Edmonton Wedding DJs

Edmonton Bridal Fair 2010 at the Shaw Conference Centre

Simply put Bridal Fair is a wedding trade show where brides and grooms can come to one location to see a large number of local vendors in the Edmonton area. With over 90 vendors in one location this can be a good place to come and meet some decent service providers.

As an Edmonton DJ I have never participated in a bride trade show. As a small operator in the Edmonton market, where I mainly work by myself and use 2 other highly qualified DJs when needed I do not see the attraction to a bridal show. From a DJ stand point I do not understand how anyone can simply go to bridal show and base their decision on booking a DJ on who has the prettiest booth. DJing is so much more than just showing up and playing songs from a predetermined list, it is about helping to create an environment where you and your guests want to be and stay there all night long.

The dance portion of your wedding night is generally 4 hours in length and often people do not place enough emphasis on this part of the night. Often the difference between a cookie cutter approach to DJing and hire a professional that has more equipment than 2 speakers and a laptop and can all be carried in a Firefly is about 200 – 400 dollars. Sure that can be allot of money but in the big scheme of things and a typical wedding costing about $19,274 (according to Weddingbells.ca) that really isn’t. I often have people come up to me at a wedding and say “I wish we had hired someone like you for our wedding” and I simply ask them “what did you pay for your DJ?” and often the reply is $600 – $700. I simple say “unfortunately you got what you paid for”.

I recommend that people think about what it would cost to hire a Bobcat operator to work for them on a Saturday for about 6 – 8 hours. Well I can tell you that is costs about $125/hr with an operator. So if you had hired someone for 6 hours that would work out to be $750. I can personally tell you that my equipment and music are worth more than a Bobcat, trailer and truck to pull both of those and it takes a lot more personality to be a DJ than running a Bobcat.

What I really am getting at is you need to do you homework when it comes to your big day. Be sure to place the right amount of emphasis on the the things your consider important. I always say to my brides and grooms to focus on the things that they remember from the functions that they have attended.

It was clear that some of the exhibitors went all out for this event. Joe at River City Rentals created what had to be one best looking booth at the entire show. He created a room within a room and setup a head table with guest tables so people could get a real feel for how a room could look. They even went as far as to hang a chandelier from the ceiling to create the look and feel of a banquet room.

One of the highlights of the day was the fashion show. Lots of dresses and lots of tux’s made for a very well attend fashion show. Seeing what styles and colours that will be in fashion this year is what everyone was wanting to know.

From the exhibitors I spoke with following the show they stated that Bridal Fair 2009 had over 900 bride in attendance and the 2010 show had about 450. With such a significant decrease in the number of attendees some vendors are already questioning the high cost of being in the show is worth the expense.

Please see the attached video of some highlights of vendors and the fashion show.

List of Show Exibitors

A Beautiful Day - Planning & Decorating

A Chair to Remember - Planning & Decorating

ABC Weddings – Planning & Decorating

Artistic Creations Photography and Design – Photography and Videography

Avenue – Publications/Media

Beauti Control – Health & Beauty

Bed Bath and Beyond – Retail

Best Buds Flower Co. – Florists

Best Western Cedar Park Inn and Westwood – Wedding Venue

Bliss Wedding Consultants – Planning & Decorating

Bloom N’ Memories – Florists

Blue Sky Limos – Limo Services

Bridal Debut – Bridal Fashions

Browns Photography – Photography and Videography

Cakes by Janna – Cakes & Sweets

Coast Edmonton Plaza – Wedding Venue Location

Coral’s Design – Florisit

Crystal’s Bridal - Bridal Fashions

d’Lish – Catering Company

Derks – Men’s Formal Wear

Electrik Lemon Hair and Body Studio – Health & Beauty

Elegant Events – Planning & Decorating

Elegant Touches – Planning & Decorating

Erik Hornung Photography – Photography and Videography

Fantasyland Hotel – Wedding Venue

Final Touch – Planning & Decorating

Flowers In The Park – Florist

Gemini – Bridal Fashions

Graham and Lane Florist - Flowers

Hilton Garden InnWest Edmonton – Wedding Venue

Holiday Inn Convention Centre – Wedding Location

In Motion Style Group – Health & Beauty

Infinite Event Services – Planning & Decorating

Instant Memories – Photography and Videography

Isagenix – Health & Beauty

Karisma Resorts – Wedding Travel

Kelly Redinger Studios – Photography and Videography

La Piazza Dasee – Florist

Mary Kay – Health & Beauty

Moby Disc DJ – Edmonton DJ for Special Events

Moores Clothing For Men – Men’s Formal Wear

Nickibeans – Cakes & Sweets

Notables – Stationery and Invitations

Photsmiths – Photography and Videography)

Picture That Photography – Photography and Videography

Pioneer Meadows Golf Course – Wedding Venue

Piotr & Megan Photography – Photography and Videography

PoGirl Productions – Photography and Videography

River City Event Rentals – Planning & Decororations

Sandals – Destination Lane

Sears – Retail

Shandro Photo – Photography and Videography

Sharaton 4 Points – Wedding Venue

Special Event Rentals – Planning & Decorations

Stella & Dot Jewelry – Bridal Fashions

Strathcona String Quartet – Entertainment/Musicians

Sweet Beginnings – Planning & Decorations

Table Charm – Retail

The Bay and Home Outfitters – Retail

The Bounce – Publications/Media/Radio Station

The Bridal House – Bridal Fashions

The Islands of the Bahamas – Destination Lane

The Last Detail – Planning & Decorations

The Papertree – Stationery

The Tuxedo House – Men’s Wear

The Westin Edmonton – Wedding Venue

To Be In Pictures – Photography and Videography

Transat Holidays – Destination Location

U Weight Loss Clinic – Health & Beauty

Uniglobe Geo Travel – Travel

Vigor Media – Photography and Videography

Weddingbells – Publications/Media/Magazine

Wedlux – Publications/Media

Whimsical Cake Studio – Cakes & Sweets

Yukon Brewing Company – Grooms Room

December 11, 2009 – Edmonton Disc Jockey for Davis & Company

It has been 2 years since the last time I was with my friends at Davis and Company and boy it was good to be back.  The weather outside was frightful and inside it was delightful with great food and friends coming together to celebrate everyone’s favorite time of the year.

The Hotel MacDonald is the most beautiful venue in Edmonton at the best of times; and this time of the year takes it too a whole other level.  The Christmas decorations are so well done and really add to the look of the hotel.  So much so that people were taking pictures of each other in the lobby in front of the great tree and reindeer.

      

As an Edmonton DJ it is always great to DJ at the MacDonald Hotel and tonight was as good as always.  Over the years I have gotten to know some of the staff and on this night a couple of people were there that I have gotten to know.  A special thanks to Chris for his unequalled service and helpfulness.  He treated me like a guests rather than the hired help and that says a lot about him and the MacDonald Hotel.  If other venues could understand this it would server them well as I have customers that call me and ask what is a good venue to hold a function at and I always mention the Mac.

     

Dinner was served just about 7:30PM, which was a little late, because of the poor road conditions making people run late getting to the location.  Dinner was, simply put, amazing and I could not have had another bite as I over did it.  It was great to sit a relax and enjoy a great meal and my dinner guests were great to visit with and we had a great conversation over dinner.

After dinner we had a couple of quick speeches and the highlight of the night was 2 things.  1st was the slideshow and video presentation that the interns put together.  There were a few slides shown on the screen that were doctored in Photoshop that had everyone laughing as the interns made jokes about the office staff. 

     

The video presentation followed the slideshow and that was a spoof in the TV show “the Office” and boy was it funny. It must have taken days to put that together and was one of the best presentations I have ever seen and all I can say was the bar has been set high and will be hard to beat.

         

The 2nd thing was the “Family Feud Game” where 2 teams were picked and competed against each other to answer a few fun questions about the staff and partners based on how well they new each other.  This was very well done and the MC did a great job of preparing the game in advance.  I will be sure to recommend this to other companies in the future.

The dance got started about 10:00 and it was just like old times.  Since I had been with this group before and had a good understanding as to what they liked and that was a good starting point and we were able to hit the ground running.  There were lots of requests and everyone just seemed to cut loose a little and have some fun and relax, something we all need to do once and a while.  What I love about the Hotel MacDonald is the atmosphere in this room.  With a great look and feel and add in great lighting control you can really set the tone for an inviting dance floor where people will want to be.

Please see the attached video for some highlights of the day from “Edmonton DJ” 

 

December 19, 2009 – Edmonton Christmas Party for WIKA Instruments Edmonton

It is great to back with WIKA again this year to do their Christmas party.  They are a great group of people that like to have fun.  In order to elevate a party to a higher level we decided last year that we would add in a couple of games to make things a little more interesting.  Corporate functions can be a bit of a challenge as the employees bring a spouse or guest and since they don’t really know anyone they can feel a little out of place.

My goal is to add in some activities that help to break the ice and get everyone to relax a little more so they intern enjoy themselves and stay a little longer.

 

Last year we decided to play “golf”.  Simply put everyone that comes get a chance to go golfing and every time you sink a putt (best of 3) you get entered into a separate draw then everyone else.  It went over very well last year and everyone lined up to play and it was great fun as everyone cheered and sometimes booed for the person putting.  We decided to leave the golfing in this year and see what happens.  The funny thing is that I think that it was better this year than last year and that is because people knew how it worked and it was so much fun as people that never really golf came up and gave it a try and when they sunk a putt everyone cheered and it was ton of fun.

For dinner we played a game to pick the table order. Santa Bingo is a fun game that is more luck then skill but is better then simply picking number out of a hat.  The fun part was the ribbing people where giving me as we did the game as there was a lot of banter which turned out to be a lot of fun.

Dinner was very well done at the Radisson Inn.  The Radisson is a really nice venue to hold a function at, but is one of the hardest venues to get equipment into and out of.  Also, with the dance floor at the opposite end of the room from the entrance to the room make it even a longer distance for an Edmonton DJ to have to move their gear. Also, the room is quite nice but is in need to painting and a little T.L.C. to keep it current and maintained.

After dinner we played 2 quick rounds of “Name that Tune” and this was great fun as everyone was involved and engaged making it a lot easier to do.  I had a volunteer run my computer which really sped up the game and me running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

The highlight of the night was when myself and 2 managers and the president of the company performed a rewritten version of “Kenny Rogers – the Gambler”.  We did a rehearsal before dinner and that went off without a hitch and we had an almost flawless performance but we all had a little bit of the nerves.  I think the 4 of us had more fun doing this then everyone watching.  I think it is great to see management step outside the box and have a some fun.  I hope we can talk everyone into doing this again next year.

We finally started the dance about 9:30 and we had people on the dance floor the whole night thru.  It was the ladies that really got the ball rolling with some line dances and top 40.  We mixed in a few slow songs, as anyone can dance to a slow song and by 12AM we had a good core group of people left and I played their requests and we had a great time.

Please see the attached video of some highlights of the day from Edmonton Disc Jockey.

December 12, 2009 Wedding for Murielle and John

It might have been –46 degrees Celsius outside but the wedding was on FIRE!!!

As an Edmonton DJ I can’t remember the last time I was this concerned going into a wedding.  The weather can play a major role in a function but not tonight.

The Denham Inn in Leduc is a very nice location to hold a wedding as I have been here a few times before I was very familiar with this venue.  When I arrived to the venue, which was nice and early to allow my equipment enough time to warm up from the freezing temperature outside, I was very impressed as the how the room was decorated.  Murielle and John did a few things that I have never seen before.

The first thing I noticed was the socks as favors.  This was a great touch as there was a story with the socks and the first date the bride and groom shared.  This was brilliant as it made things more personal and socks were favors that people could actually use.  At most weddings there are always favors left behind but not today.

Second was the game played during speeches… but I will get to that in a minute.

The bride and groom wanted to set a great tone for the night and by picking “Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feelin’” as their grand entrance song that definitely worked.  With aunty “M” getting married, everyone was very excited for her on her BIG day.

This was an advanced wedding for me with not only DJing the function but built my advanced slideshow with video interview.  This type of function puts a great deal of work on my plate but the rewards are well worth the effort.  The Denham Inn has a couple of limitations when it comes to what I do and with a slideshow being a big part of the evening the very low ceilings makes it very hard for all the guests to see the image on a small screen.  Since I had been here before and was aware of this limitation I brought as second screen and projector so that the projectors and screens could be placed at opposite ends of the room allowing for easier viewing for the guests.

Dinner was very well done and I really enjoyed the meal as it was a good home cooked meal that covered all the basics and then some.  Everyone really seemed to be enjoying themselves with lots of visiting and laughing around the tables.

I cannot remember the last time I was this stressed at a function.  This was caused by a computer malfunction during the rendering of the slideshow.  Even though I am well prepared with a backup slideshow in hand, I like to add in a few pictures and video after the bride and groom to the hall into the slideshow and re-render the slideshow during dinner so that it is ready to go at the end of speeches.  Things were going perfectly until my PC got hung up and I had to exercise a hard reboot and then again render down the slideshow again.  This whole process took me until about 7:45 which would have been fine had I not made the mistake of not double checking my changes to the slideshow after the reboot.  Realizing my mistake after rendering put me in a big time crunch and I had to render the slideshow again for the 3rd time and the process takes about 40 minutes to complete.  We pushed the speeches up just a little and we were only delayed in showing the slide show by about 5 minutes.  The slideshow ended up going over in a huge way and at time the laughter was so loud that we almost needed to show it twice to catch everything the bride and groom said.  When you get a big huge from the bride you know you did a good job and that is exactly what I got from Murielle.

A big thank you goes out the their photographer.  Sonia allowed me to use a few pictures from the ceremoney and formals at the end of the slideshow which really blow everyone away as I was not at the ceremony or formals yet there were pictures in the slideshows from the day.  It is great when vendors work together for the good of the client as most people only have their own best interests at heart.  Sonia’s company is called PhotoArt by Sonia.  Thanks Again.

Lets get back to the second thing I had never seen at a wedding before.  The MC’s were simply put… AWESOME.  They were very well spoken and creative and did there homework.  The highlight of the speeches was a game that was played with the bride and groom.  First the groom was blindfolded and several different women were asked to come up and give him a kiss (they were picked in advance) and the bride was also one of the kissers.  After the women kissed the groom he had to pick which one was the bride and boy when he guessed WRONG the roof almost came off the building with laughter.  One of the volunteers nailed him with a good kiss and that really throw the groom off the trail.  The bride then had her turn and was also blindfolded and the male volunteers came on up.  She had to squeeze the butts to see which one was the grooms.  This was so funny and they got more volunteers than that had planned for as lots of men want to have their butts squeezed by the bride.  What was even funnier was after she took off the blindfold she also picked the wrong man saving the groom from years of humiliation.

After the speeches and slideshow we quickly went into the first dance once the head table was taken down via the hotel staff to accommodate the dance floor.

There were only 2 special dances and we were off to the races with everyone in to mode to have a good time.

Even though it was one of the coldest nights ever in Leduc it was one of the hottest parties I have ever done. I thought for sure that the room would be empty by 11:00 as people would not want to be stuck out in the cold or worry about trying to start their cars.  This was not the case at all as everyone stayed, danced and enjoyed themselves.  At 1:00AM I still have 50 people in the room which was a total surprise.  A BIG thanx to Murielle and John for putting up with me and really taking it upon themselves to have fun and really enjoy themselves on their special day.

Please watch the video below for some highlights put together by Edmonton DJ.

December 5, 2009 at the Nisku Inn Edmonton

The Nisku Inn has 2 rooms (1 Bigger and 1 Smaller) and the smaller room seats about 120 people which was perfect for the Amen Construction Christmas Party.  The day began with a bit of challenge as it had snowed quite a bit through the night and with a little bit of wind led to some drifting which made it very difficult to get my trailer out of storage.  It is always important to give yourself a little extra time when it comes to traveling at this time of the year and today I really needed that extra time.

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