As weird as Flavor Flav is, he knows the importance of time
WHAT DOES PROFESSIONAL MEAN?
Arriving early really means something. Today, I just wanted to spend a little time giving out my thoughts on DJ’ing this past weekend and why professionalism matters.
We had five gigs this weekend. I personally had an awesome wedding in Esperance, NY way up on a mountain on Saturday and Sunday was a Sweet 16 in Schenectady. The wedding came off without a cuff, but the Sweet 16 brought about something worthy to blog on.
First off, it is safe to say that if you want to be successful in life, you have to put in the extra time. We have found that one thing that helps us to get a ton of gigs over other disc jockeys, and one thing that makes for a successful party is …to BE EARLY.
UP TO TWO HOURS EARLY? Yes. Being “on time,” is not good enough. That is why I often prefer to be up to an hour and a half to two hours early to set up for important events like weddings, corporate events and sweet 16s. This gives me enough time to problem solve the unexpected and pay attention to fine detail so everything comes off without a problem.
At his particular Sweet 16, one of the kids wanted to be “DJ Helper.” When this happens, I play along and let them take a few unbreakable things from my car and bring them into the venue with me. While unloading a few gear bags my Jeep Patriot, I pushed my door shut with my hip. The helper kid from the party tried to follow my lead and help me by also shutting my passenger door on the driver side… right where my keys were sitting. When the door shut, the electronic brain of the car thought I was in the car with a large portion of my unloaded gear. Therefore my car decided to help me, as well, by locking the doors.
If I hadn’t been an hour and a half early, I would not have had time to call the police, then the Sheriff, then a towing company to finally find a person available to unlock my doors and let me unload the rest of my gear. If I wasn’t early, I wouldn’t have had enough time to still set up and have everything come off without skipping a beat.
The party still came off and with a tip at the end, to boot! (And the tip just about covered the tow truck fee!)
It is not impossible, sometimes, to book that DJ that you had your heart set on when looking at a small venue.
Today, sound systems have become smaller, more efficient and spacial-wise EVEN BETTER.
More and more we are seeing that bride and grooms like to show individuality by booking their favorite hangouts as the place-to-be for their destination wedding. At a recent wedding taking place at The Lodge At Saratoga Raceway, we were posed with a tight DJ set up, in order to utilize the hardwood flooring effectively.
If we set up anywhere other than where we had, it would have infringed on the possibility of a full dance floor experience. Therefore, we had to improvise.
Setting on the staircase was tight, but we aim to please. This opened up the entire dinning room minus tables and created an ample enough space for the night to rock! Our makeshift dance floor was instantaneously transformed to keep the party pumping into midnight!
