Shakermaker Promotions
03-08-2009, 10:57 PM
Sit back and make yourself comfortable. Just to let you know that I am not slacking and can't have the likes of Charlie outdoing me on the longest post. Here is a review of the 90TH BIRTHDAY party I did on saturday night.
I received the phonecall around 2 months ago. When I originally took the enquiry I did actually think that it would be a mission to do it but also thought it would be a challenge. I quoted a decent price for Disco and Projection and the fee was agreed.
I had the meeting with the lady (66 years old) who was the daughter of the 'Birthday Boy'. She gave me some background on the whole event and it sounded really interesting. The 'birthday boy' was one of 8 children (6 boys and 2 girls) and was the only one left standing. The whole point of the party was to get everybody togeather again for one last time because in reality, even though it's sad to say...the next time most of them would be togeather again would be at the funeral.
In our meeting we went through a list of songs that they used to sing as children and some of his favourite tunes from years ago.. He loved Petula Clark, Connie Francis, Doris Day and 50's Rock n Roll as well as some good old **EDITED** London c***ney classics. The spec for the night was that they wanted it more background and not too much of a full on Disco. Photographs from years gone by of all the family would be projected on to the big screen along with some old cine film from around 1948ish of the family which had been transferred to DVD.
So....saturday comes and I set up in the afternoon at a fairly large-ish venue...well big enough to cater for around 120 people. Bearing in mind that the customer doesn't want anything too full on and judging by the money that they had spent on this party (around £6k in total), I decided to try and make the setup look more classy. I went for the 'less is more' look (sorry no photos as I forgot the new camera!)...I just used the DB Technologies Actives for sound and the lighting was just 2 x LEDJ's set to Blue under each speaker stand and on the goalposts were 2 x Mystic LED's and 1 x MarvelLED. It actually looked really nice. The customer supplied an I-pod which I put through the system as they were having a 4 course sit down meal from 6.00pm - 8.00pm.
Got back to the venue for 7.30pm and for 8.00pm start and mingled with the guests for a while, putting some request slips on tables etc. I met the 'Birthday Boy' and shook his hand and at around 8.10pm I was given the nod to kick off the evening. I started off saying Good evening to everybody and then asked everyone to stand and make sure that they had a drink in their hand to toast the birthday boy. The exact words were "Ladies and Gentlemen, could you please stand and toast the main man George who is celebrating his 90th birthday today"..There were cheers and screams that were deafening and it was really cool. I played his favourite tunes for a while and then the request slips started to flood in too. During the early part of the evening I powered up the projector and projected the images on to the screen. I ended up taking the screen down because I realised that there was a massive white wall right behind it so I projected on to the wall. People began to notice and you could see the word going around.
I then announced that the photos would be on a loop throughout the evening and to keep an eye on the wall as something special would appear later on. There were lots of children there, Great Grandchildren and Great Great Grandchildren etc etc..I played lots of stuff for them and got them up dancing and everyone else followed suit. It was a really great atmosphere and I felt like part of the family...sound weird but it's true. Everyone was really nice. You could hear people talking about the old days and this and that and it was all good. After we had done the 'cut the cake' bit and the 'Birthday Boy' had, had his photo taken with all of his family in groups, I decided that the time was right to start the DVD. I announced it and everyone took notice. The films were amazing. The quality was superb and it went down really, really well. There was film of the birthday boy in his 30's with his brothers and sisters on the beach in Majorca and various weddings etc... There were lots of tears from both the guys and the girls but it was all happy stuff. Some people (so I was told), had never seen the brothers or sisters (their Grans and Grandads etc) and they were rightly upset. There was one particular moment where a very pretty lady (I think we refer to them as :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:'s...sorry), burst into hysterics and tears of joy as a piece of film showed on the wall of a wedding and the bride was holding a new born baby. The pretty lady was THE baby and she had never ever seen the footage before!
I have to be honest, 2 things ok.... Firstly, a big lump like me got caught up in the occasion and watching people get upset had me a little choked (not that anyone saw) and secondly, even though it was not my idea at all and I had no reason to feel guilty...I still did feel guilty for upsetting people, even though it was all tears of joy. I finished the night off with some classic party tunes which had everyone dancing and then we hit the end of the night which seemed to come along far too quickly. People shook my hand, a few of the ladies gave me a peck on the cheek and the lady that booked me couldn't thank me enough. I really did enjoy the night and it was a pleasure to be involved.
Tonight I received the following email from the lady that booked me so I thought I would share it with you all:
...............................
Hi Gary
Thank you so much for a perfect evening. Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed the music, and thanks to your suggestion of projection of photographs the memories of all were stirred. One of the grandchildren remarked "look at them lot, they were pioneers in their day weren't they?"
We were very happy with the service that you provided and the effort you put in to find the music that was requested. I have recommended you to the people at the venue and will surely contact you for any future occasions that we have and recommend you to friends.
Thank you again for providing us with a perfect evenings entertainment.
Regards
.............................
Thanks for reading and apologies for the long post and lack of photo evidence. :D
I received the phonecall around 2 months ago. When I originally took the enquiry I did actually think that it would be a mission to do it but also thought it would be a challenge. I quoted a decent price for Disco and Projection and the fee was agreed.
I had the meeting with the lady (66 years old) who was the daughter of the 'Birthday Boy'. She gave me some background on the whole event and it sounded really interesting. The 'birthday boy' was one of 8 children (6 boys and 2 girls) and was the only one left standing. The whole point of the party was to get everybody togeather again for one last time because in reality, even though it's sad to say...the next time most of them would be togeather again would be at the funeral.
In our meeting we went through a list of songs that they used to sing as children and some of his favourite tunes from years ago.. He loved Petula Clark, Connie Francis, Doris Day and 50's Rock n Roll as well as some good old **EDITED** London c***ney classics. The spec for the night was that they wanted it more background and not too much of a full on Disco. Photographs from years gone by of all the family would be projected on to the big screen along with some old cine film from around 1948ish of the family which had been transferred to DVD.
So....saturday comes and I set up in the afternoon at a fairly large-ish venue...well big enough to cater for around 120 people. Bearing in mind that the customer doesn't want anything too full on and judging by the money that they had spent on this party (around £6k in total), I decided to try and make the setup look more classy. I went for the 'less is more' look (sorry no photos as I forgot the new camera!)...I just used the DB Technologies Actives for sound and the lighting was just 2 x LEDJ's set to Blue under each speaker stand and on the goalposts were 2 x Mystic LED's and 1 x MarvelLED. It actually looked really nice. The customer supplied an I-pod which I put through the system as they were having a 4 course sit down meal from 6.00pm - 8.00pm.
Got back to the venue for 7.30pm and for 8.00pm start and mingled with the guests for a while, putting some request slips on tables etc. I met the 'Birthday Boy' and shook his hand and at around 8.10pm I was given the nod to kick off the evening. I started off saying Good evening to everybody and then asked everyone to stand and make sure that they had a drink in their hand to toast the birthday boy. The exact words were "Ladies and Gentlemen, could you please stand and toast the main man George who is celebrating his 90th birthday today"..There were cheers and screams that were deafening and it was really cool. I played his favourite tunes for a while and then the request slips started to flood in too. During the early part of the evening I powered up the projector and projected the images on to the screen. I ended up taking the screen down because I realised that there was a massive white wall right behind it so I projected on to the wall. People began to notice and you could see the word going around.
I then announced that the photos would be on a loop throughout the evening and to keep an eye on the wall as something special would appear later on. There were lots of children there, Great Grandchildren and Great Great Grandchildren etc etc..I played lots of stuff for them and got them up dancing and everyone else followed suit. It was a really great atmosphere and I felt like part of the family...sound weird but it's true. Everyone was really nice. You could hear people talking about the old days and this and that and it was all good. After we had done the 'cut the cake' bit and the 'Birthday Boy' had, had his photo taken with all of his family in groups, I decided that the time was right to start the DVD. I announced it and everyone took notice. The films were amazing. The quality was superb and it went down really, really well. There was film of the birthday boy in his 30's with his brothers and sisters on the beach in Majorca and various weddings etc... There were lots of tears from both the guys and the girls but it was all happy stuff. Some people (so I was told), had never seen the brothers or sisters (their Grans and Grandads etc) and they were rightly upset. There was one particular moment where a very pretty lady (I think we refer to them as :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored:'s...sorry), burst into hysterics and tears of joy as a piece of film showed on the wall of a wedding and the bride was holding a new born baby. The pretty lady was THE baby and she had never ever seen the footage before!
I have to be honest, 2 things ok.... Firstly, a big lump like me got caught up in the occasion and watching people get upset had me a little choked (not that anyone saw) and secondly, even though it was not my idea at all and I had no reason to feel guilty...I still did feel guilty for upsetting people, even though it was all tears of joy. I finished the night off with some classic party tunes which had everyone dancing and then we hit the end of the night which seemed to come along far too quickly. People shook my hand, a few of the ladies gave me a peck on the cheek and the lady that booked me couldn't thank me enough. I really did enjoy the night and it was a pleasure to be involved.
Tonight I received the following email from the lady that booked me so I thought I would share it with you all:
...............................
Hi Gary
Thank you so much for a perfect evening. Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed the music, and thanks to your suggestion of projection of photographs the memories of all were stirred. One of the grandchildren remarked "look at them lot, they were pioneers in their day weren't they?"
We were very happy with the service that you provided and the effort you put in to find the music that was requested. I have recommended you to the people at the venue and will surely contact you for any future occasions that we have and recommend you to friends.
Thank you again for providing us with a perfect evenings entertainment.
Regards
.............................
Thanks for reading and apologies for the long post and lack of photo evidence. :D