Category: Weddings

ALBANY NY DJ TELLS HOW TO CREATE PHOTO FUN FOR YOUR WEDDING!

Want to have that photo booth feel at your wedding, but don’t want to take up a ton of space or pay the big bucks? Here is a pretty cool idea I saw recently.

We were DJing a wedding at Birchhill Catering in Kinderhook, NY (only 10 minutes from Albany, NY) when we saw our first “Selfie Station.”

Trying to keep your wedding affordable? You too can save a lot of money and make this happen at your wedding for virtually dimes on the dollar. It’s really a simple idea. All you do is put out a selection of gimmicks and props and leave the photo fun up to your guests.

HERE ARE THE TOP 5 THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN INCLUDING A “SELFIE STATION” TO YOUR WEDDING DAY

PROPS – Everything is about gimmicks. Fun hats, mustaches, picture frames, sunglasses, feather boas, wigs, foam fingers, canes, bandannas – you get the idea. Just go crazy at the dollar store and you really should be good to go.

INSTRUCTION SIGN – Don’t forget the instructions! Even though most guys don’t read them, it is important to not forget this next rule. So it doesn’t just look like a pile of junk from the thrift store, it is very important to put out a sign so people know the intended use of all the colorful goodies.

BACKDROPS – Much like a photo booth shoot, you set aside a little area where pictures would look good. While a backdrop is not entirely needed, it is a nice touch. If you are creative or really ambitious about this idea, you could set up a backdrop curtain to really help the station take off. Usually you can find these backdrops available online for $100-$200 or so on say eBay, or you could even put something together even cheaper using PVC pipe form Home Depot.

OFFICIAL HASHTAG – Finally, what good are pictures that you never see? Post your wedding’s official hashtag and tell people which social media platforms you endorse (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc…)  If you create a good official hashtag for your wedding (make it something original,) all your guests’ pictures will be easy for you and other guests to find on social media.

SMARTPHONE WEDDING APP – Don’t really want to go the hashtag route? There are now some really cool wedding picture aps that allow your guests to snap shots and send them all to one place in the cloud. If you think you have a number of photo-bugs with iPhones on your guest list, tell them ahead of time, maybe in your invitation, to download an app like The WedPics Smartphone App. This app doesn’t only collect unlimited photos taken by the guests, but it also gives important information like accommodations &  your registry information.

Wedding Guestbook Ideas from Schenectady DJ

No idea what to do for a guestbook at your wedding? Why not go for the sampler platter?!

Here are some pictures from a wedding I did at The Stockade Inn in Schenectady NY.

They did a great job decorating. I particularly liked their guestbook area, where they took three ideas off my site and blended them together. The did a wishing tree, a record signing and also a traditional guest book.

INDIAN LADDER BARN

CLICK TO THE LEFT AND TAKE OUR VIRTUAL TOUR FROM DJ KENNY CASANOVA OF A GREAT WEDDING BARN OPTION PERFECT FOR A RUSTIC WEDDING

Only about 15 minutes from Albany, NY this could be the perfect wedding barn option for you.

They have fields and fields of beautiful green for your ceremony, a great rustic barn for the reception, and even livestock down the path for endless photo options! Kenny got to play music, and also play with the goats. Now what more could you ask! But seriously it is elegant and rustic at the same time and really worth looking into. Watch the video above to see the layout in our virtual tour form.

This wedding site option is highly recommended for the rustic wedding seeker. Also, check out our pictures from on location below:

The French-Canadian Trough Dance by Albany NY DJ Kenny Casanova

In an earlier article, I discussed how the tradition of the French-Canadian Ugly sock dance (click here to read) was making a comeback and beginning to flourish once again, throughout Ontario Canada and other French-speaking parts of the country.

Subsequently, this odd sock dance tradition that punishes single siblings for not already being married has bled some into the states. Today, brides and grooms in the Capital Region and specifically Albany and Saratoga Springs, NY who come from our northern neighbors have been working the custom into their wedding planning. Now, another odd Canadian tradition related to the Ugly Wedding Sock Dance is making its way into our wedding halls. This one is called “The Hog Trough Dance.”

The overall philosophy behind The Trough Dance is still the same as the Sock Dance; to punish an unmarried older sibling at a younger sibling’s wedding reception by making them dance in a ridiculous manner for not being married yet. Hoever in the Hog Trough Dance, the sibling dances barefoot in a pig trough or a wash basin, sometimes full of liquid. The idea is that if you are older and still not married, you need to be thrown into the spotlight and peer pressured into tying the knot soon, to avoid the public ridicule at your next brother or sister’s wedding. Because you are not already married, you are indangering the passing down of the family name, and this is punishable by mud.

From my research, I found Ethnologist Jean-Claude Dupont of New Brunswick , showing the earliest written description of the trough dance. He said that, “a musician would play a tune and the single sister had to dance in the muddy pig trough, which had been brought inside special for the event.”

Dupont went on to explain that if the sibling were a male, things would be even worse in a French-Canadian Hog Trough Dance. When it was a bachelor who was being punished for not marrying before his younger sibling, “the brother would actually be made to eat out of the same trough!”

The tradition also sometimes involved dancing in and around a trough filled with food that would be sampled after the dance. Sometimes, a variation with a basin filled with alcohol, a mixture of beer, and hard liquor that the dancer must also drink after the dance.

I have learned that updated variations to this tradition that has evolved some in recent years. Early on, legitimate dirty old troughs pulled right off the farm complete with mud, steaming fresh pig droppings (or worse) were in fact used for the dance, in the most extreme cruel and unusual forms of this wedding torture tradition.

You can bet that feet covered in pig droppings would have left some really lasting impressions on guests sitting near the dancer’s piggies after the festivities. This is all the reason more to make sure that you are married before your younger sister.

However, in today’s more politically correct version of The Dreaded French-Canadian Trough Dance, we see a more forgiving version. People spend a lot of money on clothing on the big special day, and not many people will want to cooperate in such a dance knowing that they will get ridiculously dirty. Another issue, is many halls do not want confetti getting around, let alone pig $#!t, so you can imagine what their responses may be to this type of custom.

With the loosening of family constraints, we now see relatives pushing victims into the Trough Dance in a clean trough purchased just for the occasion.

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For more Canadian customs & wedding madness, check out the French-Canadian Ugly sock Dance To book DJ Kenny Casanova for a wedding, visit www.theDJservice.com.

Top 10 Wedding Planning Advice Tip List for Weddings in Albany, NY, or around the world.

If you are planning a wedding around Albany, NY, or anywhere else in the world, this “Top 10 Wedding Planning Advice Tip List” is one that can help. There are a number of tricks you can do when planning a wedding that cost absolutely nothing, in order to bring great success to your special day.

Along with the tips, our DJ Kenny Casanova has provided commentary for each point, explaining some failures he has witnessed in the Albany, NY Capital Region area that could have been avoided with some simple planning.

1) Avoid placing your wedding date on a holiday – this creates a built in competition quandary for your guests and you may find that your wedding is not everyone’s #1 priority.

“I was the disc jockey for a wedding at Malozzi’s in Schenectady, NY once on an actual Halloween night, October 31st. It was really great fun with the Halloween theme and a lot of the people got into the spirit in costumes, but there was a big problem with the selection of the actual date. Two of the grooms good friends could not make it to the reception, because they had children that they wanted to go out for trick-or-treating. The other issue was that the wedding reception was NO CHILDREN, so that it put some adults into a position where they had to pick friends over family. In some cases, family won and they didn’t attend the wedding.”

2) Give plenty of time for the invitation – Some people see that up to 6 months before the event is a good heads up time to RSVP. Others say even more time is essential to the success of your guest list attendance.

“For my own wedding at Birch Hill in the Kinderhook / Schodack area, we had a great turn out. However, about a few weeks before the wedding reception, a cancelation came in after we finalized our numbers and we couldn’t find anyone within that time frame to fill the seats. It’s tough these days to expect people to be able to make it to an event with very little notice.”

3) Don’t force your lifestyle on your guests – If you are vegetarian or vegan, it may not be a good idea to only offer these dishes at your wedding. A good host tries to accomodate their guests desires in order to make them happy, not force something on them. This goes for food as well as music selection.

“If you have ever been to a wedding where the DJ is playing weird music you hate off the bride’s playlist, you know exactly what I mean. I was the DJ at The Edison Club in Rexford, NY once, off Grooms Road passed Clifton Park, and the guests were about ready to kill the bride for wanting death metal as her music of choice for the evening. As much as you may not like it, think mainstream appeal and you as a host will typically keep everyone happy. ”

4) Try and always plan for Saturday Night Weddings – Fridays people sometimes have to work and Sundays people have no day to recover/travel.

“I recently had a Sunday night wedding at the Glens Sanders Mansion in Scotia, NY that ended at 11:00 pm. Many people left early so that they could get home at a reasonable hour because they had to work the next day. This meant people drank less, danced less and missed the cake cutting and some fun activities later on.”

5) Keep the invite list numbers as low as possible – Don’t invite just anyone. Your biggest expense is usually your venue/catering. Keeping your numbers down can save hundreds of dollars with only a handful of guests.

“A huge wedding at Crystal Cove in Averill Park, NY that I was the DJ for had a bride in tears because of the turn out. It seemed that something happened where a bunch of people from work that she only invited out of courtesy no-showed. She learned that they decided to go to CountryFest at Spac in Saratoga Springs, in stead, subsequently costingher about $1,200.”

6) Seat older people away from the DJ – Even if Grandma has a hearing aid and can’t hear well, she sure will hear the DJ if she is placed right by the speakers. She will also want the music turned down to practically nothing.

“I was the DJ for a wedding at The State Room in Albany, NY. For whatever reason, a table was very close to the DJ booth, probably due to overbooking the hall’s capacity. All night, an old woman would give me dirty looks and complain to me that the music was too loud; even during dinner. However, the bride kept coming by and asking me to turn it up.”

7) Have Back Up Plan for outside weddings – whether it is the ceremony or the reception, have a back up plan in case it rains.

“We did a wedding reception once right near The Century House in Latham, NY where I bet they wished they had booked The Century House. Trying to save money, they decided against a tent and a huge rain storm hit. Despite making the best of it, moving the party inside was difficult and cramped.”

8 ) Be careful of allowing your photographer to overshoot – While you may like many photos as possible, shooting too many is pointless and will only make you miss your reception. Signs of Overshooting could include running longer than 45 minutes during cocktail hour, or being pulled out during the dance time of your reception.

“One time at a wedding at The Franklin Terrace in Troy, NY, the photographer hept pulling the bride and groom out of their reception after dinner to take some more shots. As a result, the bride and groom missed a whole lot of the dance time and they were not happy, when the hall was ready to close up on their contracted time.”

9) Create a “Do Not Playlist” for your DJ – This will ensure there are no surprises.

“At a wedding I went to as a guest recently at The Elks Club in Clifton Park, NY, the DJ played the dreaded Chicken Dance, and a bunch of cheesy non-relevent 80’s love song music that the younger couple did not recognize. If they had specified what they didn’t like, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. (BTW – here is a list of 100 modern first dance & slow wedding songs from our site to help with keeping your wedding from sounding like the Delilah Show.)”

10) Do “The Cake Cutting” as late as possible – While the hall may push for the cake cutting immediately after dinner, remember, many people leave right after the cake. The cake cutting also can slow down the flow, when you are trying to get people to dance.

“One time at Michaels Banquet House in Latham, NY, they decided to do the cake right after dinner to try and speed things up. However, after doing so, they lost a huge population of their guest attendance with two hours left. Know this; The cake is a good time for people to sneak out. ”

I hope this list helps you to avoid possible wedding disasters. To see a simplified checklist of this Top 10 List, click here.

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