Plan Your Wedding Well So you Have A Full House in Attendance All Night Long
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.
Kenny Says…
“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.
…says Kenny
“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.
…says Kenny
“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.
…says Kenny
“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.
…says Kenny
“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.
…says Kenny
“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. ”
Recently, we had a wedding venue coordinator bring us into the room of a well-known wedding reception hall over in Albany, NY. The room was beautiful, as always. This particular venue has great lighting, superb decor, and has a really nice dance floor entirely surrounded by well-decorated tables. Everything on this particular day was just great, except for one common thing…
…Poor Placement of The DJ booth.
The DJ table was about 75 feet away from the dance floor. The entertainment was buried by at least four dinning tables, off in a distant corner of the room.
“Uggghhh!” I thought to myself before speaking. “Is there anywhere else I can set up?” I asked, as politely as I could.
She answered, “No. That is where we ALWAYS put the DJ.”
“If the wedding party has a band, do you put them in the same place?” I asked.
“Well, not really. We usually put them right next to the dance floor.”
This is a common problem with wedding venues.
Schenectady – At this hall, a Wedding DJ is often placed high on a balcony in the background. While this may look good, it is not a good option. It sounds like absolute $#*%! and leaves no opportunity for guests to make requests.
OUT OF SIGHT – OUT OF MIND
There is also a very popular wedding hall in the Schenectady, NY area that likes to put the DJ way up high on a balcony. This looks great to your venue hall, and may look neat in the final pictures too. However, this idea is all about visual. It doesn’t take sound quality or guest interation into consideration. Therefore, in a number of words, this option on an entertainment perspective actually totally SUCKS!
Just a tip… treat the DJ as your entertainmant for the night, as you would any other performer that interacts with your crowd. It really is best to have what ever entertainment that you choose to provide for your guests very close to the dance floor. This is important for a number of reasons.
Make sure and discuss this request with your venue provider’s event organizer. Quite often, their agenda is very food & service-driven. This means they do not always have in mind the best interests of optimal entertainment requirements.
Here is a list of things to think about when making your seating plan and placing your entertainment spotlight for the night:
1) IS THE DJ CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE DANCE FLOOR? – No matter what your hall organizer says, the entertainment should ALWAYS be right near the dance floor, period. They should also have a clean path with no seating in front of them.
A wedding venue knows food, and knows how to treat their guests, but they are not entertainers, nor do they know much about music equipment placement. Ask any good DJ and they will tell you it is not a good idea to be far away from the dance floor.
2)NEVER PUT TABLES IN FRONT OF THE DJ – First off, the sound quality will be terrible when ever you put something in front of a speaker. Obstacles will hinder the sound from reaching the dance floor properly. Secondly, the guests sitting in front of the DJ booth will be blasted by sound all night. Those will then be considered the worst seats in the house.
A DJ on a balcony will get NO requests and have little interaction with your guests.
3) CAN THE DJ BE SEEN BY ALL? – The DJ or band often makes announcements. You don’t want your guests wondering where this mystery voice is coming from like a blue light special announcement at K-mart.
4) CAN THE DJ CONNECT WITH THE CROWD? – It is very important for the DJ, much like a band, to connect with the crowd. Seeing what is working and what is not is a huge part of being a mobile disc jockey.
5) WILL THE DJ BE ABLE TO INTERACT WITH THE CROWD ? – If your wedding DJ is placed far away, requests become very difficult, or sometimes almost impossible.
A balcony set up typically doesn’t work well for a mobile DJ. (Balcony DJ booths only work in night clubs because the place is hard wired with smaller speakers everywhere in the hard to reach dead zones.)
BELOW IS AN EXAMPLE OF A BAD WEDDING HALL LAYOUT:
🙁
In the picture above, I would have just switched the table to the right of the DJ and the cake. This would leave enough space so that the DJ booth could have been strategically tilted so that the soundwaves travel to the dance floor with no hindering obstacles.
In a big hall, it is impossible to do a 75 feet away corner set up, facing the back of your guests with tables in front of you blocking the sound. In the picture above, 24 people are being blasted by the DJ. They wouldn’t be happy either.
Overall, in a wedding reception setting, your DJ/MC placement is critical. Do not let the hall put your entertainment in a closet.
When it comes to dancing, “The King of Dirty Dancing” Patrick Swayze once said, “Nobody puts baby in the corner.” The same should go for your wedding DJ.
Keep this in mind when laying out your wedding seating charts. For more on this common problem, check out our article, How To Seat Your Wedding Guests.
Many couples spend big bucks on decorations and flowers for their wedding and it is always the attitude that letting it all go waste would be a shame. My guess is that the bride and groom certainly do not want to take home a dozen huge floral arrangements that will only just be dead by the time they get back from their honeymoon.
Therefore, because you asked for it, we have decided to add the wedding centerpiece to our popular “TOP TEN LIST” articles. Here at TheDJservice.com, we have painstakingly put together our favorite centerpiece giveaway ideas that that will keep the guests happy after the last song.
1) FIND THE PENNY
Ask someone to hide a penny either under a plate or coffee mug at the table, or underneath one actual chair at each table. The person who finds the lucky penny gets to take hope the centerpiece. You can switch the penny up, if you like, to maybe a poker chip or something else that may go along with the theme of your wedding.
2) DONATION
Want to save some money? Those centerpieces became a tax deductible write off! If you are not all about the cash, it is also nice to know that you could be brightening the day of some people at an elderly home, or hospital, perhaps.
3) REWARD THE FIRST RSVPS
With this centerpiece giveaway, you reward your most prompt RSVP responders. As your RSVPs come in, simply keep track of the order. Then when you make your seating charts, you can put a sticker inside the place card of the people who sent in their RSVPs first., or just have the DJ read a list.
4) FIGHT CLUB
If you don’t want to really bother figuring out how give away your centerpieces, you can always have the DJ announce it is a free-for-all, at the end of the night. Then let your family and friends engage in a brawl.
5) ON THE DOWN LOW
If you want to play favorites, then this is the option for you. When you visit the tables, tell whomever it is you want to take the centerpiece that they can have it. This action will let you give them to specially chosen people, without having to make an announcement that might offend someone who is eyeballing the goods.
6) HOT POTATO
Have each table pass get ready to pass around an object like a napkin, dollar bill or anything. Announce that they will pass the item hot potato style around the table. Have the DJ play music and stop it randomly. When the music stops, whoever is still holding the passable object is the winner. They get to take home the centerpiece.
7) LOTTO TICKETS
Some people today like to give lotto tickets as party favors. If this idea works for you, whoever wins the highest dollar figure at the table, also wins the centerpiece.
8 ) ANNIVERSARY MATCH
Have the DJ announce that you would like to give the centerpiece to the person to the couple whose birthday is closest to today’s date.
9) TRIVIA QUESTIONS
You could always have the DJ read off a few questions and have the guests at each table compete for the centerpiece. He or she who writes down the most correct answers, wins!
10) BIRTHDAY
Let the guests know that the centerpiece will be awarded to the person at each table whose birthday is closest to the bride’s birthday.
Pick one, or leave the flowers for the janitor! Good luck!
The whole idea of having a wedding cake tradition with music and couple feeding really has been around forever, though it has transformed more into what we know it as today in recent times.
During the ancient Roman Empire, the groom would cbreak up a bread-like cake and sprinkle the crumbs all over his bride’s head. In the 17th century, a large decorated wedding pie was uhe dessert of choice, with one main ingredient: a glass ring hidden inside to symbolize that the finder was the next to be married. After the 19th century came about, we really started to see the big frosting giants with multi-layering.
No matter which way you cut it, everyone tends to agree that music makes things better, so somewhere along the line music was added to the mix.
Having a mood-setting wedding cake theme song is a great way to put the people into the mindset of the bride and groom. However, how do you pick the right song?
The best thing to think about when choosing your wedding cake theme song is to think about what kind of atmosphere you would like to set during the actual cake cutting activity. If you want “fun,” I wouldn’t go with classical music or jazz. If you want classy, I also wouldn’t pick Def Leppard. Happy, party, fun, serious, nostalgic, classy, and romantic are a bunch of moods that you could set. Remember to always pick a suitable song that goes along with the feeling you would like to convey.
Partially from an earlier blog, here is a good updated list of songs that you may want to use for your wedding reception cake cutting activity:
wedding cake song list
Ain’t That a Kick in the Head – Dean Martin
All My Life – KC & JoJo
Better Be Good To Me – Tina Turner
Better Together – Jack Johnson
Cut the Cake – Average White Band
Cuts Like A Knife – Bryan Adams
Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic
Happy Together – The Turtles
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
How Sweet It Is – James Taylor
I Do – Colbie Calliet
I Got You Babe – Sonny Bono & Cher
I Wanna Grow Old With You – Adam Sandler
Ice Cream – Sarah McLachlan
If I had A Million Dollars – Bare Naked ladies
It Had to be You – Harry Connick Jr.
It’s your Love – Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
Love and Marriage – Frank Sinatra
Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin
Marry Me – Train
Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
Recipe for Love – Harry Connick Jr
So This Is Love – Cinderella Theme
Sugar, Sugar – The Archies
That’s Amore – Dean Martin
Theme From ‘Jaws’ – Jaws Soundtrack
This Could Be The Start of Something Big – Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme
This Guy’s In Love With You – Herb Albert
When I’m 64 – Beatles
Whenever I see something cool at a wedding that I am the disc jockey for, I feel the need to share. Are you looking for a fresh idea to dress up your tables at your wedding? Why not try jazzing things up with table sashes?
This new trend is an affordable way to really bring some color to your wedding reception.
I was the disc jockey at a wedding last week at The Franklin Terrace in Troy, NY and they had some really great sashes going on for their guest list of about 180 people.
Over black table clothes with dark pink napkin accents, their white table scarfs had black Oriental print running right down the center. This idea can really make your colors pop!
A great speech can happen with a little preparation.
As a DJ in the Albany, NY area, I have seen some great best man speeches and some ones that really tank. As a high school English teacher, as well, it is immediately obvious for me to identify which person has done their homework before setting down their glass.
Writing a great best man or maid of honor toast requires creativity, patience, hard work, and innovation. However, do not be afraid. The bride or groom thought enough of you to ask you to be their best man. Therefore, have faith in yourself and your ability to say the right thing. You can do it, especially if you follow the one most important and often-overlooked part of the writing process.
PRE-WRITE!
Before you actually start writing, jot down some ideas that answer the BIG QUESTIONS that people might want to know. Write down questions you think people would ask you about the bride and groom, if they could. Here is a collection of questions that best comes to mind.
1. How do you know the bride and groom?
2. Why did they choose you as best man?
3. What are the first five adjectives that describe the bride or groom?
4. How has the groom changed since meeting the bride?
5. How did the couple meet? How did the groom tell you about her?
6. What is some good marriage advice you’ve received or witnessed?
7. What is a good story that illustrates the personality of the bride and/or groom is?
Once you have the above questions figured out, the hard part is done. The next step is putting the answers into some kind of order that makes sense. Aristotle once said that when writing you need, “a beginning, a middle, and an end.” …Therefore, here are a few ideas to bring all your pre-writing thoughts together with organization in mind:
WRITE
1. The Beginning – Start with some kind of introduction. Get your audience’s attention and let them know who you are. Because everyone loves humor, it is often great to start with something that will make everyone laugh. This is also a great way to build up the courage to speak well in public.
2. The Middle – This is where the questions that you worked on before will really help. As the best man, you may know the groom better, so it is easy to talk about just the groom. However, a great toast will be evenly balanced, speaking about both of them. Avoid ex-girlfriend stories. Keep it appropriate for the parents and older folks in the room!
3. The End – It is best to wrap up your toast with some kind of wish of happy future for your bride and groom. Then finally, raise your glass in tradition to close with, “congratulations”, “cheers”, or “salud”, and don’t forget to drink from your own glass!
DELIVERY
The very last thing you want to do before actually creating your final draft is to think about DELIVERY. Having good public speaking skills comes with time and practice, however, a few simple tips will get the inexperienced by without any problems.
1. Keep your toast relatively quick. Probably more than half of the people there do not really know you. Nobody really came to hear your speech so, if you go on forever, you may actually annoy some people if you have too much to say.
2. Eye contact. Do it.
3. Create distrations. Don’t do it. That means saying “Umm” or “Ahhh” … fiddleing with papers … swaying back and forth. Things like these make people look at you instead of listen to what you have to say.
4. Try not to read everything word from word from your notes. Only write down phrases that need to be read word for word. It is actually best to write up a detailed outline of what you are going to say so that you do not simply read to your audience. You tell it from your heart.
5. Try and involve different emotions in your speech.
6. Once you are done and do not forget to raise your glass and get everyone to do the same. If you forget to drink from your own glass, people often are not sure if you are done.
