Monday, February 19, 2007

Kim and Ed were a true pleasure to work for and their wedding reception was really fun! They had it at St. Mary’s Cultural Center in Livonia this past Saturday. I was the scheduled DJ, and Platinum Mix also put together a slideshow for them which we showed on the video screen after dinner. Their slideshow turned out really nice (thanks to Kim and Ed - they chose great pictures!) and I ended up playing it in the background while they did their first dance and also during the father/daughter & mother/son dance. Receptions are always more fun when the bride and groom like to dance, and Kim was on the dance floor all night (yeah! Go Kim!). I was “warned” Ed wasn’t much of a dancer, but I did catch him out there quite a bit later in the night. The best part was I got to spin music videos all night. I wish I could play music videos at every wedding…I get so many compliments from guests, and even the other vendor’s working the parties (“Wow! We haven’t seen that before!”) Too bad the screen takes up so much room…hmmm….maybe I could switch to flat screen TV’s??? That could be wicked cool. How would I hang the TVs though? If anybody has any ideas about how I could hang a TV from trussing or something, email me at platinummix@yahoo.com. Pictures from Kim and Ed’s wedding can be found here.

Thanks to the photographer who taught me how to use my camera to take better pictures in the dark (duh! I felt so stupid!). I didn’t get her name but she did say she worked with Samantha Cover. And it was great to work with Kristyn from Castle Video. I’ve worked with Kristyn at a few Arabic weddings in the past, she’s so sweet and always does such a great job. Her wedding videos turn out beautiful and she’s affordably priced.


Big thanks to Bryan for all his help setting up Saturday. Bryan just moved back to Michigan from Boston and has some experience DJing in college and the Air Force. He seems like a really nice, hard working guy and I think he’s going to work out great as a Platinum Mix DJ (that is, assuming he can finish Platinum Mix Boot Camp…haha).

Last week, I dee-jayed a surprise 30th birthday party for Courtney. I love surprise parties, I get more into them then the people throwing them sometimes…its just such a challenge to get that TRUE surprise. People always seem to find out somehow that there’s a party going on for them. I consider it a success when the birthday girl is so surprised she cries. Courtney didn’t cry, but it was still a good time. They hired rapper Feloni to perform a few songs. That was really cool! I had a blast dropping some of that old school booty bass and hip hop. Courtney requested EAZY E….hell yeah, haven’t had a request for Eazy E in YEARS. LOL. Good times!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

January and February are really different months for us because not as many people have parties as in the busy spring, summer and fall. I still feeling like my schedule is as hectic as ever though because of the all the people interested in reserving a DJ for the upcoming months. I wonder why so many people book DJs in January and February?? I was just talking about this with the people I met with a half hour ago regarding their August wedding. My theory is, a lot of people get engaged over the holidays, so all the big bridal shows are then planned around that, and then people who maybe got engaged in September/October go to the shows and find out that lots of vendors are already booked for their date…so then everybody starts to sort of panic, and starts getting on the ball with their wedding planning. Just a theory….hmmm….

I want to give a big shout-out to DJ Emmitt who worked with me Tuesday night for the Academy of the Sacred Heart Father/Daughter Dance. I’m going on 12 years of DJing, and I have yet to work a Father/Daughter dance. A new or different event is usually not a big deal at all, but I was nervous about this one. The dance was 3 hours long….are teenage girls really going to dance with their daddy’s for 3 straight hours???? And what on earth am I going to play???? The girls are going to want all the latest hip hop but do they really want to dance with their dad to “Fergalicious”?? Emmitt has never worked a father/daughter dance either, but I wanted him to come with me because 1) he has two daughters so plenty of experience attending these functions and 2) he is the master of “winging it”. What an amazing job he did! Emmitt had every single dad on the dance floor shakin’ their booties with their daughters. I couldn’t believe it, he was totally hilarious! DJ Emmitt rocks!

Matt and Marsha’s wedding at Genoa Woods in Brighton last night was so much fun. Matt is a firefighter and he invited all of his fire-fightin’ buddies, and if you didn’t already know, firefighters really know how to party. My favorite part was playing “The Roof is On Fire" hahaha. Other highlights included Bridal Party introductions (“Stay Fly” by Three 6 Mafia for the bridal party who all came in wearing sunglasses and then Darkness “I Believe In a Thing called Love” for Matt and Marsha – and Matt carried Marsha all the way in!). That was my first gig at Genoa Woods and I left very impressed with their staff. They were on time with stuff down to the exact minute. Reception room was scheduled to open at 5:45, and they opened them at exactly 5:45. Dinner was going to be served at 6:20 and exactly 6:20 I saw them coming out with salads. Down to the minute perfect. Impressive!



Another dance I really enjoyed in January was the Isosceles dance at The Ark in Ann Arbor. The Ark is really set-up to be a venue for bands to play in, so that made it really easy to plug my DJ system in. They have their bass speakers hanging from the ceiling (usually they would be on the floor), so kind of a strange situation but it really works well in that room I was set-up directly under the bass speakers so all I could hear all night was BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM….it made mixing really easy, all I had to do was match up those BOOM BOOM’s. I was lovin’ it, and the requests that came in were crazy. I got to play all kinds of music that typically doesn’t get played much. Lots of fun that night!


Congratulations to Katie and Chris who were married Jan. 14th and had their reception at Crystal Gardens in Southgate. Crystal Gardens offers an amazing deal for Sunday weddings (so does Platinum Mix!!), and they really offer an outstanding level of service (and the food is great too). Pictures from Katie and Chris’s wedding can be found in our Hot Shots picture galleries.


Jaymie and Douglas got married Jan. 26th at Cobblestone Farm in Ann Arbor. If you are looking for a really unique venue that allows you to bring in your own food and booze then this is really great spot. It’s a barn (but a nice barn!) and even has this upper level space that can be used for additional seating or wedding ceremonies. In the summer, you can spot animals walking around outside. Gwen did the cake again! Yum! And I got to play “Love Train”. That song has been stuck in my head for a week! “People all over the world / Join Hands / Start a Love Train / Love Train!.....”