Mark & Lauren Castle (February 27, 2010)

Well I had the chance to finally fulfill my promise to Lauren & Mark Castle on Saturday Night the 27th of February. This is a great post for me because it's my first blog post, it's linked to a brand new website celebrating my 13th year as a DJ, and I'm lucky and proud to say that it's with a couple who appreciated me for who I was as a person, as a professional, and just loved working with me. Above all the wedding took place at my favorite venue in the area with a staff of managers I call my friends and that's The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club right over in Stevensville, Maryland.  I worked with a new photographer who rocked and I'm using her pics on this blog post as well as throwing a few up on my new website, her name is Meaghan Elliott Photography.

Well Mark, Lauren, and I were able to tighten up all of the planning and final details exactly 7 days before the date and these two displayed poise and patience like no other. It's a characteristic that I wish all clients had (well most do) I was just so very impressed with them. Lauren was a sweet as can be ending the evening of the actual reception thanking me with a huge hug and quick peck on the cheek which is a great feeling of success being in my shoes because I care more than you would know what people think of me and the job I do for them. Then Mark was the coolest, he was calm, and a very collected groom. In fact, now that I think about it... out of all the clients I've had the chance to talk to during the event me and him chatted a few times that probably totaled a good 20 minutes when it was all said and done. During the final meeting he brought one of his best men with him who was fresh from getting some new ink on his right forearm I believe commemorating his dedication to the United States Marine Corps, and for me that was cool because I've got his undying gratitude towards service men & women of our country. Going into the reception having met Whitney I knew that if I needed anything for Lauren or Mark he would be a good "go to" person just incase and plus, I have 39 tattoo's myself so breaking the ice with Whitney was no issue at all.

Their wedding ceremony began with about 140 guests gathering in the gorgeous Garden Room for an indoor service where guests walked into an array of selections that I chose including instrumental hits in an Acoustics style of music. The entire wedding party walked into the Piano Brother's version of "Bless The Broken Road" following by a soft fade of my favorite version of "Canon In D" also by The Piano Brothers off of their summer disc in their first wedding series release. To finish off the ceremony we ended it with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered [Stevie Wonder]" which Lauren was totally pumped about and both her and Mark were smiling huge as soon as they were officially husband and wife.

We kicked off the reception with an awesome cocktail hour (all music chosen by me), guests then took their seats in the other huge ballroom @ CBBC (The Beach House) and the parents walked into what I could call my "patent pending" recommendation of "Gimme Some Lovin [Spencer Davis Group]." This was a super cool upgrade for the CBBC sales team to offer them, because it was a colder day than most being in February and there were no other weddings that day and they offered this couple an upgrade to the brand new perfectly designed Garden Room, you can't ask for better service than that. And people wonder why their the BEST in Maryland? I was proud to have my wedding there in 2005. Anyway, back to this reception...The bridal parties track was rocking into an exclusive remix of "Just Dance [Lady Gaga]" and then Lauren & Mark joined the party to a perfectly orchestrated announcement and doors opening to "I Gotta Feeling [Black Eyed Peas]."

That's a big mistake that people make in using such a great song like that, they use it for the bridal party, when it's best suited (with the right emcee) for just the B&G. There is literally just enough time to say what's needed to bring them in and when those doors open..... "I gotta feeling" and you see the bride's bouquet up in the air, people are cheering, and you can fade right into the 1st dance! If you go with it for a bridal party or anything else then your just talking over the words and it's not as fun and smooth for the flow of a pro emcee to do his announcing with poise and energy. For the 1st dance they chose a very classy and romantic track in going with the song that made her famous "Come Away With Me [Norah Jones]." What most people don't know about that track is that it was meant as a studio demo to get her fame and it ended up defining the artist we know today, she's amazing.

Lauren's father Wayne gave a fantastic welcome followed up by Maid & Matron toasting and some kind "roasting" words by the Bestmen. CBBC as always over delivered on the quality of the food and service and then we slid right into parent dances playing "What a Wonderful World [Louis Armstrong]" for Mark & his mother and then playing an instant classic "My Girl [The Temptations]" for Lauren's father daughter dance. Class! Class! Class! All The Way!!!!

Once we moved into the open dance floor I was a little worried at first because we had such a care free group that I thought would just party until the end of time on this... they were slow getting up... but once they were up that's all I needed. More times than often DJs forget that some of these people rarely see one another (this happens often with our out of state couples) and they just like to chat. CBBC offers a very relaxed atmosphere and when you throw in the fire place, the ambience, the right music in the air, it's easy to get distracted. So we DJs just rely on our tools of the trade... alcohol! Mr. Don and the team did a fine job juicing them up for just what I needed to bring this baby home and put her right to bed. I rolled through the decades knocking out some awesome Motown tracks for her parents, the standard oldies but goodies golden age for the right generation which packed the floor as expected, and then we clubbed it out with the hottest mixes in the way I do my technique and unique style of spinnin' tracks and we had everyone out on the floor. I had the chance to use my 100% brand new DJ system (insert ego and applause here haha) for this event and that brand new JBL SUB rocked this event like it was a thunderstorm nailing the dance floor. Their wedding was the first time it went out on the road. It's always fun to walk outside and see the little specs of brick concrete going "tsst tssssst tsssst" on the outdoor fireplace :-)

We had some fun with the garter & bouquet toss and everyone participated as we thought. Mark took Lauren's garter off to "Let's Get It On [Marvin Gaye]" then Lauren tossing the bouquet to "Single Ladies [Beyonce]" which I don't care what anyone says cliche or not that song is super perfect for this and I hope it sticks around forever. Then Mark tossed the garter to something totally different and totally cool (2 thumbs way up man!) using "All My Life [The Foo Fighters]" and we did a fun not so cheesy reversal for the two people who caught it all. Actually, the one guy who caught it got the evil eye from his lady so he quickly passed the garter off to another young man who had noooooooo problems coming out and stepping up! There is always that "1" guy at receptions... well my "1" guy was there... he just lost his (cough cough) or maybe he just smartened up.. who knows - judging by the attraction of our young lady who caught the bouquet my guess is that he smartened up LOL (married man talking, can ya tell?!?!) anyway...

Cake Cutting as usual was on time & classy as the CBBC crew brought the cake right out to the center of the dance floor and it was being illuminated and glowed upon by the huge decorative indoor fire place. We had a nice low volume of "Lucky [Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat]" playing in the background. Mark did a nice job is adding his own effect to this romantic cake cutting and getting the razor look from Lauren right as he decided to add some decor of cake frosting to her nice makeup job (yes that's right... Mark did what most of us are scared to do... he smeared the bride). Right after that we lit up the dance floor with some more tight mixes of music and we finally capped off the night about 10 minutes past the end (because the crowd wouldn't stop dancing once they started) so we did our last dance finale for the night with my "Signature Mix" of "Don't Stop The Music [Rihanna]" perfectly mixed into "Don't Stop Believing [Journey]" and that's what I would call another GREAT wedding! Introductions to the last guest departing... I'd rate it as a 9.5 out of 10 only because I don't believe in perfection... just really good times!

Thank you so much Mark & Lauren for being awesome clients and sticking with me through everything!!! I hope and I mean I really hope our paths cross again in the future.
_________________________________


Next Up: Laura & Steve (03.12.10) and this one's special as I'm not only throwing down the music for some crazy people but my wife is officiating the service and Laura is Jill Thompson's sister. Jill is the brains and mastermind behind D. Bryant Photography (haha sorry Don.. love ya man!)