Year: 2016

…And now for a little motivation!

Last year was a rough one. The holidays are finally behind us now. We have opened our presents, made our returns, made our resolutions and probably already broke them. A bunch of celebrities died. A bunch of Hatchimals didn’t hatch. BUt we made it through all of that, somehow regardless.

Now it is time to get back to reality. For some of us, the big wedding is only around the corner and waiting to plan because it could bring some headaches is a bad idea.

I too often hesitate to do something that can be stressful. Hell, sometimes I sit in the parking lot of the gym and fiddle with my phone, because I know the gym is going to hurt a little. However, if we take this approach with planning a wedding, it could impact the success of your wedding in the long run.

IT IS TIME TO PLAN YOUR WEDDING NOW!

In other places throughout this blog, I posted information that encouraged you to plan six months or more ahead of time to book your DJ, and up to a full year ahead of time to secure your hall/catering service. That means if you are planning on getting married in the prime time availability slots; summer on a Saturday might, you really need to start moving now!

Yoda once said, “There is only do, or do not.”

If you wait until the last minute, you may have to settle for something you do not really want for your special day. Last week in the Albany NY area, we already had days with about 3 to 5 wedding inquiries, speaking with anxious, but prepared brides looking to secure particular dates. They could be competing for day with a location that you have in the back of your head, or a vendor that would fit you perfectly.

Even with four DJ’s at TheDJService.com, we have already seen conflicts on dates and may have to turn a few couples away. There are only so many good companies servicing the Albany & Troy, Saratoga Springs & Schenectady NY area. Get a move on it!

If you start planning now and you will be all good! Just pick up the phone and call.

A great time was had by all at Aleigh’s Sweet 16 – at The Elks Club of South Allen St in Albany, NY! We did some edits to enhance some pictures below.

HOW TO SAVE THE BIRTHDAY PARTY PICTURES…

SAVE ON COMPUTER – Click on picture to enlarge. Right click and select “SAVE AS” to save to your computer’s hard drive.

SAVE ON IPHONE & IPAD – Click on a picture to view. you can scroll through the images using the left and right arrows. If you see a picture you like, put your thumb on the image and hold it there a few seconds. When you see an arrow appear above it, swipe upwards and you will receive the option to save the photo to your device.

Wooo!!!
Here are the pictures from the 2016 Albany ENT Holiday Party…  Thanks again for having us and we hope to provide services with you again in the future – with no FIRE ALARMS!!!

All of the pictures from the event have all been provided in HQ definition via flash drive to Debbie, but below you can feel free to grab any images that you like!

HOW TO SAVE HOLIDAY PARTY PICTURES…

SAVE ON COMPUTER – Click on picture to enlarge. Right click and select “SAVE AS” to save to your computer’s hard drive.

SAVE ON IPHONE & IPAD – Click on a picture to view. you can scroll through the images using the left and right arrows. If you see a picture you like, put your thumb on the image and hold it there a few seconds. When you see an arrow appear above it, swipe upwards and you will receive the option to save the photo to your device.

Kenny Casanova – Wedding Lip-Sync King.

I know, I know. We always boast, “NO CHEESY MUSIC EVER.” However, I throw in one from time to time for comedic value, like I am in on the joke of being the “bad wedding DJ.”

Here is a funny shot sequence by an awesome photographer, Larry Matthews. It is of me lip-syncing along to my one cheesy Delilah Show song of the night… “You Are so Beautiful to Me.” I am hamming it up, but I am smart enough not to actually sing over the velvet-smooth vocals of the very sweet Joe Cocker.

On a side note, there was a horrible storm that night,as Lake George got hit with the trails of some real nasty tropical stuff that made its way up north.

Just down the road, six people were rushed to the hospital due to the same storm after being struck by lightning!

Setting up for the wedding that day, I stepped out of my jeep directly into a 3 inch wave of water flowing down the hill where I was parked. It took me down! Fortunately for me, my entertainment lawyer, Marty Carbone, has a camp right nearby. He brought me some dry socks so I was able to make it through the night and belt out this classic.

Message in a Bottle Guestbook

At Indian Ladder Farms in Altamont, NY this past Saturday (a nice little place that I was the DJ for about 15 minutes out of Albany,) I saw a great new idea to try at your wedding. Instead of signing a book that will barely never get read, how about listening to Sting from The Police? You know, having your wedding guests leave you a message in a bottle?

Here is an interesting and a more creative do-it-yourself idea that throws a twist on the traditional wedding guest book.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE GUEST BOOK –

1) First, secure 3 different colored wine bottles.
2) Next, remove the manufacturer’s labels by soaking the bottles in hot water.
3) Too sticky? No problem. Clean and scrape off any remaining label remnants with lighter fluid, or a good adhesive remover like Goof Off. (You can also use WD-40  as a cleaning agent.)
4) Print custom labels made up with the bride & groom’s names printed on them, and the numbers 1, 10 & 25.
5) Create a nice display on a small table. Place the table with the bottles and squares of paper at the entrance door to the wedding reception.
6) Add an instructional photo frame, explaining that the bottles will be used in place of the traditional wedding guestbook and broken on certain year anniversaries to have the messages read.
7) Encourage guests to write their messages throughout the evening.

HOW IT WORKS – The idea is that the newlyweds should read their messages on their first, fifth, tenth and twentieth anniversaries. What a great idea! It is like morphing together the traditions of the wedding guest book and freezing a piece of wedding cake to eat a year later.

SIMILAR IDEA – If you liked this idea, check out our wine bottle signing guest book idea.

518-506-3305 – The term “SILENT DJ PARTY” (aka Silent Disco) means that all the guests have headphones. These are no regular headphones, however. Each set has volume,  blinking LED lights on the ears and headband, and also a button that clicks to let you access 3 different live channels.

The guests can then switch back and forth and listen to the DJ they want, playing the type of music or particular song they want to dance to. When they switch channels, the headphone set turns a different color so the other people know which DJ they are listening to. When a lot of people are turning to one particular color, it often makes others follow to join in on the tune!

Silent DJ jams are super fun with zero noise from the DJs! The only thing you really hear is laughing and some singing along. The possibilities are endless.

Teaming up with Silent Storm, this particular Silent DJ event took place right after the new student, freshman seminar at SUNY Albany. With 2,500 students on hand, they said we drew 1,250 students to this dance. DJ Kenny Casanova was blue offering his hip hop channel, DJ Maria was red on pop, and Chris The Shockmaster was green on EDM.

We had a blast providing the channels for this event, working some humor into the playlist as well. IT was great to see the crowd reaction to intentionally throw a stinker into the mix that would instantly turn everyone’s headphones a different color. One of the funniest moments was when Kenny Casanova randomly played John Cena’s WWE ring entrance theme. The audience response was NOT what we had expected! Everyone actually turned on the blue channel and listened to the whole song and danced to it!