Client: Herminia Villalpando
Services Provided: Song Remixing
In March of 2011 Greg Rackley, a fellow DJ, subcontracted me to develop a remix for his client’s daughter’s quinceañera “waltz”. After discussing the project in detail, he connected me with the choreographer for the event, Spencer Smith. Spencer and I discussed the project in more detail, and I set to work to create the desired product.
For those wondering, the waltz above is in quotes for a reason. Beaunique, Herminia’s daughter, wants to do something special with her waltz. They are calling it the ‘dance of the decades’, but basically it goes from a waltz into a version of the evolution of dance, and back into the waltz at the end. It’s a cool concept and fun to do, and I was glad to be a part of the crew to help with the project.
Herminia desires to have the mixdown available online for the dancers to be able to download and listen to, so I’ve placed the mix here in my blog, the one place I have complete control over it and can be assured that it will stay available for as long as necessary.
I hope you all enjoy the mixdown. Congrats to Beaunique, and happy early birthday!
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!
German American Society – Wedding of Jason and Dina Clements
Client: Dina (Henderson) and Jason Clements
Venue: German American Society
Venue Address: 1017 S. Mollison Ave., El Cajon, CA 92020
Venue Coordinator: Heidi Williams
In July of this year, Dina contacted me and we agreed to meet at a bookstore/coffee shop to discuss details. During our meeting I found out that they were really into Irish punk and alternative rock, and since I spent years going to concerts and participating in mosh pits, it was easy to see that this was a good fit. After discussing options and packages, they decided to go with the basic package of wedding ceremony and reception and video montage projection with the option to upgrade later.
Dina and Jason chose are members of the German American Society and chose their clubhouse as their wedding venue. They set up on the side of the inside of the clubhouse for their ceremony. In typical ‘alternative’ format, both Dina and her father came down the aisle in sneakers (Chucks?).
The ceremony was short but entertaining, with both Jason and Dina saying their vows to each other.
Their wedding ceremony music:
Seating: String Quartet
Parents and bridemaids: Flogging Molly – Between a Man and a Woman
Bride’s entrance: Vitamin String Quartet – Green Day: American Idiot
Recessional: Dropkick Murphys – Famous for Nothing
For cocktails, the Heidi from the German American Society provided me with a German quartet CD (the wedding was Oktoberfest-themed): Schwartwald Quintet – Musik Erklingt.
For their Grand Entrance, I remixed a Green Day song and removed the cursing:
Wedding party: Green Day – Dammit (Clean edit by Dennis J)
Best Man and Best Boy: Star Wars – The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)
Bride and Groom: Dammit (Clean edit by Dennis J)
Dinner was served buffet-style, food provided by the German American Society. The wedding was Oktoberfest themed, and I can honestly say I have never seen so many glasses of beer during cocktail hour in my life! As I walked around, I say lots of beer-driven activities going on, including this one.
During dinner, we displayed a wedding video montage. The soundtrack was composed of two songs (Green Day – Boulevard of Broken Dreams & Flogging Molly – The Dirty Glass) which I had also edited in order to remove the few curse words contained within. Here’s a cool image from the montage, showing a cool wedding crest with an Oktoberfest theme.
Following the video montage and toasts, we began the formal dances.
First dance: Desi Arnez – Forever Darling
Father Daughter dance: The Beatles – The Long and Winding Road
We then began a set of open dancing. Dancing was sporatic, people were way more into drinking than dancing, but several times I was told that the music was great and that they really were enjoying it. We took a break from open dancing for cake cutting.
Cake Cutting: Cake – Short Skirt and Long Jacket
After cutting the cake, we began a German tradition known as the ‘stein-holding contest’ in lieu of a garter toss event. Because of the obvious propensity for major party fouls if the steins were filled with the traditional german beer, they were filled instead with water. Though they were not full of beer, they were just as heavy. The rules were simple– We invited single men to the dance floor, had them each hold a stein directly out with one straightened arm. The last one to remain with their stein held out was the winner. The whole event took two songs before these guys had met their match. And, it was a very smart idea to use water, as you can see in this during and after picture!
Stein-holding contest songs: “Drink” From the Musical “The Student Prince” and Street Dogs: Tobe’s Got a Drinking Problem
The whole event was quite enjoyable, I’m now the number one DJ on the German American Society’s vendor list, and everyone had a great time. During the second set of open dance I got to play some really fun tunes such as punk remixes and bmore versions of rock classics.
For their last dance, Dina and Jason danced to The Pogues – The Fairytale of New York.
And of course, I got my signature post-reception snapshot.
