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

Met with a wonderful couple, Nicole and Michael, this week. They are getting married at the end of February so this was our Pre-Event Consultation to talk about their music, go over their introductions, and finalize any other details.

We offer an online planner which Nicole and Michael had utilized. As I always do, I reviewed their information before we even sat down.  Their Wedding Song  is “Here There and Everywhere” by The Beatles.  They also want some Doors and Pink Floyd too.  Classic rock fans.  I love it!

As we got going we started discussing some of the blanks on their planner. They hadn’t selected music for their introductions and so we started there.  For the parents they wanted a Frank Sinatra song.  My first suggestion was “Come Fly With Me” and they loved it.  Then Nicole suggested “Whole Lotta Love” by Led  Zeppelin for the Bridal Party. I didn’t say No (of course) but I let her know that song has a lot of tempo changes that might make it tough to maintain the energy.  I played “Rock and Roll” for them as an alternative.  Nicole’s eyes lit up. She loved it.  Now the question became,  How do we raise the energy even higher to bring the Bride and Groom in?  Nicole asked if Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” could work.  I’ve never used that song in this way before (actually when I think of that song and weddings I think of a great wedding video I saw once) so we listened to it.  The song had potential – great energy once it kicks in and a great message – but the a cappella introduction goes on a bit too long.  I asked if they’d give me a day to make an edit so it could fit perfectly.

So the next day I chopped the song up a little, shortening the intro so as I say their names Freddie Mercury will be belting out “Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time . . .” and sent it off to them.  Nicole responded enthusiastically:

Hi Mike!

We love the edit of Don’t Stop Me Now…we can def imagine making our grand entrance to it.

And the reason I’m writing all this isn’t to pat myself of the back and say “Look what I did.”  It’s because the planning process is so much more than me (or any Elite Entertainer) simply extracting information from our clients.  It’s about allowing us to help you craft your vision. Some clients have every detail of their weddings planned down to the last song of the night.  And that’s cool with us.  But so many of our clients look to us to make suggestions, offer opinions about some of their selections and, in many cases to work with their tastes but make them better.  And that’s what we are here for.  That’s why you hire us.  And that’s why, by the time we get to your reception, so much of the “work” that we do together is already done.  And so much of the fun we are going to have together, has only just begun . . .

It was a perfect early summer evening which was awesome for Keith and Melissa since they had planned an outdoor ceremony, lakeside at The Mill in Spring Lake.  Everything went off perfectly and after their first kiss as a newly married couple, they got to walk down the aisle together to the song they had selected: “I Do” by Colbie Caillat.

After an awesome cocktail hour we brought the bridal party in with some high energy songs.  I’d worked closely with Keith and Melissa and knew they wanted introductions to be dramatic.  Parents came out to Guns n Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” the bridal party to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and then Keith and Melissa to GnR’s “Welcome to the Jungle.”  Their family and friends cheered and applauded loudly and matched the energy of this music perfectly.

Keith and Melissa danced their first dance as husband and wife to Bon Jovi’s “Thank You For Loving Me.” Whenever I play that song I remember the time I saw Bon Jovi play at the old Tradewinds in Sea Bright (which is now townhouses) and he introduced that song by saying he and his wife Dorothea had seen the movie “Meet Joe Black” in which Brad Pitt’s character says “Thank you for loving me.”  He went home inspired by that line and wrote the song.  I thought about that as Melissa and Keith danced to their wedding song: a Brad Pitt line in a movie inspired Jon Bon Jovi to write a song and now here is this beautiful couple beginning their married life together dancing to it.  Weird how life works.

Melissa and Keith pulled out all the stops for their reception.  They included our plasma package, our up-lighting and our intelligent lighting.  These add-ons turn an already awesome celebration up to the “off the charts” level.  And this party certainly was.  Other than a break for dinner and then of course their cake cutting ceremony, The Mill’s dance floor was packed all night.  Right up until the closing song: The Black Eyed Peas “I’ve Had the Time of My Life.”

I’m always very pleased when I get positive feedback from my brides and grooms.  Whether they send me an email, write on Elite’s Facebook page, give me a Wedding Wire review, or even send me an old school hand written Thank You note.  So you can only imagine how great I felt when I received this in the mail:

Congratulations Melissa and Keith!