I just had the pleasure of DJing for a couple at Franklin Plaza in Troy, NY, which is a great hall with some really cooling lighting.
They had inflatable baseball bats and balls, a baseball cake topper and a first base guestbook that I really liked. The first base guest book was literally just that, a baseball base that all the guests could sign to be latter hung up on their wall.
Just picture the possibilities. You can serve popcorn and Crackerjacks. You can play the song before your intro. You can sign jerseys or bats for the guestbooks. You can use tickets or balls for place cards. You can do anything!
BASEBALL WEDDING THEME PICTURES IN ALBANY, NY
They also posted up the seating chart on a really great baseball themed directory that made you feel like you were looking for your seats right at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
Here are a look a t a few of the nifty things they did to pull it off!
I’ve actually done a few Hockey Theme Weddings recently and have pictures to share with you below, in case you are thinking about the same type of thing for your special day.
Michelle & Tim got married in Latham on March 29, 2014 and we had the pleasure of providing our services for this happy day. The couple had their ceremony and reception at The Holiday Inn Banquet Hall in Latham, NY.
Since the happy couple met at a Rangers game, it only made sense to make the wedding theme match their passion: HOCKEY !!!
They followed the original theme great! They had ice statues, hockey puck place cards, red and blue uplights to match their team’s color, and more! There was a hockey jersey used as a guest book, for all guests to sign when they came in. They used the Rangers Goal Theme song for their entrance song. The had hockey sticks all over the walls, as well as banners and uniform pieces as decorations. They had a hockey theme slideshow and video presentation. And the centerpieces were hockey, too!
Great time had by all!
Hockey Theme Wedding DJ Pictures (Latham, NY) Below
Pictures from another hockey theme wedding (Altamont, NY) below
I also did another pretty cool Hockey Theme Wedding in the summer of 2015. This bride and groom also loved Hockey and went with a hocky theme for their special day. They had a Hockey Jersey Guest book, a hockey place cards seating chart, and a really cool hockey theme centerpiece. Here are some pictures:
As I always say to my clients, if you have the guts to go with a wedding theme, then it really makes the night better. As you can see, both weddings above did just that. I hope the pictures help you with your planning!
Normally, you don’t want any drama at your wedding, but not, of course, if you are planning a Broadway Theme wedding!
We just had the pleasure of DJing for a couple at Key Hall in Schenectady, NY, a great hall with some really classic old time surroundings that really enhanced the idea of theater.
The couple had play poster centerpieces, a Broadway cake topper and seating placecards that looked like tickets to some of their very favorite broadway plays that I really liked.
Just picture the possibilities. You can serve popcorn and make your food table decor look like a concession stand. You can play the theme songs or particular soundtrack tracks before your intro during cocktail hour.
You can sign Broadway play posters for the guestbooks. You can do anything!
BROADWAY PLAY THEME WEDDING PICTURES FROM SCHENECTADY NY
I particularly liked the ticket seating chart and the program playbill for the night. These really made you feel like you were looking for your seats right at a theater on Broadway in New York City.
ARE YOU PLANNING A PIRATE THEME WEDDING OR PARTY? IF SO READ ON!
Well blow me down! You are actually thinking of planning a wedding reception with a pirate theme? Arrrgghh! We have had our hand in a number of pirate parties in and around Albany, NY and think we may have some ideas for you!
Well, after all, with the huge box-office smash Pirates of the Caribbean , the pirate-themed reception has sparked new interest, of late. And by pillaging and plundering around, it will be really easy to steal yourself some great tips for your party!
IDEAS FOR YOUR PIRATE THEMED WEDDING
Below I have categorized each aspect of a wedding reception, through the eye patch of a pirate. They hit all the bases and will give you some ideas that maybe you haven’t even thought of yet.
INVITATIONS – For wedding invitations, live the gimmick. Print them up on antique looking paper-stock, or age the paper yourself by staining with in coffee (How to Antique Paper). For the intro, start with an eye-catcher like ,”Ahoy! Come walk the plank” or, “Shake your Pirate booty!” Chart a course to your reception with location, time and date in the form of a treasure map. If you want to be REALLY creative and can afford a little extra postage, go to the dollar store and put the map-like invitation into bottles with corks and mail them out!
Any Pirate reception invitation will look more authentic when printed on tan paper at the edges, and maybe made wet with coffee or tea stains. This is normal. You can literally dip each invitation into tea or coffee water and then let it dry to make each invitation look antiquated with age. The older they look, the more convincing they are! You can also add some sand and little tiny decorative seashells or gold covered chocolate coins to each invitation.
COSTUMES – Guests in costumes… You gotta do it! Nuff said!
PLACE CARDS – On each of the place cards, you can opt to write each guest’s name by adding “Pirate” or “Buccaneer” before their name (for example: “Pirate Paul” or “Buccaneer Bob”). You can also make up Pirate-related sounding names like “Peg-Leg Pete”, “Captain Carrie,” “Long-Tooth Larry”, “Blind-Eye Barbie”, “Scarface Sammy”, “Dirty Dog Donny”, and so on and so forth.
GUEST BOOK – You can also have your whole guest population sign their good luck wishes in a book with a huge feather pen… Or how about on a real Pirate flag, posted to the wall. If it’s a typical Jolly Roger flag with the white skull and crossbones on a black flag, it’s best to use a white-out, fabric pen or one of those metallic silver pens for their writing. These can then be attached to feather sticks and left on the tables.
DECORATIONS – To decorate your hall, you know what to do, matey. Think about sailing the sea! You can use anything from sand and sea shells, to bowls of live gold fish. Also, remember to hang pirate flags and fishing nets all around the reception, for that extra finishing touch.
And for that eerie atmosphere, you can take out some of your Halloween decorations (cobwebs, spiders, skeletons, etc.). Here’s a great selection of skeletons. On a skeleton you can put an eye patch around it’s head, a bandana and/or hoop earring, color a few of the teeth with a gold marker, and hang Mardi Gras necklaces around it’s neck.
GUEST TABLES
– It would also fun to disperse those gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins, plastic jewels, and a bit of sand and seashells onto your tables. You can also use fishing nets over any kind of tablecloth for your tables. Stick rubber fish, seahorses, plastic oyster shells, lobsters and crabs in the fish net.
PIRATE BOAT PICTURE BOOTH – Picture booths are HUGE at weddings now (awesome example). Now add pirate theme, and BANG! You have a Kodak moment in the making. Have each of your guests pose as a pirate at a ship wheel with some kind of mast or pirate flag in the background. (If Uncle Jerry didn’t come in costume, remember to have extra pirate hats or bandannas around.) Make sure to have each guest ham it up and say, “Aaaargh” while posing for the shot.
If you are creative, you can also make a whole Pirate ship out of cardboard. You’ll need a few refrigerator boxes. Use a hot glue gun and/or duct tape to attach everything together is probably your best bet. Paint it up nice. It won’t take much, just decorate the Pirate ship with a Pirate flag, a mast, a plank (just a piece of long cardboard) and you should be good to go.
MUSIC – Music will really help the atmosphere and set the mood to your pirate wedding reception. You can either have the DJ mix in music from any kind of Pirate movie you can think of, or throw in an occasional Peter Pan, Captain Bogg & Salty, Toucan Pirates, or Jimmy Buffet. (Just make sure to only do it here and there between good songs, to add to the flavor.)
GAMES AND ACTIVITIES – should be lots of fun for everyone, if many guests arrive in costume. You can add pirates to any line dance with instant success. Also, you can try some kind of pirate Scavenger Hunt, or something to do with walking a plank, or picking something up with a hook set to music.
CANDY TABLE – BOOTY BAGS –You have seen the candy tables, right? When the reception is over, thank your guests for coming with booty bags filled with goofy prizes pirate booty such as toy compasses, foil-wrapped candy coins, or other treasures.
FOOD – Good seafood, of course, needs to be at least one of the choices! Ask your caterer on this one.
BEVERAGES – Pirates love their bottles of rum. It won’t be a pirate-theme without beverages inside real sweet treasure chests. If you’re not up to making your own treasure chest, there are a few really nice Treasure Chests can be found online. You can, however, easily make your own. Take a Styrofoam cooler and paint it brown. You can use gold ribbon to trim the lid and the base of the chest. Then take craft foam and glue panels on to the center of the lid in the front and the other directly below to make the lock. Around the treasure chests, throw around your gold chocolate coins, gummy fish, starburst candies (they look like little treasures), colored beaded necklaces and whatever cool treasures you can find. Then add the ultimate treasure, beverage bottles that only pirates would like. (Maybe Pete’s wicked Ale?)
PUNCH BOWL – Serve your sea faring guests grog or bumboo, made with Caribbean coconut rum for the adults and make soda based for the kids, from the bowls marked with or without an “XXX”.
PIRATE LANGUAGE LIST – You should name your tables as such and have pirate language printed out for people to get into the spirit. Here’s a list of pirate phrases:
Avast! (Hey!)
Aye (another way to say – “Yes!”)
Ahoy, me Hearties! (just like saying – Hello, my friends)
Blow me down! (expression of shock, disbelief, strong emotion, surprise)
Booty (treasure)
Buccaneer (a Pirate)
Dead men tell no tales (expression indicating to leave no survivors)
Fair winds! (goodbye, good luck!)Thar’ she blows! (whale sighting)
Grog (generally, any alcoholic drink Pirate’s drink)
Grub (food)
Heave Ho (give it some strength and muscle)
Jolly Roger (a Pirate’s flag – one with a white skull and crossbones over black)
Lookout (someone posted to keep watch on the horizon for signs of land or other ships)
Swab the deck (to clean the deck)
Shiver me timbers! (expression of shock, disbelief, strong emotion, surprise)
Sea-dog (an experienced sea-man)
Me (my)
Me Hearties (a typical way for a Pirate to address his crew)
Shark bait (foes)
Sail ho! (I see a ship!)
Shipshape (well organized, finished, under control…)
Yo-ho-ho (something Pirate’s tend to say, whether it actually means anything or not)
Have fun with whatever you do, and don’t be afraid to be different. Non-traditional wedding receptions are the ones people always remember, and isn’t that the point?
As I always say to my clients, if you have the guts to go with a wedding theme, then it really makes the night better. As you can see, at a recent hockey theme wedding I was the DJ for in Altamont NY, the bride and groom did just that. I hope the pictures help you with your planning!
ENCOURAGING UGLY SWEATERS AT YOUR CHRISTMAS WEDDING
Yes. While some people cherish the formal tux and gown wedding, others dare to be different. That’s right… The Ugly Sweater Wedding…
If you are looking for something different than the typical tuxedo wedding, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year” …for ugly sweaters. What could make your alternative Christmas wedding better than a a bunch of friends gathering in bad Bill Cosby-like knit tops?
I recently had an Ugly Sweater wedding to DJ for, and found that it was one of the most fun ones I ever serviced because of the attire alone. People searched high and low for their knitted outfits and it was like a fashion show of foolishness.
This helped everyone unwind and loosen up quick and made them READY TO PARTY from the get-go.
HOW TO PLAN UGLY SWEATER WEDDING
1) CREATE EASY PLANNING – Selecting a theme makes your wedding chapter write itself. A Christmas wedding theme brings all the details together and makes planning easy. Starting from invitations, to the cake, to the centerpieces and even onto the music, everything will fall together in the spirit of the Christmas season. And if you want it to be a night to remember – add sweaters.
2) DRESS CODE – Right in your invitations, tell people this is what you want. Let them know to shop for your sweaters early. If you hit the thrift shops in December, you will be too late. Start looking and have guests look in July! (I recently tried to find one the first week in December, and every thriftstore in the area had two or three college kids and office party hopefuls looking for the same things right next to me. Slim pickings!)
3) KEEP THE BRIDE LOOK – Brides, one thing to keep in mind, the bride should still look like a bride for picture reasons, but also opt for epic yarn sweetness as an accessory.