»Apologies
if the posts seem brief or abrupt. They're written at the end of
what is typically a ten hour work day. »He
is not a
photographer but he does like to take photos. Click them to see
larger versions. »All
songs are linked to Amazom.com so you can hear a preview of each song
if desired. »Updates
are usually posted by Sunday morning, 9am.
Red River is one of the few exceptions to my weddings only rule -
mostly because they've been hiring me since my first year in
1998, however, I do get to play some different music than I do at
weddings and most of the kids are pretty good. The video shows
the setting up process for their Homecoming
dance. For weddings I can be setup in about 20 minutes.
This took three and a half hours and included extra speakers, extra
lighting, bubble machines, and a video screen. It also took two
hours to pack up and get home.
When: Saturday, September 20th, 2008 Where: Sabin,
MN
Community Center 1st Dance Song:"Night
and Day" by Frank Sinatra Father/Daughter
Song:"What
a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong
When Kathleen called me this past spring she already knew she wanted to
hire me. She had the best possible reference: herself. I
DJ'ed her first wedding in 1999 (Treetop restaurant in Moorhead).
I arrived to setup just before 80 bikers pulled up. They were
finishing a fun run raising money for a cancer charity and ended up at
the bar across the street. That's wonderful but the net effect
was dozens of Harleys revving their engines for the first hour of the
wedding reception.
Cupcakes were provided for the guests but one small cake was for both
decoration and for Kathleen and Robert to freeze for their first
anniversary.
Kathleen's dad grows his own fruits (in Minnesota) and then uses them
to create his own wines. I got to try a Chokecherry (a red) and a
Crabapple (a blush) that were pretty good (Bare Foot vinyards - and,
naturally, I waited until after the end of the dance. I don't
drink when I work).
I only had one requirement from the bride: to play "Family
Tradition" by Hank Williams, Jr., for her dad. Other than
that it was a fun, casual group, including when a couple of guys danced
up on the groom during the dollar dance (I flipped it to "Macho
Man" for them).
No weddings this
weekend (September 13th). Instead I got to enjoy the parade with
the girls and the game with Nomani.
Homecoming weekend for UND generally marks the end of wedding season so
I've got one more next weekend before the hunting/harvest season
imposes a hiatus on me.
When: Saturday, September 6th, 2008 Where: Fargo
Holiday Inn First Dance:"She's
Everything" by Brad Paisley Father/Bride
Dance:"Beer
Barrel Polka" Favors:
None. See the pic below for details. What they Said:
"What can I say!!
You were AWESOME! I will give you a glowing referral any
day!!! You may use my name and number. THANKS!" -Linda Neppl, mother of the bride
I need to start doing a worse job (okay, not really). This was
another reception
that decided to add a fifth hour of dance time meaning I was on my feet
from 3pm to 1:30am and I can barely walk this morning. Oh well.
First, the room was gorgeous. Kali's dad explained how to get 300
chair covers setup: hire the gymnastics team. He made a donation
to the American Gold Gymnastics team and they sent over 10 or 12
members to setup the chair covers Saturday morning at 7:30am. It
meant the Neppl's didn't have to do the work and the team got some
fundraising done. Kudos.
To the
right: That's myself with my favorite photographers Shawna &
Kory
from ShawnaNoel.com having
some
fun. Everytime we work together they give me grief about two
things: 1) how can I be a DJ and NOT
have bubbles (they're teasing);
and 2) please use their photos instead of mine. Its a quality
issue. My photos make Shawna sad, but to be fair, if you look at
her photos you'll understand why.
A photo booth was brought in for guests. The machine prints two
copies: one for the guest(s) and one for a photo album for Dan &
Kali. See the pictures at www.fargophotobooth.com or you can hire
the photo booth from www.byrequest.dj
To bring in the wedding party to start the reception Dan & Kali
wanted to introduce each member themselves. They cooked up a list
of songs for each couple and spoke via my wireless mic from the
hall. Obviously once it was their turn we switched and I
introduced them into the room rather than letting them do it themselves.
To the Left:
Best Man John Hames, better known as Juanny (Juan-E). The
speeches/toasts
ran a bit longer than normal considering only four people spoke.
Each was well prepared, sincere, and heart-felt and came across
wonderfully.
To the
Right: Jeremy & Amy Neppl. I DJ'ed their wedding last
July. The next week Kali called Amy to find out who I was and
booked me for this night.
Let's see... I got to play Lionel Ritchie's "All
Night Long" (Kali requested it) and wow they liked it... some other
random mega-hits for them were "Bye,
Bye, Bye" (NSYNC) and "It's
Raining Men" by the Weather Girls... Tom, one of the groomsmen,
sang along with a couple of songs, doing his best Elvis impersonation
(sorry, no recording this time)... I saw the dad from Laurie Whitmore's
wedding a couple of year's ago. At that wedding I sang backup for
him on "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles so he could get Laurie and
her husband to kiss. However, he didn't know I had recorded
it(click to play or right click to download), so when he finished
his formal dance with his daughter I played our version of the song to
restart the dance.
