Bahia Weddings and Events – Dean and Lisa

Dean and Lisa chose to have their wedding ceremony and reception at Bahia Resort. This is a great venue for weddings, and one that I really enjoy working at due to the attentive staff and beach atmosphere. Their reception was held in the Del Mar Ballroom.

Wedding Ceremony

Dean and Lisa had their ceremony on the beach directly outside of the Del Mar Ballroom, but it was in no way a traditional ceremony! From the first event to the last, this was a ceremony of unique ideas and lasting memories.

To begin the ceremony, they did a sand pouring, but instead of the bride and groom participating, it was the mothers of the bride and groom who poured the sand.

Then, they did a ‘Star Wars’ entrance. The officiant was garbed in a black robe which dragged on the ground behind him, in the style of a Sith Lord. Dean and the officiant walked to the beginning of the chairs, shook hands, then the officiant continued to the altar. As he walked to the altar, I played the Imperial Death March.

Dean and Lisa then met up and walked the remainder of the way to the altar together.

Once married, they each took out their cell phones for what they called the ‘official declaration of their marriage’– The changing of their Facebook statuses to “married”!

Wedding Reception

Cocktail hour was held on the Outdoor Patio.

Wedding Lighting

For their reception area, I set up four uplights and a cake pinspot. These lights really made this room’s ambiance change dramatically!

They had a cupcake tree with a small cake in the top center which I pinspotted for added effect.

Grand Entrance

Immediately after the Grand Entrance, we started toasts.

Wedding Toasts

Dean and Lisa then gave a short speech and thanked their family and guests.

First Dance

When dinner was completed, I invited Dean and Lisa onto the dance floor and began their first dance.

Father Daughter and Mother Son Dance (combined)

Dean and Lisa combined their parent dances together. “One Dance To Rule Them All” is what they called it.

After formal dances were over, we opened the dance floor up for everyone!

Wedding Dancing

After a bit of dancing we took a break for some more formal activities.

Wedding Cake

Wedding Dancing Part II

Last Dance

Post-Reception

As the reception hall was being cleaned up, I made sure to get my signature post-reception photo with the newlyweds.

Congratulations to Dean and Lisa and their families, and thanks for choosing The Creative Music DJ for your special day!

Loews Coronado Wedding – Greg and Megan

Greg and Megan chose to have their wedding reception at Loews Coronado Hotel, a wonderfully lavish hotel located in Coronado.

Wedding Reception

Greg and Megan had their ceremony in a church. Once the ceremony was over, the guests arrived at the hotel where they mingled in the foyer enjoying music from the wireless cocktail speakers I supplied.

Cocktail hour was held on the outdoor patio. To provide sound outside for this, I used my wireless speaker system.

Wedding Reception

Once cocktail hour was over, we opened the ballroom doors and I invited guests inside.

I have not been able to contact the photographer and I took very few photos of the events, so this blog post will be rather scarce on photos, sorry!

Wedding Uplighting

Greg and Megan took advantage of my uplighting package and decided on 12 blue uplights. Uplighting works really well at Loews, despite the shortage of electrical outlets. Once you’ve worked there a few times you start to know the tricks to getting power to your lights, thankfully!

I was also able to capture a cool panorama of the uplights using my iPhone4.

As you can see, they chose to utilize my cake lighting services as well, and I supplied both table underlighting and pinspotting.

The quality and wide-spread of my uplights really shows well in this photo.

Wedding Dancing

Wedding Dancing Part II

Post-Reception

Before Greg and Megan left, I made sure to get my signature post-reception photo with the newlyweds.

And I had a great time working with Ashly, their wedding coordinator, so we got a photo together also.

Congratulations to Greg and Megan and their families, and thanks for choosing The Creative Music DJ for your special day!

Additional Photos

Some cool photos of yours truly that were captured during the night.

Scripps Forum Wedding – Robert and Candace

Robert and Candace chose to have their wedding ceremony and reception at Robert Paine Scripps Forum for Science, Society and the Environment. This is a beautiful oceanfront venue located in La Jolla. It seems to appeal to those that want a relaxed atmosphere and yet a modern look. They chose to have their reception in the Charles E. Scripps room, a small room in the front of the building. For a destination wedding with a limited amount of guests, it definitely worked well.

Wedding Ceremony

Robert and Candace had their ceremony on the oceanfront lawn outside the Scripps Seaside Forum. An interesting story was to had here. Originally, they decided to omit my ceremony services and do the ceremony by themselves. To accomplish this, they had an iPod Touch, and a battery powered speaker. Unfortunately, they miscalculated the ability of their speaker, and it wasn’t able to do the job. Since I arrived at the venue with plenty of spare time, I had already (mostly) set up my reception system and was aware of their issue. I did some tests with the speaker, and no matter what I tried I just couldn’t get both their microphone and iPod to be loud enough! (Post-event research shows why– It supplied a mere 5 watts!)

When the best man came me with the issue, I suggested adding my ceremony package and they happily agreed. It made all the difference with their ceremony!

Wedding Reception

Cocktail hour was held on the outdoor patio. To provide sound outside for this, I used my wireless speaker system.

Wedding Reception

Once cocktail hour was over, I invited guests inside and we began their grand entrance.

Grand Entrance

Note: Many of these photos were not the actual ones I requested from the photographer. When I attempted to get the correct ones, I was told I could only have about a third of what I wanted so I chose to just use the ones I received. For parts of this wedding where I did not get professional photos I’ve used some of my own.

Immediately after the Grand Entrance, we went into dinner, then toasts.

Wedding Toasts

First Dance

When toasts were completed, I invited Robert and Candace onto the dance floor and began their first dance.

Father Daughter Dance

Mother Son Dance

Wedding Dancing

After a bit of dancing we took a break and started the cake cutting.

Wedding Cake

Wedding Dancing Part II

Post-Reception

We had a blast! Guests stayed all the way until the end, and many stuck around to chat with me, get my business card, etc. Before Rob and Candace left, I made sure to get my signature post-reception photo with the newlyweds.

Congratulations to Robert and Candace and their families, and thanks for choosing The Creative Music DJ for your special day!

Additional Photos

Some cool photos of yours truly that were captured during the night.

Review

Robert and Candace posted the following review about my services on WeddingChannel (review site of The Knot).

Direct link: http://local.weddingchannel.com/Wedding-Vendors/The-Creative-Music-DJ-Wedding-Review?ProfileId=404723&ReviewId=391617

Value

We planned our San Diego wedding from Phoenix, so we had not met Dennis before our wedding day. We had no wedding planner, and neither of us had ever been through a wedding before, so inevitably there were a few things on the wedding day that we realized we hadn’t thought of. The day of the wedding we panicked, realizing that we needed a PA for the ceremony. Dennis was super flexible with our reservation, he showed up early and set us up with a killer PA system at the last minute. After the ceremony, he coordinated with the caterers and sorted out the entrance of the wedding party into the reception, and the first dances. Dennis was absolutely brilliant in ensuring that the reception flowed perfectly. Oh, he also plays great music. He played all the stuff we wanted him to play, took requests, and filled in the gaps expertly. He has an outstanding understanding of musical tastes; if you ask for Standards, he’ll play the good ones, if you ask for Ambient, you’ll get it, and if you ask him not to play ‘The Macarena’ he gets that you probably don’t want to hear ‘The Chicken Dance’ or ‘Cha Cha Slide’ either. The dance floor was packed the whole time, and at the end of the night nobody wanted to leave. On top of everything, Dennis set up a huge surprise for us at the end of the night that my wife and I will never forget. I could not imagine anybody having done a better job. Hire him, I promise you won’t be disappointed.