These days, nobody wants the traditional guestbook. It seems that once you have it all signed up, it gets thrown into the attic and never gets looked at again. Here is a pretty cool idea, following the trend of signing other things to record the attendees of your guest list. Have your guests sign a decorative bowl!
I was at the Hague Firehouse, just a little away from Lake George this weekend. It was for a pretty nice BBQ picnic-type wedding. There, they had something going on around a table so I took a stroll over to see. They had a bowl turned over on its side and people were signing it with a special marker made for writing on porcelain.
What a cool idea! This way when the bowl was signed, the couple had something they could actually use and enjoy, that at the same time would remind them of their special day.
For those of you who are new to our blog, we feature everything you would need to know in planning a successful wedding, today.
www.TheDJservice.com/blog – is a great wedding planning blog with song lists, decoration & food ideas, theme party checklists, and local wedding venue reviews in Upstate New York… by DJ Kenny Casanova
Because wedding season slows down a little over the holidays, I decided not to write about the nice little reception we did at The Stockade Inn that I did over the weekend, and focus on “Black Friday” for this post.
First off, unlike the wedding I was the DJ for at there in Schenectady, there was nothing “nice”, nor “little” about this year’s Black Friday.
For the past 8 years or so, a friend of mine has been meeting up with me at the crack of dawn to run around like fools the day after Thanksgiving, looking at the deals at all the major stores in the area. However, the deal with this year’s Black Friday, in my opinion, was there were no deals.
It looks like Black Friday may have a very grim future and the downward spiral has begun.
NO LONGER JUST FRIDAY – I think this greedy move by retailers to try and get all of your holiday money spent at just their locationis going to backfire in the end. Target said, “lets open at 9pm on THURSDAY,” so Walmart opened at 8pm, with two other “sale events” kicking in later at midnight, then early in the morning on Friday.
Creating a “Gray Thursday” is a bad idea, in my opinion. This also grays the line for when Black Friday actually starts and creates lees of a sense of urgency on the buyer’s behalf. Why wake up at midnight or 5am or whenever for Black Friday sales, if places have already been open since immediately after you ate your pumkin pie the night before.
DOORBUSTERS FAIL – Sure there were a couple of bucks to be saved, here and there, but there were no real great saving doorbusters, as there were in the past. Since downloading media is huge now and you can just rent movies for $1 at the Red Box, CDs and DVDs at $5 really didn’t seem to be as big of a deal as they once were to everyone.
FLAT SCREEN FAIL – And on bigger ticket items, every store was pushing flat screen LED/LCDs. However, this can’t work forever because face it: PEOPLE CAN ONLY HAVE OWN MANY TVs! Once you have one in all the major rooms, you are done with this need. While some people may have taken advantage of this for this year, I think it must have been less than last year, and will continue to be less of demand by the consumer.
I noticed that many stores were trying to crank out LCD tv’s with deeper discounts than previous years for their Black Friday deals, but seemingly to no avail. Go into some of the stores like Best Buy, Target and Walmart and look at the huge stacks of crappy no-bame brand flat screens that people didn’t bother with like Emerson, Symphonic, and Dynex.
The reason for the size of these unpurchased piles of TVs is probably two-fold: 1) Most people who wanted a huge flat TV already have a flat screen by now, and 2) why buy a crappy brand, when you can spend a little bit more and have something with better quality?
I asked a guy at Best Buy why there were so many flat screens in a pile marked at $159. He said he didn’t know. Then I asked, “Do you know why they are called ‘Dynex’? …Because they die the next day!”
Anyhow, to make a long story short… I didn’t get anything at at all on black Friday, except for a pretty sweet omlette at The Wolf Road Diner in Colonie.
I just hope that next year, Black Friday doesn’t start before I eat my turkey. If so, stores will probably be serving cranberry sauce in line to the idiots waiting in line on White Wednesday for $9 thumbdrive.
So the ring has been given, now, what next? Is there anything important you need to think of when choosing your actual wedding date? How to choose a wedding date, is difficult and should not be taken lightly.
How to optimize the selection of the actual calendar date for your wedding is easy when you eliminate your competion.
When you are picking a date to throw a big event like a wedding, one should approach things with a good business mind. That means, KNOW YOUR COMPETITION. Like any other important date, be smart about selection. You should act like a real good planner and think of all the reasons your guests may not be able to come on that particular day. Believe it or not, people may not make your most special date their top priority.
You probably can understand that planning a wedding on Superbowl Sunday is probably not the best idea, if you have a lot of sports fans on either side of the family. So when do you plan it?
Choosing the actual day of the week is tough, but it is not the biggest battle. Most people will agree that a Sunday or a Friday is a good idea, but Saturday seems to be even better due to commute issues for your guests either before or after the ceremony and reception. If this is true, then what you really need to focus on is which Saturday on the calendar is best to choose? To figure this out, think about which Saturday will pose the least amount of distrations to the majority of your guests.
STAY AWAY FROM HOLIDAYS – Face it. Aside from your one uncle that farts a lot, and the one cousin who gets extremely drunk even at communion, for the most part, you really want your all of your friends and family to be able to make it. However, there is one mistake that a lot of party planners seem to make… PUTTING THE DATE ON A HOLIDAY, figuring that your guests have the date off anyway.
AVOID CAUSING A BREAK IN YOUR GUEST’S POSSIBLE TRADITIONS – Yes, at first, selecting a holiday as your wedding date seems like a novel idea; getting married on Christmas Eve, or The Fourth of July, perhaps. You probably figure that most people already have that date off, and it is fun to be able to say, “we are getting married and starting our NEW lives together on NEW Years Eve!” …or something to that effect. However, placing your special date on a day where other people may already have plans, or traditions is quite often a really bad thing to do.
For one, it sometimes can make some very important people in your lives have to pick between attending either their yearly plan/tradition, or attending your function. This can upset your guests or even you when you see what their decision is. It is a bad position to put people in on both sides.
I was the DJ for one wedding that actually fell on Halloween. It was also a “no kids allowed” wedding. This meant that some of their guests had to get babysitters and also, could not go trick-or-treating with their children. So what ended up happening? Many guest with younger children left way too early for the success of the wedding reception. When it came time to dance, a large portion of the guest list had left.
AVOID PLACING YOUR DATE ON A FUN DAY – Another reason chosing a fun calendar day for your special day is not a good idea is you may loose some of the fun people who might have attended that are not all that close to you. If they are not your very best friends, but you do want them to attend, it is possible that they may succumb to the temptation of your calendar date’s competition. That can mean less people you haven’t seen in a long time, or even worse, less of a good time overall.
A good example of this might be placing your wedding date on Saint Patrick’s day. While it is not traditionally a day that people may get off of work, it is a day that many other parties and events plan on.
An Irish Wedding theme can be great! However, choosing the actual Saint Patrick’s day date for your wedding will make some of your lesser important guests to have to choose between you, and that nice pint of green beer that is waiting for them down the street at their favorite pub. Again, as a rule of thumb, keep in mind that your most special day is not always going to be THEIR most special day. And you do not want to lose guests that you value simply because you picked one day, when you could have picked another. (For some ideas on Irish theme weddings check out my blog here.)
So think twice before choosing that holiday for your special day. If you create competion for your event by choosing a bad day from the start, you are only setting yourself up for potential heartache.
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!
Last week, I worked with local photographer Tony from Time Capsule Photo Booths. He did such a great job, once again as always, keeping the guests entertained that I figured it was time to share his grea service, and the idea in general with anyone who is planning a modern wedding looking for fun.
A new trend in wedding reception options to go a long with the current wedding cupcake and wedding magnet craze is to roll in a Wedding Photo Booth. “What exactly is a wedding photo booth?” you may ask.
In the corner of your reception hall, or maybe out by the bar in a separate designated area, a wedding vendor sets up a photo booth, not unlike the passport picture makers you sometimes see in the mall. Unlimited pictures are then shot as wedding favors for the guests, as well as collected in duplicate for a wedding scrapbook to be compiled throughout the night for the bride and groom.
The guests are first greeted by the vendor. Off to the side, many of the vendors provide a table loaded with silly props, hats, and costume accessories to dress up the photo shoot. Then the guests enter the photo booth with their selections and pull the curtains.
After each picture is taken, the guests inside the booth exit to be presented with typically two strip of photos within 20 seconds. One for a keepsake, and one to insert into a scrapbook being made for the bride and groom. Then the scrapbooking fun begins!
More guests enter and the fun begins all over again.
Depending on the wedding photo booth provider, specialization services to this idea may be available such as being able to add text or custom backgrounds to the pictures.
If you are interested in this idea and are in and around the Capital Region, you can check out a number of fine vendors that provide this service. One great vendor that we love working with is Tony athttp://www.timecapsulephotobooths.com/ . He is very professional, offers a number of custom packages and has a great selection of props for your guests to choose from.
