Madison’s Best DJ

The first real day of spring happened last weekend and the weather could not have been any nicer for two people in love, Sara and Jonathan.  Ahead of time at our pre-event meetings, I could tell we were in for a great event just by the way the couple treated each other and their inclusion of the groom’s mom, Jill – that is “J” “I” “L” “L” (all you at the reception know what I’m talking about!), into the wedding planning.  This was an inside joke among the family as this was how Jonathan’s mother introduced herself to customer service people.

Upon arriving at the event at 2:00 pm, the Wingra room at the Crown Plaza was decorated especially nicely with beautiful flowers on each table along with the elegant effects of chair linens with the wedding colors.  In addition to those details, the bride and groom had ordered an ice sculpture that had their initials etched into the ice.

The cocktail hour started outside the banquet room with fine hors d’oevres at 4 pm.  By that time both Andrew and I were dressed in our tuxedos welcoming the guests.  We also were busy moving the gifts to the gifts table within the banquet room.  As 5:30 pm rolled around, a beautiful bus arrived with our wedding party having a good time within it.  I boarded the party bus and welcomed our wedding party of 20.  They were excited and hungry to eat.

One could tell there was magic in the air this evening.  Everything seemed to flow perfectly and our newly married kissed and posed well when their guests requested by clinking glasses.  Did you know there can be multiple ways to stimulate your crowd and have them act in a manner you desire?  Everything from DJ Magic emceeing the event with trivia questions about the bride and groom to spinning a wedding wheel– come talk to us if you need ideas!  For our occasion though, Sara and Jonathan let the evening flow without much worry and that organic approach worked perfectly.  Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple!

Wedding Vendors:
Photographer: Carl Stevens of Artistic Eyes
Banquet Facility: Kate of The Crown Plaza Madison
Music & Entertainment: Matt & Andrew of DJ Magic Enterprises, Inc.

This past weekend’s event started for me on Thursday.  Our two companies were involved, DJ Magic Enterprises, Incorporated and Solid Ice Displays.  It is not everyday that a family member is married, therefore, I wanted to make sure it was even more special to all involved, especially Brynn and Andrew.

Thursday morning started out with a 45 minute trailer loading session.  Not only were we bringing down our entertainment equipment, but we would also be packing the Photo Montage gear, Ice Sculpture gear, Cameras, and Video Camera.  Once loaded, we were on the road and delivering our Claddagh Ring Ice Sculpture to a good friend, John Hayes of Cafe 20 in Marengo, Illinois, who graciously allowed us to store our sculpture overnight in his walk in freezer. (Thanks John!)  He really came through for us as our facility in Rockford, The Radisson Hotel & Banquet Center, did not have a walk in freezer.  Can you believe that?

One unique thing we did to make Brynn and Andrew’s wedding weekend special was we created a Photo Montage.  This was no ordinary montage though; I ended up using four separate programs to edit our pictures and add our music effects.  Did you know most well prepared photo montages can take up to 10-20 hours of time, while we only charge $150 for that service?  What a deal!

We decided to show the montage at Kiki B’s in Rockford, Illinois during the rehearsal dinner.  This is somewhat more intimate and does not take away from the time at the wedding reception.  Have you ever been to a wedding, eaten dinner and then had to watch a montage?  If the montage is not scheduled at the right time, it can adversely affect the guests’ moods by adding too much time sitting when in actuality those guests are ready to dance.  For this reason among others, we decided to show the montage at the rehearsal dinner.  It was great!

On the day of the wedding, I had no worries as our DJ, Dan “The Man” Beard, was in charge of this wedding.  I met him early in the morning to set-up the reception site and then I promptly drove to St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rockford for the wedding.  Everyone played a role in the wedding: my wife was the Matron of Honor and I was in charge of watching JJ, my mother-in-law’s three year old.  The bride’s mother (kind of like Mother Teresa to some) adopted three children a few years ago and already had raised 5 kids.  Yes, a total of 8 lives blessed by this woman!  JJ did very well for a three year old.  We ended up in the balcony of the church and I was able to record Brynn’s brother Greg singing Ave Maria.  See the video below (and see if you can hear JJ try to sing along).  Being that this was an Irish wedding, JJ and I were pleasantly surprised with the cool sounds and were lucky to have a first row seat to see Greg sing and listen to the bag piper in the balcony.

Before, during and after the ceremony, Dan Royer of Dan Royer Photography, did a great job coordinating all of the family members. All in all, the reception flowed perfectly.  So well that our ending time changed from 8 pm to 11:30 pm.  Yes, everyone stuck around and enjoyed themselves greatly.  Below, I also posted a picture that my brother-in-law’s girlfriend, Hillary of Dallas, Texas, graciously shared with me, showing everyone literally ‘getting down’ and having a great evening.

Vendors:
Banquet Hall: Radisson, Rockford, IL
Music: DJ Magic Enterprises, Incorporated
Ice Sculpture: Solid Ice Displays
Photography: Dan Royer Photography