At one point in the middle of Jason and Lauren‘s wedding, when the dance floor was jam packed and the energy in the room just couldn’t get any higher, I said on the microphone, “I love theater people!” The guests erupted in applause and when I made eye contact with Lauren she smiled from ear to ear.  This was a truly unbelievable celebration.

When I met with Jason and Lauren they had shared with me their love of theater. They are both involved in community productions and they also have a passion for all things theatrical, both live performances and movies.  In fact they asked me if I could do a mix for their cocktail hour of all Movie Themes and I happily obliged (’cause that’s how I roll).  And as the saying goes “Birds of a feather flock together,” so it only made sense that so many of their guests were “theater people” too. So when I blurted out “I love theater people” it was based simply on the fact that, in my experience, actors and people involved in the arts tend to cut loose more easily.  They are more apt to dance and enjoy themselves, especially early in the night.  Jason and Lauren’s family and friends were a perfect example of this.

One of the unique things that Jason and Lauren wanted to do was change the order of events in the beginning of the reception. After cocktail hour the “template” says to do bridal party introductions, followed by first dance, parents dances and then the toasts. This is the format we use at probably about 90% of our weddings.  Jason and Lauren wanted things a little different. They asked if I could get all their guests around the dance floor before I introduced them. Then, instead of going into their first dance could I play Hava Nagilah and lead their family and friends in The Hora?  Once again, I happily obliged (’cause as I mentioned, that’s how I roll).

This was actually an awesome way to start the celebration for Jason and Lauren. I think it set the tone for what would be a great dance party. It let the guests know right out of the gate that this was a festive occasion.

Jason and Lauren gave me very few requests and no restrictions (ie. there wasn’t anything they didn’t want to hear). As a wedding DJ it’s rare to get this much free rein over the programming and to be honest it put a little added pressure on me.  After all, if I couldn’t get people up I had no one to blame but myself. Thankfully, that was never a problem.  From the opening Hora through the last dance, whenever there wasn’t food being served Lauren and Jason had a full dance floor. A lot of that success can attributed to our newlyweds. Lauren and Jason were on the dance floor almost the entire night. And in my experience, having a bride and groom out on the dance floor is a sure fire way to get a lot of people up.

Besides the packed dance floor this was a fun evening for me because I got to work with a lot of cool people.  The wedding was held at Doolan’s in Spring Lake and Bob was the Maitre d’.   Bob and I go back to his days at The Old Mill Inn and it’s always fun to work with him.  Lauren and Jason had also put their full faith in the Elite family.  Besides booking me for the entertainment, they booked our photography company, Elite Digital Images, our video company, Elite Video Productions and they added on our uplighting and photo booth.  They were even nice enough to pose for a picture with the “Elite Crew”.

My thanks to Carrie from Elite Digital Images for providing me with these great shots:

 

Lauren Leading the Ladies in a Sing-Along
Lauren Leading the Ladies in a Sing-Along
Jason and the Boys Try to Match the Ladies
Yeah, it was that kind of night!
From Left to Right: Jon Z who worked the lights, that’s Nick from the Photo Booth hiding back there, David Friedman music mixer extraordinaire, MC Mike Walter, Lauren and Jason, Carrie from Elite Digital Images, Davide Fuoco with the Photo Booth and Chris Monaco from Elite Video Productions. What a team!

 

As I said this was truly an unbelievable celebration.  My congratulations to Jason and Lauren.  Here’s wishing you a lifetime of health and happiness.   Mazel Tov!