Weddings in California are popping up. Weddings are still happening even though there is a delta variant still happening in the United States. People are trying to stay safe in these uncertain times. 2020 seemed like the world shut down and did not allow any sort of events. It seems like know people know the routine. 

In a two week span, I have 3 weddings planned. All of them are scheduled to be outside. I know one of the attendance would be 60 people. So people are opting to have smaller weddings. One wedding is a residence so it will be intimate and the other two will be a nice outside venues. 

So how do you ensure safety at these times? A good way is to create space around the dj set up and remind the audience that you are not taking verbal requests but rather taking text requests. Make sure the signs are readable and easy to follow on the signage. 

With adult beverages, folks do forget the rules. Its good to do friendly reminders on the microphone for social distance rules. It is difficult to keep the distance on the dancefloor but people are aching to dance after being lockdown for so long. At those times, its still important to remain safe and if folks are too close it is best to keep the mask on for vaccinated and unvaccinated people even when they are outdoors. 

The Gilroy Garlic Festival has been around for 41 years. It has been a pretty famous food event in the Bay Area for many years. It was the place to stock up on your Garlic flavored Ice Cream or Garlic dishes. Last year due to Covid, the festival and the rest of the world was shut down. But this year it has manifested to a new event. Years past it has operated at Christmas Hill Park. It is a huge park that could maintain the thousands of visitors. This year it is divided into three locations.

It included a drive by alley at Gilroy Presbyterian Church and a Farm to table dinner at Fortino Winery. And finally the Garlic Festival Golf Classic will be held July 30th. The festival has taken a new look and feel.

I was able to provide music at Fortino Winery. They had a little stage next to the vineyard where the folks were able to eat and listen to old school music. We decided the classics you can not go wrong. I went with 80’s new wave,  then jumped into the 90s. It was a fun atmosphere. My intention was just to play background music but the Gilroy folks wanted to dance and they did. The awesome Fortino staff were so accommodating to their patrons that the folks were happy. It was a good feel good vibe. Grandparents were with their grandchildren and couples were all there. It was a perfect mix.

It was a nice touch to have live music with great food. I was happy to be a part of it. When in doubt in choosing the music you cannot go wrong with going old school.

Mid March 2020 something happened that never happened in my lifetime. It seemed like the whole world closed. All hospitality events stopped in California. I just did an event on March 6th and my corporate event on the 8th was cancelled. I had a big race event in April and that was cancelled. My weddings in the summer were tentative since everything was in the air. No one knew when this was going to end. 

 The answer was the vaccine and while that was being created all the weddings were one by one being cancelled. Its July 2021 and in California we are slowly opening up.

What has changed since early 2020?

Venues are now open to have events. Currently we are in our summer so its warm so many folks are opting to have events outside. A lot of folks in California I notice are still wearing masks even though they are vaccinated. There are few that neglect to partake in the maskwearing.

Dj will take requests but rather by getting a text of what to play. I have seen djs with nice posters stating how to request a song.

Djs are having microphone covers that they have to change after every speaker.

So you maybe wondering is it time to have a wedding in the Bay Area? There are many outside venues and the weather is unbeatable. 

Just select a dj that will do whatever he can to ensure the safety of all the folks that you care about in your wedding. Black and White Affair can be the dj for your grand event!

Tips for your Bay Area Quinceanera (San Jose, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Oakland)

Plan the event close to the birthday and be warned that Saturdays may be busy especially now since weddings have been held back the past year and a half. Sundays and Fridays may be options and be open to that. Lots of venues are getting booked so get this done asap to secure the location. 

Figure out the budget and decide what is most important for your event. You would want to splurge more on what you find important. Is it the venue or the food or the entertainment?

Search for the venue to hold your event and base it on the amount of guests you plan to invite.

Spend the time to find the right Quinceanera dress. 

Look for the right entertainment. Do you want a Banda or a Mariachi plus a Dj? At the very least, always hire a dj since they can play multiple genres of music and make announcements and they know what happens at Quinceanera

Consider getting a videographer and a photographer to film the event. Lots of memories that need to be captured. Plus images can be shared with the Quinceanera so they can share with their social media. Quinceanera can be just as monumental like a wedding so it does require just as much planning such as a wedding. 

Black and White affair has been in the event business since 2004. We specialize in Spanish music and have do many English Events across the Bay Area. We help planning the right music at the right time. Let us make the event an easy and stressfree event. 

Covid Update 6-2020

In California the limit to gather is 10 but it is slowly opening. I feel a little foolish writing about weddings since we been under lockdown for about four months. I started to put down my thoughts but I felt fake. So I just want to give an update of what is happening on my end.

 I have been getting tons of music. I mean lots of music to sort through. This is the time to do it. My baby has a bib that say snacks on snacks on snacks. So I am literally getting songs on songs on songs.

  Maybe out of 100 djs, there were maybe 25 who learned from spinning vinyl. And out of those 25 there are probably 10 who still have the vinyl and turntables. I am part of those 10 percent who still have vinyl. When I was converting my vinyl tracks to MP3s it was a super long process. I had to play each song and record it. Once it was recorded I would have to burn it on a cd then master the volume. But a little known fact is when you download a cd on iTunes its default is at 192 bitrate. So I did all my vinyl and converted it to the default. It does sound fine to the ear but if you were going to play at a stadium it would not sound as crisp as a 320 bit rate. So That is what I have been doing is getting songs I already have but at a higher bit rate. Also going through my collection and just keeping songs I would play. Sometimes more is too much and its good to have the essentials and the one tracks that make you different as a performer. It is always good to review what you have and what tracks you have forgotten. This time last year, I was super busy but these past four months I did not throw in the towel but rather looking to come back stronger and more organized than ever. 

What Can We Do While the Pandemic?

Slowly places are opening up with restrictions. Eventually they will start opening wedding venues. When will it will it happen in California? We have no idea. It can be frustrating since in other states they are allowing it. California is conservative in that respect. But in the long run it just makes it safer for everyone.

Keep your guests in the loop about what is happening with your wedding and keep your vendors closer. Go over your music playlist and with all this time it will be flawless. Get your guests involved and ask them what they want to hear at the wedding and you can include the feedback on you playlist.

As your dj, I am keeping safe myself. I am home 23 hours a day. For an hour a day, I go on a run with a mask and filter on. I do see families walking without masks and I avoid them. I go through the backstreets so it is not busy. Anyone who comes to the door, I talk to them through the window. I have not mixed any households meaning I have not set foot in another house no anyone come to my house. 

 I have subscribed to a multiple music record pools to keep the music fresh and look for classics that will always be fresh. I also was pretty decent with making edits of songs but I have been honing my craft with edits by putting them out for other djs to use in their sets thus keeping editing skills up for your special song needs to be the way you like it. 

Times have changed. For two months I did not go to any stores and stayed at home. Recently I went to a store and it was different seeing everyone wearing a mask. I walked out the car with a mask and gloves. While waiting in line, I made sure I kept 8 feet away. Social gatherings are not permitted at this time in California. 2020 was supposed to be the year of the wedding. 

Below is an article from the Mercury News.

Anyone who’s ever gotten married knows there are a million things to obsess over. Misplaced rings. Keeping feuding relatives from sitting near each other. Hoping the band shows up on time. But Love Singhal and Sarita Jayantee Biswal are probably the first couple that ever had to worry about their Wi-Fi connection dropping.

That’s because Tuesday night they had Santa Clara County’s first-ever wedding conducted over a Zoom conference call, with friends and family witnessing the blessed event online from as far away as India.

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez officiated the wedding from her office at the county government center on North First Street, throwing handfuls of confetti — made of shredded board of supervisors agendas — in front of her webcam after the couple said “I do.”

“It’s so hopeful that people are getting married right now,” Chavez said. “I feel full of hope to see Sarita and Love, who have been apart from each other for so long being in the same place and being able to get married and also have their family and friends being able to join them.”

Having their wedding take place on Zoom isn’t actually that unusual for the tech-savvy couple, who met in 2016 on Shaadi.com, an Indian matrimonial website. Singhal was living in San Jose working for Intel and Baswal was in Texas working for Hewlett Packard. When Baswal went back to work in India for a year, they kept in touch via Skype.

They were finally reunited in San Jose in 2019, but Baswal still commutes during the week to Southern California, where she works for Cognizant Technical Solutions. They got engaged on Valentine’s Day this year and decided they didn’t want to wait very long to tie the knot. Their marriage license was issued March 5, and they planned to get married at the chapel at the Santa Clara County government center two weeks later.

But the COVID-19 pandemic that triggered the shelter-in-place order changed their plans.

California law requires that marriages be performed in the physical presence of the officiants, but Chavez wrote to Gov. Gavin Newsom on April 20 requesting a temporary suspension of that requirement because of the statewide shelter-in-place order. Newsom issued an executive order last week temporarily allowing virtual ceremonies, and this was believed to be the state’s first virtual wedding since the change.

As far as weddings go, this one was definitely a DIY affair. The wedding planners included Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder Gina Alcomendras, who made sure everything was done legally, and Leslie Chan, a multimedia tech at the county, who kept the ceremony running smoothly from a technical standpoint.

The couple decorated the wall behind them with red and white balloons and flowers. Guests joined the Zoom conference call from as far away as their native India where it was actually Wednesday morning. Phones were muted so nobody had to worry about somebody’s phone ringing during the vows. No band? No problem. Chavez played their song, “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, over the call as they danced for the first time as a married couple.

“Even in COVID-19, people find a way to connect, and to say in front of God and the world that I’ve chosen this other person to spend the rest of my life with is kind of an awesome thing, especially right now,” Chavez said. “I don’t know if it’ll be the wave of the future, but it’s the wave of right now.”

 Mercury news article

This week I have been focused on some mixes. I thought of the music that really made me passionate about djing and my latest mix is all about it.

For 7 years, I worked at a night club in San Jose. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday it was packed. I do remember the line was so long to get inside and it was one of the premier spots in San Jose. One thing that got people excited was the music. Times were a little different in the late 90s and early 2000s. Music was house based. There was probably like 3 to 5 hip hop songs during the night but the vibe was house music. I do like hip hop but house is what really made me move. Here is the best of the best tracks that they played at the time. True Classics!

https://www.mixcloud.com/wingmansj/late-90s-early-2000s-house-club-mixxx-bay-area-edition/