Thanks that's really useful. Sounds like there's little benefit to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
The quest for a compact, small AND lightweight booth continues!
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Thanks that's really useful. Sounds like there's little benefit to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
The quest for a compact, small AND lightweight booth continues!
True. My Micromax has done almost every gig for the last few months.Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
True. Main playout is easy, it's finding room for a full second one that's tricky. I had a cunning plan, which was scuppered by gravity. I intended to have the HDMIX on the lower shelf, but sadly if it's far enough out to be usable, it's in danger of falling off!Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
It does when your main one is a Mk 1 DSB! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by rth_discos
Friday for me was a wedding at my hotel residency and it was a cracker!
I'd met the Bride & Groom a couple of times and had got to know them really well. They were my kind of people and we clicked instantly.
It all started last December when I received an enquiry for the wedding via my website from the Bride to be. After sending the quotation to her she confirmed the booking with me a couple of days later.
What was funny was that I was doing a Christmas party on one of the Saturday's in December and at one point during the night I was approached by a lady who said "You must be Gary. I've booked you for my wedding next year". She said she was so glad she'd booked me because she was having a great time. That kind of set things up for what would be a really good wedding on Friday. I met with the Bride & Groom 2 weeks ago at the hotel early evening and it was a really chilled out affair. I'd arranged to meet them on a Saturday as I had the evening off due to a booking change of date and actually sat there with them for around 2 and a half hours. They were having a couple of drinks and wanted me to join them. I thought "why not?". I did actually say "This isn't very professional of me is it" and they laughed and insisted I have a drink with them. It felt like I had known them for years and we talked about anything and everything.
So, Friday finally arrives and I'm up early and at the hotel to set up the Disco and Uplighting. I'm just finishing when the Bride arrives to set up table decorations. She's very nervous but happy to see me and comments on how lovely the red uplighting looks. This may sound strange but for the first time in a very long time I couldn't wait for the day to fly by so I could get back to the hotel and give them the great night that they deserved. Like I said, they were a lovely couple.
I was that eager that I got to the hotel for 7.00pm. My booking form said 7.30pm start but it was in fact an 8.00pm start. The hotel hadn't told me about this so I was there for the speeches. I was stood outside when the Groom came out for a quick cigarette before he had to do his speech and we caught up again and had a bit of a laugh. He was very relaxed and looking forward to a really good night. "No pressure mate" he said. I was stood with the staff as the speeches started and was really surprised when I got a mention too. The Groom bigged me up and pointed me out and everyone looked over and cheered. They were really up for a party and I knew that once I got started it would be a good one.......and it was!
Cake cutting followed by the first dances (John Legend - All Of Me followed by Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud) and then it was full on. I had a list of requests from the Bride & Groom which was a really nice mix of stuff from various decades and everything just worked. Everyone of all ages was up on the dance floor enjoying themselves and the time flew by. It really was one of those nights where you can do no wrong because you have a venue full of people that are just in the party mood. I didn't get many requests from the guests apart from one lady asking for Macarena. I had every intention of playing when I got to a section that I could include it in but around an hour before the end she came over and said she was leaving but had really enjoyed herself which was nice (I thought she was going to moan because I hadn't played Macarena).
Last song of the night and everyone was on the dance floor including some of the staff who the Bride & Groom grabbed hold of and then half way through the song they all started calling for me to join them. It was embarrassing but I went and joined them and then when the song finished there was a massive cheer and round of applause. I got back to the set up and thanked everybody over the mic, wished the Bride & Groom all the best and said it was an absolute pleasure.
The Bride hugged me and left a smacker lipstick mark on my cheek. The Groom nearly crushed me to death with a big hug and the Father of the Bride came over and shook my hand and there was a £20.00 note in it as a tip.
I got a really nice review from the Bride on my facebook business page the following day which was lovely (more on that in a separate thread).
Saturday, I had a last minute lighting job. I had the night off originally and had taken my dog for a walk early evening. I was near my local so thought I'd stop and have a beer. I was sat outside when a van turned up with the covers band that were playing that night. I didn't think much of it and had every intention of finishing my pint and getting a chinese for me and the missus and having a nice night in. I'd drunk less than half my pint when one of the guys from the band came over. I'd never met the bloke before but it turned out that they'd forgotten to pack their lights. They'd travelled from Bournemouth and didn't have time to go back and the landlady had told him it might be worth asking me. Well, I still had my equipment in the van at home (5 minutes away) which included my uplighting units.
Within the space of an hour I had taken the dog home, got back to the pub in the van and had set up a lighting rig for the band. It meant staying at the pub (life is hard eh!). The band got me a few beers and then at the end of the night gave me £50.00 which I didn't expect. The missus didn't get her chinese on Saturday (did that last night) but I had a good night!
A good weekend!
I'm now in the thick of wedding mania with a total of 6 this month. Saturday night saw me at a beautiful venue that is actually a crematorium in a graveyard (the furnace is in the basement and is no longer used). The couple had their ceremony in a wooded area at the back of the site and luckily the weather was very kind to them. My expected 10m load immediately turned into 50m when I arrived thanks to the timings for the day changing slightly and the couple now wanting to have photos at the front of the building rather than a different area of the site. In and ready in plenty of time though before the meal, so I left the kit with the Groom's MP3 player playing background music while I went for a nap in the car for an hour or two.
This couple didn't are a little unconventional and didn't want a first dance as such so we skipped that. And the cake cutting. And the speeches were before I got in. So.... it was one of those evenings without a lot of structure. Add to that they only had 25 guests there for the daytime and only a further 60 joined them for the evening (when most of the elderly daytime guests left) and it really was "one of those nights" as the evening guests mostly hung around in the bar outside of the room catching up. Booked till midnight, so I played till midnight, but we only had 6 guests left at the end. Happy Bride and Groom at the end of the night though, so I guess I can't be too fussy. Back at the same venue again in August for another wedding with another less than conventional couple.
Sunday night saw me in Trowbridge for a wedding for a younger couple and another less than conventional family. Lots of small children, and the bar staff saw the early end coming before I'd even begun (only 7 families had booked into the hotel, and I saw two of those taking their kids to bed before I'd even started!) The night started with promise with the usual Motown/80's/90's cheese working well and a very busy dance floor then around 10:30 the requests took me off into 90's dance and within 1 track I had a clear room - and the crowd never really came back. Requests took me heavily into Dance Hall and Reggae with a very drunk mother of the groom occasionally forcefully interjecting a bit of 80's (she kept coming over, making a request and then standing staring at me until I played it - each time the few I had left on the dance floor moaned, and she just told them to get stuffed). Booked till 1:00am, finished at 12:15 when the last guests trickled away...
One of those weekends where everyone is happy, except me. Bit like last weekend really where I had a casino to compete with (in a different part of the hotel) so I had an empty room until 23:00...
Julian
Been on holiday for the past week - back to discos this weekend please let them be good
Been on what?Quote:
Originally Posted by Attack the Dance Floor
What's a holiday???? :daft:
I've got three this year!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagine
4pm yesterday a hotel 'suddenly realised' they had a booking for a renewal of vows party for 80 people, so I got a call. I was available & able to do it.
Arrived at 6pm to set up but found it difficult because of a multitude of tables where there wouldn't ordinarily be any, but just about managed.
It turned out to be a really nice little gig - everybody was very polite & the couple were very easy going. Loads of cheese was requested & went down a storm.
Come finishing time we'd been all over the place musically & people were almost filing past me to shake my hand & say thankyou. Which was nice.
Another really enjoyable couple of bookings for me.
Friday, as said elsewhere on the forum already, I was doing a Karaoke night at my local for the first time in years and I was very apprehensive about the whole thing beforehand but it ended up being a great night and very enjoyable.
Saturday (last night), I was at one of my residencies supplying the Disco and Pink & Teal Uplighting. It was quite a big wedding and it was one of those where lots of young children were in attendance and they were very welcomed by me. What I mean by that is that they got the party going from the start as they wanted to dance to everything and I had lots of requests from them.
I set up the day before and I am so glad I did. All I needed to do was add my playout system in the morning. When I turned up the room was packed but not with guests yet, just loads of different things and I wondered how the hell we'd fit all the guests in later. It seemed like the Bride & Groom had been to a wedding fayre and booked almost everything.... There was a white starlit curtain and matching starlit top table cover, a photo booth, post box, balloon arch and balloons and a message tree as well as the Disco set up and uplighting. I thought it looked a bit over the top to be honest, especially in just the one room.
So, the kids were dancing to everything and were creating a nice atmosphere. Their enthusiasm rubbed off on everyone else and everyone started joining in even though it was still early. Things were already going well and then we had to stop so that the Bride & Groom could give out presents. After that came the cake cutting and then the first dances and then that was followed by the evening buffet. I thought the momentum had been lost slightly but once the big tunes came on everyone got up again and for the rest of the evening it was pretty easy to be fair.
The Bride & Groom were very happy and couldn't thank me enough at the end of the night and I chatted to them for a while. It was still busy with lots of guests hanging around so I decided to make a move and pop over the road for a drink in the bar opposite. I was sat there on my own when a couple sat down next to me. We started chatting and were people watching as masses of people queued to get in to the bar / club type venue opposite. During the chat I told them what I did and it was really freaky because I found out that they'd recently booked the hotel I'd been DJing at for their wedding next year.
I ended up having a very late night and now I have to go back to get all of the equipment. It's a bit of a bummer because I am back there on Thursday for another wedding and I can't leave it all set up.
Hectic and enjoyable
Saturday night was a football awards/charity fundraiser 30 miles down the road. Good night with a mix of old and new (the younger ones were the "you've got to play this NOW as I'm going home soon" sort). Stuck in the main to the older stuff because it was packing the floor, and that's my job at the end of the day. I even got fed fish and chips at that one :)
Loads of thanks and calls to play one more, one more at the end, which was tough because I was supposed to be somewhere else very soon afterwards.
As already mentioned in another thread, I'm a Scout leader and on Monday night I stupidly agreed to do a 2am to 4am beach party during a 24 hour event they were doing. It actually worked out really well (I only got paid in coffee for that one being a Scout leader myself), but to see 100+ kids enjoying themselves at that time of the morning on the beach of a lake, watching the sun come up at the end of the gig was completely surreal.
This afternoon, a 6 year old "princess" party. The afternoon started off with one of those princess type actresses spending 30 mins with the kids whilst miming to an iPod, and then the rest of the party was the usual adrenaline packed fun and games that yours truly puts into one of those parties.
Now completely shattered and ready for a large glass or three of wine, if I can stay awake that long.
Two weeks off for me now (both voluntary). Next week is "that" wedding (report will follow), followed by a weekend camping. Then it's back to non-stop weddings again