Madison’s Best DJ

Wedding season is in full force and this year has been our busiest and most successful year yet in 19 years. This past Saturday I had the pleasure of working an event with Chris and Amber at The Wedding Flashers for Ian and Laura Behm’s wedding.

In the past, our two companies completed a case study on the lighting equipment that we use versus the competition. We found that the lighting that DJ Magic Entertainment has to offer creates better pictures for customers of The Wedding Flasher. There’s no doubt that no one in our competition can match how well we are able to light up dance floors with 1.2 million candle power. Anyways, this past weekend’s wedding was attended by about 180 people. It’s the first time in 19 years that I counted 180 people and the hype and enthusiasm of these guests felt like we had 350 guests. It was incredible.

One main reason that I would point to for this incredible phenomenon would be the love for our bride and groom, Laura and Ian.  But also our ability to lead and emcee an event to the point that every single soul in the room was enjoying his/herself. On top of that, we had one of the most beautiful days of the year and a staff at this venue that did a really nice job of making sure everyone’s needs were handled.

Ian and Laura planned out their event well. It started with a cocktail hour outside the dinner room near the bar. Guests were also able to head outside and enjoy the beautiful views of the Bergamont Golf Course and socialize. After the introductions were having fun with our Wedding Wheel game. We had contestants come up who wanted to see Ian and Laura kiss. This can be used as an alternative for those customers who do not want glass clinking at their event. Each contestant lined up to spin a game wheel and we emceed the results. For example, Ian’s Dad, Roger spun the wheel to a spot that allowed him to pick any couple at the event to kiss. To be original and not point to Ian and Laura, Roger pointed to Ian’s grandparents to rise and kiss and then the newly married copied that kiss. It was FUN!

Planning a wedding can be a lot of work and there is no way one can accurately plan out every single detail.  That’s why it is so important to hire vendors who are flexible and passionate about you and your needs is important. Just after dinner as we were preparing to start our first dances, The University of Wisconsin Marching Band showed up for a quick preamble to start the dance. What a great way to start a dance at a wedding!

It was also great to see some of our past customers at this event. Congratulations to Phil & Melissa Lindemann who will be celebrating their third anniversary. Check out their customer service survey too.

Below is a picture of The Legend at Bergamont in Oregon, Wisconsin taken by The Wedding Flashers:

Vendors:
Photographer, Chris and Amber Foss of The Wedding Flashers +
The Legend at Bergamont – Lisa, Kurt, Andrew and Risa +
The University of Wisconsin Marching Band +
Entertaiment, Andrew Accola of DJ Magic Entertainment +

Recently we had the opportunity to sit down with one of Madison’s finest wedding vendors who has a take on wedding planning in a unique way. Her name is Jessica Bangert of Uniquely Yours. Below is a guest posting from her on some of the services she offers. Pay attention as we think she is onto something, specifically she has differentiated her services quite well versus the rest of her competition. If you are on a budget or want to pick and choose different wedding planner services, Jessica’s services might be perfect for you!

Hello trusting friends and satisfied customers of DJ Magic Entertainment. My name is Jessica Bangert and I am the owner of Uniquely Yours Wedding and Event Planning. Matt has asked me to share with you my vision of how professional wedding services can be tailor fitted to your needs as a future bride and/or groom.

At Uniquely Yours, we believe that marriage is a special ceremony that you will remember for the rest of your life. Therefore, the planning of your wedding or event should be a fun and exciting time, however, at times it can become stressful and overwhelming. At Uniquely Yours, we are here to assist you through those tough times. To keep your special day the momentous event that you have dreamed about since you were a child, we want to help you to make this YOUR day and we can give you the tools necessary to accomplish any feat.

To put it simply, we are not your typical wedding planner service. For example, one of our best packages is that our customers can take an ala carte approach. We act as not only a wedding planning manager for you up until your wedding day but also offer some other specialty services. Specifically:

• Invitation Assistance
• Decoration Planning & Set-up
• Beauty Consultations
• Proper Goal Setting
• Best Practices for Planning a Wedding
• Expertise to which Vendors would meet & exceed each individual couple’s needs
• Last Minute Consultations & Assistance
• You Name It – we are service oriented and we will be there for you when needed

We challenge you to match us up against the other planners you might find. Our fees are reasonable and we even offer those who are semi-interested in creating a relationship with us a free consultation. Contact us today and see the difference we can make to help make your event “uniquely yours”.

Finally, if you find yourself or someone you know in need of a helping hand, needing recommendations for a great vendor or perhaps in the middle of a “crunch time crisis”, I strongly encourage you to checkout my website at www.uniquelyyoursweddingandevents.com to learn more about the ways I am eager and prepared to serve you.

We received a special call earlier this month and were advised by a well-known, highly respected third party, The Knot and Wedding Channel, that our organization, DJ Magic Entertainment ~ Madison’s Best DJ, was awarded as one of Wisconsin’s Top Ten Entertainment Companies. According to Matt Long, operations manager, “We are humbled by this award. It adds value to the company that we are building and speaks to the ongoing training and dedication all of our entertainers afford to each and every customer. We look forward to continuing the ultimate customer service in 2010 as this is only the beginning!”

It is not every year that July 4th aligns with a Saturday.  Plus the weather that day was perfect, not overbearingly hot and not too cool.  One can not complain about the location either. Right next to Lake Mendota, 2,000 people outside overlooking the lake and our wedding ceremony and reception inside.  Yes, that is correct, we performed at The University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Union Building with a wedding ceremony and reception in the Great Hall. It was an exciting day!

As we are a Premium Custom Service company, we pride ourselves in the fact that we are able to accommodate almost any request from a customer.  And for this customer, Jeff & Maria-Elise, it was not different. Below, I will provide a quick summary of some of the services we provided last weekend to Jefft & Maria-Elise on their special day:

• Wedding Ceremony – Not only did we provide the music for their ceremony we recorded the event and produced a nice CD for Jeff & Elise to archive now and remember later. Additionally, we also were able to provide lapel microphones and execute their special production.  By the way, if you are wondering they both said yes and are not Mr. & Mrs. Endres. Elise was not sure if she would be taking Jeff’s name or going the hyphenated route at our last meeting.
• Photography Services – Our great friend, Karen Beard, provided her expert skills throughout the evening to enact our “Live Photo Montage Display”.  This is much different than a static montage, rather, it is dynamic and occurs through out the evening as we mixed in special effects.  For example, we provided transitions from picture to picture, information slides and let us not forget the firework slides.  It was the 4th of July after all. Karen does a really nice job of capturing photos during the ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner and dancing and at the end of the night we provided Jeff and Maria-Elise a copy of our product.
• Cool Video Presentation – About 2 months ago, we obtained pictures of family, friends and Jeff & Elise together.  We worked our “magic” and produced them a static Cool Video Presentation that we played during dinner synced to music.  This is not the average presentation that one might see, instead one which is produced in four separate movie and graphic design programs fully integrated with our sound system.  And at the end of the evening we delivered two DVD’s for our couple to enjoy later.
• Audio Recording – Jeff & Elise wanted to capture special moments of time throughout the day.  For a minimal price, we provided them copies of the ceremony, special speeches by their Best Man – Joel, Maids of Honor Sarah & Amy and their parents speaking throughout the evening.  I wish this technology was available when I was married as my sister-n-law and best man gave great speeches and that is all I can remember – they were great.  Now, Jeff & Elise have physical copies and can cherish them forever.
• Video Productions – Our staff that evening was a bit larger than normal.  Just this 2009, we have rolled out an HD video production service. Want to catch excerpts throughout the evening?  Give me a call and we can go over this service more in detail.
• DJ / Entertainment – Dan Beard headed up our emceeing, event coordination and entertainer services that evening.  He played a variety of songs that evening which kept a mix of guests on the Great Hall’s floor while always integrating our Must Plays, Do Not Plays and our guests requests.
• Child Interaction – The UW Great Hall was really set-up well for a lot of guests including children.  DJ Magic helped provide supervision and some games for all the children at the reception.  This all occurred in a room next to our main reception hall.  One of the nice items I liked about Jeff & Elise’s planning for the children was that they had separate meals in a fun environment for the children.  Plus the meals were appropriately chosen to be different than the adult meals so that the kids would be excited about having their own room with different food and lots of games to play.  (Games included coloring books, Nintendo Wii and some other interactive games led by DJ Magic).
• Party Props – Our main focus that evening was not only to ensure a great time for Jeff, Elise and all of their guests, but also create a FUN environment.  We brought our party prop expertise and handed out over 125 props including glow sticks, air guitars, air saxophones, air rock guitars and a few other props.  This was a nice way to keep people engaged and reinforce the fun environment we had established.

All in all, a huge thank you goes out to Greg & Jennifer Larson for the referral (see our blog entry on their wedding or their satisfaction survey from their wedding last October).  And we wish Jeff & Maria-Elise nothing but the best for their new marriage.

Here is a list of the vendors we worked with from that evening:

+University of Wisconsin Great Hall
+Appletree Images – Lori Ronspiez
+DJ Magic Photography – Karen Beard
+DJ Magic Entertainment – Dan & Matt (That’s Us!)