Candy Carts are a New Sweet Idea for your Wedding Reception
With all the weddings that we do, I come across some pretty inventive ideas. I love to share what I see. Here are three fun and yummy new trends in modern weddings, that will help get your taste buds going.
COCKTAIL HOUR GRAND ENTRANCE OF BRIDE & GROOM
An interesting new trend for wedding receptions and cocktail hours is for the bride and groom to actually be announced fifteen minutes or so into the cocktail hour, so that they can enjoy the spirits, as well. As everyone knows, a tasty drink or two can really make the party fun. If the bride and groom get done with their pictures quickly enough, why not?
THE CANDY CART
A sweet new treat in weddings is the Candy Cart. A scrum-dilly-icious candy buffet adds fun and color to any wedding. This new trend has a table on wheels that looks like it was heisted straight out of Wonka’s Chocolate factory. The cart is covered with large glass bowls and vases over-flowing with goodness. Little baggies allow for all of your guests to pick what kind of candy they want and take it home. Kids and adults love taking home little bags of loot so that the sweetness of the reception continues long after the DJ has packed up.
HONEYMOON GIFT REGISTRY
Enough said. Just like any other type of gift registry at a store like Bed & Bath, Macy’s or even on Amazon, friends and family members purchase parts of the bride and groom’s honeymoon, to say, an all-inclusive resort with all the food and drink that one can handle! If it is not the obvious plane tickets or hotel room credits, it could be a show, an expensive dinner or a tour bus ride at the point of destination.
Karaoke at a wedding can be great in small amounts!
If you have a wedding coming up, you want it to be different. How about a little karaoke?! While it is not for everyone, it could be right for you.
If you are considering adding a nice karaoke package to your wedding reception, you are the type of bride and groom that really want your guests to get down with the music. Right? It is true. Karaoke will start of your wedding reception with something memorable, and karaoke is certainly a fun option for participants. However, as Spidey once said, “with karaoke comes great responsibility.” (Or something like that.)
First off, you really need to check out your DJ to see what his actual karaoke background is. He could be a great wedding DJ, but not that cultured in empty-orchestra performances. Has your disc jockey won any best of karaoke titles a number of times, like Kenny Casanova (shameless plug) ? Does he (or she) have great karaoke gear with sweet cordless microphones and hot current selections as well as the old classics songs that everyone loves, like DJ Kenny Casanova?
While it is hard to exactly explain what it is that makes a karaoke DJ “#1” in the eyes of his or her karaoke following it probably has to with a combination of personality and fast pacing. That is what makes us different.
Personality. It is something your DJ either has, or doesn’t have. There are no personality classes. You cannot learn this. The only way to really judge personality, is to see it for yourself
Ask to see your DJ playing karaoke music at a public venue. If you would like to see us, we ask our customers to stop by Villa Valenti Pub in Troy, NY every Friday night.
The reason we get booked for a lot of weddings and sweet 16 birthday parties is by having potential customers come to our public gigs and test them first. If they invite you, do it! You can see them in action, unannounced, uncensored and unknown. Then you can judge for yourself, without watching an edited video of only their best moments.
Musical sweetness.
How do you know, if what you are seeing will translate well for you? Your karaoke DJ should be funny and fun and keep the party going, but not a spotlight hog themselves. Some karaoke DJ’s are unbooked musicians looking for an outlet to shine. Your wedding is not the place for this. You don’t want your KJ to get on the mic and attempt stand up comedy. Your guests want to hear music, not speeches, but a little bit of quick mic work in the appropriate places after or before a strategic song can be classic.
Timing, timing, TIMING! It really is everything. No silence please. No dead air. This is important. When dead air happens – PEOPLE CRINGE, and the fun stops. People get tired and move on with their lives. The DJ kills the dance floor. Have you ever been on a dance floor and there is a quiet buffer space between songs? What do you see the dancers do? They either freeze and stand there like scared deer in headlights, or go and sit back into their dinner seats. BOTH OF THESE OUTCOMES ARE POOR! Silence equals BAD DJ!!! Look for the DJ try their hardest to keep everything moving and leave no room to sleep for the karaoke audience.
Once you have chosen the right DJ who also has karaoke, consider these precautions.
1) SCHEDULED KARAOKE TIME – Not everyone likes karaoke, so limit it to either scheduled performances by a few key players, or open up say the very last hour. If you open it up for the entire reception, it will not be special and will become more annoying than anything else.
2) SET LIMITS – Do not allow multiple songs by one guest. Maybe one or two, but you do not want your wedding reception to become a a karaoke concert staring one or two key players.
3) SCAN SONG SELECTION – Make sure your DJ runs all the songs by you, if they could be considered questionable. Some songs out there have ridiculous amounts of adult content and just are not right for a wedding. (HINT – if there is cursing, or a song by the 2 Live Crew, beware!)
So that’s it. Karaoke can really be a blast, but be careful. If you are, it can really add to the final flavor and make it a great night for everyone!
It is now that magical moment for you, the bride in white. The glowing spotlight is shinning softly on you and all eyes casted your way. Your hands hold a modest, yet gorgeous bundle of flowers and you are about to throw it all away, and move on to the next wonderful chapter in your book.
Your dress is perfect. Your hair is lovely. Everything is just how you imagined it would be, but the silly DJ cracks a stupid joke to match his song choice and plays something ridiculous and seemingly unrelated, because you didn’t specify and left it up to him.
You bite your lip. “I knew shoulda told him what to play!”
Don’t worry! You are not there yet. So what can you actually pick for a song? There are countless songs out there, and it is overwhelming, but you do not half to reinvent the wheel.
Here is a popular listing of Top Bouquet Tossing Songs where you cannot go wrong!
• Single Ladies – Beyonce
• Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
• I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
• Another One Bites The Dust – Queen
• Dancing Queen – Abba Girls
• Ladies Night – Kool & The Gang
• Man! I Feel Like A Woman – Shania Twain
• Respect – Aretha Franklin
• All I Wanna Do – Cheryl Crow
• Chapel of Love – Dixie Cups
• Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
• Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison
• So Many Men, So Little Time – Miquel Brown
•This one is for the girls – Martina McBride
•Wishin’ and Hopin’ Ani Difranco (My Best Friends Wedding Soundtrack)
•”Sex in the City” theme song
• American Woman – The Guess Who
•Bootylicious – Destiny’s Child
• Diamonds are a girls best friend – Marilyn Monroe
• Dirty – Christina aguilera
• Don’t want no Scrub – TLC
• Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic – The Police
• Express Yourself – Madonna
• Funky Town – Lipps Inc.
• Girls, Girls, Girls – Motley Cruew
• Hey Ladies – The Beastie Boys
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
• Its Getting Hot in Herre – Nelly
• Its Raining Men – The Weather Girls
• Just a girl – No Doubt
• Ladies Night – Kool & The Gang
• Lady Marmalade – Pink, Mia, Lil’ Kim, Christina Aguilera
• Let’s Get Loud – Jenifer Lopez
• Like a Virgin – Madonna
• Milkshake – Kelis
• Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman – Britney Spears
• Oh Its so Quiet, Shhh (Zing-Boom) Bjork
• One way or another blondie
• Our Day Will Come – Ruby and the Romantics
• Perfect Day Hoku – Legally Blonde Soundtrack
• Red Neck Woman – Gretchen Wilson
• Shoop Shoop Song – Cher
• Single White Female – Chely Wright
• This one’s for the Girls – Martina Mc Bride
• Touch Me, Tease Me Case – Foxy Brown
• What a Girl Wants – Christina Aguillera
I recently did one of the most research-involved DJ gigs to date; a 50th Italian Wedding Anniversary, NO ENGLISH, with all Italian music straight from Italy!
Italian music has long been the staple of weddings in that culture. The vow-renewing bride and groom at this renewal were great people and I really wanted to give them what they wanted. I had a heck of a time, however, finding all the traditional Italian favorites song by the original artists, but I did it, four hours of Funiculi Funicula fun!
Albany NY Anniversary DJ
THE MEETING – When I met with them originally, I was under the impression that Italian-American artists would be great for this event. I pictured lots of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Andrea Bocelli, and my personal favorite, Louis Prima! However, I was told by a charming old Italian woman in broken English that, in so many words, “Prima is a hack and a poor imitation to the original.” The problem was, she didn’t know who the original artist was, who sang say, “Zooma Zooma / Cella Luna Mezzo Mare,” which Prima called “Angelina”.
It took many phone calls and visits to the library to learn that I really wanted Mario Lanza, Lou Monte and Al Bano, for example. However, in the end, everyone had such a great time… and the food… Mama Mia!
In talking with the Italian couple, I learned a lot of things. I thought these three points would be an interesting quick read on those of you planning or interested in old Italian Wedding Traditions:
THE ITALIAN MONEY DANCE – The money dance is still very common at Italian weddings and today the money is most often placed in a satin bag carried by the bride. It has crossed over to the mainstream internationally at weddings around the world, known as “The Dollar Dance”.
MAY & AUGUST RESTRICTIONS – Many years ago, devout Italians avoided getting hitched during the months of May and August. The reasons could be deemed superstitious, but practiced, none-the-less. The month of May was reserved for the veneration of the Virgin Mary, and August was thought to invite bad luck and sickness.
MASSIVE FOOD SPREADS – eating large quantities of food was said to ensure fertility and thus always played a large part in traditional Italian weddings. They idea was to encourage large families, not necessarily large waistlines.
