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

Tammy and Ray

Tammy & Ray’s wedding last night at Barrister Gardens was so fun! Tammy was such a fun party host and a perfect bride to work for! Despite the snow, Tammy and Ray's friends and family kept that party going strong until the last song of the night.

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!

Evis came with me to help set-up everything. He gets photo credit for all the pictures he took for Tammy and Ray's Hot Shots photo galleries (haha, he ended up taking like 200 pictures!). The man was a maniac – jumping on tables and everything to get a good shot of Tammy and Ray’s out-of-control dance floor. Thanks Evis! You’re the best!

Congratulations Ray & Tammy!

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 40^th 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!!

Kim and Adam's custom gobo came in today --

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.

During my time as a DJ I have seen many changes such as CDs to MP3s, giant speakers with bulky amps to small speakers with amps built right in, light shows with tons of lights to 1 light doing an entire show itself, and bow ties to regular ties. There has been many changes to the wedding DJ industry but 2 things haven't changed, customer service and client satisfaction. I have worked with many DJ companies ove the years and I can say Platinum Mix Productions is top notch. Their attention to detail, ability to read audiences, and overall professionalism is magnificant. If you are looking for a DJ company that will treat your special day with the respect and dedication it deserves then look no further.

I'm glad to call myself a Platinum Mix DJ and I hope we will see you at your next party.

Garret "Elwood" Urbaniak

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!

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!