu’s “One Day”.

DJ Dennis J at The Walled Garden

Dinner was catered by Sombrero’s Mexican Catering, and was delicious. Afterwards, the bride and groom danced to Jason Michael Carroll’s “Living Our Love Song”.

For the father/daughter dance, Melanie’s dad had something special planned which him and I had secretly worked out the details about. As I started the dance, I played a ‘filler track’ while her dad passed out pamphlets explaining to all guests where Melanie’s nickname “Hood” came from (she was really into a Sam the Sham song when she was younger…). Melanie had no idea what was being passed out as she waited on the dance floor for her dad to join her for the dance. Her dad made his way to the dance floor, and proceeded to start to dance with his daughter. As the dance began, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a red hood with horns, and I quickly switched to the real dance song he had chosen, “Lil’ Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham and The Pharoahs!

For the mother/son dance, Tim and his mother danced to “Fishin’ in the Dark” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I don’t have a picture of this yet, maybe soon?

After the parent dances, we had a bit of open dancing, and gave it a chance to get dark. Once the sun had gone down, we paused dancing for a bit to present the video montage for everyone to enjoy. For this event, I went with my DJ Screen lycra projector screen. Being that we were outside, this screen works well and also looks pretty unique and impressive.

Tim and Melanie enjoying their custom-created wedding video montage

Following the montage, we did bouquet and garter tosses.

Garter Toss at San Diego Botanic Gardens

Afterwards, we went back to dancing and the dance floor stayed full until the end of the night.

The night was a huge success, full of customization and surprises. Afterwards, Melanie and Tim stuck around and said goodbye to their guests. Tim came over and thanked me for my service, and stated, “You were worth every penny!” which was a nice compliment. I took the opportunity to get a picture with him and his new wife.

DJ Dennis J with the bride and groom at Botanic Gardens

Bouquet Toss at San Diego Botanic Gardens

Congratulations to Tim and Melanie Allen, and thanks to them once again for inviting me to be a part of their special night. And also a special thanks to Rachel Wattson for providing me with many of the excellent pictures that were used in this writeup!

More from Creative Music DJs

• Hard Rock Hotel Wedding – Roxana and Jeff Brown
• Tom Ham’s Lighthouse – Asaro Wedding
• Coronado Candelas Wedding – Ruby and Antonio
• Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina – Karlsgodt Wedding
• My Latest Wedding Disaster Aversion Story

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• What’s good about Wedding Photography today? | Photo creative 365  (photocreative365)
• Remembering my Hometown of San Manuel Arizona  (Tomas Carrillo)
• 2010 San Diego Comic-Con  (Fritz Harmon Photography)

Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina – Karlsgodt Wedding

Client: Adam and Kela Karlsgodt
Venue: Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina – Bay Tower – Bel Aire Ballroom
Venue Address: 1380 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego California, 92101

Number of guests: approximately 110
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Event Uplighting (8 lights), Enhanced Dance Floor Lighting

Wedding Coordination: Daphne
Photography: Dave & Sherry Gillespie
Caterer: Kimberly Miller

Adam and Kela contacted me in February to inquire about wedding services. After a productive meeting, we kept in touch for a bit. They wanted someone who could really mix, so I offered to get them VIP at one of the clubs I was performing at at the time. I invited them to come see me at Onyx, and they accepted (though never showed…). Nevertheless they contacted me and decided to book me for their wedding.

Adam and Kela chose the Bel Aire Ballroom at Sheraton San Diego as their reception location. One side of the room is composed of windows overlooking the ocean, and provide an amazing view to complement an event. Their wedding colors were red and black and silver, so they chose to include the uplighting package and I complemented the room with 8 red uplights.

Red Uplighting at the Sheraton Harbor Island

The ceremony was held at the Garden Terrace. The request was to arrange speakers to ensure that no wires or speakers would get into the pictures. To work with that, I placed the speakers behind the guests, and taped the wires down almost invisibly.

Sheraton Harbor Island Garden Terrace Wedding Ceremony

Although I’d love to show you lots of pictures, things went off schedule (the guitarist for the ceremony was stuck upstairs retuning his guitar after his son decided to tweak the strings!) and although my efforts to recoordinate were successful, it resulted in very little time for pictures! However, I did get a few pictures…

Here’s their candy table. Lots of candy here! I took home about 20 pumpkin cookies myself…

Sheraton Harbor Island Candy Table

A picture of some of the guests on the dance floor.

Bride and Groom and their guests danced all night long

And another…

Karlsgodt's Guests dancing

The bride and groom and their guests danced all night long. At the end of the night there were still at least 40 people remaining! Here’s a picture of the dance before the last dance. Look at how many guests remained all night!

Sheraton Harbor Island Guests remained until the end

At the end of the night the guests didn’t want to stop. They even started chanting ‘encore!’. Kela had talked to me a few days ago and asked if it was possible to get extra hours and I assured her that I would stay as long as they needed. However, when I went and asked her if I should continue (keep in mind the reception had been going for 6 hours and it was midnight!) she said she would love to but her feet were sore from dancing all night! Haha.

After the reception ended I took a moment to get a picture with the bride and groom.

DJ Dennis J with Adam and Kela Karlsgodt

Congratulations to both Adam and Kela Karlsgodt, the Karlsgodt and Miner families, and thanks to both for allowing me to be a part of their wonderful celebration!

More from Creative Music DJs

• Hard Rock Hotel Wedding – Roxana and Jeff Brown
• San Diego Botanical Gardens – Allen Wedding
• Tom Ham’s Lighthouse – Asaro Wedding
• My Latest Wedding Disaster Aversion Story
• Coronado Candelas Wedding – Ruby and Antonio

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• Mueller will be in Avs lineup tonight  (All Things Colorado Avalanche)
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Levyland Estates Wedding – Christopher (DJ Ruckuss) and Mary Lou Lomibao

Client: Willie and Johanna Asaro
Venue: Levyland Estates – Main House
Venue Address: 2401 Mountian View Drive, Carlsbad, CA
Number of guests: approximately 108
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Enhanced Dance Floor Lighting

Wedding Coordination: Crystal Roode from The Occasion Events
Photography: Gabrielle Fox

Christopher (DJ Ruckuss) contacted me to discuss their wedding. He is a club DJ from Vegas who recently moved to the OC area. Being a club DJ, he wanted a DJ that could match talent in the clubs yet conduct events like a true wedding DJ. We talked for a bit and discussed details. He had a very good idea of what music he wanted, and a strong desire to get his guests dancing using club-techniques.

I was pretty excited about this wedding because the theme was music, and well, I LOVE MUSIC!

Christopher and Mary Lou chose the Levyland Estates as their reception location. The Levyland estates is a large venue that can only be rented for a 6 day period, but provides everything that one needs for a wedding and reception.

Levyland Estates

The reception began well. The ceremony had ended much earlier than planned, so guests came in while I was setting up, but it wasn’t a big deal. Introductions were done to “Michael Jackson – PYT (Pretty Young Thing)”. For the first dance, they chose, “Amel Larrieux – Make me whole”.

Chris and Mary Lou's First Dance

Since we also did the Santee Street Fair this day, I didn’t have our camera, so the only pictures I got were from my iPhone, but hopefully they’re still enjoyable.

Here’s some pictures of the cake and decorations, with the ‘Music’ theme.

Turntable cake.

DJ Turntable Wedding Cake

Dinner menu, in the form of a CD playlist.

Dinner menu, CD playlist style

For wedding favors, Chris made 50 copies of a special wedding mix and placed them all over the tables. I’m not sure who had a cassette deck to listen to one though. I know I got rid of my last one a long time ago!

A real mixtape

CDs were labeled with instructions for guests such as guestbook signing.

CDs prompted guests to perform functions such as guestbook signing

Another DJ-themed cake.

Another DJ cake

Needless to say, dancing happened. It was a lot of fun because I got to really go all out club-style and showcase a talent of club and wedding fusion. It was kind of funny because guests came up to Chris and told him “good music tonight” to which he replied “hey, it was all Dennis”.

After the reception, I took my usual opportunity to get a pose with the happy bride and groom.

DJ Dennis J with Chris and Mary Lou Lomibao

Congratulations to Chris and Mary Lou Lomibao, and thanks once again for inviting me to be a part of their special night!

More from Creative Music DJs

• Hard Rock Hotel Wedding – Roxana and Jeff Brown
• Tom Ham’s Lighthouse – Asaro Wedding
• Admiral Kidd Club Wedding – Shannon and Jason Fouts
• San Diego Botanical Gardens – Allen Wedding
• Coronado Candelas Wedding – Ruby and Antonio

Creative Music DJs Recommend

• My night in Corvallis  (Tyler Hurst)
• Strange Lessons in Learning How to Sell Well  (Tomas Carrillo)
• The Coffee Shop, In Gilbert  (Arizona Coffee)

Point Loma DJ – Creative Music DJs

Client: Danna Gunther
Venue: Personal Residence
Venue Address: Point Loma
Number of guests: 35+
Services Provided: DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Video Montage
Catering: Crown Point Catering

Danna Gunther contacted me a while back to DJ her daughter’s upcoming 21^st birthday at her home in Point Loma. Her daughter wanted a DJ, but was concerned about finding one that knew her favorite music. I suggested we meet, and arranged a meeting at their house where Danna, Olivia, Amy (Olivia’s older sister), and Jeff (Danna’s husband) would be present. We met and started talking about music, and by the end of meeting Olivia told her mom that she thought I would be perfect for the party.

While talking with Danna I showed her some other packages that I offer and she really liked the video montage idea, since she wanted to be able to give a copy of a video montage on DVD to Olivia for her birthday. I worked both the creation and projection into the contract, and they signed up.

On Olivia’s birthday, I arrived early and set up my system. I knew it was going to be an interesting night because Olivia’s favorite music wasn’t necessarily dance music, it was more along the lines of Jack’s Mannequin, The Fray, and Citizen Cope. I was told there would be no dancing, to which I replied, “OK, but let’s leave an area open just in case dancing begins.”

Catering was provided by Crown Point Catering, and the food was excellent.

Working with Crown Point Catering

Several guests gave compliments on the music selection, and things went well. It started raining,  but it was light and the guests were enjoying the atmosphere so much that they remained outside! As the night progressed, I started mixing club-versions (redrums) of some of Olivia’s requested songs, mixed with crowd-pleasers and even some oldies and current top-40. Ironically, the first person to start dancing was Danna, the one that had been adamant about the fact that ‘there will be no dancing’! Needless to say, dancing did happen, as I knew it would. While the party was going on, Olivia took a moment to pose with me. She looks amazing, doesn’t she?

DJ Dennis J with the 21 year old Birthday girl, Olivia

After dinner and some light dancing, I made the announcement that we had prepared a special slideshow chronicling Olivia’s life from birth until now, and started the slideshow. The guests loved it. The lycra DJ screen is about 10’ wide, so the presentation was beautifully large as you can see here.

Olivia's Presentation on my new DJ Screen

After the party was over, Olivia and her friends left in a limo to hit up bars in the Pacific Beach area (as any 21 year old would do) and I spent some time packing up and chatting with Danna and Jeff, who said everyone really loved the music and that they will be calling me for Jeff’s 60^th birthday party in a couple years. I took the opportunity to get a quick snapshot of my happy client.

DJ Dennis J with Danna

Thanks to Danna for giving me the opportunity to entertain her daughter’s guests for an evening, and happy birthday, Olivia!

More from Creative Music DJs

• Hard Rock Hotel Wedding – Roxana and Jeff Brown
• Tom Ham’s Lighthouse – Asaro Wedding
• Liberty Station Birthday Party – Jim Fitzpatrick
• Linda Vista – Disco Party Video and Pics
• San Diego Botanical Gardens – Allen Wedding

Creative Music DJs Recommend

• Your Opinion: The “Controversy” of Birthday Party Thank-you Cards  (Mile High Mamas)
• Strange Lessons in Learning How to Sell Well  (Tomas Carrillo)
• Party People in the House  (Mile High Mamas)

The Abbey – San Diego DJ – Downtown Rotary Club Fundraiser

Client: Joseph Marshall on behalf San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club
Venue: The Abbey
Venue Address: 2825 Fifth Ave., San Diego, CA 92103
Number of guests: 100+
Services Provided: DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, Video Montage, Additional Soundsystem

Joseph Marshall from the San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club contacted me at the beginning of the year. Although, I was in Las Vegas at the annual MobileBeat DJ Convention, I was able to discuss enough details with Joseph over the phone to assure him that we were the company he wanted for his fundraiser. He told me that they were doing a “Saturday Night Fever” disco party at The Abbey, and would need a DJ (whether San Diego wedding DJ or not) that knew his disco music well. Additionally he wanted a strong dance floor lightshow, complete with disco ball effects, and an additional soundsystem since The Abbey is multi-story and there was going to be a live auction which would need to be heard by everyone throughout the venue.

As Shalamar sings, this was definitely a “night to remember”. We started with a cocktails and appetizers hour, at which time I played some of the disco hits from the 70’s that only true disco fans would recognize. This kept the theme ‘disco’ without wasting great disco tracks that would be better utilized later in the night on the dance floor!

For the silent and live auctions, they used a professional auctioneer, Steve Hamann, who performs at over 100 auctions per year. He was definitely a pro– He kept the guests informed of closing times for the silent auctions quite well during the appetizer hour.

A professional dance duo was scheduled to perform a dance segment, and then do some dance instruction. I met with them during cocktails and discussed the songs they wanted/needed. One of the dancers gave me his phone which had a list of  his favorite disco songs. I went back to my booth and proceeded to make a Serato crate with all these songs, to prepare for their segment. Soon they took over the dance floor, demonstrating their dance prowess to Michael Jackson’s “Dancing Machine”. After that, they started dance lessons for all guests. I smoothly mixed through all the songs on his playlist, beatmatching and transitioning properly. It worked really well to keep the guests entertained and on the floor.

Clean disco-ready set up

After dance lessons, we had a bit of open dancing during which point the dance floor stayed full. Once that set was over, Steve took over again and held a live auction with items such as weekend stays in Hawaii, and spa treatments. I remember one particular item which caused quite a laugh– A cemetary and cremation service, with a certificate that must be redeemed within five years! No one bought it.

After the auction was over, the floor was turned back over to me and I did my thing, keeping guests dancing for an hour or so more. Afterwards, Joe came over and expressed his thanks, stating that “Rotarians are notoriously difficult to get dancing” and that he had many future events planned and I was now at the top of his list. Oh, and two of the catering staff came over and grabbed business cards, so I think we’re starting to be a preferred vendor at The Abbey.

Disco Fever at The Abbey

Although I did manage to get some video of the guests dancing, I was experimenting some with some overhead angles and I don’t believe the result is anything I want to show, sorry!

Thanks to Joseph Marshall and the San Diego Downtown Breakfast Rotary Club for allowing us to be part of their fundraiser, and we’ll see you again soon!

More from Creative Music DJs

• Hard Rock Hotel Wedding – Roxana and Jeff Brown
• Admiral Kidd Club Wedding – Shannon and Jason Fouts
• San Diego Botanical Gardens – Allen Wedding
• Liberty Station Birthday Party – Jim Fitzpatrick
• Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina – Karlsgodt Wedding

Creative Music DJs Recommend

• Bad bosses rule the workplace  (Biz Buzz)
• The definition of heroism  (All Things Nuggets)
• The FruitGuys – Changing the World One Apple at a Time  (Tomas Carrillo)

Dave and Busters – San Diego State University (SDSU) Appreciation Party

Client: April Hsu on behalf of SDSU NSMH, SDSU MESA, and SDSU HTMSA
Venue: Dave & Buster’s – San Diego
Venue Address: 2931 Camino del Rio North ,San Diego , CA 92108
Number of guests: 100+
Services Provided: DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, Video Montage

April Chu from SDSU’s National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH) contacted me a while back looking for a licensed and insured DJ for their organization’s appreciation party. Apparently they had a few DJs that they knew personally that wanted to perform, but Dave & Busters has a strict policy requiring licensed and insured performers. This just emphasizes how important it is to be licensed and insured here in San Diego, right?

April and I met at Dave and Busters to work out the details. They wanted dance floor lighting, a video montage, and of course GREAT music and club-style mixing.

The night of the event everything went well. For the first 1/4 of the night they served appetizers and drinks, and I played an instrumental medley of today’s top-40 songs to accompany it. These were college students, after all!

After appetizers, there was an awards ceremony at which there were many prizes given out. After that they did a recognition of new board members, and a raffle. Then, it was our turn.

The dance floor filled slowly but steadily, and by end of the second song, it was pretty full! Guests enjoyed cleverly mixed top-4o, club, rock and even a bit of hip-hop. There were a few requests, and I was able to get most of them in during the short amount of dance time that was left. Primo Desiderio came out to hang out and enjoy the performance, and ended up taking a decent amount of video for me, which I’ve compiled into an enjoyable clip below. This is one of the best videos of a Creative Music DJs performance so far, so I must express thanks!

Mike Nunez also came to hang out, and being a very good photographer, he took some amazing shots of me in action. See what you think. I think they’re excellent!

At the end of performance, you’ll notice one of the attendees performing a number to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”. I was told he knows the dance to most Michael Jackson songs so at the end of the night I held a vote for an MJ song and Smooth Criminal won. After I saw him perform I now wish we had a lot more time so we could see more of his moves!

After dancing was over, guests came over to thank me, April expressed her satisfaction over the performance, and a few bartenders from Dave and Busters remarked on how much they enjoyed the music.

Thanks to April Chu and SDSU for allowing us to be part of their celebration, and we’ll see you next year!