Sunday, December 28, 2008
hula hoops?
Congrats to Sarah and David who were married yesterday! The reception was held at the Grand Ledge Opera House. My first time there...actually my first time ever in Grand Ledge. We don't usually take jobs that far out (Platinum Mix is based in Northville, MI), but Sarah and David came to visit me and were so cool and I figured I could make an exception. Instead of the traditional glass-clinking to get the bride and groom to kiss, David and Sarah brought hula hoops and instructed the guests to come out to the dance floor and hula hoop to get them to kiss. This most def put an interesting *twist* on things! :) Bridal Party dance was a very fun "Thriller" routine. I was set-up on the balcony, so I was too far away to snap any pics. I'm kinda hoping Sarah and David's amazing photographer - Nicole Blair from Nicole Ladonne Photography will post a hula hoop shot on her blog so I can steal it! :)
fav wedding photo contest
Bliss Weddings is having a wedding photo of the year contest going on over at their blog. Check it out and vote for your favorite wedding photographer.....
http://blissweddings.wordpress.com/vote-now/
http://blissweddings.wordpress.com/vote-now/
theme parties
Tuesday night, I dee-jayed a sweet 16 birthday party with an eighties theme. The outfits were amazing.....straight outta 1985! They wanted mostly current top 40/hip hop music but with a few 80's classics mixed in every few songs or so. Honestly, I was shocked at how well most of the eighties tunes went over with this group - these kids were not even born until 1992 (yikes! that makes me feel so old!). Thinking about it more, I realize that it went over so well because all the attendees knew in advance about the 80s theme and therefore expected to hear plenty of eighties music.
Platinum Mix specializes in customizing play lists for all of our clients, and I think its totally awesome when our clients come to us with unique ideas for the music for their weddings & parties. Believe me, I get totally sick of hearing the same "wedding music" over and over every weekend so getting the chance to play something different will always make me happy. BUT.....most times anytime I deviate from that classic/traditional party play list, it doesn't go over too well with the rest of the guests. They are just confused as to why I am NOT playing "The Cha-Cha Slide" and instead have been playing some random indie rock song that nobody is dancing too. However, I have had different and unique music selections go over well when either 1) the bride & groom (or hosting guest) are out there all night dancing to their requests and make their friends dance with them OR 2) all the guests know in advance that the music will be different, fit into a "theme", or is selected by somebody other than the hired dj. (like in the case above of the 16-year-olds actually dancing to eighties music rather than screaming at me to play Lil Wayne).
One of the most memorable & fun parties I have ever worked, was a 40th surprise birthday party with a disco/funk theme....i dug up the video and posted it for anybody planning a theme party and looking for a few ideas::
Platinum Mix specializes in customizing play lists for all of our clients, and I think its totally awesome when our clients come to us with unique ideas for the music for their weddings & parties. Believe me, I get totally sick of hearing the same "wedding music" over and over every weekend so getting the chance to play something different will always make me happy. BUT.....most times anytime I deviate from that classic/traditional party play list, it doesn't go over too well with the rest of the guests. They are just confused as to why I am NOT playing "The Cha-Cha Slide" and instead have been playing some random indie rock song that nobody is dancing too. However, I have had different and unique music selections go over well when either 1) the bride & groom (or hosting guest) are out there all night dancing to their requests and make their friends dance with them OR 2) all the guests know in advance that the music will be different, fit into a "theme", or is selected by somebody other than the hired dj. (like in the case above of the 16-year-olds actually dancing to eighties music rather than screaming at me to play Lil Wayne).
One of the most memorable & fun parties I have ever worked, was a 40th surprise birthday party with a disco/funk theme....i dug up the video and posted it for anybody planning a theme party and looking for a few ideas::
Friday, December 19, 2008
Yep, there is a method to the madness (sometimes)
Usually December is one of our busiest months of the year thanks to all the companies out there that hire a DJ for their annual holiday party. Unfortunately, there aren’t many Michigan companies doing very well right now and many are dropping the Christmas party to save money. As a result, this December hasn’t been nearly as busy as past years but we’ve still managed to book enough events to keep me and a few of the other guys busy and thankfully, the bills all got paid (yay!).
For a DJ, corporate gigs are a challenge. A fun challenge! I’m very used to crowds diverse in age (the average wedding reception’s guests will be anywhere from the 4 year old flower girl to the great-grandparents who look like they are getting close to 90), but at least the majority of the wedding guests will be of the same ethnic background. A holiday party also has a pretty big range of ages (typically everybody is between 21-65), but you also get a diverse group of people (white people, black people, Indians, Latino’s, Arabs, etc). Not only do you have this very diverse group of people, but even I can admit that it must be difficult to throw down your best MC Hammer moves when your boss is watching.
Work for me tonight, was at the Motor City Casino dee-jaying for a group of doctors, administrative staff and residents. I’ve worked their annual holiday party for the past 3 or 4 years, so I pretty much knew what to expect. A cool feature of my DJ software is it saves a history of every single song I play, so I thought it would make a helpful blog post to go through my actual play list, and breakdown the reasons why particular tracks were chosen. I’m kind of hoping this will be helpful to all of our clients who choose to customize their own play lists using Platinum Mix’s Click+Mix online event planning system.
To better understand the way a professional DJs brain works, its important to first understand the following terms::
BPM (beats per minute): This is how a DJ measures the tempo of a song. A slow dance song might be 55-65 BPM, while a really fast techno dance song could be as fast as 155 BPM. A really nice danceable beat will typically clock in at somewhere between 120-135.
Beat-Mixing: Sometimes people will tell me that they really liked the way the songs “flowed” into the next, without any awkward pauses between them. This is called beat-mixing and being able to do this well is something that separates the good djs from the bad ones (amongst other things, but that’s a whole different post). To accomplish a beat-mix, you simply line up two songs with similar BPM’s and fine-tune each until they match. For example, Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback” is 114.3 bpm and Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous Girl” is 114.7 bpm. These two songs will very easily mix together, but “sexyback” will need to be adjusted +0.40 faster to be a perfect match. (btw, this is what a DJ is busy doing when he or she has got the headphones on).
Now that we’ve covered some DJ 101, on to the playlist:
Dinner: Christmas music (this was requested by the client and is pretty much standard for holiday parties)
Dancing:
1. John Legend Ft. Andre 3000 “Green Light”
Never in a million years would I have chosen this to be the song to open the dance floor with. It’s a terrible choice. “Green Light” is a good and very danceable track and I’ve been playing it at pretty much every event lately, however the song selected to open the dance floor is a critical choice. I need something with a good introduction, something everybody knows, and most importantly something easy to dance to and non-threatening so people will get up out of their comfy food coma and come to the dance floor. The woman who hired me requested it, and told me to play it first, so I did. In my book, the person writing the check gets whatever they want whenever they want it. She did dance to it, and managed to get a few of her friends to dance with her (like 6 or 7). Not a great start, but its all good….
2. Stevie Wonder “My Eyes Don’t Cry” (also known as the Motown hustle)
For track #2, I needed to repair the damage done by track #1. I really needed to fill up the dance floor quick to get the party off to a good start. There are only a few songs that exist that can provide the full dance floor guarantee that I was looking for. Call it cheesy or whatever you want, but the hustle provides that guarantee every time. Result: Packed Dance floor.
3. Justin Timberlake “Sexyback”
4. Michael Jackson “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough”
Tracks #2, #3, & #4 is a “set” that I play very often. I play it often because they beat mix together nicely, I hit 4 genres in 12 minutes (Motown, crowd participation, top 40 and eightes), and it has an amazing success rate (like I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen it fail). Result: Packed Dance floor.
5. Chris Brown “Forever”
This one bombed, and that surprised me. I picked it because it because it blended well with #4, and I was trying to feel out the Top 40 potential of the crowd. Didn’t work at all, result: Empty dance floor. Oops.
6. Punjabi MC “Jogi”
There were several Indian guests that wanted to hear Indian music. I hope he never reads this, but there was this one guest who during tracks #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 probably came up to me at least 4 times and demanded that I play this song (which he selected when I showed him my Indian music section). Here’s a hint, when requesting a song try to keep in mind that there are 250 other guests at the event and the DJ is trying really hard to keep everybody happy. The DJ also probably has the next couple songs already planned out, and its doubtful that he or she will break their set if the dance floor is full and your request doesn’t fit in to the vibe at the time. (FYI, your request will probably be worked in later if you are cool about it and don’t ask for the same song 4 times in 15 minutes. I’m not an idiot, I didn’t forget. It was either punch this guy to shut him up or play the damn song, and I figured since #5 hadn’t done well, making it track #6 would be perfect.
7. Punjabi MC “Mundian To Bach Ke”
So apparently, my man from track #6 actually “meant” “Mundian To Back Ke” because as soon as “jogi came on, the same guy was like “No! wrong song! Change this! Nobody likes it!!” Geez. When will I learn to go with the punching him option rather than playing it and looking like an idiot in front of 250 people??? I quickly switched the song as requested. Terrible transition…but whatever, I am now slightly annoyed. Result: Good dance floor, but full with only the Indian population.
8. Mr. C “The Cha Cha Slide”
During #6 and #7 several requests from guests have come in. At this point I need to diversify the dance floor. I need another of my guaranteed to work tracks. One of those requests was for the “cha cha slide”, so I though now was a perfect time for it. Result: Packed dance floor.
9. Marvin Gaye “Got To Give It Up”
I had a request for some Motown, and “got to give it up” was showing up as a similar bpm as #8, so I thought I would try it out. Result: Great beat mix + dance floor full. Success!
10. Sean Paul “Temperature”
11. Katy Perry “Hot N’ Cold”
A good dj is always thinking at least 3 songs ahead. I knew I had to drop some slow songs soon, but I had a good dance floor going and I didn’t want to ruin it. My solution is to wear people out, so they get tired and welcome the slow jam break. This is also a good time to get a “risky” request out of the way. (theory is, if it clears the floor, its’ cool because I got a slow song coming up which will fill it right back up). Sean Paul did great. Katy Perry was a request and I was a little afraid because the Chris Brown #5 bombed. Katy Perry also bombed (again, surprising….there was a pretty large group of younger people).
12. Eric Benet Ft. Tamia “Spend My Life With You”
13. Etta James “At Last”
#12 & #13 classic slow jams. Both filled up the dance floor. I’m back to good!
14. Shakira “Hips Don’t Lie”
There was also a Latino population at this event. This one is a decent American/Top 40/Latin-ish song that worked really well for this same group of people last year. Worked again this year.
15. Kid Rock “All Summer Long”
16. Usher “Yeah”
17. Eminem “Shake That”
#14 & #15 did good. #16 did awesome. The soul train breaks out to Eminem’s “Shake That”. Party is rocking now!
18. George Clinton “Atomic Dog” (Soul train going on)
19. Pussycat Dolls Ft. Snoop Dogg "Buttons" (More Soul Train)
20. Kevin Lyttle "Turn Me On" (Still more soul train but people are starting to break out of the soul train and back into regular dancing)
21. Coolio “Fantastic Voyage”
“Fantastic Voyage” was requested at a wedding I worked last weekend and it did really well. Its around the same bpm as #20 so I thought I would mix it in and try it again. Packed dance floor! Looks like I have a new one to add to my regular play list! Go Coolio – making a big comeback!
22. Snoop Dogg & Akon “I wanna Luv You”
Alright, honestly, I just played this one because it was a similar bpm as #21 and I kind of felt like hearing it. It worked though, still a good dance floor going.
23. Sir Mix A Lot “Baby Got Back”
At this point I want to switch to a faster bpm, I haven’t gone “old skool” yet and I needed a crowd favorite party track. Sir Mix A Lot to the rescue. Result: Packed dance floor.
24. AC/DC “You Shook Me All Night Long”
This song has been in the top 10 of most requested songs for the longest time. Its got an amazing success rate. I needed some rock to mix things up a little, so I went for a proven winner. Result: Empty dance floor. WOW! That was weird, guess I don’t have rockers tonight, on to something else.
25. Frank Sinatra “The Way You Look Tonight”
26. Edwin McCain “I Could Not Ask For More”
The woman who hired me came up and asked me to slow it down, so I went with 2 proven winners - #25 and #26. This worked well to rotate the dance floor and fix the AC/DC mistake.
27. R Kelly “Step In the Name of Love”
Lots of request to “ballroom hustle”. This one fit the bill.
28. Beyonce “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)
Good response to this one.
29. Unknown Artist “Say Shava Shava”
30. Bhangra Megamix
At this point in the night, I was feeling like a jerk for ignoring all the Indian requests. I decided it was mean to punish everybody just because of two people who were being rude (plus I like Indian music), so I hooked them up with the crowd favorite “Shava Shava” and some good ‘ole bhangra. I was rewarded with a re-energized dance floor.
31. “The Cupid Shuffle”
Just like #8. Time to get everybody involved. Works like magic. Everytime.
31. Jennifer Lopez “Let’s Get Loud”
32. Flo Rida “In The Ayer”
33. Rick James “Super Freak”
34. Rihanna “Don’t Stop The Music
35. Michael Jackson “P.Y.T”
36. Salt N’ Pepa “Push It”
37. Run DMC “It’s Tricky”
38. Britney Spears “Womanizer”
Tracks #31 - #38 were all a nice beat-mixed set. Hitting lots of different decades, keeping the dance floor moving.
There is a serious snow threat, and people are now starting to rapidly leave. We are down to about 20/30 people at this point who all seem young and also seem to know each other well. The woman who hired me left and told me to shut down the music in about 20 minutes. I decide to switch to some current hits which was being requested by the remaining group.
39. Lil Wayne Feat. T-Pain - Got Money
40. M.I.A – Paper Planes
41. Down aka Kilo - Lean Like A Cholo
42. T I Ft. Rihanna - Live Your Life
43. Lil Wayne Feat. Bobby Valentino - Mrs. Officer
44. Kanye West – Heartless
The End.
That was a crazy long blog post. Hope its helpful to somebody!
For a DJ, corporate gigs are a challenge. A fun challenge! I’m very used to crowds diverse in age (the average wedding reception’s guests will be anywhere from the 4 year old flower girl to the great-grandparents who look like they are getting close to 90), but at least the majority of the wedding guests will be of the same ethnic background. A holiday party also has a pretty big range of ages (typically everybody is between 21-65), but you also get a diverse group of people (white people, black people, Indians, Latino’s, Arabs, etc). Not only do you have this very diverse group of people, but even I can admit that it must be difficult to throw down your best MC Hammer moves when your boss is watching.
Work for me tonight, was at the Motor City Casino dee-jaying for a group of doctors, administrative staff and residents. I’ve worked their annual holiday party for the past 3 or 4 years, so I pretty much knew what to expect. A cool feature of my DJ software is it saves a history of every single song I play, so I thought it would make a helpful blog post to go through my actual play list, and breakdown the reasons why particular tracks were chosen. I’m kind of hoping this will be helpful to all of our clients who choose to customize their own play lists using Platinum Mix’s Click+Mix online event planning system.
To better understand the way a professional DJs brain works, its important to first understand the following terms::
BPM (beats per minute): This is how a DJ measures the tempo of a song. A slow dance song might be 55-65 BPM, while a really fast techno dance song could be as fast as 155 BPM. A really nice danceable beat will typically clock in at somewhere between 120-135.
Beat-Mixing: Sometimes people will tell me that they really liked the way the songs “flowed” into the next, without any awkward pauses between them. This is called beat-mixing and being able to do this well is something that separates the good djs from the bad ones (amongst other things, but that’s a whole different post). To accomplish a beat-mix, you simply line up two songs with similar BPM’s and fine-tune each until they match. For example, Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback” is 114.3 bpm and Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous Girl” is 114.7 bpm. These two songs will very easily mix together, but “sexyback” will need to be adjusted +0.40 faster to be a perfect match. (btw, this is what a DJ is busy doing when he or she has got the headphones on).
Now that we’ve covered some DJ 101, on to the playlist:
Dinner: Christmas music (this was requested by the client and is pretty much standard for holiday parties)
Dancing:
1. John Legend Ft. Andre 3000 “Green Light”
Never in a million years would I have chosen this to be the song to open the dance floor with. It’s a terrible choice. “Green Light” is a good and very danceable track and I’ve been playing it at pretty much every event lately, however the song selected to open the dance floor is a critical choice. I need something with a good introduction, something everybody knows, and most importantly something easy to dance to and non-threatening so people will get up out of their comfy food coma and come to the dance floor. The woman who hired me requested it, and told me to play it first, so I did. In my book, the person writing the check gets whatever they want whenever they want it. She did dance to it, and managed to get a few of her friends to dance with her (like 6 or 7). Not a great start, but its all good….
2. Stevie Wonder “My Eyes Don’t Cry” (also known as the Motown hustle)
For track #2, I needed to repair the damage done by track #1. I really needed to fill up the dance floor quick to get the party off to a good start. There are only a few songs that exist that can provide the full dance floor guarantee that I was looking for. Call it cheesy or whatever you want, but the hustle provides that guarantee every time. Result: Packed Dance floor.
3. Justin Timberlake “Sexyback”
4. Michael Jackson “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough”
Tracks #2, #3, & #4 is a “set” that I play very often. I play it often because they beat mix together nicely, I hit 4 genres in 12 minutes (Motown, crowd participation, top 40 and eightes), and it has an amazing success rate (like I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen it fail). Result: Packed Dance floor.
5. Chris Brown “Forever”
This one bombed, and that surprised me. I picked it because it because it blended well with #4, and I was trying to feel out the Top 40 potential of the crowd. Didn’t work at all, result: Empty dance floor. Oops.
6. Punjabi MC “Jogi”
There were several Indian guests that wanted to hear Indian music. I hope he never reads this, but there was this one guest who during tracks #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 probably came up to me at least 4 times and demanded that I play this song (which he selected when I showed him my Indian music section). Here’s a hint, when requesting a song try to keep in mind that there are 250 other guests at the event and the DJ is trying really hard to keep everybody happy. The DJ also probably has the next couple songs already planned out, and its doubtful that he or she will break their set if the dance floor is full and your request doesn’t fit in to the vibe at the time. (FYI, your request will probably be worked in later if you are cool about it and don’t ask for the same song 4 times in 15 minutes. I’m not an idiot, I didn’t forget. It was either punch this guy to shut him up or play the damn song, and I figured since #5 hadn’t done well, making it track #6 would be perfect.
7. Punjabi MC “Mundian To Bach Ke”
So apparently, my man from track #6 actually “meant” “Mundian To Back Ke” because as soon as “jogi came on, the same guy was like “No! wrong song! Change this! Nobody likes it!!” Geez. When will I learn to go with the punching him option rather than playing it and looking like an idiot in front of 250 people??? I quickly switched the song as requested. Terrible transition…but whatever, I am now slightly annoyed. Result: Good dance floor, but full with only the Indian population.
8. Mr. C “The Cha Cha Slide”
During #6 and #7 several requests from guests have come in. At this point I need to diversify the dance floor. I need another of my guaranteed to work tracks. One of those requests was for the “cha cha slide”, so I though now was a perfect time for it. Result: Packed dance floor.
9. Marvin Gaye “Got To Give It Up”
I had a request for some Motown, and “got to give it up” was showing up as a similar bpm as #8, so I thought I would try it out. Result: Great beat mix + dance floor full. Success!
10. Sean Paul “Temperature”
11. Katy Perry “Hot N’ Cold”
A good dj is always thinking at least 3 songs ahead. I knew I had to drop some slow songs soon, but I had a good dance floor going and I didn’t want to ruin it. My solution is to wear people out, so they get tired and welcome the slow jam break. This is also a good time to get a “risky” request out of the way. (theory is, if it clears the floor, its’ cool because I got a slow song coming up which will fill it right back up). Sean Paul did great. Katy Perry was a request and I was a little afraid because the Chris Brown #5 bombed. Katy Perry also bombed (again, surprising….there was a pretty large group of younger people).
12. Eric Benet Ft. Tamia “Spend My Life With You”
13. Etta James “At Last”
#12 & #13 classic slow jams. Both filled up the dance floor. I’m back to good!
14. Shakira “Hips Don’t Lie”
There was also a Latino population at this event. This one is a decent American/Top 40/Latin-ish song that worked really well for this same group of people last year. Worked again this year.
15. Kid Rock “All Summer Long”
16. Usher “Yeah”
17. Eminem “Shake That”
#14 & #15 did good. #16 did awesome. The soul train breaks out to Eminem’s “Shake That”. Party is rocking now!
18. George Clinton “Atomic Dog” (Soul train going on)
19. Pussycat Dolls Ft. Snoop Dogg "Buttons" (More Soul Train)
20. Kevin Lyttle "Turn Me On" (Still more soul train but people are starting to break out of the soul train and back into regular dancing)
21. Coolio “Fantastic Voyage”
“Fantastic Voyage” was requested at a wedding I worked last weekend and it did really well. Its around the same bpm as #20 so I thought I would mix it in and try it again. Packed dance floor! Looks like I have a new one to add to my regular play list! Go Coolio – making a big comeback!
22. Snoop Dogg & Akon “I wanna Luv You”
Alright, honestly, I just played this one because it was a similar bpm as #21 and I kind of felt like hearing it. It worked though, still a good dance floor going.
23. Sir Mix A Lot “Baby Got Back”
At this point I want to switch to a faster bpm, I haven’t gone “old skool” yet and I needed a crowd favorite party track. Sir Mix A Lot to the rescue. Result: Packed dance floor.
24. AC/DC “You Shook Me All Night Long”
This song has been in the top 10 of most requested songs for the longest time. Its got an amazing success rate. I needed some rock to mix things up a little, so I went for a proven winner. Result: Empty dance floor. WOW! That was weird, guess I don’t have rockers tonight, on to something else.
25. Frank Sinatra “The Way You Look Tonight”
26. Edwin McCain “I Could Not Ask For More”
The woman who hired me came up and asked me to slow it down, so I went with 2 proven winners - #25 and #26. This worked well to rotate the dance floor and fix the AC/DC mistake.
27. R Kelly “Step In the Name of Love”
Lots of request to “ballroom hustle”. This one fit the bill.
28. Beyonce “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)
Good response to this one.
29. Unknown Artist “Say Shava Shava”
30. Bhangra Megamix
At this point in the night, I was feeling like a jerk for ignoring all the Indian requests. I decided it was mean to punish everybody just because of two people who were being rude (plus I like Indian music), so I hooked them up with the crowd favorite “Shava Shava” and some good ‘ole bhangra. I was rewarded with a re-energized dance floor.
31. “The Cupid Shuffle”
Just like #8. Time to get everybody involved. Works like magic. Everytime.
31. Jennifer Lopez “Let’s Get Loud”
32. Flo Rida “In The Ayer”
33. Rick James “Super Freak”
34. Rihanna “Don’t Stop The Music
35. Michael Jackson “P.Y.T”
36. Salt N’ Pepa “Push It”
37. Run DMC “It’s Tricky”
38. Britney Spears “Womanizer”
Tracks #31 - #38 were all a nice beat-mixed set. Hitting lots of different decades, keeping the dance floor moving.
There is a serious snow threat, and people are now starting to rapidly leave. We are down to about 20/30 people at this point who all seem young and also seem to know each other well. The woman who hired me left and told me to shut down the music in about 20 minutes. I decide to switch to some current hits which was being requested by the remaining group.
39. Lil Wayne Feat. T-Pain - Got Money
40. M.I.A – Paper Planes
41. Down aka Kilo - Lean Like A Cholo
42. T I Ft. Rihanna - Live Your Life
43. Lil Wayne Feat. Bobby Valentino - Mrs. Officer
44. Kanye West – Heartless
The End.
That was a crazy long blog post. Hope its helpful to somebody!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
After the wedding
So the wedding is over and you're back from the honeymooon. Not sure what to do next? Check out this video.....very funny:
Friday, November 21, 2008
new light for my dj rig!
I got a new light!
It's LED! I'm totally obsessed with LED lighting. They are light, easy to use, very bright, but best of all, they use very little electricity. Now I can hook more lights up without having to worry about if I'm going to find enough power. Here are a couple pictures I snapped at Anna and Martin's wedding last weekend:
So, I bought two. I think one looks good on the ceiling and one looks pointed at the floor. They really brighten up the dance floor! :)
It's LED! I'm totally obsessed with LED lighting. They are light, easy to use, very bright, but best of all, they use very little electricity. Now I can hook more lights up without having to worry about if I'm going to find enough power. Here are a couple pictures I snapped at Anna and Martin's wedding last weekend:
So, I bought two. I think one looks good on the ceiling and one looks pointed at the floor. They really brighten up the dance floor! :)
Today, officially - EVERYTHING IS CAUGHT UP!!!!! Yay! :)
Platinum Mix had an AMAZING 2008 wedding season and I'm so proud of all our DJs, Videographers, Video Editors, and Assistants. Everybody did a superb job getting us through a very, very busy season. We ended up with double the amount of video jobs as we did in 2007, and this proved to be a challenge getting everybody's DVDs finished and delivered within 45 days (we have a 45 day delivery or money back policy, so we of course want to make sure to get them done well within that month and a half). With the addition of Eric and Katherine to our video team, as well as the extra hard work by Andrew and Evis, everybody worked together and we got everything done. Woot!
Me, personally, I slacked alot on keeping this blog updated. I also slacked on uploading everybody's hot shots photos. (they are all up now....check out the galleries here). I also was so buried this season in just keeping everything moving along that I spent no time at all on projects I've been wanting to get done (like our website and our DJ video demo - both need a major overhaul). Next season, hopefully, the plan is to delegate some of my daily, routine stuff to an assistant which will leave me alot more time to work on projects that will improve Platinum Mix in the future.
We had all amazing clients this past season, I'm so lucky to get to work for such awesome people. Here are a few photos from the past couple weddings:
this cake from Heath & Nicole's wedding tasted amazing....
Platinum Mix had an AMAZING 2008 wedding season and I'm so proud of all our DJs, Videographers, Video Editors, and Assistants. Everybody did a superb job getting us through a very, very busy season. We ended up with double the amount of video jobs as we did in 2007, and this proved to be a challenge getting everybody's DVDs finished and delivered within 45 days (we have a 45 day delivery or money back policy, so we of course want to make sure to get them done well within that month and a half). With the addition of Eric and Katherine to our video team, as well as the extra hard work by Andrew and Evis, everybody worked together and we got everything done. Woot!
Me, personally, I slacked alot on keeping this blog updated. I also slacked on uploading everybody's hot shots photos. (they are all up now....check out the galleries here). I also was so buried this season in just keeping everything moving along that I spent no time at all on projects I've been wanting to get done (like our website and our DJ video demo - both need a major overhaul). Next season, hopefully, the plan is to delegate some of my daily, routine stuff to an assistant which will leave me alot more time to work on projects that will improve Platinum Mix in the future.
We had all amazing clients this past season, I'm so lucky to get to work for such awesome people. Here are a few photos from the past couple weddings:
this cake from Heath & Nicole's wedding tasted amazing....
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wow. Just Wow.
Thanks to the fantastic wi-fi connection here at the Burton Manor, I can now blog in real-time as the party actually happens! That's amazing. And so efficient.
So I'm djing the wedding of Steve and Casey tonight. I'm working in Suite 5 at the enormous Burton Manor in Livonia. The place is really decked out quite nicely, they have the chair covers, beautiful flowers, the whole wedding-works. Their guests have all pretty much arrived and I'm just sitting back chillin' playing some good background music and waiting for the bridal party to arrive. Suddenly, this very loud male voice comes over the built-in room PA system screaming "ALRIGHT, COME ON PEOPLE SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN! WE GOTTA SIT DOWN BECAUSE WE GOTTA GET SOME SPEECHES GOING! AND WE GOTTA EAT!"
{brief pause} "NO I'M SERIOUS A**HOLES, WE GOTTA MOVE LIKE CATTLE AND SIT OUR A**ES DOWN NOW! THE POLICE ARE ON THE WAY!!"
So I am of course freaking out (but still trying really hard to appear as calm as possible). A venue's PA system is totally out of the DJs control so there really is nothing I can do about this, but meanwhile all of the guests are staring at me in my DJ area. I want to crawl under the table and die. The screaming male voice stops. People seem to resume the drinking and conversing. The mother of the bride comes over to talk to me about the incident..."no it wasn't me I swear!". Then the mother of the groom... "nope not me. don't worry I promise I won't scream at your guests.".
Everything is now back to normal, but I was a nervous wreck getting through the bridal party
introductions and toasts. The interesting thing is now, FINALLY, I completely understand some of the concerns that our prospective clients have before they book dj services with Platinum Mix. I am in total and complete shock that there is actually a DJ who would scream on the microphone, swear and threaten guests to simply sit down. I've heard stories, but never really witnessed it like that. WOW. I'm so tempted to run over to the room next door and beat that DJ over the head with his microphone...he's giving all of us wedding djs a really, really bad reputation.
On the bright side though, Steve and Casey's wedding guests seem like they are going to be a blast tonight. I can't wait to get through dinner and get this party going!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Custom Gobo's
A couple gobo's came in today for upcoming weddings! Here's how they look shining on my living room wall.....
Wedding Brunch at Polo Fields
Sunday afternoon weddings seem to be becoming alot more popular suddenly. This past Sunday I had the pleasure of working an afternoon wedding ceremony & reception at the Polo Fields in Ann Arbor. I've worked at the Polo Fields several times but this was the first afternoon event I've had there. I was really impressed! They had food stations set up around the room for brunch, including an omelette's station where you chose the ingredients for your omelette and a chef cooked it up right there on the spot for you. All the food was delicious and the guests seemed to enjoy themselves. For me, its really strange getting off work at 4:00pm, but it was kinda nice....I think I like the sunday afternoon brunch wedding idea! :)
My Saturday night wedding was held at the Masonic Temple in Downtown Detroit. I can't believe I've never been there before, the Crystal Ballroom is gorgeous. If you are looking for something a little different than your standard hotel reception room, most def check out the Masonic Temple. The roller derby girls were skating upstairs on a different level, I was so tempted to put the music on auto-play and sneak up there to check them out. It was really nice meeting and working with Ana Skidmore from Twofoot Creative who was Bettie and Ryan's Day of Coordinator and Joe Nicoloff from Nicoloff Photography. Check out a few pictures from their wedding on our photo galleries.
My Saturday night wedding was held at the Masonic Temple in Downtown Detroit. I can't believe I've never been there before, the Crystal Ballroom is gorgeous. If you are looking for something a little different than your standard hotel reception room, most def check out the Masonic Temple. The roller derby girls were skating upstairs on a different level, I was so tempted to put the music on auto-play and sneak up there to check them out. It was really nice meeting and working with Ana Skidmore from Twofoot Creative who was Bettie and Ryan's Day of Coordinator and Joe Nicoloff from Nicoloff Photography. Check out a few pictures from their wedding on our photo galleries.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Ahhh...the fab life of being a wedding dj
I love my clients! After this past weekend, I’m pretty convinced that Platinum Mix gets the coolest jobs. Friday’s groom, Thomas, learned how to speak Chinese and actually recited his vows in Chinese during the ceremony (and his Chinese bride, Shannon, said her vows in English). If that wasn’t cool enough, they also built a robot to carry the rings down the isle. That was just the ceremony. The creativity continued at the reception, where they had a cake that was made to look just like the planet Mars. They both performed a beautiful waltz for their first dance and to finish the night off, what else but some good old Chinese Karaoke. Platinum Mix did their wedding videography, so I’m going to try and upload some clips to youtube as soon as our editing team is finished with their video.
My Saturday job (wedding of Kristen and Brian), at the Kensington Court was totally rockin’. I wish all wedding guests were as fun as Kristen and Brian’s friends and family. These people really knew how to have a good time. It was a little different set-up then I’m used to at Kensington Court. Instead of being next to the dance floor I was initially setup behind a couple guest tables. We needed to set-up a video screen for their slideshow and there was no room for the screen in the spot I was given. Kensington Court actually has a nice screen built in, and they said I could use it, but running a video cable through the front entrances didn’t seem like a great idea to me, plus I was concerned that the guests sitting in front of my speakers were going to get their ears blown off by the end of the night. Long story short, I moved to a corner of the hall, and put the speakers at the ends of the head table. I guess it worked out okay, the only problem was I couldn’t hear very well all night so I had no idea if it was too loud or too quiet. Evis was working with me so he would run around the room and signal me to turn it up or turn it down all night…lol. Kristen and Brian are such a nice couple and their wedding turned out beautiful and a total blast! A few pics can be found here:::
http://picasaweb.google.com/platinummix/KristenAndBrianKensingtonCourtAnnArbor
And then there was my Sunday gig….. I needed to provide sound for Amanda and Frank’s wedding ceremony which was happening outside on the deck at the Roostertail, plus music and sound for the reception which was being held inside. I walked in for set-up and was totally confused because I kept bumping into women wearing white. None of these women looked like Amanda, and I was beginning to think I was hallucinating and there was a tribe of brides about to attack me or something. Hmmm…. Later I figured out that ALL of the 20 bridesmaids were wearing white dresses. The bride, Amanda, wore a navy blue dress. Sweet! Things got cooler when I got to play “Sweet Child of Mine” for Amanda when she walked down the isle (the instrumental piano version). I loved watching the reaction on people’s faces when they all eventually figured out what song was actually playing. I overhead some guy saying to the girl he was with “isn’t this guns n’ roses? Oh my god that’s so cool!” haha Frank and Amanda started the reception off with a soul train line for their grand entrance and then to kick off the actual dancing part of the night, they had some coordinated dance moves for their first dance. You can check out the video of their first dance, just make sure you watch the hip hop/breakdance routine during the last minute of the video. It’s so awesome! Check out their first dance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIk-F9W2Ki0
Frank and Amanda had selected some of my all-time favorite tracks so I had an absolute blast dee-jaying their wedding, but I had to share the duties with Evis who I brought with me to play the Albanian music. (they wanted like a 75% American 25% Albanian mix) Albanian music is really good, I’d never really listened to it before and Evis has got some great tracks that people really seemed to get into.
I think I worked about 40 hours in 3 days. I’m exhausted, but it was worth it. Great weekend of weddings!!
My Saturday job (wedding of Kristen and Brian), at the Kensington Court was totally rockin’. I wish all wedding guests were as fun as Kristen and Brian’s friends and family. These people really knew how to have a good time. It was a little different set-up then I’m used to at Kensington Court. Instead of being next to the dance floor I was initially setup behind a couple guest tables. We needed to set-up a video screen for their slideshow and there was no room for the screen in the spot I was given. Kensington Court actually has a nice screen built in, and they said I could use it, but running a video cable through the front entrances didn’t seem like a great idea to me, plus I was concerned that the guests sitting in front of my speakers were going to get their ears blown off by the end of the night. Long story short, I moved to a corner of the hall, and put the speakers at the ends of the head table. I guess it worked out okay, the only problem was I couldn’t hear very well all night so I had no idea if it was too loud or too quiet. Evis was working with me so he would run around the room and signal me to turn it up or turn it down all night…lol. Kristen and Brian are such a nice couple and their wedding turned out beautiful and a total blast! A few pics can be found here:::
http://picasaweb.google.com/platinummix/KristenAndBrianKensingtonCourtAnnArbor
And then there was my Sunday gig….. I needed to provide sound for Amanda and Frank’s wedding ceremony which was happening outside on the deck at the Roostertail, plus music and sound for the reception which was being held inside. I walked in for set-up and was totally confused because I kept bumping into women wearing white. None of these women looked like Amanda, and I was beginning to think I was hallucinating and there was a tribe of brides about to attack me or something. Hmmm…. Later I figured out that ALL of the 20 bridesmaids were wearing white dresses. The bride, Amanda, wore a navy blue dress. Sweet! Things got cooler when I got to play “Sweet Child of Mine” for Amanda when she walked down the isle (the instrumental piano version). I loved watching the reaction on people’s faces when they all eventually figured out what song was actually playing. I overhead some guy saying to the girl he was with “isn’t this guns n’ roses? Oh my god that’s so cool!” haha Frank and Amanda started the reception off with a soul train line for their grand entrance and then to kick off the actual dancing part of the night, they had some coordinated dance moves for their first dance. You can check out the video of their first dance, just make sure you watch the hip hop/breakdance routine during the last minute of the video. It’s so awesome! Check out their first dance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIk-F9W2Ki0
Frank and Amanda had selected some of my all-time favorite tracks so I had an absolute blast dee-jaying their wedding, but I had to share the duties with Evis who I brought with me to play the Albanian music. (they wanted like a 75% American 25% Albanian mix) Albanian music is really good, I’d never really listened to it before and Evis has got some great tracks that people really seemed to get into.
I think I worked about 40 hours in 3 days. I’m exhausted, but it was worth it. Great weekend of weddings!!
Monday, July 07, 2008
Steve and Aimee Hubble - U of M Union 7/5/2008
I had the honor to DJ Steve and Aimee Hubble’s wedding at the U of M union on 7/5/2008. I’ve been a DJ for over 13 years and I have to say this was one of the best wedding’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of hosting.
I do have to give a huge amount of credit to Steve and Aimee on their planning of events. They did something that I have never seen before but it turned out to be the one thing that turned their wedding into a high turnout on the dance floor.
During my contact call with Aimee and Steve they told me they wanted to do the introductions then go right to the bridal dance, father/daughter, and son/mother. I have seen this before and it works well, however this is where their ingenious planning came into play. Steve and Aimee asked me to have everyone stand-up, come out to the floor and dance to Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison.
At first everyone was looking around the room not knowing what to do but when they looked over and saw Aimee and Steve jamming to the music the guests starting to get more relaxed. By the time the song was over everyone was laughing, smiling, and dancing like crazy. I then asked everyone to look around the room and said, “Notice all the people on dance floor. You are going to want to stay all night long because this is how packed floor will turn out and how much fun this night is going to be. You won’t want to miss it”.
And it was true. By the end of the night there were 80-90% of the bride and groom’s guests on the dance floor having a ball. There was even a table of Nuclear Engineers that had taken their ties off and wrapped them around their heads like Rambo just going crazy.
I feel that by just having the guests come out and dance to 1 song before dinner did a number of things. It was a fantastic ice-breaker, it showed people where the party was going to be, no-one had a excuse to not get on the dance floor (ate too much, drank too much, etc), and it got people moving so they could digest their dinner better.
Aimee and Steve, if you are reading this, I have to say you did a great job and from a Host perspective, your wedding was top notch. Thank you again for having me.
Garret Urbaniak
I do have to give a huge amount of credit to Steve and Aimee on their planning of events. They did something that I have never seen before but it turned out to be the one thing that turned their wedding into a high turnout on the dance floor.
During my contact call with Aimee and Steve they told me they wanted to do the introductions then go right to the bridal dance, father/daughter, and son/mother. I have seen this before and it works well, however this is where their ingenious planning came into play. Steve and Aimee asked me to have everyone stand-up, come out to the floor and dance to Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison.
At first everyone was looking around the room not knowing what to do but when they looked over and saw Aimee and Steve jamming to the music the guests starting to get more relaxed. By the time the song was over everyone was laughing, smiling, and dancing like crazy. I then asked everyone to look around the room and said, “Notice all the people on dance floor. You are going to want to stay all night long because this is how packed floor will turn out and how much fun this night is going to be. You won’t want to miss it”.
And it was true. By the end of the night there were 80-90% of the bride and groom’s guests on the dance floor having a ball. There was even a table of Nuclear Engineers that had taken their ties off and wrapped them around their heads like Rambo just going crazy.
I feel that by just having the guests come out and dance to 1 song before dinner did a number of things. It was a fantastic ice-breaker, it showed people where the party was going to be, no-one had a excuse to not get on the dance floor (ate too much, drank too much, etc), and it got people moving so they could digest their dinner better.
Aimee and Steve, if you are reading this, I have to say you did a great job and from a Host perspective, your wedding was top notch. Thank you again for having me.
Garret Urbaniak
Monday, June 02, 2008
Katherine the Intern
Okay well the first intern didn't work out but I'm thinking we have a winner with the 2nd official Platinum Mix Intern. Katherine is studying Multimedia production at Wayne State and wants to work as a video editor. She has started working on wedding videos for us, but I think she has DJ potential. We'll see where that goes.... 'till then, let the intern abuse begin! :)
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Check out the awesome cake topper from Kathleen and Charles's wedding:
Until tonight, I forgot how much I dig 70's funk. Kathleen & Charles had a quality soul train line going to some Parliment, George Clinton, Earth, Wind & Fire...all that good stuff. The bass guitar lines are just so amazing, they stick in my head forever. All that stuff blends really nicely with some of today's top 40 (which makes sense since most of today's music is taken from it). I had a blast mixin' it up tonight!!
Click here to see pictures from Kathleen & Charles Wedding
Until tonight, I forgot how much I dig 70's funk. Kathleen & Charles had a quality soul train line going to some Parliment, George Clinton, Earth, Wind & Fire...all that good stuff. The bass guitar lines are just so amazing, they stick in my head forever. All that stuff blends really nicely with some of today's top 40 (which makes sense since most of today's music is taken from it). I had a blast mixin' it up tonight!!
Click here to see pictures from Kathleen & Charles Wedding
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Tammy and Ray
Tammy & Ray’s wedding last night at Barrister Gardens 
Here are a few pictures (many more can be found here)::
They got our package #3, which includes a video screen which we play music videos, background ambient videos + a “growing up” slide-show. The photographer last night, John Richmond, was cool enough to copy over a few of the wedding pictures that he took at the ceremony so we were able to play those back too. He took some beautiful pictures!
Congratulations Ray & Tammy!
Sunday, March 02, 2008
I’m trying so hard to stay awake right now... I just finished working for Lindsey at Stephen at their wedding at Arnaldo’s in Riverview, packed up my equipment, drove home and now I have to go and DJ a fundraiser at a high school in Walled Lake. It’s one of those 24 hour lock-in things. The American Disc Jockey Association is providing 4 or 5 DJs who are each working a 2-4 hour shift of it. I somehow got volunteered for the 4:00 am – 8:00 am slot. I’m trying to figure out my strategy….. if I approach it like a typical high school job, then I would go in and play the current Top 40. But I’m going to guess that the other DJs who have been there before me today, have all played the Top 40, meaning the locked-in students will have heard the same Top 40 playlist, 5 times over in a 24 hour period. That would drive me insane…but who knows, maybe that’s what the students want?? Another idea is to go in the there and be the crazy 4am DJ and start playing random stuff they’ve never heard of. That kind of sounds fun to me, but risky (not playing the top 40 could make me the very “un-cool” dj who didn’t play T-Pain for the 40th time tonight). Hmmm….....
Steve’s grandma caught the bouquet at the wedding tonight! So that would be fine, except that Lindsey and Steve wanted to do the “complete” bouquet and garter routine. That means I’m supposed to have the guy who catches the garter put the garter on the girl who catches the bouquet. Lots of people have mixed feelings about the whole garter/bouquet thing, so I always like to ask before making strangers feel each other up. Both the Bride and Groom approved it, so tonight officially became the first wedding I’ve ever worked where I had to tell a groomsman to do the sexy garter dance for the groom’s grandma. See pictures from their wedding in our Hot Shots Photo Galleries
This job never stops being interesting!!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Hello everyone,My name is Garret Urbaniak and I'm the newest member of the Platinum Mix Productions family.
I started my DJ career in 1995 at the tender age of 19. I was working at a record store that no longer exists. While I was working there a gentleman came into our store and asked me about our "Music Cataloging Computer", which was about as tall as me (yes, this was before the internet). Well, we got to talking and he asked me if I would be interested in becoming a DJ. Ten years and hundreds of shows later, I am a highly skilled master of ceremonies with weddings and swing dancing as my specialty.
I'm glad to call myself a Platinum Mix DJ and I hope we will see you at your next party.
Garret "Elwood" Urbaniak
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Marv Stasak Photography - You Rock!!
Platinum Mix currently does on average, between 4-7 special events per week. The majority of those events are wedding receptions, and at those weddings, 95% of the time there is a photographer. I would estimate then that Platinum Mix DJ's work with at least 208 wedding photographers per year. If you multiply that by the 7 years we've been doing that many events, then you have around 1,456 wedding photographers.
Yesterday in the mail came a package from Marv Stasak Photography that had a nice letter thanking Paul Mattis for his professionalism at a wedding reception they worked together two weeks ago, plus, he included an awesome 8x10 print of a picture he took of Paul. How amazing is that!! I gotta say, this is the first time that a photographer has ever, ever sent a photo that they took of one of our DJs. Its hard for us to get good photos of the guys, so I really, really, really appreciated Marv taking the time to take a nice picture of Paul. And I think it's so generous of him to go to the trouble of printing it out and mailing it to me.
Here is the picture::
Brides To Be:: Platinum Mix officially thinks Marv is super cool, and we figure that if he puts in so much effort to make the DJ happy (which the other 1,456 wedding photographers in Michigan could care less about), then imagine what he will do to make his actual bride's and groom's happy. I would bet money that he takes great care of all his clients. Check out his website at: http://www.marvsphoto.com or give Marv a call at 248-320-9905.
Marv: Thank you again!
Yesterday in the mail came a package from Marv Stasak Photography that had a nice letter thanking Paul Mattis for his professionalism at a wedding reception they worked together two weeks ago, plus, he included an awesome 8x10 print of a picture he took of Paul. How amazing is that!! I gotta say, this is the first time that a photographer has ever, ever sent a photo that they took of one of our DJs. Its hard for us to get good photos of the guys, so I really, really, really appreciated Marv taking the time to take a nice picture of Paul. And I think it's so generous of him to go to the trouble of printing it out and mailing it to me.
Here is the picture::
Brides To Be:: Platinum Mix officially thinks Marv is super cool, and we figure that if he puts in so much effort to make the DJ happy (which the other 1,456 wedding photographers in Michigan could care less about), then imagine what he will do to make his actual bride's and groom's happy. I would bet money that he takes great care of all his clients. Check out his website at: http://www.marvsphoto.com or give Marv a call at 248-320-9905.
Marv: Thank you again!
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