Saturday night I did Kelly & Jon's wedding at S.F. Austin hotel downtown. We all had a great time. Their Grand Entrance/First Dance was choreographed by Kathleen Stegall from Austin Uptown Dance. They danced to Legends Of The Fall and it was just incredible. The work they put into those 9 dance lessons totally paid off. I did an interview with Kathleen today for Austin Bridal Secrets. She is a retired school teacher and is absolutely on fire about dancing in every way and it shows as soon as she talks about it. If you are looking for some dance instruction for your first dance, you owe it to yourself to check her out.
The rest of the night was incredible with the dancefloor full. We did a special dance for her grandparents, and her mother was into line dances so we did a few of those too. We had custom created scripts for the Grand Entrance and all the other special dances. We even did a special dance for a couple who was about to celebrate their 1st anniversary. We had a special announcement for everybody thet they were expecting a baby and we played their frist dance from their wedding last year. They had their own special moment and it was sweet.
The event finished at 12:15 and I was able to get a few shots of Jon & Kelly dancing their last dance. The photographers were gone already so I was able to capture a few shots.
I did the math on what we put into this event tonight:
12.5 hours pre-production/planning time, dance rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner
6.25 hours of travel time
9 hours on location day of the reception
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28 hours total time invested in this event.
I am pretty certain that if somebody is looking to hire a $500 or $600 DJ that they will not be able to get this kind of service since most entertainers working at those rates probably need a day job to be able to pay their bills. If one is looking for somebody to just show up and play music, then they should consider hiring a lower priced entertainer.
What I love is being able to hang out the couples I work with and putting all of our heads together and creating unique ideas that people will remember for a long time.
On Sunday, I played a pool party for Michael in his back yard off of Rundbeg & Lamar. I had a great time and played lots of dance and club music. So I was able to be creative and keep mixes going for a long time. Quite different from a wedding gig and wide open to just be creative. I loved it!
On Monday, "Labor Day," I took most of the day off and realized how hard it was for me to not work. I just enjoy what I do and most of the time it doesn't seem like work so it's hard to stay away and stay offline. Went and hung out with mom that evening and we always have a great time talking about business, music and many other things. She is just so supportive in my life and I don't know where I would be without her.
On Tuesday, Ann Texter and I went shopping at Home Depot for some hanging supplies for our upcoming event in October called Shootenanny at The Nomad Bar. It's going to be a photo exhibit and I am going to playing classic country and honky tonk music. I'm really looking forward to it. The owner Miguel is a sweetheart and has been very supportive of what Ann and I are putting together. Here is the flier:
Later that evening, I went to the radio station and ran a replay of The Dad Show and then met a couple for a planning session. We worked an hour and 45 minutes just on music and got a lot accomplished. Their first dance of The Carpenters, "Close To You" is going to be pure cheese and we have some other great similar ideas that we are putting together in our next planning session that will be fun along with some trance music that he is into.Today, the other interview I did was with Andrew Perkel of Belvedere's Mens Day Spa at 10th & Congress. Andrew knows his business very well and delivers what men want in a spa experience. From cuts and shaves to shoe shines, waxing, coloring, massages, facials, pedicures, and manicures. The staff is very friendly and I have enjoyed both of my visits there so far. I also took some photos of Cheryl Goldberg of A Beautiful Smile Now that came out great.
Tonight, I met with Caryn & Zach at 360 Primo. We worked on their playlist for about an hour and a half until we were all fried and ready to go home. We didn't even get to the timeline, though we came up with some great ideas for their special songs.
Tomorrow night, I will be at the monthly ISES meeting when Airstar Space Lighting will give an overview of the types of lighting available for use in the special event industry, and how to work with a lighting designer to make your events shine. They have some awesome lighting ballons.
On Friday, I will be interviewing Linda Lucas of Dream Images about her photography services for Austin Bridal Secrets and then I will be DJing and playing with my band Vida Deluxe at Ruta Maya, 3601 S Congress starting at 9:00 PM. Come say hello.
Let me know how I can help you?
DJ-RJ
512-973-8686
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