My new Serato (DJ Program) hardware allows me to record audio at the click of a button. So, last Saturday I recorded the speeches and toasts at the wedding I DJ’ed in Heron Lake, MN. After the speeches, I had time to review the audio and select a few sections to play at the beginning of the first dance.
With a little extra effort and some DJ magic, a memorable first dance was created.
A few weeks ago, I was in Hawarden, IA DJ’ing a wedding reception. The bride was from Mississippi and the Groom was from Iowa, and they both liked a variety of music. They did a great job of selecting songs using my online music request list, and it was up to me to structure the songs so that they flowed nicely together.
Here’s a video showing the various transitions. It was recorded during the first hour of the reception dance:
A couple of weekends ago, I didn’t have a wedding reception on a Saturday night (had one Friday though) and had a chance to go down to the Liebrary Bar in Sioux Falls and spin some tunes.
As a result, I now have 4 hours of live DJ mixing for you and your ipod to enjoy! I do have to warn you, some of the lyrics are explicit – so don’t go cranking this up in your cubicle at work (use headphones instead!)
I also need to give a big shout-out to DJ Kor aka Jeff Meuzelaar for stopping by after his wedding and snapping the above TwitPic!
Here are the mixes (left click to listen, or right click to “save target as”)
Liebrary Bar Mix pt 1
Liebrary Bar Mix pt 2
Liebrary Bar Mix pt 3
Liebrary Bar Mix pt 4
If you haven’t checked out my YouTube channel yet, it’s http://www.youtube.com/user/bpmdjpro
When I first started posting DJ videos to YouTube, I did it for fun and Marketing purposes. What I discovered is that there is an entire online DJ community residing on YouTube. It’s fun to see comments on my videos from all over the globe.
My highest viewed video at the moment is the Wedding March Remix. I was just messing around one day and recorded myself remixing the Wedding March. To be honest, it’s not the best, the scratching and mixing is far from perfect, but a lot of people got a kick out of it.
I had a comment on the video today from a guy in Canada that wanted an .mp3 of the mix to play at his sister’s wedding. Luckily, I still had the file on my computer, so here it is:
http://www.bpmdjproductions.com/weddingmarch.mp3
If anybody reading this would like to use this track for whatever…….please feel free.
I recently DJed a wedding reception in Tea, SD at the American Legion. I did a video “gig-log” of the night, but knowing that there was going to be a relatively small “dancing crowd” in attendance, I decided to just record some mixing footage.
This video is a great example of how I take a playlist that is submitted to me by a bride and groom, and structure it so that the end result is a seamless mix of great dancing tunes.
It’s been about a year since my DJ Times article. This month, I am fortunate to be featured in another publication, this one with a little more local appeal. 605 Magazine interviewed Jeff Meuzelaar (Musical Edge DJ Service) and I regarding our DJ businesses and the special friendship we share.
Thank you to 605 Magazine, Hauschildts photography, Kiley Barnes (who did a great job writing the article), and Jeff for being a great friend, DJ, and competitor.
Make sure you pick up a copy of 605 Magazine, available for free throughout Sioux Falls.
Jeff took the time to scan the article and save it as a pdf - you can view the article here. Jeff also made the image at the top of this post.
Download Links:
Gertsen Reception Part 1
Gertsen Reception Part 2
Gertsen Reception Part 3
Gertsen Reception Part 4
Most of the wedding receptions that I DJ include at least some, if not all of the typical wedding events and dances. Sometimes, however, I DJ wedding receptions where the bride and groom choose to forgo the “typical” wedding fanfare and have a memorable evening consisting of dancing to great songs. Quite often, these songs are presented to me in the form of a “Request List”. The challenging part for me is deciding how to arrange and structure the songs so that the dancefloor stays packed and everyone has a good time.
This past Saturday I had a wedding reception at the Minnehaha Country Club in Sioux Falls. The bride and groom (wonderful, wonderful couple) wanted to have their first dance be the only “special” event. No parent dances, no bouquet toss, no dollar dance, etc. They also gave me a request list with many of the “standard” wedding reception songs on the “do not play” list.
Included on the “Do Not Play List”:
Adams, Bryan Summer Of ‘69
Archies Sugar, Sugar
Big & Rich Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)
Cyrus, Miley See You Again
Hammer, M.C. U Can’t Touch This
Joel, Billy Piano Man
Loggins, Kenny Footloose
Los Del Rio Macarena
Nickelback How You Remind Me
Nickelback Photograph
Nickelback Rockstar
Quad City DJ’s C’mon ‘N Ride It (The Train)
Rednex Cotton Eye Joe
Savage Garden Truly Madly Deeply
Sir Mix-A-Lot Baby Got Back
Smith, Will Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It
Sorta Crackers Band Chicken Dance
Tone Loc Funky Cold Medina
Village People YMCA
Travolta, John & Olivia Newton-John Grease Megamix
Vanilla Ice Ice Ice Baby
I spent a lot of time studying their list and choosing a song order that would work best. I also took a few requests from guests throughout the evening. The result was an amazing night of dancing to an eclectic mix of music. I recorded the entire evening and split it up into four parts available to download. I would say that 90% of the songs were “beatmixed” and I even mixed quite a few of them “harmonically” (same key or progressing keys.) The download links are at the top of this post.
Moral of the story: It’s important for a DJ to be versatile. Any DJ can get out on the dancefloor and set up the Chicken Dance, or throw their hands in the air to form the letters Y-M-C-A, but when the bride and groom don’t want to do any of that stuff at their reception, what do you do?? Well, a good DJ lets the music speak for itself, and arranges it in such a way that everyone dances the night away and leaves the reception with a ton of great memories!
The entire playlist can be viewed here.
Here’s an example of the eclectic music I played at the reception.
Part 1
Into The Mystic – Van Morrison
September – Earth Wind and Fire
Van Morrison – Domino
I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) – The Four Tops
Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (Single Version) – Michael Jackson
Clash – Rock the Casbah
Al Greene – Let’s Stay Together
STAYIN’ ALIVE – BEE GEES
Wilson Picket – Mustang Sally
We Are Family – Sledge
Lets Dance – David Bowie
Rock With You (Single Version) – Michael Jackson
Miss You – The Rolling Stones
I Only Want to Be with You – Shelby Lynne
Baby, I Need Your Lovin’ – Four Tops
1999 – Prince
You Look Good In My Shirt – Keith Urban
Lady Madonna – Beatles
Brick House – Commodores
More Than A Woman – The Bee Gees
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
Cry To Me – Solomon Burke
Oh! Darling – The Beatles
Here’s a video from a wedding reception that I DJ’ed Memorial Day weekend in Chamberlain, SD at the AmericInn.
Great crowd!
Hey brides and grooms, I stumbled across a neat little wedding website called Wedding Wire today.
It has a lot of local Sioux Falls vendors on there with reviews from brides who had them at their wedding. Since I am a one-man show, I don’t do as many gigs as the bigger multi-op companies, so I was surprised to see a couple of reviews on there from my brides!
Allow me to toot my own horn a bit……………..toot, toot :)
This video was put together by Jeff at Musical Edge from the SE Tech dance that we “tag-teamed.” Good times!
