It's not often that you'll hear me brag... but I just have to brag
about the Wedding that I MC'd on 10/10/2010 at Amore in Belfast.
When people hire DJ's for their events, they have no idea how
important it is to have a Professional until it is too late. When you
hire me you get even more than just a professional. It is the same
with the Event Center that you use. Between Jerry's expertise (the
Event Specialist @ Amore) and Chef Wayne's expertise at Amore's, and
my expertise this had to be one of the greatest events that has been
done in the area in a long long time. Jerry and I knew it was going to
go well when he showed up to mow the Wedding area with his lawnmower
only to find that I had already done it on Friday! Have you ever seen
any DJ ever mow the site before... on his own without being asked?
The Wedding was for the now Mr and Mrs Larry and Kate (Caswell)
Fagan. I must give great kudos to Larry and Kate for picking just the
right music for the ceremony and events throughout the day. The right
music does put a crescendo on each moment as well.
Back to my
bragging... I met with the Bride and Groom at Amore Restaurant and
Lounge to plan their wedding after emailing them a planning sheet that
they had mostly already filled out. After about an hour and a half,
we had come up with a pretty good plan for what they wanted to
accomplish. I then met with Kate and the Staff @ Amore the next
Wednesday at 1pm to witness the planning of the Event Center side of
things. By the end of this meeting we all were on the same page
knowing all details of the special day.
I then edited my event
planner document and sent it for review by the Bride and Groom. We
changed a few things and I brought the final copies for the Staff, and
the Couple, to the Rehearsal on Saturday @ Amore's. I set up a small
sound system and asked the Groom who was going to run the Rehearsal,
he said that he would. He did a very nice job planning the whole
ceremony by the way, he wrote the whole thing himself. After about 15
minutes he saw that everyone would probably listen to me more for
directions so he asked me to take over the direction. Everyone enjoyed
the rehearsal, and new exactly what to do for the special day and we
were done in less than an hour.
The day of the Wedding
arrived, and I showed up with 2 sound systems, one for the Ceremony
outside, and the other for the Reception inside. I set up so that the
sound from outside could be heard inside as well. The music playing
before the ceremony could be heard simultaneously inside and out, and
when the Ceremony started you could hear all speakers and vows inside
and out as well.
The Wedding went off without a hitch, and
soon the guests had come indoors to find music videos of Love Songs
playing on 3 screens, and Amore had set up lucious appetizers, water
stations, punch and the cash bar. It was decided by the Bride and Groom
to have heavy Appetizers all evening... and what an awesome idea it
was. While the photos were taken by the ocean, the guests happily
watched, waited, ate and drank. I was socializing with the guests the
whole time, finding out who they were, what kind of music they liked,
whether they might sing later, and also keeping them all informed
about how the rest of the evening would go. The Wedding Party came in
the front once the pics were done and went to the upstairs Lounge to
refresh themselves before being announced in to the reception.
The grand entrance was accompanied by "America" by Neil Diamond (one
of the Groom's favorite singers!). I announced the Wedding Party and
then the Bride and Groom in, played one piece of music and we moved
right to the toasts. One more song was played then we moved right to
the First Dance, Father daughter dance (I was visibly emotional when I
told the story of how the Father had always recorded music mixes for
the daughter and that every mix tape always had "Dream a Little Dream
for Me" by Mama Cass, and they danced to it next. We went through the
rest of the special dances and immediately began the Dance Party.
The weather was so nice that a lot of the guests ended up outside on
the deck mingling, so we changed gears for a bit, and I just sang some
love songs for about 20 minutes. Then we gathered everyone inside for
the cutting of the cake, and then the Anniversary dance. The dancing
began again, and when we needed a break from that the singing began.
What a wonderful bunch of voices these folks had. One of the ladies
came up and asked if I had some Motown song that would work for the
gents to sing. I said how about "My Girl"... excellent. She got like
10 of the gents young and old up and what a fine job they did! After a
few performances we moved back to lively dancing. There was more
singing later, and more dancing, and then back to a lounge atmosphere
where everyone was visiting and I was singing love songs again.
Most of the guests stayed late, (it was cool that most were staying
at the Belfast Motor Inn next door) had a great time I got so many
compliments that I just had to share this Event with everyone. After
the event was over, I sat and had a drink with the Staff at Amore, and
we had a little bragging session because, well, we have been doing
this for years, and no one does it like the pros do, especially Jerry
and I. And we are the best available by far. If you need a DJ for any
event, you may pay a little more for me, but it will be a remembered
event for sure. If you just want someone to play music hire some DJ or
just use your IPod. If you want somewhere that serves AWESOME food,
beautiful atmosphere, and a highly experienced planner go see Jerry at
Amore Restaurant and Lounge.
