Los Angeles Wedding DJ Company Celebrates 5th Year in Business
Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement
It’s hard to believe we are beginning our 5th year in business branded as “Elegant Event Entertainment”. I’m Jason Jones, the co-founder of this company, and I wanted to write a little bit about how we formed and what we’ve accomplished to date. Perhaps you’re a Bride or Groom looking for a DJ, perhaps this or other articles on our Blog will help you in making your decision. We hope you’ll enjoy and appreciate this short story of our recent successes and we welcome your comments and appreciate your support.
In February of 2006, I moved from a small town called Asheville, North Carolina to Los Angeles. I was self employed as a Wedding and party DJ in Asheville since 2000, I had been a professional voiceover actor since 1996, and I owned a small house painting business which I started in 2001. My businesses were beginning to thrive, but something was amiss in my life. As much as I loved my hometown, my friends and family, and the work I was doing, I felt I needed a change of pace. From the time I was a very young boy, I dreamed of moving to Hollywood. Obviously, a lot of people dream the same dream, but I felt I could come here and make it work out, whether in the entertainment industry, or some other type of business. I had no idea how big the wedding industry was in LA, but I would soon meet my business partner and we would be swept away in a stream of success in the world of Los Angeles Weddings. Read the rest of this entry »
Come Meet our DJs at the Bridal Premier Showcase at Westlake Hyatt January 15, 2012
Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement, Wedding Planning
It’s that time again! Wedding Season is just around the corner and thousands of Brides and Grooms will be attending Bridal Showcases in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks and all over Southern California. Our Wedding DJs at Elegant Event Entertainment will be exhibiting at the Bridal Premier Showcase in Westlake Village, which we’ve done for many years now.
Our DJs have already booked over 60 weddings for 2012, but we have many more dates and DJs available and we would love to add you to our growing list of over 600 extremely satisfied brides and grooms who’ve chosen us as their Wedding DJ in Los Angeles and Southern California since 2007.
Come by and say hello to our founders DJ Chris Mortillaro & DJ Jason Jones (check out our Headshots and Bio’s before you go so you’ll recognize us) and speak with us about our services, or set a time to meet with us in a one-on-one, quiet setting. Feel free to fill out our online contact form as well and make a note that you’ll be attending the Showcase.
And if you need Uplighting for your Wedding in LA, we’ll have our exclusive Wireless LED uplights on hand to demonstrate. Once you see them, you’ll definitely want them at your Wedding!
The Bridal Premier Showcase is located at Westlake Hyatt and takes place Sunday, January 15, 2012, 11 AM to 3 PM
Hyatt Westlake Plaza, Westlake Village
880 S. Westlake Blvd.
Westlake Village, CA 91361
please contact Bridal Premier for tickets!
Maravilla Gardens Weddings, Where Magic Happens
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
Maravilla Gardens is a family owned and operated, Outdoor Garden Wedding Facility in Camarillo, California, located on Santa Rosa Road just a few miles from the 101 freeway and about 50 minutes from Downtown LA. I feel that it still qualifies as a Los Angeles Garden Wedding Venue, and it’s one of the best.
As one of only 2 Preferred DJ Companies at this property, I thought it only appropriate to write a review article of their facility, especially since we know it so well. I want to bring a perspective of someone who works there all the time as an outside vendor
Our DJs have had the privilege of working over 75 Weddings at Maravilla Gardens in the past 5 years and I have personally DJ’d almost 50 of them myself. I know this property and it’s owners and staff like it was my own family estate, and believe me, I wish it were! This place is truly magical, it embodies the spirit of “family” and togetherness, joy and celebration, and offers it’s guests a truly intimate and personal feel, as if you were in your own backyard having your wedding, only if your backyard was filled with beautifully manicured gardens and lawns overlooking the Santa Rosa Mountains and rustic rolling farm fields.
It’s owners are Jo & Tony Maravilla, husband and wife and owners for over 40 years. They’ve raised their children here, and their daughter Jen is now working as the on-site wedding coordinator and with other aspects of the business. Tony is the master gardener, and he gives so much love and attention to the grounds, you can feel the love he’s poured into every flower, plant, shrub and tree.
Jo is the business manager and she is currently the main contact person for the business. She’s been tireless and instrumental in the growth and success of this beautiful property since they turned their attention from their nursery business to providing their property for weddings. There really are no 2 nicer people in this entire wedding industry and I’ve been blessed to work with them as much as I have, and every client of ours says the same thing about them.
As for the property, it offers 3 distinctly separate areas for Ceremony, Cocktails, and Reception. You begin your tour by walking from the parking area to a paved path and look to your left to see the cage of doves cooing beside a great little putting green, a huge hit for the gentlemen. There are restrooms and a private Bridal Suite for the Bride and her attendants to be hidden from view and to dress in the cool air conditioning!
The ceremony site opens on a large and lush green grass seating area surrounded entirely by trees and shrubbery. The Ceremony Stage is a large concrete, step terraced alter large enough to accommodate a very sizable wedding party, yet intimate enough to support just the Bride and Groom if you have a small wedding. You can place your own chuppah, or decorate an arch with florals for the ceremony. 
In addition, the facility rents a large shade cover to protect your guests from the sun during the hotter months, and it looks great from a design standpoint as well. The musicians or DJ set up just to the right of the stage on a small raised concrete pad outfitted with electricity for your sound system, which your DJ or musicians or minister must provide. Our DJs can play all of the music you need for your ceremony, as guests arrive to be seated they are greeted with citrus flavored water and music of your choice. We’ll play all of your entrance and exit music as well as any music you want during the ceremony. We can also provide the microphone for your minister. We’ve found that the accoustics here are good enough to place 1 wireless microphone on a stand and we can hear the minister/officiant as well as your vows. If you have a reader or singer, we can provide a separate mic for them. Read the rest of this entry »
Choosing Music for your Wedding Reception, tips on picking the Songs for Special Dances.
Posted by Jason | Filed under Wedding DJ Advice
If you’re planning a wedding, you know how many different things there are to think about, and Choosing Music is a Major decision. Whether you’re hiring a Band or DJ, you will need to choose music for at least some of the following special moments: First Dance, Bride & Father Dance, Groom & Mother Dance, Cake Cutting, Bouquet Toss, Garter Removal and Toss, and other special moments that you might include such as an Anniversary Dance, Money or Honeymoon Dance, Last Dance, etc.
Elegant Event Entertainment decided to compile a list of all of the music our 2010 Brides and Grooms (all 98 of them) chose for their Wedding Music special requests. Over the course of several days, we published a new blog article highlighting the songs that were requested in 2010 for a particular Special Moment or Dance in the Wedding Reception. We’ve published this Blog to lump those other articles into 1, to make it easier for you. We hope these lists help you find a song that’s appropriate for your wedding in 2011 and beyond, as many of these songs are timeless! If you want to choose something entirely different, by all means, go ahead, it’s your wedding, make it unique!
Below is a list of links to the articles with Song Lists. Have fun planning your wedding and choosing your music and special Wedding Dance Songs!
Father-Daughter Song List
Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation. For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit our Awards Page Posted by Jason | Filed under Wedding DJ Advice Picking the Garter Toss Song is not always so easy, so we’ve complied this list from Grooms who we worked with in 2010, these are songs they chose for the Garter toss. If you need a reference to listen to, we suggest going to Youtube and searching for the song by artist and title, and hopefully you’ll find one of these that you like. If not, we encourage you to pick whatever song you want, cause it’s your wedding! Happy Planning and have fun guys! 1.) A Little Less Conversation- Elvis Presley Posted by Jason | Filed under Wedding DJ Advice Here’s a list of some alternative choices for the Bouquet Toss Song. If you aren’t familiar with these songs listed here, just visit Youtube and search for the song by artist and title, then listen to the song to see if you might want to use it for your Bouquet Toss. Happy Planning! 1.) California Gurls- Katie Perry Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement For the 3rd consecutive year, Elegant Event Entertainment DJ Services will participate as an exhibitor at the Westlake Hyatt Bridal Show produced by Bridal Premier. Here are the details: BRIDAL PREMIERE- Wedding Showcase For more info or ticketing information click here: Bridal Premier Website Please come by our booth and say hi, pick up a brochure, and consult with our very talented and experienced Wedding MC/DJs. We’ll be offering great discounts to those in attendance. We’re located in the ballroom, right near the booths of our dear friends from Hartley’s Botanica Gardens and Maravilla Gardens. Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement Overall, our DJs performed at 118 events, up from last year’s total of 98, and up from only 64 events in 2008. More importantly, we’ve done that with very little paid advertising. This is the thing I most want our readers and clients and shoppers to see, that our company is growing because of our grassroots efforts to build the incredible network of vendors and past clients who continue to refer us to friends, clients, family and anyone else who needs a DJ in Los Angeles or surrounding areas of Southern California. We’ve been blessed to work with so many wonderful people and I feel we’ve done a great job for all of those clients and vendors which is why they continue to refer us. Our DJs are among the best, the most experienced, the most passionate and knowledgeable in the industry and we’re proving that by our substantial growth and the impression we leave on venues, vendors, clients, and the thousands of people who attend our events. In other EEE News, I wanted to point out a few venues where we worked the most in 2010 and these are among our favorite Outdoor Wedding Venues in Los Angeles and Ventura County. The always beautiful Maravilla Gardens saw our handsome faces for 12 weddings and the magical Walnut Grove at Tierra Rajada Ranch saw us DJ for 14 Weddings. Thank you so much to those venues and their staff as well as Command Performance Catering for the great work they do at both of those venues. As for music in 2010, a quick note, no pun intended. I loved a lot of the music that was Read the rest of this entry » Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement We recently held a contest for our Brides and Grooms who had videos posted by us on Youtube. The Brides and Grooms with The Top 3 Wedding DJ Videos, or videos with the most views (counted on December 15th, 2010), were awarded prizes. Read more about our Wedding DJ Video Project at the bottom of this article, after the videos. And Here Are The Winners!! 1st Place: Chris & LaShelle Bay with 356 total Views!! 2nd Place: Katreena & Michael Colato with 332 total views! 3rd Place: Shannon & Tom Brennan with 308 total views! And an Honorable Mention to Cheryl and Michael Mio with 299 views! Cheryl and Mike’s wedding was awesome! So great in fact, we published a blog about their wedding, and the Video is there for you to see! Click the link to check it out : Old Ranch Country Club Wedding We implemented a new and exciting feature in 2010 for many of our select clients. Using the technology of HD video cameras that fit in your hand, and quick editing software “iMovie” for Mac, our DJs were able to secretly capture some of the key highlights of many of the weddings we performed, and with an hour of so of editing, we published those videos to Youtube and posted them on Facebook, for our clients, friends, family and others to see. Using Social Media as a tool to get video footage of the highlights of someone’s wedding online in less than 48 hours in some cases, our clients and their friends and family were able to see the video using Facebook and linking to Youtube. We received so many amazing compliments from our Brides and Grooms and their guests, most of whom had no idea we were shooting any video. We provided this as “icing on the cake” for those clients, and it was a win-win-win situation, which is what we’re all about! The venues that are showcased in the video as well as other wedding vendors, and our services as DJs, really helps show potential clients what we’re all about. And of course, it makes a great gift for the Bride and Groom. In all, we cranked out about 46 little Wedding Videos in 2010, which was about half the number of total Weddings we performed. We apologize if we weren’t able to make a video for your wedding, but, we simply didn’t have time to make one for each and every wedding. We are very pleased to say, Your videos were viewed over 7,000 times as this article was published! We’ll try to continue to make these short videos for weddings in 2011 as time allows, and we hope you enjoy them! To see the rest of our Wedding DJ Videos, click here LAWEDDINGDJ Youtube Site Happy Planning!Los Angeles Wedding DJs Elegant Event Entertainment win Wedding Wire Bride’s Choice Award 2011
We’ve Won the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding DJs in Los Angeles and Southern California. This is the 2nd year in a row we’ve won this award!The Best Garter Toss Songs
The Garter Removal and Toss is a very fun and sometimes “risque” moment in a wedding. Depending on how sensitive your family and friends are, you may choose to leave it out of the Wedding Reception itinerary entirely, or you might simply tone it down a little. Other couples might want to really put on a show, but remember, this is YOUR wedding, do whatever you like!
Generally it’s a good idea to choose a song to accompany the Garter Removal and Toss, and the DJ will play the song and immediately the MC will ask all of the “single” or unmarried guys in attendance to come to the dancefloor and stand by as the groom prepares to remove the garter from the Bride’s leg. Once the garter is removed, the groom will wait for the MC’s cue and will proceed to toss or flick the garter into the group of single men, who will undoubtedly all fight to get as far away from the garter as possible! No matter who catches it, there’s always a lot of laughter involved.
2.) Animals- Nickelback
3.) Another One Bites The Dust- Queen
4.) Are you Going To Be My Girl- Jet
5.) Baby Got Back- Sir Mix Alot
6.) Bad Things- Jace Everett
7.) Cherry Pie- Warrant
8.) Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?- Rod Stewart
9.) Danger Zone- Kenny Loggins
10.) Fever- Peggy Lee or Michael Buble
11.) Girls- Beastie Boys
12.) Highway To Hell- ACDC
13.) Hoochie Koo Rock & Roll- Rick Derringer
14.) Hungry Like The Wolf- Duran Duran
15.) I want You (She’s So Heavy)- The Beatles
16.) Indiana Jones Theme Song- John Willams
17.) Legs- ZZ Top
18.) Lets Get It On- Marvin Gaye
19.) Minnie The Moocher- Cab Calloway
20.) Mission Impossible theme song
21.) Naughty Boy- Gunther
22.) Oh Yeah- Yello (Theme from Ferris Buller’s Day Off)
23.) Peek-A-Boo- Siouxsie And The Banshees
24.) Playing With The Boys- Kenny Loggins
25.) Rocky Theme
26.) Sharp Dressed Man- ZZ Top
27.) Short Skirt, Long Jacket- Cake
28.) Smooth Criminal- Michael Jackson
29.) Steeler Tune
30.) Stripper – David Rose Orchestra
31.) What A Man- Salt N’ Peppa
32.) When I’m Sixty-Four- Beatles
33.) Who Let The Dogs Out- Baha Men
34.) Wild Things- Troggs
35.) You Can Leave Your Hat On- Joe Cocker
36.) You Shook Me All Night Long- AC/DCThe Best Bouquet Toss Songs
The Bouquet Toss is undoubtedly one of the most well known wedding traditions at a Wedding Reception, and it can be a lot of fun as well as very unpredictable. Our DJs have seen girls falling all over themselves to catch the Bouquet, while others were running away from the flying floral display channeling the speed of Marion Jones. It’s not uncommon for the bouquet to hit something on the ceiling before it ever reaches the single girls, or to be overthrown with the likeness of a great NFL quarterback.
By Tradition, the Bride stands with her back to her single Bridesmaids and other Single ladies who are in attendance and when the MC instructs her to do so, the Bride tosses the bouquet behind her and whoever catches it is said to be the next girl to be married, which might explain why we see so many young ladies heading for the exits when it’s time for the Bouquet Toss.
To add to the excitement, it’s best to pick a fun song to play as an introduction and background song for the Bouquet Toss. If we were voting, we’d say that Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” would have to be the all time Number 1 most requested song for the Bouquet Toss, but we’re hoping many Brides will choose something different, although we love Beyonce, her huge hit seems a bit overplayed.
2.) Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend- Marilyn Monroe
3.) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun- Cindy Lauper
4.) Hey Ladies- Beastie Boys
5.) I Haven’t Met You Yet- Michael Buble
6.) It’s Raining Men- Weather Girls
7.) Last Night- Keysha Cole Fea. P. Diddy
8.) Milkshake- Kelis
9.) Pretty Woman- Ray Orbison
10.) Say Hey (I Love You)- Michael Franti & Spearhead
11.) Single Ladies- Beyonce
12.) The Sign- Ace of Base
13.) What A Girl Wants- Christina Aguliara
14.) Wishin & Hopin- Ani DiFranco or Dusty Springfield
15.) You Can’t Always Get What You Want- Krystal BowersoxBridal Premier Hyatt Westlake Plaza Bridal Show January 2011: Come meet our DJs
Well friends, it’s that time again. Time for the Wedding Season to crank up after the Holidays have ended and all of the newly engaged couples set out to plan the biggest day of their lives! In an effort to make that process a little easier, many Brides and Grooms and their friends and family attend one of the many Bridal Shows in Los Angeles.
In addition, this year, we’ll be announcing all of the raffles for Door Prizes, so make sure you stop by and say hi and listen out for your name to be called by our co-founder Jason Jones, a familiar voice that’s been heard in thousands of radio and television commercials all over the world.
Sunday, January 16, 2011, 11 AM to 3 PM
Hyatt Westlake Plaza
880 S. Westlake Blvd.
Hyatt Westlake Village, CA 91361
Happy Planning and Best Wishes on your Wedding in 2011 or beyond!2010 Year in Review from Elegant Event Entertainment
On behalf of myself and our co-founder Chris Mortillaro, I wanted to write a quick 2010 year in review for our business and the Mobile DJ Industry in Los Angeles and Ventura County.
All I can say is “Wow, what a year it’s been!” In just our 3rd full year in business, Elegant Event Entertainment had a wonderful year, and we believe we’ve weathered the storm of the worst economy in decades. In 2010, our Wedding DJs in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties performed at 97 Weddings throughout Southern California. In addition, our LA DJs were spinning music and helping organize the entertainment at over 20 corporate and private events. By those numbers alone, it’s easy to see that the vast majority of our business comes from Brides and Grooms, which we are very proud of, however, we’ve really tried to step up the corporate MC/DJ model of our business as well and that seems to be coming along nicely. I was surprised to see as many corporate Holiday parties this year as we had, considering that the past several years have been very barren for company parties in terms of hiring DJs and entertainment. This, we feel, is a good sign for economic recovery.
I also admit that we’ve stepped up our Social Networking as well, and we certainly feel that has helped our business, and particularly our Brand, grow in the Wedding Industry in Southern California. If you haven’t joined our EEE Facebook Fan Page, please click the link and “like” us!LA Wedding DJ Makes Videos for Brides and Grooms as a surprise gift. Top 3 videos win Contest!
Wedding Date 5/23/10
Location: Calamigos Ranch
Wedding Date: 6/19/10
Location: Westlake Village Inn
Wedding Date: July 10th, 2010
Location: Maravilla Gardens
Wedding Date 7-31-10
Location: Old Ranch Country Club
If you are an experienced wedding DJ who loves working to serve the needs of your clients, 