A few good ideas I saw at weddings recently:

At the Garden Park in Holly, Shantel and Joe made their own place card holders using forks. Sweet! Here's a picture::

Anni and Matt love coffee, and they came up with a brilliant idea for their wedding favors - see pic below. I was very tempted this morning to brew up the packet of coffee I took home from their wedding last night, but I decided to save it. It's now officially my "emergency coffee". Next time I run out of coffee and forget to pick up more from the store, I'll brew their "Perfect Blend" and then I'll get to think of the awesome time I had dee-jaying Anni and Matt's wedding. :)

I’m way behind in this blogging thing. I’ve just been so busy this past summer and haven’t had a chance to write about all the great weddings we’ve been working. So a couple things to summarize the past couple months:

First off, thanks to all the Platinum Mix DJs and Videographers. Platinum Mix set a company record for number of DJ events AND number of Video events….so yeah…we were crazy busy in August. Everything ran smooth and that couldn’t have happened without everybody’s cooperation so thanks guys for all your hard work!

Congratulations to Brendan & Luci, married on July 28th! Brendan always does an awesome job DJing weddings, so of course I wanted his wedding to be perfect. Myself, Paul T. and Brendan’s other DJ friend, Stu, worked together to DJ his reception at Petruzello’s in Troy. We kinda took turns with all the MC & DJ duties, which worked out great because that gave all three of us the opportunity to party it up a little ourselves (yay! DJs never get to do that!). We even got to bring a date! Great night!

We all have been doing a pretty good job of getting pictures uploaded to our “Hot Shots” photo galleries, so if you are curious about all this dee-jaying we have been doing, you can see the most recent pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/platinummix

Oh yeah, and about those “Hot Shots” photo galleries….if you are considering hiring Platinum Mix to DJ your event but you DO NOT want pictures posted online, don’t worry…..we always ask our clients before their events if they want their free hot shots, and if you say no, then you won’t see any pictures from your event. Also, if we dee-jayed an event for you already and you were wondering why your pictures haven’t been posted yet….its probably because you either indicted “no pictures” on your planning form, or perhaps you left it blank (in which case we assume you don’t care).

2 new guys started in the past couple weeks. Welcome Evis and Bruce!

Evis is going to be doing a little bit of everything. So far mostly, he’s been doing video work. I’m really impressed with how quickly he is getting up to speed with editing, and can’t wait to see how he does when we have him out video-taping next weekend. This past weekend he assisted me at Connie & Mike’s wedding. Connie & Mike ordered our Signature Wedding DJ package and he worked the “video box”, meaning mainly he was responsible for keeping something playing on the video screen. I was mixing music videos, but for songs that we don’t have the video for, Evis would mix in Connie & Mike’s photo montage, and ambient videos. He did an excellent job! He’s also great at fixing stuff. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to spend the slower winter months fixing the piles of broken dj equipment I have so I can put it on Ebay!

Bruce is a friend of Jill’s. (Jill does video for us) Jill thinks that Bruce would make a great wedding DJ and after working with him Friday night, I would have to agree. He has the perfect personality, a good knowledge of all types of music, but most importantly, I feel that he has the ability to sense the “vibe” of a party. That part is impossible for me to teach, if somebody wants to be a DJ, that’s gotta come naturally.

And of course......thank you to everybody that hired Platinum Mix to DJ or video their special events the past couple months!!

Kelly and Paul did a great job with the flowers/color scheme for their wedding at Greenfield Village’s Eagle Tavern. I’m not sure who their florist was or who came up with the idea of doing the yellow table cloths with pink napkins and pink flowers, but I really liked how it came together to brighten up an otherwise dark reception venue. Greenfield Village is an awesome place to have your wedding (especially if you are into historic looking buildings and stuff). There are so many cool options for pictures, and its pretty convenient to have the ceremony in the chapel there. There are some limitations to having your reception in a building built in 1830something like for example, no lights, but gotta love that romantic glow you can get when those candles are lit. It was nice to see the 11-4 Productions crew out there too, always a pleasure working with Sunshine and her team.

I was really lucky this weekend with wedding clients. Kelly and Paul were so laid back and easy going on Friday night and so was Kristen and Chris at their Saturday night wedding reception at Kensington Court in Ann Arbor. My job is just sooooo much easier when the bride and groom are easy to work with. My job is also made easier when the reception venue is organized. Kaeli does an amazing job keeping weddings running smoothly over at the Kensington Court. Love working there because there is easy access to load equipment into the rooms, a great coffee bar (with chocolate shavings, whip cream and flavors to pour into my coffee like vanilla, almond and hazelnut!!), a friendly staff, 220v POWER!, and most importantly - don’t know what it is about that place but weddings in that grand ballroom always rock! I honestly don’t think I have ever had a boring wedding there. Kristen and Chris’s friends and family were totally cool. My favorite part was when this little girl saw a couple of guys break-dancing and tried to copy them. She did a pretty good job with the robot dance and spinning around on the floor! What a cutie!

More pictures from this past weekend are posted here.

Lately there have been a lot of inquires from people planning events at the Wixom Community Center. I’ve never even heard of the Wixom Community Center until a few months ago so I was excited to see that venue on my schedule this past Saturday. The place turned out to be really nice! I have no idea what it costs to rent, but you can bring in your own caterer and bartender (and alcohol) which could save lots of money. The wedding I worked there for Ashley and Justin was catered by Chef de Cuisine (586-566-5139). They made terrific food, I especially liked the boneless fried chicken. The bartenders were both really friendly too, they happily kept my water glass full all night long (lol). Ashley and Justin have a fun group of friends and family but most memorable was the guy who did the Pee Wee Herman to “Tequila”. I was also pretty surprised at the crowd reaction to Alabama’s “Mountain Music”, they had a whole dance to go with it!

I really enjoyed Dr. David and Dr. Amy’s wedding 2 weeks ago. It started out pretty bad (at least for me). They had planned to have the ceremony outside in their parent’s backyard, and then the reception immediately following in a tent at the same location. I was to provide music for both the ceremony and reception. When I arrived it was REALLY HOT. I felt like I was going to pass out from that hot sun beating down on me when I was setting up the ceremony sound system. I kept thinking “Its okay…they are both doctors…they can revive me if I pass out and the party will continue”…haha. I got everything connected and ready to go and then these dark clouds came rolling in and it got really windy. Pretty obvious that it was about to start pouring rain. The ceremony area was not under a tent, so the family decided to delay the start of the ceremony for about an hour to let the rain pass. I took down all my sound equipment and moved it under the tent. It rained. Then it stopped. And they wanted to start the ceremony immediately….but my equipment needed to be set-up again. I decided to improvise and keep it plugged in under the tent and just turned it up really loud (it wasn’t that far of a distance away). Problem was, in all that mess of moving everything back and forth one of my cables came a little bit unplugged and while the mothers were walking down the isle the music kept shorting in and out. Thankfully, I was able to identify the problem cable and fix it just in time for the procession of the bridal party. Everything was fine for the rest of the ceremony (whew!). And thank god it rained because the temperature was perfect for the rest of the evening. The reception rocked! The father of the bride gave a very memorable speech giving his new son-in-law a little interactive husband training session. I have to say easily one of the most creative wedding speeches I have ever seen. Great folks, great party! Pictures are here.

Not much time to write lately….this week I have to DJ parties Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Gotta love June!

Villa Penna has the bomb Fettucine Alfredo. It might be the best in the world. I could just eat that everyday for the rest of my life and die happy.

I’ve really been neglecting this blog again. It’s just been so crazy busy with both Proms and Weddings lately. I’ve been having a blast though – Prom season is most def my favorite time of year. Unlike last year, there really hasn’t been a stand-out song so far that was requested a lot and guaranteed to rock the house. The tracks that seem to be getting the dance floor hot this year are:

DJ UNK – 2 Step
Fergie Ft. Ludacris – Glamouras
Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend
T-Pain Ft. Yung Joc – Buy U a Drank
Fat Joe Ft. Lil’ Wayne – Make It Rain

And a few others, but strange that there isn’t a clear winner.

Kyle and Erin’s wedding was really rockin’! What a great group! I knew they were going to be fun when I introduced the bridal party and the groomsmen came in with baseball bats. Kyle and Erin got all their groomsmen bats that were engraved with a personal message. I also liked the signs they had on each table. Each table had a sign with a location name, location picture and an explanation why that location was important to them. Then instead of having a table numbering system for the seating chart, they used the name of the location instead. Nice touch. You can see a picture of this at: http://picasaweb.google.com/platinummix/ErinAndKyle4PointsSheratinAnnArbor
I got to play music videos, and Leslie and Don from A Pair of Photographers hooked me up with the pictures they had taken just a few hours earlier so we could play them back on the video screen for everybody to see. That got a great crowd reaction! I think its nice to have the wedding pictures playing in the background during slow dances and stuff….then everybody gets to see them the same day…immediate gratification! Gotta love that!

Thanks to Brendan for the help Saturday night (and for taking all those pictures for Hot Shots). Thanks to Paul M. for getting them damn trusses up on Friday night and for basically mixing the entire night so I didn't have to do anything...haha.

“Wedding season” has officially begun! Yay! Time to get ready to be crazy busy! For Platinum Mix, it really started for us last weekend. April 14th turned out to be a lot busier than expected with the addition of 2 last-minute DJ bookings. So we ended up with 5 DJs out plus 2 videographers. Not too shabby for mid-April….(at least for us!).

Latest News: Carl has been promoted to Field Supervisor. I am really excited about this! Platinum Mix has always had a decent back-up program, but my big concern was it wasn’t consistent enough. We would have DJs scheduled for back-up, but instead of actually being prepared for emergencies, they would be hanging out playing video games enjoying their Saturday night off….not a good solution. So by having a full-time back-up DJ who is also a supervisor, we can now offer a more professional and consistent emergency back-up system to our clients. Carl has over 20 years experience as a DJ. He can handle any type of event and any kind of music. Knowing he is out there spot-checking all of our events, and available in case somebody breaks their arm on Friday night, makes me feel soooooooo much more relaxed.

Shout-out to Vena & Mike who were married Friday the 13th at Devil’s Ridge in Oxford. Friday the 13th, Devil’s Ridge….get it? Cool huh? They completed the theme with black & red colors, and the most creative card box I’ve ever seen – check out the picture in our Hot Shots photo galleries. The groom made it! Vena & Mike were really cute together, easy-going and fun to work with. Their first dance (Seether ft. Amy Lee “Broken”) and last dance (Metallica “Nothing Else Matters”), was stuck in my head for 2 days. Great songs. Both make me want to start playing guitar again. Especially “Nothing Else Matters”. I liked their photographer selection too. Alison Bates from Bates Photographic and Design. Alison and her assistant worked really hard, took a ton of pictures and captured some fantastic images for Vena and Mike. And she’s cool too. You can check out some of her photographs on her website located here.

Nicole and Jason’s wedding was fun too. I have to thank their Maid of Honor Rebecca for hooking me up with them…actually I have to thank Rebecca for hooking me up with like 3 or 4 of her engaged friends. I should probably give Rebecca a part-time job doing Platinum Mix sales. Lol. Thanks Rebecca! You’re the best! My favorite part about Nicole and Jason’s wedding was the bridal party intros. Normally, the bridal party is introduced and then they go directly to the head table, sit down, toasts are given and then dinner is served. Nicole wanted her guests to dance after the bridal party was introduced. So we had all the bridal party come in and head to the dance floor, then when the bride and groom were introduced, all the guests came out to join them. I thought that was unique and much more fun! The wedding was at the Roostertail, which as always, was amazing. Love working at that place!

How come my pictures aren't showing up anymore??? And what the heck's going on with all the crazy spam in my comments???? If anybody is an expert in this blogging stuff, help me out!

My favorite thing about being a mobile DJ (versus being a club or radio DJ), is for sure the diversity in my playlists from night to night. Back in my night club spinnin’ days, I would play only dance/techno, hip hop, and “booty bass” every single night. I liked the mixing aspect of it, but I got tired of hearing the same songs over and over again. Whatever happened to be popular at the moment would get pounded into my head night after night (at ridiculously loud decibel levels). As a mobile DJ though, I get to work different types of events, and every night I have a different crowd, which means I get to play a completely different set of music. From Motown to Bhangra to Country to Egyptian to Hip Hop, the request list goes on and on, always making my job new and exciting.

This past couple weeks I’ve had some really unique parties to DJ:

Munirah’s wedding was a lot of fun for me. This was a Muslim wedding, so the men and women have separate parties in separate rooms. Men in one room, women in another. I was the DJ for the women’s side. I have worked many Muslim parties over the years, but always for Arab American Muslims. Munirah (and all of her family) were African American Muslims, but many other cultures were represented on the guest list. Munirah wanted all of her guests to have fun so she really gave me a ton of freedom with the playlist, with the guidelines being “play some African, Arabic, Indian, Latin and American music”. Awesome! Dinner music was easy, but when it was time to open the dance floor I got a little nervous….what should I start with?? Normally I would go Arabic….but maybe I should start with an African song? The videographer suggested I go with the hustle. Good call, dance floor packed instantly. After that it was so fun…I was mixing Beyonce with belly dancing beats and then I’d go into a central African song. Dance floor was rockin’ all night and I had a total blast. Funny though, out of all that cool music I got to play, the song that went over the best was easily “The Cha Cha Slide”. Crystal Gardens has a huge dance floor but when that song came on they had to move some tables out of the way so more people could dance. LOL.

When I initially met with Troy and Sarah about their wedding March 2nd, they were very concerned that nobody was going to dance. They did not plan to serve alcohol and feared that everybody was going to eat and leave right after dinner. I’ve dee-jayed dry weddings before, and Troy and Sarah seemed fun so I wasn’t worried at all. But then as soon as the videographer got there he said “you got your work cut out for you today. I’ve known these people most of my life and they don’t dance at all”. Hmm…..sounds like a challenge! I was working with a new Platinum Mix recruit, Kevin and together we quickly put together an emergency plan. Turned out we didn’t need it. While I admit the dance floor wasn’t completely full all night, it was consistently “occupied”. Those folks did WAY better then I anticipated. Most of that was thanks to Troy and Sarah. Sarah planned out this little practical joke to play on Troy. Long story, but it involved grocery bags over the groomsmen’s heads and silly dancing to “Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy”. That really worked well to loosen up the crowd a little bit and bring them out to the dance floor. Check out the pics located here.

Old Hollywood was the theme of Joy and Andy’s wedding. They rolled out a red carpet and I introduced the bridal party to Fred Astair’s “Puttin’ on The Ritz”. Microwave popcorn were the favors and there was a table of candy greeting the guests when they arrived. During dinner we were treated to old black and white movies showing on a projection screen. They chose most of the playlist for the night too, selecting lots of new wave eighties stuff, classic rock and a little disco. I was surprised at some of the songs that went over really well like “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop and Edwin Star “Twenty-Five Miles”. It was cool to play The Cars & The Kinks too….love both of those bands! Pictures from this wedding are posted here.

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!

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!.....”