Who would have known that one day I would have to DJ a wedding and play “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and really mean it?
This past weekend, I was the DJ for a fun wedding in Poestenkill, up on the mountain. Everything was beautiful. The people came dressed nicely and were enjoying some drinks and pictures with some friends they haven’t seen in years. Yes, all was well, until, as luck would have it, a bastard-of-a-storm would start up hard, five minutes before the bride was to walk the aisle.
That first cold smack of rain was the first of a series of bands that would comrprise Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene.
The Original Ceremony Site
The wedding ceremony was to take place just outside a huge white wedding reception tent, underneath a pretty apple tree. There was an elegant white arch decorated in flowers and everything looked picturesque, that is until the sky turned dark as the bride was stepping out of her limosine.
So at preceisely 6:30, we figured we would try and wait it out. Fifteen minutes or so, we decided our efforts were to no avail. The rain only started coming down harder. As the rain really started to dump on us, I could see that the guests were upset and that something needed to be done so I acted as wedding planner and ran back to the log cabin where the bride and her mother were gathering umberellas.
“How about we just switch it to under the tent on the the reception intro entrance way?” I asked. We quickly shifted gears. A few guests helped me move a few tables and it was on. As the town justice took his place with the groomsmen, it was evident that there was no way the people were going to hear him over the hurricane raindrops pounding on the vinyl roof above. Easy fix; give the justice a microphone.
Everything came off perfectly, except for one thing just before the bride could say, “I do.” As the bride’s aunt read a prayer into the mic, water began to flood all around the electrical panel set up, right behind my DJ Booth set-up. It seemed that the tent was a little off-level and all of the tent’s rain water was irrigating and collecting finding its exit-spout right behind me. That is when the water started to short out the power surges for the bar and myself.
We lost microphone power for all of 20-30 seconds, but people just smiled. I quickly re-routed the cord to the power line that lit the tent lights and all came off without a hitch.
Just as Murphy’s law would have it, five minutes after the ceremony, the rain stopped for about an hour, but it didn’t matter. In the end, people had a great time!
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!
There is a new contemporary wedding advice decorating idea out there to “liven up” your wedding centerpiece, of late and the formula simply works like this… ADD FISH!
That is right. FISH!
Recently at a wedding in Mechanicville, NY, the bride and groom had fighter-fish in the same vase that the flowers were in for their centerpieces on the dinner tables.
Purchasing bowls rather than vases allows for the same decoration ability with a floral side to it, but also gives room for a fine-finned friend to enjoy the festivities.
The new man and wife had flowers that actually matched the fish in each bowl. It was incredible and a great conversation piece.
People also use goldfish too for their wedding centerpieces. With the countless different types of goldfish out there and the multiple different colors they come in, a trip to the petshop could really be worth it!
Stones, flowers, artificial gems and candles are all great accessories for the bowls. Check it out!
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.
Want everyone to have a chance at ALL of the entrees? Thinking about having a buffet at your wedding? If you are, there is one thing you absolutely have to remember. Make sure you make your line is double-sided.
I have seen many many weddings get really tied up with time when the kitchen puts the buffet tables up against the wall. Not having access to both sides of the table from a guest’s stand point, means you will have double the wait.
This may not mean much in a small wedding, but if you have a guest list of 100 plus people, you will likely end up with half of the people done eating before the other half has even started.
A great way to set p the tables when possible is to put a double setting of each dish on the table back to back, so people on either side see the same dishes on the opposite side.
Believe me, if you set up your buffet line like this, there will barely be any wait and allow extra time for any even more fun evening.
Finally, the legislature has created an atmosphere of “marriage equality” here in New York State and the Albany NY area. This law being passed means that a whole new demographic of customers will soon enter the market in the wedding industry. DJ Kenny Casanova and www.TheDJservice.com are happy for our future customers. However, we want to caution same sex couples not to give into “hurry up” pressure by the media to rush into marriage without planning now just because you legally can.
Media Drools for a Gay Mob to Break Down Doors of David's Bridal
By the looks of things, people in the media seem to be trying to create a sense of urgency since the law passed on July 23rd. It seems like they are waiting for a big story of epic proportion that isn’t going to happen. I think they really are waiting for a gay mob of brightly dressed stereotypical homosexual couples and Cher impersonators to break down the doors at David’s Bridal in Colonie. Well, I hate to say it, but as good for TV ratings as this may be, this isn’t going to happen.
Since we passed the ground-breaking law that allows members of the same sex to get married, it seems that day in and day out, the media continues to ask both in print and on the television the same exact question… “Why are there not thousands of people taking advantage of this great opportunity?”
THE LAW JUST PASSED! Think about it. Nobody can plan a great wedding in a few weeks! There are so many different things to think about that you cannot just rush into:
SPECIAL MEANING: It is not a secret that there are many different components pertaining to time that you have to look if you want to have a decent wedding. I am sure that members of New York’s gay community do not want to rush their special day, simply because they can, and certainly not to get their mugs on News Channel 9 for thirty seconds. The fundamental reason many same-sex couples want to get married is because the idea is that marriage is supposed to mean something. It is a special day and one that often involves loved ones. In order to make all this happen, a lot of planning has to go down.
As different as the media might think gay people are, they have the same concerns about their wedding day as anyone else would. Gay people who care about being married will also care about how their weddings come off. The ones who wanted to rush to get married, probably already are after a quick drive to Vermont.
DJ OR BAND BOOKING: As the Rolling Stones once said, “You can’t always get what you want.” I would argue, you can sometimes, if you are patient and can wait it out. It typically takes couples around six to twelve months at the very minimum to plan a successful wedding. Whenever you book a Disc Jockey or band for a wedding, most of the decent ones are booked a year ahead. (We are already booking up next summer, and this one isn’t even half gone. If someone calls right now, I personally do not have any Saturday time slots available at all until November, so my partner is picking up the slack.)
VENUE BOOKING: Various venues, banquet halls and catering/food services are also dealing with full plates, no pun intended. Most of their desirable dates are grabbed up at wedding shows and open houses that take place a season prior to the actual event’s proposed date.
From experience, couples always buy into “wedding prime time.” Most want to get married on a Saturday in the summer, because of the great weather and the lack of scheduling conflicts that this time brings to the table. However, popular wedding reception halls only have limited slots available. If the couple is gay or not and really wants to get married at Franklin Terrace in Troy, NY, for example, Franklin’s only has eight couples they can book for the eight weeks in July and August months.
INVITING GUESTS: Finally, if you rush your wedding, not everyone can make it. Your guests need advance notice just like anybody else. Most friends and family really need at least 3 to 6 months notice in advance. This is even more especially so in the busy summer months when people have their vacation time carefully mapped out. My wife and I planned our wedding about a year out, and we still had a few close friends who really wanted to be there for us but they could not show, due to conflicts in schedules! (Chris, man, you are still a bastard!)
Therefore Mister Media, you can’t plan your special day in a few weeks. Calm down. You got your midnight wedding 12:01 stories on the day that the law went into effect. Stop drooling for something that isn’t going to happen in droves. We have only had eleven couples in the area get hitched in same sex weddings since the law passed. This is about right.
I know it would have made for better TV if a thousand homosexuals in drag came out screaming to say, “I do,” but it didn’t work that way, and it won’t.
For more information on gay-friendly same sex wedding professionals to do service at your wedding, drop us a line 518-506-3305.
