San Diego Botanic Gardens – Blazevich Wedding

Client: Karen and John Blazevich
Venue: San Diego Botanic Gardens – Walled Garden and The Victorian Gazebo
Venue Address: 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas CA
Number of guests: Approximately 170
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, Wedding Video Montage Creation, Wedding Video Montage Projection

Wedding Coordinator: InStyle Event Planning (Shellie Ferrer)
Invitations: InStyle Event Planning (Amanda Hallock)
Photographers: Debora Barreto and Debra Henry
Videography: Adam Bledsoe
Officiant: The Honorable Vincent J. Brown
Guitarist: Miles Moynier
Cake: VG Donuts and Bakery

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

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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.

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

Number of guests: approximately 100
Services Provided: Wedding DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Dance Floor Lighting, Wedding Video Montage, Event song remixing
Photography: Acres of Hope Photography
Catering: German American Society

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.

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!