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!
Add Cheese to your Burger, say NO to the Cheesy Wedding DJ!
Posted by Jason | Filed under Wedding DJ Advice
Our Los Angeles Wedding DJs recently exhibited at the Bridal Premier Showcase at the Hyatt in Westlake California, as we do twice each year. Every Bride or Groom we speak with at these shows and elsewhere seems to have 1 common concern about their wedding DJ, and that is, “We Do NOT Want a CHEESY DJ!!!”
So, if that’s truly the case, I wonder why so many DJ companies still present themselves as the same old Cheesy, bad joke telling guys forcing you to endure an overkill of personality with silly props and flashy lights and 80′s costume jewelry. I suppose it stands to reason why our company is doing so well, because simply put, we are not cheesy. We’re a bunch of regular guys with an extraordinary passion for music, an extremely high level of experience in providing a top level DJ/Emcee service for our clients, especially Brides & Grooms and their families, on one of the most important days in their lives.
I say we’re regular guys, and I mean we don’t have to dress in costumes, wear makeup and flashy jewelry, tell jokes with horrible punch lines, or sell you crap you don’t need. I admit, I’m not a used car salesman, none of us are…we develop packages and upgrades that people need, and we won’t force you to spend money on fluff that cheeses up your wedding.
We do offer a very classy, fun, yet low profile lighting option, such as our NEW Wireless LED Up-lighting, which has been a huge seller for us and makes any room or space look amazing. There’s no big silver metal trusses and a bunch of tape and wires all over the room!
When our DJ’s are in front of all of your friends and family, we look our best, always well groomed and wearing a suit and dress shirt, sometimes a tie, depending on the location and style of your wedding. Let’s face it, if your wedding is in a garden or outdoor location, it should have a more romantic, elegant yet relaxed, fun, and even perhaps a rustic appeal. There’s no need for all the Club lighting and a DJ wearing a tuxedo with a sequin vest (heaven help me! I’ve seen DJs still wearing this early 90′s get-up in 2011!) Read the rest of this entry »
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Weddings at the LA Music Center
Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues
Our DJs have an opportunity to work at different Wedding Venues in Los Angeles nearly every weekend, and occasionally we like to write about some of the more interesting venues in LA. Recently, I had the opportunity to DJ a Wedding at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the LA Music Center in downtown Los Angeles and was pleasantly surprised by many aspects of this venue. As a Wedding Vendor, I have to admit, I often worry about the logistics of working events in urban areas and tend to prefer some of the Garden Wedding Venues out in the more rural parts of LA and Ventura counties. Obviously, the more commercial the venue, the more problems vendors tend to have with parking, traffic, load in, etc… However, the parking for the LA Music Center is quite easy. The Bride and Groom will need to reserve parking for their vendors and guests, but the parking attendants were very accomodating to my needs as a DJ with all my equipment to have to load in and take up to the 5th floor Ballroom where the wedding was held. The staff were all very nice and accommodating as well and I found the service, food, and atmosphere to all be really great.
And speaking of atmosphere, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is adjacent to the amazing architectural gem, the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry. The concert hall and the entire campus of the LA Music Center create endless backdrops for brilliant Wedding Photography, like these by our friend Heidi Ryder Photography. The interior of the ballroom is spacious and can be divided by air walls. You can host your both Ceremony and Reception here, and the floor to ceiling windows offer ther city scape in the background to accent the event throughout the night.
I’ve included a highlight video at the bottom of this post, that I put together for Bride and Groom Alexis and Mitch whose wedding was held at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion back in March. Take a look at some of the interior footage of the ballroom to see what your wedding might look like in the space. Add Wireless LED Uplights which we are now proud to offer to help accent the room with splashes of colored lighting.
Our thanks again to the staff of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and the LA Music Center, please contact them for more information about their facility and if you need DJ services, we’d love to help! Happy Planning.
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 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 Wedding DJ Advice 1.) All You Need Is Love- Beatles Posted by Jason | Filed under Tips for Hiring a Wedding DJ Logistics and Location can be a problem for meeting in Person. Posted by Jason | Filed under Wedding DJ Advice Posted by Jason | Filed under Announcement Elegant Event Entertainment will be showcasing our Wedding DJ Services at the Bridal Show in the Westlake Hyatt in Thousand Oaks On Sunday August 8, 2010. Doors open at 11:00am. The show is produced by Bridal Premier. Click here for more information. Come on out to the show, you’ll find many of the top companies in the Wedding Industry there. Come by our booth and let us know you saw this Blog and save money on our DJ Services! We hope to see you there and congratulations on your upcoming Wedding! If you can’t make it to the show, don’t worry, give us a call to schedule a free consultation with our highly recommended DJs. We would love to find out more about your event and help you realize your dreams of a fun-filled and perfect Wedding Reception! Sincerely, Elegant Event Entertainment Team. Posted by Jason | Filed under L.A. Wedding Reception Venues So you are or are thinking about having a wedding at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, California? Well, we’ve been fortunate enough to be the Wedding DJs for at least 40 weddings at this unique and very well known venue located in the mountains of Malibu. Having been the DJ for about half of those events myself, I can tell you with confidence that Calamigos delivers excellence in all of their events. They’ve been in the event production business for a long, long time and they have a pretty well oiled machine there. Granted, there are a lot of events hosted there each and every week, so you won’t really be able to have the venue all to yourself (unless it’s the dead of winter) but this simply shows their popularity, affordability, and excellence in execution as being more than adequate for hundreds of Brides and Grooms in Southern California every year. I’ve attached a video from a recent wedding where Elegant Event Entertainment were the Wedding DJs for Chris and LaShelle’s wedding, held at Calamigos Ranch in the Main dining room and courtyard, with a cocktail hour reception held behind the building and featuring local Aerial Circus Performers . Don’t judge the quality of our videos too much, we aren’t professional videographers, but we make the videos as a record of our events and they make a nice gift for our clients! Notice the different areas of the property and how unique each one is aesthetically and functionally. The food at Calamigos Ranch is always good, and the service is great as well. From the event coordinators to the banquet captains and servers, everyone is friendly and tries to help make your event the most important one of the day! The ranch also makes it pretty easy on your vendors in terms of load in, accommodation, vendor meals, etc. keep in mind though, all vendors must sign a release for the ranch and must have a liability insurance policy of their own. Congratulations on your upcoming event and good luck with your search for a wedding venue, with Calamigos you might have found the perfect location. You can certainly count on a great wedding or event if you’re hosting it at Calamigos, but keep in mind, great events require great entertainment, so please consider hiring one of our experienced and fun Wedding DJs for your most special day!The 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 BowersoxTips for Picking a Song for the Cake Cutting
I bet you didn’t event think about needing a special song to play during your Cake Cutting, but, it’s fun to pick a Cake Cutting Song based on lyrics that might be a pun for Cake, or eating, or Sugary Sweets…or to choose a song for the cake cutting that exemplifies the love that the Bride and Groom have for one another and the joining togehter of two loving souls! To make it a little easier for you, we’ve compiled a list of the top 38 songs that over 98 Brides and Grooms who hired us in 2010 chose to play during the cake cutting at their wedding.
The song serves merely as background, and honestly a lot of people won’t even pay attention to the song…but if it’s a clever choice and a song you like, everyone will enjoy it, especially the Bride and Groom! If you aren’t familiar with one of the songs listed below, simply follow this link to Youtube and search for the song by artist and title and listen there, then head back to our site for more planning tips. Best Wishes to you and enjoy your cake!
2.) Angel- Shaggy
3.) Another One Bites The Dust- Queen
4.) Belle- Jack Johnson
5.) Better Together- Jack Johnson
6.) Candyman- Christina Aguilera
7.) Collide- Howie Day
8.) Cut The Cake- Average White Band
9.) Eat It- Weird Al Yankovick
10.) Grow Old With You- Adam Sandler
11.) Hit Me With Your Best Shot- Pat Benatar
12.) How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You- James Taylor Read the rest of this entry »Hiring a Wedding DJ? Interview in person, ask the following questions, get references, and trust your GUT!!
Hiring wedding vendors can be a very daunting task.
Hiring your Wedding DJ should not be so frightening. After all, the DJ is supposed to be the fun part of a wedding! Certainly there are a lot of things you need to know before you hire, but perhaps the most important thing you can do is to interview your DJ before you make a decision.
In my vast experience, I have found that clients who meet their DJs in person have a far better experience in choosing/hiring the DJ. Brides and grooms tend to get better pricing and more detailed explanations of what the DJ provides with his services when a meeting is held in person rather than over the phone or worse, through a series of very impersonal emails. When you take the time to meet in person, you have the opportunity to get to know the DJ up close and personal, and you should be able to make a much more informed decision based on his presentation or “pitch” as well as his appearance, his demeanor, and the all important “Vibe” or gut feeling you get from him.
Many of our clients are located out of the area and cannot meet us in person before they hire, however we offer alternatives to in person meetings such as conference phone calls between the DJ and the bride and groom. If technology allows we also offer live Skype or video chat sessions where you can actually see the DJ as you interview. And as a final alternative, with our services if the client cannot meet us before they hire we do everything we can to schedule a meeting in person prior to the event. Read the rest of this entry »Requesting Music from your Wedding DJ with Elegant Event Entertainment
We’ve heard horror stories from Brides and Grooms who have been to weddings where the DJs played terrible music, where no one danced, or worse when they knew the DJ did not adhere to the client’s specific request list. Luckily, with EEE, you don’t need to worry about that. As a member of the Los Angeles Wedding DJ community, I am proud to say that our company Elegant Event Entertainment has had great success in playing music for our clients that suit the client’s unique music tastes and keeps the dance floor packed at the appropriate dance times at weddings. This is due in large part to our adherence to the client’s very own personalized music request list which we allow every client to create and provide to us.
Every one of our clients has a personalized Online Event Planner; they can log in from our website and are able to choose as much music as they would like to hear at their event. Using an international database of songs and artists, our Clients can tell their DJ which songs are MUST PLAY, DO NOT PLAY, as well as some additional choices of music that perhaps isn’t found in the database. This information is kept safely in their personal online event planner file for our staff, the DJ, and the client to see 24/7, and both client and DJ can make changes to the list as it’s necessary.
Read the rest of this entry »Bridal Premier Showcase at Westlake Hyatt August 8, 2010
A Wedding at Calamigos Ranch, from the DJs prospective.
There are at least 4 high quality locations on this enormous property in which a couple can get married, including unique ceremony and reception sites for all types of parties and sizes of guest lists. Although the majority of the events we DJ are held in the Main Building, we are also familiar with the logistics of other locations on this property. The Main Dining facility has a dance hall area which includes a beautiful fireplace for those cozy autumn and winter weddings. There’s also a gorgeous waterfall and lots of mature greenery surrounding the Ceremony Site just outside the main dining area, which makes this site very accommodating, convenient and really beautiful. There’s also a new outdoor bar/lounge area which I have attended an “after party” with my clients and I thought this was one of the coolest features of the property, so be sure to check that out as well if you take a tour of the property.
If you are an experienced wedding DJ who loves working to serve the needs of your clients, 