Point of order Mr Fisher...wouldn't that make them both birthday peoples? :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
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Point of order Mr Fisher...wouldn't that make them both birthday peoples? :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
I had 2 really good weddings last week and finished on Sunday with a band gig at my local which was packed.
Friday - This was a wedding at one of my residencies out of town. They were a really nice couple. The Bride was an ex model who had appeared in FHM regularly and the Groom was in PR running his own business. They were a cool couple. They'd paid for an add on marquee at the end of the venue to house a creche and had also paid a creche company to look after the little ones (there were a LOT of little ones!). They booked me to provide the Disco, Uplighting and also a Starlit Dance Floor too. I set up everything on the Thursday afternoon and met the couple who had travelled down from London early, to go over the last few bits and bobs. We were unable to meet beforehand but had kept in touch via email and phone regularly (almost daily!), over the past 8 months. The Groom emailed me almost daily with requests to add to the list and there were lots of different genres so it looked like it could be an interesting one.
I was also advised that 2 of their very good friends were in a band and may get up at some point to do a couple of acoustic tracks. Not sure if this will mean anything to anyone else but the 2 friends were from the band The Twang.
Arrived at 7.15pm for a 7.30pm start only to be told that the whole day was running late........2 hours late! It turned out that the creche people had been caught in a traffic jam.
Eventually I started at 10.15pm just after the room had been turned around. I knew exactly what would happen. A number of the guests who had little ones in the creche left as it was getting late. This meant that it went from around 120 guests to about 70 (at a guess?). I had a list of around 150 songs which I knew I would never in a million years get through. During the evening I spoke to the Bride & Groom and asked if everything was ok as I felt like I was (probably wrong word to use here but), kind of cheating them in a way as I wasn't doing anything. I said that if they needed any help with anything, just to let me know. They were fine, apologetic and said that they were having a great time and it wasn't a problem. They did need my help when it came to the speeches (which went on for just over an hour). I sorted the sound out for them as the Groom's speech was done via a projector as he'd pre-recorded everything, it was hilarious.
When we finally got going it was a great night. Dance floor instantly packed and I mixed some of the tunes together and had them all going for it. A mix of 90s Dance, Indie & Current Chart was played in the time that was left. First Dance was 'Beneath Your'e Beautiful' followed by Apache Indian - Boom Shack A Lack. Last song of the night was 'Champagne Supernova'. They couldn't thank me enough (or apologise enough). Great night.
Saturday - This saw me back at the same venue. This time Disco & Uplighting. Another really nice couple and another delay. This was supposed to be a 7.00pm start. I was there at 6.45pm and finally kicked in with some background music at just after 8.00pm. With this one I had a very select request list with just band names on it which included Mumford & Sons, The Kooks, The Killers, Stone Roses, The Kinks, Small Faces, Two Door Cinema Club, The Black Keys..................and Five! (er??). The couple had said to me in the pre-wedding meeting that they were happy for me to just do my thing.
As soon as I started playing the background music, a young boy and a young girl came over and asked if I could play 'Gangnam Style' and 'Gentleman'. I thought I'd use it to my advantage to get the party kicked off straight away as they weren't intending on doing the first dance until later. I announced over the mic that the 2 children wanted to show off their moves and it worked like a dream. Near enough everyone in the venue watched and clapped along as these 2 little ones did all the moves. I have to say that since the song came out, those 2 were the best I had seen.
First dance was 'Then I Kissed Her' - Beach Boys followed by 'I'm Yours' - Jason Mraz. Last song of the night was 'Hey Jude'.
This wedding is now in my Top 10 best weddings list because the dance floor was busy all night. Nearly everyone danced to everything. I had the Bride & Grooms parents come over and thank me and compliment me on the music and after half an hour I had a guy come over who said he wanted to book me for his wedding in January. There wasn't really a lull when the Fish & Chip van turned up. People were dancing and eating at the same time!
A really enjoyable couple of weddings for 2 very nice couples. I've had some great feedback already and may have something pretty cool in the pipeline coming from one of them.
As an end note, there was a point in the evening at one of the weddings where I didn't know where to look. Let's just say that a very nice young lady didn't realise that she was showing me that she had gone 'commando'.
Sounds excellent.
I've 2 weddings this weekend. Both are couples around my age and aside from the first dance and one wanting a bit of ceilidh music and calling, they've told me just to do my thing which means all going to plan they'll be great nights.:beer1:
I had a fun one last Saturday - Wedding for a lovely couple in their 30's in a lovely, albeit quite small, venue.
I got the booking just 3 weeks ago to work alongside a band and was told I would have access to the room to start setting up (with the band) at 6:30, ready for the first dance to be played at 7:30. I arrived at 6:00 along with the band to be told that the whole thing was running about an hour late. Long story short, they finished the meal at 7:40 and the venue staff finally let me and the band into the room at 7:55. Band then took an hour to set up, ready for the first dance at 9:00 - which the B&G then actually did at 9:30. Two sets from the band later and I played for a grand total of 1hr and 5mins (from their 3hr playlist), during which the buffet was served :daft:
Out by 12:25, home by 1:00am.
Band were great though and the party guests were pretty lively anyway so everyone had a great time - and yes the band did run through my PA as the room was tiny and we wouldn't have got two sets of speakers in (leaving room for the fire exit and the venue staff to come in and out).
No major issues with this arrangement except for the band forgetting to push up the master faders on their mixer during the first dance - but luckily they didn't have to sing for it, and a combination of their monitors and the sheer volume of their acoustic instruments in the small space meant no-one noticed!!
Julian
Just read over my planning form and aside from the usual stuff, tonight's couple have expresely asked that a certain guest's requests are ignored because apparently she's a bit of a :Censored::Censored::Censored::Censored: and will ask for rubbish :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ
Blimey, she must be on holiday further North. She's usually at my gigs. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Jim - Scotland's Party DJ
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Excalibur
There's always one isn't there?
I'm a bit apprehensive about the fact that she's been blacklisted before the thing has even started so she must be a nightmare.
That was fantastic.
This Claire character never darkened my booth, all of the requests were good and I had a full dance floor just about all night which is good going as there was the main room, then a conservatory off to the side, the bar in a seperate room at the back of me then a bunch of other snugs and rooms for people to hide in. Could very easilly have ended up me playing to half a dozen people.
No pests, the kids didn't feel the need to try and touch any of the gear and the guests were right up for it from the get go.
Ive got a good feeling that tonight is going to be of a similar vein although it's in a much smaller venue with smaller crowd so here's hoping.:beer1:
Had a prom Friday night - absolute nightmare. I've never been asked for such absolutely :Censored: songs ever! Teachers were treating me like I was one of their students with that really patronising "right what you need to do is play some of this music and turn it up on this song and if you could say - come on everybody lets have a party really enthusiastically that will get them all dancing" followed by "did you understand all of that".
Was absolutely dreading last night, my first Cival, parking was terrible - in bath double yellow lines unloading narrow busy one way street - turned out to be an absolute cracker! had the dancefloor packed for about 3 hours solid, got asked for a lot of business cards and the owner came up to me at the end and said I was the best DJ she'd seen in 20 years! It's nights like this with everybody leaving smiling and thanking me that make me feel like I couldn't have a better job!
I had another cracking weekend with the highlight being a really good wedding on Friday night at one of the golf clubs just up the road from me.
I had a PA hire on Thursday at my residency and a small Disco hire on Saturday so it was Friday really that I had to concentrate on.
I'd been to the venue a couple of times in the past and the last time I was there (about 18 months ago), the lady in charge of the functions asked me to provide a quotation for the venue for their Christmas parties following a really good wedding that I had done a couple of weeks before. The venue ended up going with another supplier and I was told it was down to pricing as one of the directors happened to know who the supplier was and put in a good word for them. When I called up to arrange access and set up times for Fridays wedding, the lady asked me if I could possibly pop to the venue earlier to have a chat and again, it was about this years Christmas parties. Apologies if I am going off elsewhere on this one. I found out that the previous supplier was so ridiculously cheap. I told the lady that I could not compete with those prices. She actually said to me that she was aware that they were very. very cheap but wasn't interested anymore as she said (quote) "the service was sub standard". Anyway, we chatted and I provided her with a full quotation later that day which I am waiting to hear back on.
When I was setting up the Disco, a guy approached me and introduced himself as the General Manager. He was very complimentary about the equipment and one of the first things he asked me was "What are you charging for Christmas parties?". I told him that I'd provided a quotation to the lady and I also told him what I would be prepared to charge. He seemed very interested. I also told him how I worked and what I did and we chatted for a while and it was very positive. I'm hopeful that I can put someone in there for the 12 party nights that they have planned.
So, this wedding was a cracker! No children, hardly any teenagers and mainly 100 guests in their 40's to 60's. The Bride & Groom were guests at 2 weddings I had done in the past for friends of theirs (one of the weddings was at this particular venue). I knew a lot of the faces either from the previous bookings or via friends. They both wanted "a good party" and weren't too specific on the music that was played although their preference was for Northern Soul, Mod, 60s, 80s, Indie, Soul, Motown, Ska & Two Tone. The time flew by as it was a really good night. Lots of dancing and lots of really good requests.
First dance was 'First Time I Ever Saw Your Face' and this was sung by one of the Bridesmaids. Her voice was stunning. I didn't know what to expect when the Bride & Groom told me that it was happening that way in the meeting a couple of weeks before. I expected some teenage girl who was keen on karaoke but it wasn't the case. We soundchecked and I was amazed at how good she sounded. She went down brilliantly and everyone loved her. Both the Bride & Groom were in tears. This was followed by me playing "Make You Feel My Love" as a 2nd Dance and the dance floor packed out. I started off with a bit of Motown straight after that and the dance floor remained full. As I said, the time went really quickly and before I knew it, it was in the last hour. A lady came over and asked for some current chart stuff. I played a couple of tunes but the reaction wasn't the same as what it had been to the other stuff. On went 'Mr Brightside' and the floor went mad again.
Lots of really good feedback on the night and a couple of cards requested.