Monthly Archives: February 2012

Seeing Double – “1 X 1 = 2”

Written on February 27, 2012 by in Featured, Marshall Moore- Blog

Day 1:

Twins was the name of the game for Rachel & Rebecca’s Sweet 16 on 2/10/2012 @ Alfonso’s in Somerville.  The one thing (amongst probably many other things) that they shared was how sweet and generally kind hearted they are.  You could tell by the way their friends and family acted around them that they both are very special young ladies.  We kicked off the party to a packed dance floor, and started off with the crowd favorites: “Sexy and I Know It” – LMFAO, “We Found Love” – Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris, “Good Feeling” – Flo Rida.  Throughout the night we mixed in Top 40, Hip-Hop, and Latin.

What their guests found out was that it was not only a double birthday for the Twins, but a triple birthday since Rachel & Rebecca’s mom Vivian was also celebrating her 50th with her own cake and candles…

We also were treated by Rachel and her Musical Theater group to a show.  They performed  “2X” to “Single Ladies” – Beyonce and “Party Rock Anthem” – LMFAO.

We put the Twins in the middle of a circle of all their friends “2 X” having them dance to “Dance (A$$)” – Big Sean and “Baby Got Back” – Sir-Mix-A lot.  The decorations, giveaways, as well as lighting package added to an already fun night, and helped make this party a one of kind (not just due to the fact it was for Twins).

Thanks Rachel, Rebecca, Vivian, and the staff at Alfonso’s!  I had a lot of fun, and it was a great way to kick-off a “2X” DJ weekend.

 

Day 2:

We switched gears somewhat for Jennifer’s 40th Birthday Party @ The Middlesex Fire House on 2/11/2012.  Once again the decorations were amazing, transforming the room into a fun party atmosphere with candles, balloons, lighting, an amazing cake, and my favorite a life size Jen cut-out which I found out someone had put on her lawn that morning…

As guests arrived they were treated to wine, beer, hors d’oeuvres, and a fountain flowing with a vodka punch.  After Happy Hour we kicked off the party with some fun new music, “Sexy Chick” – David Guetta feat Akon, “Sexy and I Know It” – LMFAO,  and “Moves Like Jagger” – Maroon 5.  We partied up until Dinner, then had a mini Jennifer Roast (Comedic roast not the food kind) – Jen’s brothers, Sister, and some good friends came up and shared some really nice, and really funny (interpreted hilarious) stories about Jennifer.

We kicked off the second half of the party to some Freestyle, 80’s & 90’s Club, Classic Rock, and Old School Hip-Hop. Some time during the night we found out about Whitney Houston, so we dedicated two party songs, “It’s Not Right (But It’s Okay)” and “I’m Every Woman” to her.  We partied into the A.M. and ended the night with a ton of sing-along’s including, Journey, Meatloaf, The Beatles, Abba, and others.  It was a great way to end off the weekend.  Thanks Jennifer and family/friends for a fun evening and fun antics throughout the night.

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February 17th, 2012 – Allison & Rob at Addison Park

Written on February 21, 2012 by in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Featured

I had the great pleasure of entertaining for Allison and Rob on their wedding day. They selected a great venue in Addison Park and we added some elegance and ambience to the room with uplighting. The day went off for them without a hitch!

They had a wonderful ceremony at Gethsamene Lutheran Church in Keyport and Allison got ready at the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank. The entire day was captured by Elite Digital Images, and the dynamic duo of Lynn and Carrie rocked it out. Their photos are beautiful, and I cannot wait to see their final album once it is designed!

Once they got to Addison Park, the party was on! A great cocktail hour followed by intros and the bride and groom’s first dance. Allison’s dance with her dad and Rob’s with his mom were both great heart felt moments. Jay, Rob’s best man, and Ali, Allison’s Maid of Honor, gave two AWESOME speeches that the crowd gave standing ovations.

As soon as I opened the dance floor I knew this event wasn’t going to be work. The entire crowd of just over 100 guests danced like Lionel Richie says, “All Night Long“. I hit the dance floor with everything… Beatles… Bon Jovi… LMFAO… Pitbull… Journey… Aretha Franklin and they couldn’t get enough. Plus our bride and groom had some slow song dedications that took me back to middle school.

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February 19th 2012 – Nicole & Shawn at Addison Park

Written on February 21, 2012 by in Featured, Kris Abrahamsen - Blog

To say that Nicole and Shawn’s wedding was tailor made to be blogged about wouldn’t really be doing it justice. On top of it being at such an amazing banquet facility, Addison PArk in Aberdeen, and of them just being an awesome couple who were both very down to earth and easy to work with, they had a couple of little things they wanted to do that were a little different which only added to what was already poised to be an amazing celebration. Let us start from the beginning, shall we?

When going over their introductions, they informed me that Shawn’s grandfather William, or “Pop” as they affectionately called him, was to be escorted by “Harry & Lloyd”. That was it. No last names or any other info. Now I consider myself to be quite good at math, but in this instance I was unable to put 2 and 2 together. I go out to line everyone up for the introductions and standing before me are “Harry & Lloyd”…or two people dressed in the tuxes that Harry & Lloyd word to the fundraiser in the movie Dumb & Dumber. Best part was that earlier in the night I saw someone from a distance wearing a full-on orange tux and was a little taken aback by the loudness of his attire. Again, 2 + 2 was like advanced calculus to me at this point.

Once we started the introductions, the crowd was so into every little thing. Each member or couple of the bridal party had their own entrance music. Just to show how awesome this night was, Nicole’s parents came into “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO and Shawn’s parents, not to be outdone, came into “Bring Em’ Out” by T.I. We kept the energy going for the bridal party by using such songs as the “Jock Jams Remix“, “Shots“, “All I Do Is Win“, and “Sandstorm“. But there were two bridal party couples that stood out above the rest. As a wrestling fan growing up, I was a huge fan of Hulk Hogan. And as the millennium dawned, wrestling’s biggest superstar was “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Austin was known for his beer drinking. So when I introduced groomsman Billy & bridesmaid Kate to Austin’s old entrance music, the walked in, tossed each other a beer, clanged them together, and proceeding to CHUG right on the dance floor!! Fast forward to the maid of honor Karyn and best man Will. They came in to Hulk Hogan’s old theme music “Real American“, Will carrying a large American flag and Karyn wearing shirt reading GILKAMANIA on it (Shawn’s last name is Gilkison). And now we get to Nicole & Shawn’s entrance…

They had mentioned when they went to Rutgers games, Shawn’s alma mater, the crowd would have towels to wave around to help urge on the players. Well before their intro, they had asked me to have everyone grab their dinner napkins and wave them around and really just get everyone has hyped as possible. I felt like I was Eli Manning at a Giants game with all of these towels waving around and helping pump up myself and the happy couple. The energy when they entered to an edit they had made of Zombie Nation was off the charts!!! To add to that, Shawn was carrying a replica sword from the movie Braveheart…oh, and did I mention the groomsmen, groom and happy fathers of the bride and groom wore kilts? It was epic!

From there the party was smooth sailing and the dance floor was jamming all night long. Nicole & Shawn wanted a lot of newer music but one of the special things they had me do was play a special block of music from the 90s. I sometimes forget how awesome some of the club music from the 90s was. Some of their choices included “Come Baby Come” by K7, “This Is Your Night” by Amber, “What Is Love” by Haddaway, and “Another Night” by Real McCoy. To close out their lil 90s block party, I threw in one of my personal faves: “Rhythm Is A Dancer” by Snap. We closed out the night by playing “Shout” by the Isley Brothers and having everyone jumping (literally) all over the dance floor.

I have been so blessed and fortunate to have worked with some amazing couples through the years. Nicole & Shawn were an absolute joy to work with and I use the term “work” very loosely. By the time the wedding was over, I felt like I was just able to help my friends throw the party of their lives, and there really isn’t a better feeling than that!

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Bridal Show at The Water’s Edge

Written on February 20, 2012 by in Featured, Uncategorized

Merri-Maker’s location in Sea Bright, The Water’s Edge, has long been one of our favorite venues.  If you’ve ever been in the upstairs banquet room, overlooking the waves of the Atlantic Ocean crashing into the surf, you’ll know why.  It doesn’t hurt of course that the banquet staff recommends us and so we play there very often.  In fact when Dominic Sestito and Sarina Colletti get married this Spring, their ceremony and reception will be at The Water’s Edge.

So you can imagine how happy we were when we got the news a few weeks ago that Merri-Makers had renewed their lease and opened up their 2013 calendar.

American Bride produced a fantastic Bridal Show this past weekend to announce this news to the local wedding community.  The turnout was phenomenal and it certainly looked like the banquet staff was starting to fill those 2013 dates aggressively.  We got to do our showcase and the response was awesome.  We had a packed dance floor the whole time, even at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Right after our show there was a wonderful fashion show with dresses from True Love Bridals.  John Pacetti, owner of South Street Studio Professional Photography and Videography (formerly Timeless Studio) got some great pictures of the day.

If you haven’t seen us at a bridal show, we highly recommend it.  We have a full schedule of shows coming up which you can find right here: List of Upcoming Shows

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Friday, February 3, 2012 – Eatontown Memorial Middle School Dance

Written on February 8, 2012 by in Featured, Marshall Moore- Blog

“Music in Schools”

It occurred to me about 30 minutes into the Eatontown, Memorial Middle School Dance, why music is so important to have in school’s curriculum. Laughingly, one of the awesome teachers there said “You ask the kids the times tables and get a blank stare, but then they know all the dances to all the songs.”  It was a funny comment while the kids were all doing the “Dougie”, but It made me think that I was exactly the same way (minus the times table part, I was pretty good in math) – we all knew all the dances and all the songs.  It was the one thing that all the kids in my elementary/middle/high school had in common. Regardless of race, gender, background, if someone was singing/rapping a song that everyone liked and knew, you would have 20 people chiming in on the chorus.

I remember a bus trip out to Amish country in PA, where we were all singing “Ladi Dadi” by Slick Rick  - 30 kids on a school bus… must have drove our teachers and parents nuts…. But music kept us together… The same thing holds true 20-30 years later… At this dance, I played “We Found Love” – Rihanna ft Calvin Harris, and all the girls are singing together and dancing, regardless of once again race, gender, or background.  I played “Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO to the same affect – boys and girls together singing & dancing.  The kids on this night had a great time, and I really thought that music in schools is such a big part of kids understanding each other, experiencing different cultures, backgrounds, and era. When the same teacher asked me to play “Apache” by The Sugar Hill Gang and dedicate it to a student, I thought, I was dancing to this song at my School Dance…… and the effect was exactly the same…. A room full of kids doing the dance…..

When you reflect back to school you may not remember verbatim learning your spelling words, or parts of history or science, but if you were in a music class, you probably remember the songs word for word you sang back then.  Songs that helped shape who you are, songs that if you put a room full of adults from the same school together, they could probably sing it in unison, just like they did in School…

Thanks to Miss Krsyzckowski and Miss Collins for a great time, and all the kids who made it to the dance at Memorial Middle… Thanks for bringing back some warm memories, and some songs in my head from the past… I enjoyed partying with you and look forward to doing it again.

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Centra State Awards Dinner – February 2, 2012

Written on February 6, 2012 by in Featured, Mike Walter - Blog

Centra State does an annual event called “The Service Awards Dinner”.  They honor employees who have been with them on five year increments.  So this year’s event honored those who had started in 2006, 2001, 1996 etc.  All the way back to 1971 which is the year they began.  I’ve had the pleasure of DJing this event many times through the years and it’s always tons of fun.  There’s a feeling of looseness in the room that you can tell comes from a bunch of people who work in a high pressure type environment and now that they are out . . . look out!  They want to cut loose and party!

The evening began wonderfully with a blessing from Pastor Willie Thorpe.  Pastor Thorpe happens to be blind so when he started with, “How’s everyone doing tonight?  You all look great” he got a pretty good laugh.  But then he followed it up by saying, “I see with my heart.  Sometimes it’s better to see with your heart than with your eyes.”  I loved that statement and when I got home after the event I put it up on my Facebook page.

After dinner the awards began and they started with 2006.  Centra State asks me to find a song from each year that would be fun to bring the employees up to. The obvious choice for 2006 was “Sexyback.”  For 2001 (The 10 Year Honorees) we played Pink’s “Get This Party Started”.  These are the two largest groups with over 80 honorees from each year.  For the 15 Year Honorees we played “C’mon Ride the Train” and for the 20 Year’s we did C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat”.  Now came the 25 Year Honorees (and there were still a handful of them).  We played James Brown’s “Living In America” from 1986 and the crowd loved it.  For 30 years “Celebration” was the no brainer song and for 35 years we did the #4 song from 1976, The Four Season’s “Oh What a Night”.  Which brought us back to 1971 and 2 Honorees.  We had the Three Dog Night song “Joy to the World” cued right to the chorus and the 300+ attendees all stood and waved their dinner napkins as they sang along.  It was  a great moment that led right into our opening dance set.

Centra State must be a cool place to work because their parties are always lots of fun.  We had a solid hour of dancing at the end of the night and you literally could barely move on the dance floor.  Along with fellow Elite Entertainer Chuck Crerand we played everything from new to old, rock to club and Latin to country. By 10:30 everyone was hot, sweaty and exhausted.  And ready to hit the road.

I look forward to my next event with Centra State.

Photos courtesy of Ron Wyatt Photography

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