New Options!!

So, a friend of mine who has been a Karaoke DJ for something like 10-15 years "retired", and Platinum Mix purchased all of his Karaoke CDs and equipment. We've gotten several requests over the years from people who were interested in doing Karaoke at their events and now finally we can offer it. And boy, did we score with buying everything from my buddy! He says he had over 25,000 songs. We noticed that was a bit of an exaggeration (you know how people are when they are trying to sell you something…..). Still, it’s got to be at least 18-20,000 tracks. Sweet. We immediately called our favorite graphic designer, Jen, who designed a cool new logo for us and even gave our Karaoke service a better name: "Open Mic"


You’re going to like the cost of our next new option: FREE! There is a catch though. You have to reserve our “Signature Wedding DJ” package (#2 in the “get a quote” page), AND you have to reserve a Platinum Mix videographer. If you have both of those things then you can request “Instant Replay”. With Instant Replay, we can play back parts of your ceremony video at the reception on our video screens (video screen is included with the Signature Wedding DJ deal), so like….maybe we can mix in your vows with the last song of the night….that would be romantic huh? Or maybe we could put together a little highlights montage and just kind of let it play in the background during dancing or something. Lots of cool things we can do with Instant Replay!

If you have already booked your wedding DJ with Platinum Mix and you want to add in either of these services, just call me, Sara, at 248-349-8318 and let me know you want to add Open Mic or Instant Replay (or both!). :)

Also, big shout-out to our graphic designer cuz she rocks. Jen comes up with the best ideas and even puts up with me (I'm really picky and have a severe case of A.D.D...total nightmere customer for any graphic designer...lol). If you need a good graphic designer you should call Jennifer Guthrie and she will totally hook you up. I bet she could do some magic with party/wedding invites too. Email her at jgdesign79@yahoo.com

November was easily the busiest November Platinum Mix has ever had. In all the years past, business would come to a screeching halt starting November 1st, but this year we had plenty of weddings and several of our corporate clients had their holiday parties a little earlier.

The first of our holiday party season was held Nov. 17th at the Kensington Court for an Ann Arbor Dentist office. It was kinda weird seeing holiday decorations before Thanksgiving (shouldn't there be a law against that??). I kept my fingers crossed the whole time, praying the guests wouldn't request christmas music and thankfully, nobody did.

Jennifer and Kevin gave lotto tickets as their favors at their 11-11 wedding, great idea!

Lots of people ask us what the custom gobo light option is. A gobo is a pattern, image or text that we can project anywhere you want at your event. They are great for displaying a company’s logo at corporate events or tradeshows and plenty of wedding clients add them into their DJ service too. Joy and Michael sent me a copy of their invitations, and then their initials printed on the invitations were scanned into the computer and sent to a company that makes gobos, and then we put the gobo into a projection type light. Here is Joy and Michael’s:

A bonus to having your wedding in December is all the free decorations you
get (though, that's assuming you're cool with Christmas trees, wreaths, and
Christmas lights). John and Kristin totally had a Christmas-ey theme going at the Dec. 2nd wedding. They even had a cupcake tree:

I think the bridal party may have broken the Platinum Mix "HUGEST bridal party" record previously held by Kelly & Kyle (5-21-05). Check out the line-up:
1 usher
7 flower girls/ring bearers
8 bridesmaids and 8 groomsmen
plus the bride and groom

that makes a grand total of 26!

Kristin and John had their wedding at Vladimir's in Farmington. By very strange
coincidence, this is my 2nd week in a row here (and I don't think I've played
Vladimir’s since maybe 2003?). Last week, I was here for a 10 year class reunion which
made me feel old. 10 year high school reunion means they graduated in 1996. I graduated in 1997. What on earth have I been doing since the 10 years since high school!!??!! Despite being a little depressed about the sudden realization that I’m aging, I'll admit it was a blast playing all that 90's music!

Last night I had another one of my work related nightmares. In my dream, I accidentally spilled coffee all over a bride's dress and then she chased me down with the cake knife. Not sure if she caught me or not because I woke up just as the maid of honor was hurling the toasting glass at me. No idea where this came from! My typical nightmare's involve me at a wedding with a packed dance floor and not being able to think of another song to play next, so then there is just an awkward silence and then everybody starts throwing stuff at me....lol. (good thing neither scenario has never happened!!).

Maybe last night's dream came about because of the incredibly beautiful dress Kathleen was wearing. Kathleen and Brian were married Friday night and she looked so amazing! Gotta say, that was one of the most beautiful wedding dresses I have ever seen. Check out the pics....what ya'll think? Nice huh? Kathleen and Brian had their reception at Indianwood Golf & Country Club in Lake Orion. Kind of an unusual layout. The dance floor and DJ were sort of separated from the rest of the room. Real nice place! What I will remember most was all the children. They didn't need a DJ with all the entertainment those kids provided! One cute little boy wanted to know when it was his turn to play DJ. A little baby girl probably no more than 2, got the hugest kick out of sticking various body parts into my LED lights (her little head fit perfect and she was so excited to watch her clothes change colors with her head stuck in the cans!) . "Who Let the Dogs Out" is apparently really hot with the under 10 crowd. It was requested by about 6 different kids and when I finally gave in and played it, they had some adorable dance moves ready. Great group of people! Congrats Brian and Kathleen! (click here to see more pics from Brian and Kathleen's wedding)

Tonight is my first Saturday night off since last March....I am sooo excited. Platinum Mix's videographer, Andrew, just bought a house and is having a housewarming party tonight so it will be cool to actually get to go to something as a guest!

How strange! In my last post about Amanda & David's wedding I wrote something about wishing I knew what company made the cake because it looked and tasted so awesome. This past Saturday at Adrienne and Will's wedding, I found out.....It was Gwen's Cakes! Gwen made Adrienne and Will's cake and also made Amanda & David's last week. Big shout-out to Gwen, her cakes are the BOMB. Each layer of Adrienne and Will's was a different flavor, and all 3 tasted awesome (yes, I confess to having a "sample" of each layer....but it was for the benefit of future brides and grooms planning their weddings and needing a baker recommendation...). This is going to sound mean but I hope she's not doing the cakes of any of the weddings I'm working for at least the next month because I am going to get so fat at this rate. lol. :)

I wonder if its hard to plan your own wedding if you're a wedding planner? Didn't seem too difficult for Adrienne, her wedding turned out beautiful and she didn't seem the least bit stressed at all. In fact, I would say Adrienne was one of the most easy to work with brides I have had all year. What a fun group too! They partied down so hard they broke the dance floor (seriously...a few pieces of wood fell out...hahaha!) . Congrats to Will and Adrienne!




Great to work with Marcus from Lifeshot Photography again too!

Gotta say that I was impressed with The Reserve this weekend. Dan worked Lauren & Benjamin's wedding there on Saturday and Carolyn called in the morning and left a message on my voice mail to check in and see what time he was going to be there. I was impressed that a) she knew Platinum Mix was scheduled to be there, even knew the specific DJ scheduled and b) took the time to actually "check-in" with us. That's very professional on their part. If I was getting married I would most def want to work with a venue that was so on top of their game.

Amanda and David planned a very elegant wedding and reception at Weller’s in Saline. I liked how they did their first dance immediately after being introduced and also liked how they had their bridal party join in for the 2nd half of it. I had made a slideshow of some of their growing up pictures but instead of playing it once for all the guests to watch at a designated time, it just ran in the background during the cocktail hour and dinner. Every time I’ve done it this way, it seems to go over so much better with guests.

I really liked the photographer I worked with tonight, Marci Curtis. She was friendly, very easy-going and did an amazing job with the photographs. She even hooked her laptop up to my projector so she could run a slideshow of some of the photographs she had taken that day. The wedding pics played all during dancing and were a big hit with the guests. She’s got a great website. I especially like her wedding tips page located here: http://marcicurtis.com/tips.html. I totally agree with all of her “tips” with the exception of #11. Maybe she’ll change her mind about that after she gets a chance to work with me a little more often….lol :)

Really dug the wedding cake too. Wish I knew who made it so I could give credit because it tasted so damn good. It’s now 3:30 am and I’m not the least bit tired. I have to fall asleep so I can be rested for Sarah & Jeff’s wedding tomorrow. It’s going to be tough to get people dancing since I will be competing with the Tigers playing in the World Series. Jeff told me they are bringing in a TV so everyone can watch the game. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that people will dance during the commercial breaks.

More pics from Amanda and Dave's wedding

Alright, just wanted to mention that after experiencing the buffet at Glen Oaks for Heather and Shane’s wedding Sept. 29th and at Kary and Michael’s wedding at Springfield Oaks Sept. 15th ---- Oaks Management offers the BEST buffet that I have ever personally experienced in the entire Metro Detroit area. They have this salad bar that is so big and has so much good stuff to put on it, my plate was full before I even got to the meat part. YUM! And that chocolate mousse stuff....yummmmyyyy!!! (discounts now available to platinum mix customers who are having their wedding at an Oaks Management place and have ordered the buffet….lol)

Speaking of Heather and Shane’s wedding, that reception was wild! They gave away the coolest favors…shot glasses that said “I went to Heather and Shane’s wedding and all I got was this lousy shot glass”. Awesome idea. Usually people forget their favors, so at the very end of the wedding I went looking for a few more shot glasses to take home and couldn’t find not a single one. Every single guest had taken home their glass – most def a first time for that!

Another great wedding was Jennifer and Jason’s. Their reception was held Sept. 30th at the Holiday Inn in Flint. I really liked working with Jennifer and Jason. They were clearly in love with each other, and seemed to be a great match. They were also tons of fun and so were their family and friends. Platinum Mix got to set-up all of our cool stuff (enhanced lighting, big video screen, music videos, photo montage, jam cam), and its always awesome to see our entire set-up get to come together. Most people pick one or two options, but I think its soooo much better with everything (ha-ha…I’m probably just biased though since I’m totally obsessed with DJ stuff…lol). Pictures from Jennifer and Jason's wedding can be found in our Hot Shots photo galleries.

I also enjoyed Anu & Abel’s wedding held on the Detroit Princess Boat. Boat weddings are so fun! And the Detroit Princess is really nice. The staff was super accommodating, they even let me plug into their built in sound system so I got to play on 8 speakers spread all over the boat – total surround sound. Their video is coming out really nice too…I’ve seen over 700 weddings, but when Andrew played me back their ceremony tape, the microphone we had on Abel picked him up saying the cutest things and it actually made me cry. (can’t believe I just admitted that on the internet!) :)

Also…..we are now using google’s online photo albums for our Hot Shots. This is much better because now our clients can easily download all the pictures our DJs took at their events. We also tried to re-organize our Hot Shots page on the website to make it a little easier for all of you to find the event you are looking for. If anybody has any questions about finding your event pics from the galleries please email platinummix@yahoo.com or call Sara at 248-349-8318.

The only thing I don’t like about being a DJ is not being able to call in sick to work. I’m always jealous of my friends who say stuff like “I didn’t feel that great this morning so I called in to work”. But being a DJ, it’s not quite that easy. Regardless of how I feel the show must go on. So this weekend was really rough for me. It was one of the busiest weekends we had all year and I woke up on Friday morning with that scratchy feeling in my throat. I overdosed on Vitamin C, took some sore throat medication and dressed warm to prepare for the wedding of Donella & Kyle which was scheduled at the Earhart Manor in Ann Arbor – outside in a tent. The wedding was beautiful, and this tent was really nice. They had even rented heaters that warmed up the tent when the sun went down and the temperature dropped. Jennifer House at “A Moment In Time” did an awesome job decorating and coordinating the wedding. I’m sure she was a big help to Donella who was planning from Chicago. My sickness held off and I had a great time spinning their requested play list of all 50’s and 60’s music. I also thought the instant photo booth they rented was totally cool.
Not sure why, but Saturday, October 7th was probably one of the busiest days of the year. And not just for Platinum Mix, all of our friendly DJ competitors also reported a very busy day. Maybe because it seems like every high school in the area wanted to have their Homecoming dance on this day, plus being a Saturday in early October, that’s still wedding season. So we had our hands full managing all of those Homecoming Dances and weddings! I worked a Homecoming Dance for Walled Lake that night. 1400 students! Wow! Fun! I love big dances. Big sound systems. Big light shows. Love it! I had a blast, but just want to say thank god for the Platinum Mix back-up DJ system. About halfway through the dance I totally lost my voice. The combination of being sick and my sore throat kicking in, plus trying to take requests from students (which means screaming over a sound system kicking out the bass for 1400 attendees), I guess my voice just couldn’t hold up for me anymore. But Paul Mattis was the scheduled back-up guy and after he had checked in all of our other DJs, he was headed out to help me at my dance anyway. Thank god, because he ended up MCing the 2nd half of the dance and was a huge help tearing down at the end of the night when I really thought I might just pass out.

When Paul saw the awful shape I was in Saturday night, he offered to come out and help me with the wedding I had scheduled for Sunday too. Paul ended up doing pretty much everything. We were at Weller’s in Saline for Heather and Christian’s wedding. Weller’s is an absolutely gorgeous place to have a wedding. They have the perfect spot for an outdoor ceremony, a dinner room, an area outside for dancing and tons of places to take pictures. It’s a tough place to dj though because of all the different areas. We set-up one sound system for the ceremony to play music while they walked down the aisle plus supplied the minister with a microphone so all the guests could hear everything, another sound system was set-up in the Carriage House for dinner music, introductions of the bridal party and toasts and then a third sound system outside in the gazebo for dancing. Heather and Christian’s family were a lot of fun and the wedding went great. It was great to work with “A Pair of Photographers” again too. Leslie is still the only photographer I’ve ever worked with 2 days in a row.

Paul – Thank you, thank you, thank you soooooo much for bailing me out this weekend! Your speakers worked out great at homecoming and I really don’t know what I would have done without you on Sunday.

Oh no, an entire month has gone by without any blog updates…I was afraid this was going to happen. Things have been super busy lately for everyone here at Platinum Mix. Our DJ team is working a record number of events this wedding season plus our videography department is doing much better than we had initially anticipated. Poor Andrew has been stuck in front of the computer editing wedding videos for HOURS at a time to keep us on schedule. He’s doing such an amazing job though and thanks to him, we’ve been able to consistently deliver clients their “Jam Cam” DVD’s in as little as 2-4 weeks!

Since we have worked some pretty fun and unique weddings lately, thought I should get around to updating this blog……

Last night, Renee and Chris’s wedding at the Burton Manor was a total blast. I knew it would be though….I’ve been working weddings for their friends all month! I dee-jayed for Renee’s friends Jen and Dave who were married July 8th. They had a gorgeous wedding at the Pine Knob Mansion. Before that, Jen and Dave had hired me for their Halloween party last October and then Jen told her friend Renee about me. Jen also told her friend Amy about me, so Amy and her (now) husband David hired me for their wedding July 29th (THANKS JENNIFER!!!! YOU ROCK!!!). So basically, I had the same group of friends July 8th, July 29th and August 5th! And what a fun group of friends! These people really know how to party. At Renee and Chris’s wedding the fun started when guests started to sing songs with the word “love” in them. Chris and Renee had outlawed the traditional glass clinking, so instead guests had to sing a song to get them to kiss. It worked out great and all the guests seemed to really get into it. Me and Josh DJed the wedding, and everything went great until a speaker fell on Josh’s head while we were tearing down at the end of the night. Thankfully, he’s totally fine. I guess now I finally understand why I need that “liability insurance”. I used to joke around and say stuff like “why do I need to pay for this…what do they think a speaker is gonna fall on somebody or something??? Yeah right!” Oooopps….. Anyways, Josh: Thanks for all of your help; you’re always fun to work with!



Meghan and Mike initially contacted Platinum Mix to reserve our “iParty DJ” package which is basically just rental of a sound system. See, with Meghan being a theatre director and Mike being a musician, and plans to have all of their musically inclined friends and family handle the entertaining for their wedding reception, they were right in thinking all they had to do was rent some sound equipment. They set-up a meeting with me to discuss their Audio/Visual requirements. I was immediately impressed and excited about all the great ideas Mike and Meghan had for their wedding day! Their wedding was held at the Kensington Court in Ann Arbor. The ceremony was outside in the courtyard and they had a friend play guitar & flute for their ceremony music. Immediately following was the reception in the Grand Ballroom. They had developed a program for pretty much the majority of the evening that included the groom playing a song on the piano, friends and family acting as the MC as well as performing several songs, and 2 short movies/slideshows. All the action on the stage was shown live on our projection screen so all the guests could see. A basic iParty system was turned into 2 sound systems (ceremony and reception), a total of 9 microphones needed to amplify all the instruments and people speaking/singing, a projection screen, a videographer to get the “live camera” action, a few lights to highlight the stage and head table plus a DJ (Paul Taylor) to play a few songs they selected for the remaining time after the performances. It was a quite a production…and Meghan and Mike pulled it all off brilliantly! The Ann Arbor News even came out to write about it! Thank you Andrew and Paul for the extra hard work (Paul T. you are the microphone master!). Also, thanks to Adrienne at the Kensington Court for making it easy and convenient for us to get in early to set-up.

After I assisted Paul with set-up at the Kensington Court, I headed over to
Waldonwoods in Hartland for the wedding of Amy and David. David and Amy were also musicians and wanted to incorporate that into the wedding somehow, so they had a Jazz band play during the cocktail and dinner hours. The band sounded great and were actually friends the bride and groom went to school with. This was the first wedding I worked where I witnessed the bride and bridesmaids do the “Alligator Dance” (yep….on the floor in the white dress! Awesome!)

It’s so rare to DJ at the same venue more than a few times a year, so its totally random that I actually worked at Waldonwoods two Saturdays consecutively (the 22nd and the 29th of July). Jessica and Ryan also had their wedding there as well. Waldonwoods in Hartland is like an old mansion that has been converted into a perfect place to have a wedding. You can get married outside overlooking a lake, all your guests can hang out on this very large patio and then everyone can head inside for dinner and dancing. The inside has a very comfortable feel to it, complete with fireplaces, wood floors, and an upstairs area where the bride and bridal party can get ready and relax. And you can get beautiful sunset pictures in the summer!


Another place, we have been working a lot lately is Northville Hills Golf Club, in Northville. I personally love to DJ there since it’s so close to my house (only about 4 miles away). Nicole (the banquet manager there) is super accommodating, very organized and a pleasure to work with. Recently, Platinum Mix dee-jayed the weddings of Carrie and Dave as well as Jennifer and Aaron, and Angie and Jon at the Northville Hills. I’ll wait for Emmitt to get around to writing about Jennifer and Aaron’s wedding (hint hint DJ Emmitt). Carrie and Dave were a fun and easy-going couple. Planning from Chicago must have been a challenge but they did a great job. They did things a little differently and rented a tent with a dance floor for outside. So everyone had dinner inside and then went outside to the tent and patio for dancing. It was a really hot day but things still worked out well and they had an amazing wedding day. Paul Mattis did a lot of the dee-jaying and MC work and Andrew was the videographer. Angie and Jon were another really laid-back and cool couple. Angie is great with children and there were several adorable kids in the bridal party and among the guests. Angie sent me a note afterwards mentioning that one of her flower girls wants to be a DJ when she grows up now….awwww…how cute! Angie: Tell her to call Platinum Mix when she gets her drivers license and we’ll give her a job!

Brendan said Katie and Keith’s wedding at Andiamo’s was a blast, but we’ll have to wait for the details from him (Come on BDJ….spill the details!). I met with Katie and Keith and they were such a nice couple, and their wedding sounded like so much fun I really wanted to DJ that one, but I was scheduled to go out to Buffalo, NY for a wedding there. I really enjoy traveling for jobs, and people in Buffalo are really cool. I was surprised what a Midwestern feel Buffalo has. Its so much like Detroit, I really felt at home. J Great party too! I played lots of Arabic and Hip Hop and I get totally into mixing them together. Sean Paul remixed with some Arabic beats really gets the crowd hyped!

And one more….Abbie and Jason’s wedding at Addison Oaks will be my 4th of July memory for this year. Technically, the wedding was July 1st, but Oakland County had their firework show that night and we had a perfect view from the patio at Addison Oaks. Abbie and Jason got some really cool pictures of the two of them with fireworks going off in the background. And speaking of traveling for jobs, their photographer was with Bella Pictures and came all the way from Chicago! Very cool and creative guy to work with! Abbie and Jason were a very cute couple and I really enjoyed getting to play some classic rock and eighties stuff, that I don’t get to hear/play very often.

Lots of fun weddings this summer! The kind of weddings that remind me how much I really love my job. Thank you and congratulations to ALL of our clients we’ve had the pleasure of working for these past few months!!!

One more thing……Josh and I couldn’t resist noticing that Mr. Jack Daniels didn’t come to the wedding last night…..good thing the Yager’s (pronounced like the shot Jeiger) were there to keep the party going……LOL LOL

and that's what it's all about

Saturday, June 17th was the wedding of Noelle and Aaron and was held at DeCarlos in Warren. Noelle's great uncle wrote was is probably one of the most famous songs of all time: "The Hokey Pokey" One really fun family member had this piece of paper that he had written "And That's What It's All About" on and he was taking pics of every single family member with this sign. Although entertained, I was confused. Until the time finally came to actually play the "Hokey Pokey" and I heard the words and then it was like "ooohhhhh i get it....hahhahaha!" Anyways, the bridal party wore cool hats and they proved to be an interesting and entertaining bunch of folks. They were really big on creating somewhat coordinated dance moves to random songs such as Thomas Dolby "Hyperactive" and Erazor "One Night In Bangkok", which was totally hillarous to watch. I guess it must be in their blood or something..hahaha! Really fun people! (NOTE TO EX-WEDDING DJ DUDE WHO TOOK MY PIC WITH SIGN - PLEASE EMAIL TO PLATINUMMIX@YAHOO.COM THANKS!)



DJ Salsa Sal was actually originally scheduled to work the hoky pokey wedding, but we switched around and he did one of the other weddings that night - Sarah & Jose at Burton Manor in Livonia. I hate switching DJs around last minute, but after I talked to the bride - Sarah, and she told me she wanted all latin music at dinner, I thought maybe it would work out better for them if Sal dee-jayed instead of me. Sal specializes in Latin music. He has a huge collection of salsa, merengue, reggeaton, etc and speaks spanish fluently. It really seemed as if he would be the better fit. Sal said everything went smooth, but what was surprising was they actually got into the Yugoslavin music that was played more than anything else. I'm glad to hear it worked out well! Congrats to Sarah & Jose!

Also congratulations to Jennifer and Aaron and Karen and Tom who were married last week as well.

I've been keeping busy with graduation parties this week: Congratulations to the class of 2006!

let's get krunk

Alright! It’s about time I got some help around here! Platinum Mix welcomes Kari Kirsch to Sara G’s basement office (haha). Kari is going to be helping me out with answering the phones, keeping up with all the paperwork, and other daily office type work. Kari is also a DJ and will be accepting bookings for 2007 events. She’s only been in to work a few days and already I can start to see the bottom of my desk. YAY!

We’ve had lots of great parties going on lately…

First, off gotta send a shout-out to Renee and Paul and their totally fun families. Their wedding was rockin’! Most memorable was the groomsmen who insisted I play “Welcome To The Jungle”. It was only like 9:00. I usually hold off on “heavy stuff” until after 11:00, but since he was so insistent (and promised to take the blame if it bombed), I played it. Quite a reaction from the other groomsmen and guys at the party…they were banging on the dance floor so hard I thought it was going to crack. I’m sure the nice folks at the Moose Ridge Golf & Country Club in South Lyon were thrilled. Lol. Speaking of the Moose Ridge, they have free energy drinks available to your guests when you have your wedding there! (at least I hope they were free since me and Kari had like 3 each!).

This past Friday was a super sweet 16 party for the creator of http://www.whateverlife.com. I mixed videos for Ashley and around 200 of her closest friends. Real fun group! I was totally shocked at some of the requests they were asking for. Like for example, Styx? If they are 15 and 16, how do they even know Styx? When Ashley pulled up in the hummer limo with her “VIP’s”, we brought them in grand entrance style, then everyone partied on the dance floor for 5 hours straight. Awesome prizes were given away – an Xbox 306, two iPods, and a sony PSP. Ashley is such a sweet, smart chick, I hope she had the party of her dreams. In her words “it was krunk”.

Saturday, I was at the Michigan Union for Mitzi and James wedding. When I walked in, I thought I had entered CandyLand! The whole place was pink! They had cakes on every single table in addition to a large wedding cake plus a groom’s cake. And I have never seen this before – this wedding had a candy buffet! Too Sweet. Mitzi and James had a love story/photo montage/welcome message that was played to the guests immediately after the introductions that was totally cute, but what really took the cake was the surprise that Mitzi had planned for James. See, James, being a Michigan State man was a bit upset about having his wedding hosted on the University of Michigan campus. So Mitzi, being the creative, thoughtful wife that she is brought in Sparty (the MSU mascot) to surprise James. Totally awesome! (even though I confess to being a fan of the maize and blue….sorry James & Sparty)



Any time you get two Platinum Mix DJs within 1 mile of each other, you know the police are coming! Haha, just kidding, although that’s just what happened that same night that I was in Ann Arbor. Joey and Rob were in Grosse Ille. Joey doing a wedding for Michelle and Adam at the Grosse Ille Country Club and Rob did a graduation party just down the same street. Rob reported his party got so crazy that the police had to come and issue a little warning. Oops. Way to go Rob! You know you’re a REAL dj when you are proud of your police encounters. :)

Alright, I’ve got to stop being so stubborn and admit I can’t do everything myself anymore so if anyone knows anybody looking for a part-time job doing office type stuff Monday – Friday please have them call me at 248-349-8318 or email platinummix@yahoo.com. I’m looking for someone to help me do stuff like:

- Make CDs with music requests for upcoming events
- Scan pictures into the computer for photo montages
- Print off maps for all of our DJs weekend events
- Type up event itineraries for DJs
- Mailings
- Answer the phone
- Filing
- Plus other random office type work

Somebody available 10-20 hours a week with good computer skills (knowledge of Word, Excel, Internet and Photoshop), a fast typing speed and great customer service skills would be perfect. Flexible schedule available.


Here are a few pictures from Jen & Courtney’s wedding this past Saturday:




Jen is a brilliant graphic designer. She’s the one responsible for the Platinum Mix postcards (ya know, all that junk mail we send out to all you brides-to-be!), and she gets the credit for naming and creating logos for all of our options like Jam Cam, DeLight, Hot Shots, etc. As you can tell from the pictures above, she also did an amazing job designing her own wedding. Courtney and Jen had a huge tent put up with a dance floor, food from Genitti’s, even a margarita machine! I think what I will remember most is getting to play the Lords of Acid at a wedding reception….woo-hoo! Nice working with Lockwood Media (video guys) and Jacalyn Lee (photographer).

I was out in Dexter Friday night to DJ the wedding of Kathy and Bob. Bob gets major points for writing the most romantic, sincere vows I have ever heard. MPE Events did a a great job with the ceremony set-up and reception decorations. Bella Pictures did the photographs. Sunday, was my first time at the Serbian-American center for Natasa and Matthew’s wedding. They were into quite an eclectic mix of music, I played everything from Madonna “Hung up” to a few groups I’ve never heard of before like I Nine and this great song called “The Long Ride Home” by Patty Griffin.


NOTE TO PLATINUM MIX DJs: Okay, I see a few of you registered…that’s a great start…but you guys are supposed to post something occasionally! :)

Geez, I think this May is going to be the busiest month in the history of Platinum Mix. My schedule this past week (and actually, for the entire month) is CRAZY!

Renting U-hauls to get through all the proms, video dances and big weddings we scheduled for this year was getting to be a bit expensive and inconvenient, so last Monday Platinum Mix purchased a new cargo van. This thing is huge! It fits so much equipment! Yay! Now I can buy more toys! Lol.

Thursday & Friday were proms. Paul and I set up our “Ultimate Prom” DJ package at both, complete with enhanced lighting, sound upgrades and of course the video screen. It’s official, the top 3 songs for 2006 proms are:
1. Bubba Sparxx Ft. Ying Yang Twins “Ms. New Booty”
2. Casada “Every Time We Touch”
3. Sean Paul “’Temperature”
Lots of requests for “What Hurts the Most” & “Bless The Broken Road” by the Rascal Flatts when it was time for a slow song too. Thursday was hosted by Mac & Rays and Friday at Villa Penna. Beautiful venues. Especially enjoyed the lakefront view at Mac & Rays and the food at Villa Penna. Awesome time at both. Congratulations to all the 2006 graduates!



Thanks Paul for all your help with set up, couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you Brendan for letting me borrow your haze machine. The lights looked amazing with it!

Saturday, Lauren & Chris’s wedding at the Roostertail. Lauren’s guidelines for the evening’s playlist was “No wedding music. If you would normally play it at a wedding, don’t play it at mine.” So that means…hmmm….No Bob Seger? No Sister Sledge? No “Love Shack”? No Alligator Dance? What in the world am I going to play?? Lauren & Chris’s requests included stuff like Black Eyed Peas, 50 Cent & Daft Punk. Sounds good to me, I like that kind of music but I’ll admit I was worried that half their guests would leave by 9:30. I was so wrong. What a fun wedding! Dance floor was packed all night! Soul train going on, lots of booty shakin’, a little party train, guests were requesting stuff that actually fit in well with the play list....what more could a DJ ask for? Perfect night. And I know I just mentioned the Roostertail staff a few posts ago (no, I do not work for them…lol), but again, gotta say, they really go above and beyond. Despite the long, steep ramps that us DJs must push our heavy, loaded down carts up and down to get in and out of the venue, it still makes my top 10 list of favorite venues to play. Built in light show, friendly and professional staff, great food, hydraulic dance floor, amazing view of the river front….really is a unique place to host an event.
Congrats to Chris & Lauren!

Sunday, Hanaa & Waleed’s wedding at Burton Manor. This one was a little different for me because they requested all Arabic religious music. While I have tons of Arabic music, I don’t know anything at all about religious music. I was provided with 5 cds labeled “bride and groom entrance”, “dinner” “dance 1”, “dance 2”, and “dance 3”. It ended up going pretty well, I was actually surprised how much they all danced. Unfortunately I can’t take credit for that since Hanaa picked all the music. Easy night for me! Congratulations Waleed and Hanaa!

Kicking off the wedding season with......

John and Andrea
May 5th, 2006 @ Arnaldo’s in Riverview

Two summers ago (or was it three summers?), John deejayed with Platinum Mix. He often came along with me to weddings and always kept me cracking up laughing all night. Last year around this time, John announced his engagement to Andrea and asked me to DJ his wedding. Of course I was honored that he would want me to do it (he also has a couple family members and friends who DJ), but honestly, I was also a little nervous because out of all those weddings we worked together that went so great I wanted to give him something better. I wanted him to think “wow, of all those weddings Sara and I worked, MINE was the best!" So I spent all year thinking about what I could do different and came up with 1) bring the video screens out because John hasn’t seen it yet 2) bring along an interactive MC to get the party started and 3) since he wasn’t having a videographer, we hooked him up with our popular Jam Cam so he will have his wedding day forever on DVD video. Rob Reno was recruited to MC and integrate a few of his interactive routines during the reception, Andrew Miller was hired to film the ceremony and reception, and I set up all my latest and greatest DJ gear. We had my brand new LED lights out for the light show, subwoofers to crank out the bass and of course our 10 foot video screen. John was right about his family being partiers, after Rob coaxed them out of the bar room at Arnaldo’s with his party train, they spent the rest of the evening breakin’ it down on the dance floor. Great night!

Rob – Thank you sooooooooo much for coming out to MC John & Andrea’s wedding, the interactive stuff you did was perfect and you really helped to get everybody involved.


Jill and Craig
May 6th, 2006 @ St. John’s Conference Center in Plymouth

Jill and Craig were a true pleasure to work with. Planning from out-of-state must have been a challenge for them, but with the help of Jill’s mom who was appointed wedding planner, they pulled off a beautiful wedding brilliantly. Jill and Craig spent some time putting together a play list for the evening, and it worked out perfect. They chose some great tunes and the dance floor was packed all night! Very cute couple, it really seems like they are a perfect match for each other and their families were so much fun!

Awesome working with Wilson Sarkis. Wilson is very well-known as being an exceptional photographer. His work speaks for itself…check it out at: http://www.wilsonsarkisphotography.com/ Loved how he ran a little slideshow during dinner of a few of the wedding pictures he had taken just a few hours earlier. Also cool to finally get a chance to work with Mike Corcoran (video). I was impressed that he stayed around until the very last dance. Most videographers leave as soon as the bouquet and garter are finished. I hate that because all the really fun dancing usually happens later in the evening.

Kari – Thanks for coming to hang out with me! It’s remarkable how are work backgrounds are so similar. I think you will be an excellent addition to the Platinum Mix team!

More pictures from Andrea & John's wedding can be found here: Andrea & John
and pics from Jill & Craig can be found here: Jill & Craig

Shake that Laffy Taffy

One of my best memories was djing my high school prom back in 1997, and the really cool thing
about being a dj is I get the chance to re-live that memory several times every May of every year. I just get so excited when I see I have a Prom on my schedule. Hundreds of dressed up and excited high school seniors pour into a venue and immediatly hit the dance floor. I mix up all the hottest new songs and everybody just parties non-stop for 3 hours. It's so much fun!

Prom season officially kicked off last night with Walled Lake Western's Prom at the Roostertail (downtown detroit). The Roostertail has an amazing light show built into the room, so Platinum Mix just provided the DJ, sound system and video screen. I did all the DJ and MC work, plus one of the newest Platinum Mix recruits, Josh, was there to help me set everything up and keep everything running smooth. Instead of just playing the songs, we had the music videos of about 80% of the music we played. I think it adds quite a bit more visual entertainment. Technology has come a long way since I lugged around crates of 12" records!

The Roostertail did a fantastic job hosting the prom. The students all had dinner upstairs and then came down to the Marine Room for dancing. The Marine room is quite a sight to see. Windows on 3 sides of the room looking out on the Detroit river....great view! After the crowning of the "prom court", the Roostertail staff set off their very cool lighted waterfall, and even had some Laffy Taffy candy ready to pass out to the students when I played the popular song by D4L.

My only regret is I ran out of time to play all the songs I wanted too!




Thanks to DJ Emmitt for dropping me off, picking me up and helping me set the video screen up while still managing to make it to another Platinum Mix dance happening at the Academy of The Sacred Heart in Bloomfield. Thanks to Josh for all his help last night too (sorry about the 4-hour set-up on your first day!).

Amani & Murad @ Byblos in Dearborn

Wow! I am totally impressed with the recent re-model of Byblos Banquet Center in Dearborn. The place is gorgeous! And the middle-eastern food served was amazing! Even better were the decorations. It's not very often that a technology-obessesed DJ would even notice, or bother to comment on something like decorations BUT, gotta say, the room looked very cool. Green table cloths and silver chair covers with a purple and green sash....huh? Sounds ugly right? Check out the pictures......very fresh and unique, yet still very elegant. Even better, were the flashy green "light cubes" that were placed in everybody's water glass....sweet! Instead of the traditional photo signature board, they had a very large serving plate that everybody signed with a permenent marker. Great idea for something the happy couple can keep (and actually use) forever!

Amani (the bride last night), upgraded her DJ package to include our "Enhanced Sound" option because dancing and good sound was a priority to her, and in addition, she didn't want the traditional DJ on the dance floor layout. So what I did, was set up my equipment in a far corner of the room, and than ran 4 speakers in a surround sound configuration. It turned out really nice! A nice, evenly balanced sound without being really loud in one area and soft in another and the best part is all the DJ equipment stays out of the pictures!


Murad, Amani and all her family and friends danced to all the latest Arabic music....it was a great wedding!

More pictures of this wedding can be found in the "Ultimate Wedding Cake Gallery & Decoration Ideas" photo album.

Welcome to the New Platinum Mix DJ Blog!

Okay so, I've been trying to put together some sort of Platinum Mix Productions newsletter for like the past 2 years and ran into a couple problems with it: 1) It was going to take up way too much time and 2) I'm just not that great of a writer. Last night, while DJing a wedding, I couldn't help but notice the fabulous job they did with the decorations and thought I'd love to share this with both my current, as well as possible future clients and the idea came to me that instead of a newsletter a blog could be the perfect solution! So, not sure how often this is actually going to get updated, but I'll try my best to post any creative event ideas I see, and of course all the new & exciting stuff going on at Platinum Mix. :)