Please let me preface this if you didnt already know our company plans over 500 weddings every year so we have experience in this kind of thing. We know a lot of planners who will offer similar advice to what we are about to dispense however there are a handful of planners who would rather take your money then tell you, thinking of having a wedding with no kids on a holiday? Think Again.
I spoke with one of our brides for tomorrow who was in tears as we talked Monday that only about 30% of her 250 invites said yes they would come to her halloween wedding. This wedding is supposed to be kidless and this bride is 32 years old. I love her to death shes been great to work with and gave me permission to blog about this because she said if she could she would have picked a different day. The problem with this 32 year old bride is that most of her girlfriends have kids between 3-10 and well Halloween is a very important family holiday. How are you going to tell your kids they have to stay with a sitter when they want to go trick or treating with mommy and daddy, you don't.
The same goes for New Years Eve and a lot of the time around Christmas. New Years Eve would be quite a romantic evening for.. a proposal.... we book the most wedding business between January 1-14 and February 15-25, but there are a lot of parents, newlyweds or new families themselves who want to celebrate New Years Eve alone together as a couple and then New Years Day with a pancake breakfast and football with the kids.
Yes Yes Yes we agree a wedding day is a brides day but remember the non-hallmark holidays are family days.
Halloween seems so trivial to some especially after you yourself have outgrown trick or treating and binge drink parties, but when you have your 3 year old son and 4 year old daughter all decked out to go with their friends who is going to win... the wedding or your babies dressed as batman and the princess...
If you're thinking about a halloween weekend wedding next year or a new years eve wedding please consider this advice, its from experience.
Kip A.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Unique, Elegant, Wedding favors you and your guests will remember
Before I start this blog entry I want the brides who read our blog to realize one thing, right now you are at the top of your pre-wedding world, you've probably made friends with knotties and other girls getting married, remember though that the bulk of your guests well attend only 1-3 weddings this year, and yours is one of them. The chance that they will run into the same combination of vendor provided services, unless bridesmaids are getting married with similar vendors, are slim to none.. having said that though let me tell you about some really cool wedding favors all provided by the same company, http://unlimiteddogtags.com
Unlimited Dog Tags is an on-site favor creation company speciailizing in photo favors, video favors, engraved favors and shared favors. This company sends their professional staff to your reception site for traditional photo booth favors, video set in favors or even laser cut engraved favors.
Their photo booth is like no-other their 3d photo booth literally puts you in the picture. There are a lot of brides and grooms doing the photo booth thing this year but you can always tell when looking at a photo booth photo that its just that, their unique 3 d sandwich like system puts you IN the picture.
These guys are wedding and event professionals and offer things that are a lot different but not a lot more costly. For more information visit them online at http://www.unlimiteddogtags.com or call them. For the location nearest you visit their website, like 1st DJs their phone numbers are in plane site and this is ALL the do, weddings and events.
Kip
Unlimited Dog Tags is an on-site favor creation company speciailizing in photo favors, video favors, engraved favors and shared favors. This company sends their professional staff to your reception site for traditional photo booth favors, video set in favors or even laser cut engraved favors.
Their photo booth is like no-other their 3d photo booth literally puts you in the picture. There are a lot of brides and grooms doing the photo booth thing this year but you can always tell when looking at a photo booth photo that its just that, their unique 3 d sandwich like system puts you IN the picture.
These guys are wedding and event professionals and offer things that are a lot different but not a lot more costly. For more information visit them online at http://www.unlimiteddogtags.com or call them. For the location nearest you visit their website, like 1st DJs their phone numbers are in plane site and this is ALL the do, weddings and events.
Kip
What about my step-dad
The best thing for everyone when it comes to the Bride's step dad is if both the father and the stepfather recognize the most important thing and that it's the daughter's day, not yours. Regardless of how you ended up the "Step Father" your little girl is hoping for the best which is that her vows are forever. Bickering over father/daughter dancing is going to make an already awkard situation a little more awkward. Here are some things to consider:
How do you want your father identified? Father? Dad? Mr So and So, first name only etc.
How do you want your stepfather identified.
How does the stepfather perceive his relationship with you (the bride) is he an all out parent, did he give you space and guidance? Did he totally take your dads place? Did your mother remarry after you moved out of the house?
If the relationship is good with both the father and the stepfather than its not unnatural to pick two father/daughter dances or do a cut in halfway through. You may want to opt for a song not as heart wrenching as "Butterfly Kisses" maybe something a little more subtle.
Whatever you do make sure that you convey to your DJ in your pre-event consultation how you want both men identified.
If you are having a traditional wedding where the bride's parents are handling the bill, are the brides parents handling the bill, is it mom and step dad or Dad and step-mom.
1st Djs has plenty of experience dealing with all of these scenarios and can help make this process as painless as possible just ask for help, email info@1stdjs.com or call us toll free at (800)311-41DJ
Any of these songs below could work for the step-father scenario, they could also work for a traditional father/daughter dance:
What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
One Friend - Dan Seals
You Don't Have To Let Go - Jessica Simpson
You Raise Me Up - Josh Groban
Smile - Nat King Cole
Moon River - Louis Armstrong
Feel free to add more to the list
Kip August
1st DJS
How do you want your father identified? Father? Dad? Mr So and So, first name only etc.
How do you want your stepfather identified.
How does the stepfather perceive his relationship with you (the bride) is he an all out parent, did he give you space and guidance? Did he totally take your dads place? Did your mother remarry after you moved out of the house?
If the relationship is good with both the father and the stepfather than its not unnatural to pick two father/daughter dances or do a cut in halfway through. You may want to opt for a song not as heart wrenching as "Butterfly Kisses" maybe something a little more subtle.
Whatever you do make sure that you convey to your DJ in your pre-event consultation how you want both men identified.
If you are having a traditional wedding where the bride's parents are handling the bill, are the brides parents handling the bill, is it mom and step dad or Dad and step-mom.
1st Djs has plenty of experience dealing with all of these scenarios and can help make this process as painless as possible just ask for help, email info@1stdjs.com or call us toll free at (800)311-41DJ
Any of these songs below could work for the step-father scenario, they could also work for a traditional father/daughter dance:
What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
One Friend - Dan Seals
You Don't Have To Let Go - Jessica Simpson
You Raise Me Up - Josh Groban
Smile - Nat King Cole
Moon River - Louis Armstrong
Feel free to add more to the list
Kip August
1st DJS
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
1st Dance Suggestions, based on our last 25 weddings.
Maryland DJ, Washington DJ, Baltimore DJ. 1st Dance Suggestions based on past weddings.
While there are plenty of blogs and sites on the net that promote great first dance songs, Our General Manager had this great idea, instead of coming up with some list of Random 1st Dance Songs we're just going to go down our last 25 Weddings and use those. Bare in mind we do over hundreds of weddings a year so this is just the last few weeks.
We love to help suggest songs so that not everyone does the same ole thing.
Here we go:
1. Plain White Tee's " 1,2,3,4 ( I Love You)"
2. Lone Star "Amazed"
3. Common "Come Close"
4. Kris Allen "To Make you feel my love"
5. Aerosmith "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing"
6.Otis Redding "I love you more than words can say"
7. Dave Barnes "Loving You, Loving Me"
8. Otis Redding "That's How Strong My Love is"
9. Michael Buble "Everything"
10. OAR "Nassium June"
11. Nat King and Natalie Cole "Unforgettable"
12. Norah Jones "Come Away With Me"
13. Brad Paisley "Then"
14. Etta James "At Last"
15. Clint Black "When I say I do"
16. Michael Franti & Spearhead "Say Hey" I love you
17. Jefferson Starship "Count on Me"
18. Surface "The First Time"
19. Jack Johnson "Better Together"
20. Amos Lea "Sweet Pea"
21. David Barnes "Nothing Fancy"
22. Luther & Mariah "Endless Love"
23. Norah Jones "Come Away With Me"
24. Jason Miles Goss "Twilight Serenade"
25. Etta James "At Last"
We hope you enjoyed this list more to come
While there are plenty of blogs and sites on the net that promote great first dance songs, Our General Manager had this great idea, instead of coming up with some list of Random 1st Dance Songs we're just going to go down our last 25 Weddings and use those. Bare in mind we do over hundreds of weddings a year so this is just the last few weeks.
We love to help suggest songs so that not everyone does the same ole thing.
Here we go:
1. Plain White Tee's " 1,2,3,4 ( I Love You)"
2. Lone Star "Amazed"
3. Common "Come Close"
4. Kris Allen "To Make you feel my love"
5. Aerosmith "I Don't Want to Miss A Thing"
6.Otis Redding "I love you more than words can say"
7. Dave Barnes "Loving You, Loving Me"
8. Otis Redding "That's How Strong My Love is"
9. Michael Buble "Everything"
10. OAR "Nassium June"
11. Nat King and Natalie Cole "Unforgettable"
12. Norah Jones "Come Away With Me"
13. Brad Paisley "Then"
14. Etta James "At Last"
15. Clint Black "When I say I do"
16. Michael Franti & Spearhead "Say Hey" I love you
17. Jefferson Starship "Count on Me"
18. Surface "The First Time"
19. Jack Johnson "Better Together"
20. Amos Lea "Sweet Pea"
21. David Barnes "Nothing Fancy"
22. Luther & Mariah "Endless Love"
23. Norah Jones "Come Away With Me"
24. Jason Miles Goss "Twilight Serenade"
25. Etta James "At Last"
We hope you enjoyed this list more to come
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Numbers of songs
When Brides use our award winning online planning software they often times ask why 25 must plays and 40 please plays, isnt that a little low?
Actually it's not and here's how we got those numbers.
Take an average song time of 4 minutes and multiply that by 65 and that' s 4.5 hours. Most of our wedding bookings are 4 and 5 hours.
Take this into consideration your 65 songs does NOT include cocktails and dinner. Typically we know what to play for that but we will allow your style, suggested artists, a list of songs for that period etc we do not count the 65 songs in cocktails and dinner which at a typical reception accounts for the first 1.5-2 hours.
That's why we limit the songs... It's also based on our experience and the fact that we do about 475 weddings per year.
Actually it's not and here's how we got those numbers.
Take an average song time of 4 minutes and multiply that by 65 and that' s 4.5 hours. Most of our wedding bookings are 4 and 5 hours.
Take this into consideration your 65 songs does NOT include cocktails and dinner. Typically we know what to play for that but we will allow your style, suggested artists, a list of songs for that period etc we do not count the 65 songs in cocktails and dinner which at a typical reception accounts for the first 1.5-2 hours.
That's why we limit the songs... It's also based on our experience and the fact that we do about 475 weddings per year.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Why are you guys so affordable?
We put affordable right in our slogan this year, why because we are. While most DJ Companies are trying to charge between $1200-$2000 per wedding in the economy we have now, we typically charge much less, why? Because we know most everyone has felt a pinch this year.
How? well we are a multi-operator, we are not a booking agency, we are not a referral service and we do not use sub-contractors. Having said that we have a staff of about 20 that have performed at over 100 weddings each. With a larger staff we can do more events and can charge less.
Also at this time in our economy in the United States we do make sure we make a small profit but making some money is better than making no money.
Finally, music and entertainment is the best way to relieve the stress. Often times stressed out people will go to the club, bar or restaurant, we also want to make sure that DJ services are available for their events.
Although with the technology and software out there today and of course the ipod a lot of people think they can dj and sure they can but when most of our clients who thought they would self dj, started taking on the task they realized a few things:
They don't want to be responsible for playing songs that all their friends like
Being the go-to guy with the suped up stereo was cool in high school
They don't want their home stereo gear to get messed up
and finally
Being stuck playing dj all night means you can't have as much fun with your friends.
(For weddings theres a million reasons not to use an ipod for your wedding we'll post that later)
Well there you have it, that's why we are so affordable.
Kip August...
Have an idea for a blog email kip@1stdjs.com
Follow us on twitter http://www.twitter.com/1stdjs
How? well we are a multi-operator, we are not a booking agency, we are not a referral service and we do not use sub-contractors. Having said that we have a staff of about 20 that have performed at over 100 weddings each. With a larger staff we can do more events and can charge less.
Also at this time in our economy in the United States we do make sure we make a small profit but making some money is better than making no money.
Finally, music and entertainment is the best way to relieve the stress. Often times stressed out people will go to the club, bar or restaurant, we also want to make sure that DJ services are available for their events.
Although with the technology and software out there today and of course the ipod a lot of people think they can dj and sure they can but when most of our clients who thought they would self dj, started taking on the task they realized a few things:
They don't want to be responsible for playing songs that all their friends like
Being the go-to guy with the suped up stereo was cool in high school
They don't want their home stereo gear to get messed up
and finally
Being stuck playing dj all night means you can't have as much fun with your friends.
(For weddings theres a million reasons not to use an ipod for your wedding we'll post that later)
Well there you have it, that's why we are so affordable.
Kip August...
Have an idea for a blog email kip@1stdjs.com
Follow us on twitter http://www.twitter.com/1stdjs
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