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Private Showcase Special Offers

Written on April 11, 2013 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Elite Blog, Featured

Not only is the Private Showcase a great way see everything Elite has to offer we also offer some great money saving discounts exclusive to this showcase.

Provided by Elite Images

Elite Entertainment - Many of our DJs will be on hand to perform for you and answer any questions you may have. Upon arriving, we’ll let you know exactly which DJs are available for your date! You’ll receive a coupon that will be applied as a $50 credit to you package if you reserve any package with us at the show! Deposits for DJ services vary depending on the package but typically range between $350-$600.

Provide by Elite Digital Images

Elite Images - We’ll have sample albums available to view as well as a couple of our photographers present if you’d like to speak with them. Our packages typically range from $1800 – $4800. Discounts always apply for reserving photography with other Elite services, but for anyone who reserves with us at the show, we are also going to include a free Engagement Shoot (typically $250). Deposits to reserve usually vary by package, but this Sunday the deposit for photography will be $500 regardless of the package you select.

Elite Video - A sample of our work will be shown at the beginning of the showcase. Our most common package is typically $2100 and will be available at the show for $1900 PLUS we are going to include a free 60 photo montage to be displayed on a loop at your event on a 27″ screen (on the gift table, place card table, etc.) if you reserve at the show. Deposits for any video package will also be $500.

Elite Photo Booths - We’ll have one of our photo booths at the showcase for everyone to enjoy! Our most popular package for weddings is usually $1150. For anyone that reserves at the showcase

Provided by Elite Digital Images

Elite Upgrades - You’ll have a chance to check out some of our most popular upgrades including our plasma packages, uplighting, intelligent lighting and illuminated monogram (gobo). Discounts may apply if reserving more than one upgrade. Small deposits are taken for each upgrade (roughly 5% of upgrade cost) to reserve it.

Please give us a call or email us if you’d like detailed package information for any of our services before you arrive on Sunday!

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April 16th Private Showcase

Written on April 8, 2013 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Elite Blog

These live shows are not only a great way to see and hear our work, but you get to meet the DJs too. I know every couple has a vision for their wedding, and your entertainment plays a huge role in making the vision a reality. By having the chance to meet the members of our staff you are able to build a rapport with us, and we are able to find out exactly what you are looking for.

Not only will you see the great staff of Elite Entertainers, but you will have a chance to view the work of our sister companies Elite Images and Elite Video. Plus all three companies offer discounts that are exclusive to Private Showcase attendees only. So whether you are looking for a simple One Person Package or a Mega Package with DJ, Photo, Video, Lighting, a Photo Booth the best way to see everything Elite has to offer is by attending a Private Showcase.

The date is Tuesday, April 16th and it will take place at the Sheraton in Eatontown, NJ. Doors will open at 7pm. Come see our DJ staff perform, check out our incredible lighting packages and you’ll even receive a special discount just for attending. Reservations are required so call or email now to reserve your spot.

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Amy & Wayne – February 23, 2013 at the Venetian

Written on March 11, 2013 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Featured

With Elite being located in Monmouth County and our home base in Red Bank, we’re very blessed because within 15 to 20 miles of our office there are 10 very high-quality banquet halls that we work at often and are their recommended entertainment. Sometimes when you see that you have a wedding coming up far away, like 90 minutes away, you might roll your eyes, get into your car and say oh I’m going to hate this ride… but not when you’re working at the Venetian.

The Venetian is one of the halls in New Jersey where you know the food is great the staff is on point the place is beautiful and it’s a great room to have a party. On February 23 of 2013 I have a great honor to DJ Amy & Wayne Lee’s at the Venetian Garfield and the party was nothing ordinary.

Wayne and Amy had us provide the multimedia for their event with two plasma screen and they had reserved our standard two-person package I got to work with one of our up-and-coming headliners on this event Craig Haberstroh as my music mixer

Amy and Wayne were the dream DJ client in the sense that they said Dominic here are our Spotlight dances and our first dance and have fun do your thing. The told me, all we want or people out on the dance floor all night long. Guess what, that’s exactly what we did we had these people up and dancing basically right after they finished their first course all the way to the last song.

Tonights sound track consisted of everything from Frank Sinatra all the way to the other end of the musical spectrum where we were playing LMFAO and Lil Jon.

We have the dance floor popping early with great classic disco like I will survive and we are family later on in the night will remove this is the more current music like Thriftshop and even got a little down and dirty and pulled out turbulent

This event is what I call dynamite… not in the sense of it exploded or it was hot in the sense of we would’ve had to throw a stick of dynamite on the dance floor to get people off

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Doug & Sarah 2-23-13 @ Double Tree

Written on February 25, 2013 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Featured

This past Friday we kicked off Doug and Sarah’s wedding by providing music for their ceremony. The ceremony was beautiful, their musical choices were a little bit different which we love here at Elite. The bridal party keep down the aisle to Somewhere Over The Rainbow the bride used the traditional Here Comes The Bride and the recessional song was a great choice, I’m a Believer by Smash Mouth.

After the ceremony was over the girls from Elite Images (Carrie & Lynn) took a few more shots with the bride and groom while the guests made their way into the cocktail hour. Sarah and Doug had me put together a very cool cocktail mix that had some jams by Dave Matthews, Mumford and Sons, Van Morrison, and The Beatles just to name a few. After cocktails everyone moved into the ballroom and we began with the bridal party introductions.

: Provided by Elite Digital Images

The house was a rocking! Not only did we have great high-energy music choices for intros, the bride & groom also upgraded their package and had intelligent lighting plus two plasma screens. The intelligent lighting added some great color to the room and energy to the dance floor. The Intelligent lighting also helped highlight some special parts of the evening by spotlighting entrances, toasts, and of course the first dance. We also provided some great visuals with the flat screens by showing images of the day, music videos, and ambient backgrounds.
Now being in the industry as long as I have, I’ve seen my share of fails with best man toasts but Chris (our best man) had one of the best shows I’ve seen in my 15 years. Not only did he have some heartfelt words he also played the guitar while singing a self composed song and we helped him by incorporating the plasma screens. Chris made a little video and it actually was Conan O’Brien style where he did some voice overs and had a conversation with the bride and groom. Needless to say the crowd was in stitches.

Once we opened the dance floor we really put the event on autopilot because they just wanted to have fun. We played a little bit of everything that night from the 50s to current music. Check out the vid below and make sure you watch all the way through to see the bride share some kind words.

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A View From The DJ Booth

Written on November 13, 2012 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Elite Blog, Featured

Here are a couple videos I took with my iPhone from the DJ booth this past Saturday. We had a rocking party at the English Manor for Kim & Jeff Clayton! People wonder what about our prospective…

Take a look…

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Weddings 101 By Dominic Sestito Issue # 1

Written on July 17, 2012 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Elite Blog, Featured

In addition to my weekly blogs I have decided to also publish a monthly blog to help brides and grooms who are in the planning process. So wish me luck and feel free to ask me to blog about a certain topics, it would be my pleasure… in the words of The Joker ” and here we go…”

In early stages of planning a wedding most brides and grooms get swept up in the excitement. Shortly after that most couples start looking for help because they have never planned a wedding before. I have put together a few things to help you.

First a great thing to do is to search your banquet hall or halls you are interested on YouTube. Lots of wedding professionals including Elite do Vlogs from there events. This give you a chance to see banquet halls during an actually events.

Use websites like Weddingwire & The Knot to your advantage. You will find other couples on there that are planning or have already planned their wedding. “Quality Wedding Entertainment! The Difference And Why!” is a great blog about what couples had to say about their wedding entertainment after the big day was over. Please take a look at it, you will be surprised by some of the statistics.

We are now in the age of technology and all your wedding professionals should have their own website. We have actually taking it a step further and now provide Online Planning and Web Conferencing to all Elite clients.

These are just a few things that can help you out. It’s always good to set appointments to see vendors work or see them at a live showcase. Visit their office, meet the staff, and build a rapport with them. You are going to spend the biggest day of you life with your these people, so make sure they are friendly, experienced, reputable, and reliable.

Elite has been in business for 20+ years. Our DJ’s, Photographer’s, and Videographer’s are constantly raising the bar when it comes to customer service, quality, and talent. We are here to help from start to finish so please feel free to reach out to us with any questions.

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Friday, June 22, 2012 Harriet and Nicholas at the Oyster Point Hotel in Red Bank

Written on July 10, 2012 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Elite Blog, Featured

Harriet and Nick were super fun to work with. They had lots of ideas and questions, and they really looked for my input to help create a unique structure for the wedding. Living on the other side of the country in California, I used the BrideLive to my advantage during the sales and party planning process and it helped out tremendously. I did have an opportunity to meet with Nick and Harriet one time before the wedding and that’s very important to me as an entertainer.

I know of other companies around the country where the client books the company and they just sends a DJ, whereas I want to meet my brides and grooms. I want to be able to work with them one-on-one to find out what they’re looking for and really build a rapport with them. For me, being able to sit down with Nick and Harriet really meant a lot to me because I got to see the vision they had for their big day.

Nick and Harriet had lots of little things that added to the day. Harriet did three changes throughout the course of the evening. She wore three different dresses and we introduced them into the room to a TI song. they actually dance their first dance to Trey Song’s version of Use Somebody by Kings of Leon. But for me, as a DJ loving music, where I had the most fun was putting their cocktail and dinner mixes together. Harriet and Nick wanted a mix of 90s alternative rock which took me back to my middle school and early high school days. I got to play some great tracks during dinner like Lenny Kravitz “Are You Gonna Go My Way”, “Semi-Charmed Kind of Life” by Third Eye Blind, and “One Headlight” by The Wallflowers. This made me feel nostalgic and brought me back in time. It’s not everyday that you get to put a special touch on somebody’s day that also touches your emotions as well. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to working with more couples like this in the future.

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Amy & Chris 5/26/12 @ Grand Summit Hotel

Written on July 3, 2012 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Elite Blog, Featured

Typically the Wednesday before the weekend with events, I call up my bride and groom just to do one final check-in. I make sure there’s no last-minute changes, tell them I have all the requests, their first dance, and parent dances, and that I’m ready to party. When I chatted with Amy, she basically told me as long as you play “At Last” by Etta James and “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis, we really don’t care what you play, we just want to have a great party… better words cannot be heard by DJ.

Besides our normal sound system, we set up a Photo Booth and two 50 inch plasmas at this event where we showed music videos and some great montages, including ones during our parent dances while Amy danced with her dad and Chris danced with this mom.

Amy and her father share a spotlight dance with photos of them playing in the background.

Mike and Samantha from Elite Photo Booths kept the flow smooth at the booth and Jen Rutherford from Jen Rutherford Photography captured the day with great images. We provided soundtracks to a dance floor that was unstoppable. It’s rare to have this moment as a DJ but at 30 minutes left in the party I actually stopped, turned to my music mixer, and said “We’ve only played two slow songs tonight.” We couldn’t have pushed these people off the dance floor if we wanted to!

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Jamie & Rob 5-25-12 @ The Westwood

Written on June 6, 2012 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Featured

As a DJ, providing music and sound for ceremonies is always nerve-racking. I want to make sure the microphone sounds great so you can hear the bride and groom’s vows, what the officiant is saying, and hear any readings clearly. I want to make sure that the music is an appropriate level and we segue the songs very nicely for prelude, processional, and recessional. I also think I get nervous because out of the 80-90 events I do a year, I only provide ceremony music at about 20 of them so I don’t do it as often.

For Jamie and Rob’s wedding on May 25, they had Jamie’s godfather, Father Don, officiate their ceremony which was very cool to see because he was able to really personalize the ceremony to the bride and groom.

Jamie did most of the planning by herself and with the help of friends and family since Rob was in the Marines and overseas during the planning process. I got to know Jamie pretty well, but unfortunately I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Rob until the day of the wedding. Getting to know Jamie, I knew that this event would be a ton of fun. Jamie is easy-going mellow but likes to have fun. Then when I met Rob the day of the party, I could tell although he was a marine and needed to be serious at times, he definitely could cut loose and have some fun.

I did a lot of video and music editing for Jamie and Rob. We provided a montage during their first dance with photos of the newly married couple. I also pre-recorded both Jamie and Rob separately and played their wedding vows over the final minute of their first dance. Now to say the entire room was moved by this was an understatement. When you can make a marine cry tears of joy, it makes those late hours in the lab well well worth it.

We threw on some music videos once the party started and had the dance floor rockin’ to everything from Pitbull to Bob Seger. Young, old, and everywhere in between… it didn’t matter. Every guest at this party had a great time and you can tell that they were truly happy to be there celebrating for both Jamie and Rob on their wedding day. From start to finish, the preplanning, the editing, and running the event, this is what makes my job worth it!

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Kelly & Anthony 5/12/12 @ English Manor

Written on June 1, 2012 by Dominic Sestito in Dominic Sestito - Blog, Featured

Here at Elite we love every bride and groom that we get to work with. But if you ask any of our entertainers on staff they will tell you that you just click with some brides and grooms better than others. On May 12th, I had the great privilege of entertaining for the guests of Kelly and Anthony at the English Manor and they were just one of those couples where we clicked very, very well from the start.

Getting to work with the staff at the English Manor, as well as Lynn and Carrie from Elite Digital Images, is awesome in itself. But when you have a bride and groom that give you six requests and say “Throw a great party!”, you know you’re in for a good time. When I have a couple that just wants to party it takes a lot of the pressure off the day for me as a DJ, because I know that all they truly care about is their guests having a great time at the reception.

Once we were set up at the English Manor, I sought out my bride and groom to just say hello and let them know that we’re all set up and ready to go. On this day when I found Anthony and Kelly, Anthony pulled me aside in typical Italian fashion to settle the balance. Now of course I understand this, being Italian myself, even though I repeated to him over and over again that this could wait till ended the event. But he insisted on doing it right then and I just found it really funny.

This event was smooth all around and the guests wanted to dance and party. It really wasn’t like work for any of us. At the end of the event both Kelly and Anthony came up to me and expressed their gratitude for the job well done. What was important to me was that we had impressed them so much that Anthony literally took every single business card that I had on me that night to hand out to friends and family and anybody that he knew that would be getting married.

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