Book your DJ early! Our weekends are getting booked really solid well into the fall already. Once you get your deposit in, the date is secure. If you hesitate too long, we might book the date up! Drop us a line at 518-506-3305, if you are thinking about planning a party.
DJ Kenny Casanova
What was special about this past Tuesday, though, really? We booked 8 gigs in one day! I guess it was party planning day or something. It seemed that most of the day, all I did was write up contracts. Maybe shock set in and people saw that January was gone and it was time to start thinking about stuff AFTER THE WINTER. I don’t know. It was awesome, but now my head is spinning trying to keep them all straight. LOL! We are really lucky to be this busy though, and thankful for the work, in a time when the economy is down and people aren’t doing so well, across the board. Thank God for all he has done for us!
Maybe, times are picking up. That would be great! It does seem like there is more spending going on. Hopefully that means there is more money to spend, rather than less debt being created.
We are going to be very busy this summer. In one day, we booked four wedding receptions, a grad party, a banquet, a middle school dance, and a photography gig. With an average of one party on a Friday, and one party on a Saturday, on top of our already full plate of late night Friday gigs at Villa Valenti Pub in Troy, NY – Tuesday was a whole month of gigs.
(Not like I am complaining! Wish more days were like Tuesday!)
Karaoke at a wedding can be great in small amounts!
If you have a wedding coming up, you want it to be different. How about a little karaoke?! While it is not for everyone, it could be right for you.
If you are considering adding a nice karaoke package to your wedding reception, you are the type of bride and groom that really want your guests to get down with the music. Right? It is true. Karaoke will start of your wedding reception with something memorable, and karaoke is certainly a fun option for participants. However, as Spidey once said, “with karaoke comes great responsibility.” (Or something like that.)
First off, you really need to check out your DJ to see what his actual karaoke background is. He could be a great wedding DJ, but not that cultured in empty-orchestra performances. Has your disc jockey won any best of karaoke titles a number of times, like Kenny Casanova (shameless plug) ? Does he (or she) have great karaoke gear with sweet cordless microphones and hot current selections as well as the old classics songs that everyone loves, like DJ Kenny Casanova?
While it is hard to exactly explain what it is that makes a karaoke DJ “#1” in the eyes of his or her karaoke following it probably has to with a combination of personality and fast pacing. That is what makes us different.
Personality. It is something your DJ either has, or doesn’t have. There are no personality classes. You cannot learn this. The only way to really judge personality, is to see it for yourself
Ask to see your DJ playing karaoke music at a public venue. If you would like to see us, we ask our customers to stop by Villa Valenti Pub in Troy, NY every Friday night.
The reason we get booked for a lot of weddings and sweet 16 birthday parties is by having potential customers come to our public gigs and test them first. If they invite you, do it! You can see them in action, unannounced, uncensored and unknown. Then you can judge for yourself, without watching an edited video of only their best moments.
Musical sweetness.
How do you know, if what you are seeing will translate well for you? Your karaoke DJ should be funny and fun and keep the party going, but not a spotlight hog themselves. Some karaoke DJ’s are unbooked musicians looking for an outlet to shine. Your wedding is not the place for this. You don’t want your KJ to get on the mic and attempt stand up comedy. Your guests want to hear music, not speeches, but a little bit of quick mic work in the appropriate places after or before a strategic song can be classic.
Timing, timing, TIMING! It really is everything. No silence please. No dead air. This is important. When dead air happens – PEOPLE CRINGE, and the fun stops. People get tired and move on with their lives. The DJ kills the dance floor. Have you ever been on a dance floor and there is a quiet buffer space between songs? What do you see the dancers do? They either freeze and stand there like scared deer in headlights, or go and sit back into their dinner seats. BOTH OF THESE OUTCOMES ARE POOR! Silence equals BAD DJ!!! Look for the DJ try their hardest to keep everything moving and leave no room to sleep for the karaoke audience.
Once you have chosen the right DJ who also has karaoke, consider these precautions.
1) SCHEDULED KARAOKE TIME – Not everyone likes karaoke, so limit it to either scheduled performances by a few key players, or open up say the very last hour. If you open it up for the entire reception, it will not be special and will become more annoying than anything else.
2) SET LIMITS – Do not allow multiple songs by one guest. Maybe one or two, but you do not want your wedding reception to become a a karaoke concert staring one or two key players.
3) SCAN SONG SELECTION – Make sure your DJ runs all the songs by you, if they could be considered questionable. Some songs out there have ridiculous amounts of adult content and just are not right for a wedding. (HINT – if there is cursing, or a song by the 2 Live Crew, beware!)
So that’s it. Karaoke can really be a blast, but be careful. If you are, it can really add to the final flavor and make it a great night for everyone!
DJ Kenny Casanova has won best karaoke titles a number of times. While it is hard to explain what it is, exactly, that makes us “The Best” in the eyes of our patrons, they tell me that it has to do with personality and fast pacing.
Personality. It is something your karaoke DJ either has, or doesn’t have. You cannot learn this. The reason we get booked for a lot of weddings and sweet 16 birthday parties is I have potential customers come to public gigs and test us first. It seems we seem to pass with flying colors. They tell us that we are funny, and fun and keep the party going. We don’t get on the mic and attempt stand up comedy. We know that people want to hear music, not speeches, but a little bit of quick mic work in the appropriate places after or before a strategic song can be classic. We mix our party DJ success with the karaoke.
Timing is everything. No dead air, is important to us. When it happens – I CRINGE! Have you ever been on a dance floor and there is a space between songs? What do the dancers do? They either freeze and stand there like deer in headlights, or go and sit back in their seats. BOTH OF THESE OUTCOMES ARE NOT GOOD! We try our hardest to keep everything moving and leave no room to sleep for the karaoke audience. Admittedly, we end up trying to pick more of the fast songs that singers want to sing first, but do leave room for a couple of slow dances, where necessary.
So that’s it. Book us for your next party and add karaoke! You will love it!
It is now that magical moment for you, the bride in white. The glowing spotlight is shinning softly on you and all eyes casted your way. Your hands hold a modest, yet gorgeous bundle of flowers and you are about to throw it all away, and move on to the next wonderful chapter in your book.
Your dress is perfect. Your hair is lovely. Everything is just how you imagined it would be, but the silly DJ cracks a stupid joke to match his song choice and plays something ridiculous and seemingly unrelated, because you didn’t specify and left it up to him.
You bite your lip. “I knew shoulda told him what to play!”
Don’t worry! You are not there yet. So what can you actually pick for a song? There are countless songs out there, and it is overwhelming, but you do not half to reinvent the wheel.
Here is a popular listing of Top Bouquet Tossing Songs where you cannot go wrong!
• Single Ladies – Beyonce
• Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
• I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
• Another One Bites The Dust – Queen
• Dancing Queen – Abba Girls
• Ladies Night – Kool & The Gang
• Man! I Feel Like A Woman – Shania Twain
• Respect – Aretha Franklin
• All I Wanna Do – Cheryl Crow
• Chapel of Love – Dixie Cups
• Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
• Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison
• So Many Men, So Little Time – Miquel Brown
•This one is for the girls – Martina McBride
•Wishin’ and Hopin’ Ani Difranco (My Best Friends Wedding Soundtrack)
•”Sex in the City” theme song
• American Woman – The Guess Who
•Bootylicious – Destiny’s Child
• Diamonds are a girls best friend – Marilyn Monroe
• Dirty – Christina aguilera
• Don’t want no Scrub – TLC
• Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic – The Police
• Express Yourself – Madonna
• Funky Town – Lipps Inc.
• Girls, Girls, Girls – Motley Cruew
• Hey Ladies – The Beastie Boys
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
• Its Getting Hot in Herre – Nelly
• Its Raining Men – The Weather Girls
• Just a girl – No Doubt
• Ladies Night – Kool & The Gang
• Lady Marmalade – Pink, Mia, Lil’ Kim, Christina Aguilera
• Let’s Get Loud – Jenifer Lopez
• Like a Virgin – Madonna
• Milkshake – Kelis
• Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman – Britney Spears
• Oh Its so Quiet, Shhh (Zing-Boom) Bjork
• One way or another blondie
• Our Day Will Come – Ruby and the Romantics
• Perfect Day Hoku – Legally Blonde Soundtrack
• Red Neck Woman – Gretchen Wilson
• Shoop Shoop Song – Cher
• Single White Female – Chely Wright
• This one’s for the Girls – Martina Mc Bride
• Touch Me, Tease Me Case – Foxy Brown
• What a Girl Wants – Christina Aguillera
The traditional cutting of the wedding cake has strange roots. Did you know that back in the Roman Empire, the groom would eat part of some barley baked especially for the nuptials and break the rest over his bride’s head.
Did you also know that the multi-tiered wedding cake was originally reserved for English royalty? Well, a lot has changed.
You are probably planning a wedding and wondering, ” what are some good songs that my DJ could play for before dessert is served?”
Here are a few I have seen in the past:
•Cut the Cake (Average White Band) – *I don’t really recommed this instrumental anymore, as no one really knows the title.
•I Wanna Grow Old With You (Adam Sandler)
•How Sweet It Is (James Taylor)
•Sugar, Sugar (The Archies)
•Hit me With Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar)
•When I’m 64 (The Beatles)
•Recipe For Love (Harry Connick Jr.)
•That’s Amore’ (Dean Martin)
•Happy Together (The Turtles)
•Pour Some Sugar On Me (Def Leppard)
•I Got You Babe (Sunny & Cher)
•Love & Marriage (Frank Sinatra)
•Oh Yeah! (Yello)
•Axel F (Harold Faltermeyer)
•Peter Gunn Theme
