I tagged along with Charles Casiano to the Don Vicente in Ybor, Tampa, to get some video footage of him for our main site: My Dream Reception. He suggested a tag-team DJ combo which was a lot of fun!
The Don Vicente is a beautiful location that really shows the historic side of Ybor. Charles took care of handling the ceremony in the main room and set up a cocktail hour system downstairs. Rumors say this place is haunted and people see ghosts all the time… yeah, basement.. great idea. (You can, without a shadow of a doubt, tell this place used to be a speakeasy.)
The reception room is diveded into dining and dancing areas, but sound easily went from one room to another. The Don Vicente has a VERY unique layout– if you want an unforgettable place for your wedding, this is a MUST SEE!
We adorned the dance hall area with LED flood lights and stars across the ceiling!
As usual, Charles rocked it Spanglish style mixing a bit of American and Latin music. Check out the pics and video below!
Kyle and I had the honor of being the main DJ and co-MC for Blair and Michele’s wedding… it just so happened that I tagged along with him to get some good video footage of him and since we had my system from the school party we did earlier that day, we tag-teamed this wedding.
It was a bit different than most, since their tradition was that a family member is the MC for the night. The uncle started the night off with the intros and formalities, and Kyle took over for the bouquet and garter toss.
The large video screen provided a custom slide show which Michele and Blair provided. It fit perfectly inside the Paradise Cove and everyone got a great view!
John and Tracy own a company in Virginia called JJDJ Entertainment. They throw some amazing weddings and incredible school dances, and he credits some of his success to our sister company, 4SchoolsOnly! AWESOME!
Monica and I were flown up to Virginia to help set up and host their wedding. I had the pleasure of being the MC and first-half DJ (John took over the 2nd half) while Monica (and the super-awesome Ben Stowe) ran lights.
Not sure if he meant it, but John gave me subtle hints that he was hoping his guests would actually dance. Not only did they danced, but they did it non-stop, even after the music ended.
Check out the awesome photos we took and the video of the most epic wedding in VA!
Brittany and Alejandro are an amazing couple who promised an amazing celebration. Brittany’s Italian family and Alejandro’s Colombian family were a promising recipe for an unforgettable wedding reception. It paid off indeed with NONSTOP DANCING!
Everyone got a taste of the party that was about to come during the ceremony as Alejandro chose Cheap Trick’s “In The Street” as the opening song for the ceremony. Look it up– it’s the theme to “That 70′s Show.”
The beautiful Venetian Golf & Country Club in Venice was transformed with dance floor lighting and uplights. Their pink and orange colors came together very tastefully.
These people were ready to party from the very beginning and they danced non-stop to a variety of requests. Check out the pics and video below to see all the action!
Paul and Hope Jackson are one of the coolest people I’ve met. They wanted to have a good time and incorporate some simple party elements: 1) Hope and her friends LOVE to dance. 2) Paul’s a member of Sigma Chi 3) Detroit, Michigan is in THE HOUSE.
Awesome. But they didn’t prepare me for the amount of energy that would exude from their friends and family.
The location was the Cheval Golf and Country Club in Lutz. The ceremony was stunning, but because there’s NO power and I didn’t want to run extension cords where people are walking, I brought out a battery powered system and set it up in a discreet location. Everything went off without a hitch, though the massive winds prevented the microphones from being used. No worries, as the officiant was loud and clear.
Monica helped coordinate the ceremony and reception lineup as Alex of Alex Gilliard Photography took some amazing shots!
The reception had our basic lighting package, but it filled up the entire ballroom nicely and saturated the room with their wedding colors.
It’s hard to describe the night… I wish you all could have been there. There were so many great moments that I had to do two videos and that was after hours of debating which clips to keep or delete! It seemed that every song had a “flash mob” moment where someone or a group of people came up with a routine. Every song was a sing-a-long and brought many funny moments. Watch the videos and see what I mean.
Check out some of our pics and video below… there are two videos, a Part I and Part II and then a video of a traditional Sigma Chi song called “Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.”
Oh, and playing the Live Trucker version of Kid Rock’s “Cowboy” became an intense moment!
Erin and Seth have been to a couple of weddings we’ve done and wanted their wedding to have a similar vibe. Hosted at the beautiful Lakeland Yacht and Country Club, they wanted an elegant light show that will enhance the venue but also turn it into an inviting dance atmosphere. Uplighting and stars on the ceiling (including blue stars) gave a whole new new look to the Yacht Club while the dance floor lighting flooded the room with vibrant colors.
We used our scanning lights to create a spotlight dance and highlight the head and cake tables for the toast and cake cutting.
To change the scenery a bit, Rachel and Greg decided their ceremony and reception should be in St. Augustine. The rooftop ceremony (at the White Room) overlooked the entire beach and provided some breathtaking scenery.
The reception was a blast, too! Both Rachel and Greg LOVE to dance, so they stayed on the dance floor the entire time. The wide range of tastes in requests allowed for a very eclectic mix of music the whole night.
While they wanted a lively atmosphere, they didn’t want to take away from the overall ambiance of the place; thus, they decided on minimal lighting. A few uplights painted the walls with their wedding colors without pulling away from the look they had in mind.
Eddie and Amber saw us TWO years ago at a bridal show and said “we HAVE to have you… and the BOSE… and that sub!” They are a young, Christian, enthusiastic couple who had MANY ideas about an exciting New Year’s Eve wedding celebration with their closest friends and family.
So the challenge? The location was a church gym; A gym with a balcony that allowed some of the lighting to have a higher vantage point.
The easy part? I worked with Joette from Party People Celebration Company and Marilyn with Flowers by Marilyn. EASY WORK! These two ladies, coupled with Monica (my lead lighting designer) and Derek (senior tech) made the gym transformation super easy. I promise you won’t even recognize that it’s a gym!
Oh yeah, and there was a WICKED COOL balloon drop!!
So what did the lighting include?
Well, we had 4 totems around the dance floor lit in a cool white (camera didn’t show it as cool) with a moving head on top of each one.
Baby blue uplights adorned the entire room, even warming up the swag and drapes that Joette set up
White trussing held scanners (which were used as spotlights), special requested effects lights, and dance floor floods. Trussing was lit up in wedding colors.
The balcony held two leikos which projected a really nice pattern on the wall. The pattern rotated super slowly!
The balcony also held floods which lit the entire area where the tables were placed. A couple of blacklights gave the white décor a very subtle pop. We didn’t want to saturate it.
Blue and green stars grazed the area between the balloon drops.
A blue liquid sky made a special appearance that transformed this beautiful wedding into a chic night club!
LOTS of beautiful pics and three videos… two timelapses and an event recap! What an AMAZING New Year’s Eve!!!!!!!
(You can, without a shadow of a doubt, tell this place used to be a speakeasy.)
