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
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