Toast/Too cute

As a follow up to my last blog I'd like to share an excerpt of the toast that was done by the Maid of Honor at the wedding that I was fortunate to be a part of on April 28th:

". . . But just in case you ever feel overwhelmed as a new bride or groom, I asked my first grade students to come up with rules for a happy marriage. To everyone here, please take note. These are great rules for any relationship. I think you’ll appreciate what the 1^st graders had to say:

• Be quiet while someone else is talking.
•  Give nice kisses.
• Don’t say hurry up.
• Stay calm during a fire.
• Say “I want you. No one else but you.”
•  Hug each other before you go to work.
•  Dance
•  If you are allergic to something, eat something else.
•  Have fun

And the most important rule:

•         Keep your hands and feet to yourself!

Let’s raise our glasses  . . . "

This brought down the house and set the tone for a fantastic night. But just as a side note, if your DJ was paying attention he/she should somewhere in the night slip in something like Fire Burning on the Dance Floor by Sean Kingston  or Keep Your Hands to Yourself by the Georgia Satellites :-)

Until next time,

~ Mike                                                  

The Toast

Continuing on with our tips and Secrets that make an ordinary wedding extraordinary: The Toast or Welcome speech.

 Whether you toast before or after your dinner does not really matter. What does matter is that it is done with style. I have seen moments where the parents have gotten up and welcomed everyone and followed it up with the most emotional speech or the funniest stories, which is more effective than any ice breaker idea any DJ has ever come up with. I’ve also seen some toasts where everyone has just winced. Tom Haibeck (www.weddingtoasts.com) is a public speaker and a Toast Master and has written a book, Wedding Toasts Made Easy, chock full of great information, but here are some g tips to start with:

·         Keep it Simple: Less is more. 3-5 minutes is good. Speeches that ramble lose the crowd

·         Make it personal: A story about how you met the Bride or Groom, or a story about growing up makes it personable

·         A Little humor: is a good thing. I once had a Maid of Honor do a song to the tune of Piano Man with lyrics pertaining specifically to the couple. It brought down the house.

·         BUT: keep the embarrassing stories at home. This is not the time to ‘punk’ someone. Inside jokes are also a no-no. It makes your audience feel uninvolved and it will lose their attention.

·         Don’t forget the toast!: Many times I’ve heard great speeches without ever being concluded by saying “Now, let’s raise our glass for the new Mr. and Mrs. . . .”

·         And finally: HOLD THE MICROPHONE UP TO YOUR CHIN! Some of the greatest toasts or funniest punch lines were never heard because the speaker was holding the mic at their chest – or lower. Or they were waving their arms around while holding the microphone. Your belly button cannot talk. The closer the microphone is to your chin, the better we can hear you.

Feel free to share this with your Maid of Honor or Best Man J.

Until next time,

~ Mike ~

1. A new trend in weddings, the sign carriers announcing the entrance of the bride. More pics/ideas can be found here:
   
   http://inspiringpretty.com/2012/02/27/wedding-trends-here-comes-the-bride/
   
   Thanks to my good friend Tom McGovern, Graphic Designer at the Dubuque Advertiser, for passing this on to me.

   

   
   

MAKING A GRAND ENTRANCE

Here is an interesting fact: Teams that have scored the first touchdown in the Super Bowl have gone on to win the game 34 of the 46 times.

How, you might ask, does that relate to your wedding?

Simple answer: Start Fast.

Setting the pace with your Grand entrance can be essential in getting your party off on the right track. Not only will a party rocking song build energy in your room, it will draw your guests in and help your wedding party feel much more at ease. Wedding couples who have decided on a unique grand entrance [there are many samples on Youtube] also have their guest’s attention from the start. Wedding parties who on there own choreograph a spontaneous entrance also help break the ice.

Your ceremony is a formal event, but your reception is a party. Start it off with the right atmosphere.

Until next time,

~ Mike ~

BEAT THE CLOCK

Think of your wedding day as a choice of obstacles courses, which one would you rather tackle, one that has marbles rolling downhill or an ocean liner trying to navigate a choppy sea? The flow of your wedding day can resemble one or the other depending on how closely you follow your timeline. I heard it said once that running ten minutes behind schedule is understandable, twenty minutes is excusable, but thirty minutes is intolerable. Running too far behind your schedule generates a lot of standing around and waiting, which creates a lot of antsy and/or bored wedding party members or guests and can start the day off on the wrong foot.

Create a timeline and try to follow it somewhat.

And if I haven’t used enough metaphors yet here is another one. Think of your wedding day as a train, it may start out slow but by the end of the day we are hoping it is barreling full steam forward into a great finale. If the train comes to a stop however, it seems like it takes a mountain to get it moving again.

Slowly, steadily keep pushing forward.

Until next time,

~ Mike ~

A Room with a View

One of the first items on the agenda for most couples as they begin to plan their wedding is securing a site for their reception. Typical factors considered when doing this include the capacity, the décor and of course the price. But choosing your banquet facility also will play into what type of party you wish to have.

Do you want a high energy party or one that presents more of a peaceful, warm feel? For instance:

• ·         What size is the room? If you have found a beautiful and affordable facility that seats 500 and you are only expecting 125 guests it may be difficult to build a lot of energy in the room. Emptiness kills a party.

• ·       A beautiful location overlooking the lake or the valley is wonderful but your guests may wish to spend the afternoon/evening enjoying the view and socializing, which is okay unless you were hoping everyone would be on the dance floor creating a great party. It’s hard for the DJ or band to motivate people if they are out on the deck. More than once I have seen a despondent bride feel like she has been upstaged on her day by the view of her banquet facility.

• ·         This is a general summation but your drinkers are usually your dancers. That is why it is a good idea to have your bar, dance floor and entertainment all in one area of the room. Too many times couples have “split their crowd’ by having the bar at one end of the room, or worse, in another room, and their entertainment at  another. You may have hired the best entertainment money could buy, but it still may be no match for free beer!

• ·         Think of your guests as vampires! They will disappear in sunlight. Again a beautiful location with floor to ceiling windows may be ideal but if they are along the dance floor it tends people to feel more visible, in the spotlight, and thus more apprehensive to cut loose a bit.

• ·         Does your banquet facility have controlled lighting? Some places do not. The lights are either on, or off, and you are not going to let Grandma and some of your aunts and uncles sit in the dark. Face it, Texas Roadhouse and TGIF’s would not seem as ideal if they had fluorescent lights blazing like a High School cafeteria.

Next time we’ll talk about the clock. Until then  . . .

~ Mike ~

The Secret Formula

So you’re at a wedding, and it’s just not happening like some of the weddings you’ve been to in the past. The DJ, you guess, is not very good . . .

-or it could be –

·         The wedding party members do not know each other very well, and thus they are a little reserved and did not get the reception off to a rousing start when they were introduced

·         That this reception is from 3-9, and it’s at the end of June, when daylight hours are at a peak, and there is beautiful sunshine streaming onto the dance floor through the floor to ceiling windows, making people feel like they are too visible if they cut loose a bit.

·         and because it is a beautiful day most everyone has decided to go outside and sit on the patio and enjoy the weather or the view.

·         The bride and groom are not really party people and would rather just mingle with their guests.

·         The couple has given their DJ a restrictive must play and do not play list (and that is why you keep hearing all of those Dave Matthews songs).

·         There are dynamics in play, whether it be that there was a divorce among the parents and they still are uncomfortable being in the same room with one another, or maybe one side of the family is not really sold on this whole marriage thing yet.

·         Or yes, it could be that the DJ is inexperienced and although his i-pad has 10,000 songs on it he has not figured out which ones will motivate this particular crowd.

There is a secret formula to making a good party a great party. I always use the kool-aid analogy, which is, if you’re making kool-aid you have to have the water, the sugar and the little magic powder. If one of them is missing, it’s just not kool-aid. Wedding receptions and other events are much the same. As DJs we like to think that we are that magic powder, but we still need the other ingredients to make it all work.

In the next couple of blogs I’ll touch on those other ingredients and give you our opinion on what it takes to make sure your party turns out to be the memory you want it to be.

Until next time,

~Mike ~