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. 

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Virtual Weddings in Santa Clara County

News from our Supervisor: Seems like everything to going virtual. A bride and groom can be married via zoom. Things are changing. I do believe the receptions maybe going virtual too. It’s a changing world and we have to change with the times.

Virtual Weddings in Santa Clara County
 

We are entering the time of year when traditionally many couples hold their wedding ceremonies. Unfortunately, there will be no live wedding ceremonies in our community any time soon because of COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place order.

However, last week Governor Gavin Newsom made it possible for virtual weddings to take place in California. He issued an executive order temporarily suspending the state law requiring marriage ceremonies be performed “in the physical presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and necessary witnesses.”

The Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder is now able to perform virtual wedding ceremonies via Zoom or Skype, as long as at least one half of the couple is a resident of Santa Clara County.


While a virtual wedding is not the same as a live ceremony, we want to make sure that couples who do not want to delay getting married have the opportunity to do so.

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Throwing the bouquet has always been a tradition but with time brides have opted not to do it. Their reasons are that they want to keep the nice bouquet or they think that everyone does it so they don’t want to be cliché. Another reason is maybe they do not have too many female guests that are single. Weddings are what the bride and grooms want and it is not a cookie cutter event. No two weddings are the same. 

  If the bride decides to have the bouquet toss, I always suggest the bouquet two suggestions. The first one is to get a special bouquet to toss. Brides want to keep their original bouquet so why not toss one that is not your special one? The second suggestion is to to the bouquet fake out. The dj invites all the single ladies to the floor and he counts, one, two and three and the bride goes through the motion and does not throw it. Meanwhile the photographer is capturing everything on film. Then the second time the dj does the countdown the bride does throw it and the photographer captures more of the images. It does build a lot of anticipation and more action shots.

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When you think of the Double Tree you think of the warm chocolate chip cookies that come when you get your keys of your room.  Not only does the hotel provide good quality rooms but they host events at many sizes. This is the closest hotel to the hotel and it does have plenty of parking. I found staff to be very helpful. I did need some assistance and the bartender was able to get the right staff to help out

  I was doing an event for a L.A. company who was doing an event for their San Jose clients. While I was setting up in the room, there was a bigger room next to mine. They were having a casino night. There had to be like 300 people in the room enjoying the casino night. We did share the same wall and everything worked out well. The hotel coordinated the events so when one event finished the other one was going to start. After both events were done, staff removed the wall and the room got bigger so the Doubletree can  increase the size of a room.

My party had a bar and dancing There was about 80 people at the function that were coming in and out. It was a client appreciation party so they were taken care of with an open bar. We did not have dinner and we went straight to dancing. The hotel has multiple rooms and this one was not as big as the other ones but they had their privacy.

Congratulations on your wedding. Time to pick a date and secure a venue. You picked a photographer who did good work at your best friend’s wedding and the wedding dress looks perfect. The food is included in the venue package and you seem to be done. Wrong! You have to find the right wedding dj. Do you jump on Craigslist and select a Craigslist Dj? Not a wise choice. Finding the right wedding dj will take some research to make sure they have the skill level and affordable.

Djs that are experienced can become a wedding day of coordinator who have ran big events prior. They get the wedding on the proper path.

Do a Sit down with your DJ

A dj that will not meet with you is not worth your time. The Dj’s job is to serve his guests and it is important to meet up. At this you can work on your timeline or at least get it started then finalize it as it draws closer. A Dj is more than pushing the play button but has to make sure s/he follows the orders of events.

Formulate a timeline

A good Dj has an understanding of what a wedding timeline looks like. S/he can suggest one and the bride and groom decide how in which order they want everything.

Book your dj 6 months or more in advance.

Weddings typically happen on Saturday and there are only 52 Saturdays a year so the dj may be booked if not booked in advanced.

Black and White Affair Dj Services (www.bwadj.com)has been doing big events since 2004. Let us do your big event and let us talk about your big wedding day.

Los Gatos Lodge is a great place for any social gathering. Typically, I set up by the patio area inside but this last function I was in a different room. The room had a mobile bar and there was plenty of tables in the room. On the side of the room was a long table for the buffet and the desserts. I was scheduled to come in the middle of their cocktail hour to set up and they already had a wireless microphone and music playing in their internal system. Los Gatos Lodge would be an ideal place to plan a corporate event or reunion since they can run sound without a dj in case they did not have one or wanted to save money that expense.

It was a 45-year reunion from a local high school.  It was the class of 1974. I do always ask for a list after I send a list of my own to chose from. Usually what I do then I go and look at the top songs of all the years they went to high school so I search from 1971, 1972, 1973, and 1974. I just do not just include the disco but the rock songs. I remember one reunion I did one member said that back in the 70s people were into rock or into disco. I was able to play both. I was able to accommodate requests from the party people at the event. Sometimes that is needed to play a gem that the class jammed to in their younger years.

It was a fabulous party and a lot of folks were dancing to the fun songs they selected.

Menlo Park Wedding Venue Holbrook Palmer Park

Up the 101 there is a pretty park that can hold weddings and private functions. Included is a ceremony area that includes trees and stairs great for pictures. One can hold a small intimate wedding at the venue. Then they can walk about a 150 steps to get to the dinner slash cocktail area which is an outside area. It would be an ideal for a summer gathering. There is shade for the outside the dinner slash cocktail area. 

I was part of a beautiful wedding celebration this past Saturday. I set up in the corner of the ceremony in the shade which I was so grateful. Classical music from Bach and Beethoven was the pre-ceremony music but the rest of the music was so unique. It was by far a very custom event and not your cookie cutter ceremony.  In the procession, a dancer gave her interpretation of a catchy muppet song. The officiant was a friend of the bride and groom and he said great insights about the couple. The couple had touching vows that they shared with their guests. 

There were many highlights of the night but one that stuck out was the bride wanted to dedicate a song to her new husband. She was able to arrange an instrumental and sing a beautiful song in front of everyone right after the thank you speech. It was a big surprise for everyone. Everyone knew the bride can sing but no one knew she was going to give them this treat.

Close to the SF Airport is a wedding venue for anyone who needs to have a reception in the San Francisco Area or the Peninsula. One can be married at a San Francisco church and do the reception in San Mateo since it is so close. They did have a nice courtyard area where people can have a small ceremony or if they wanted to have cocktail area. It was a beautiful day so it was nice to be serving drinks outside in the August summer. 

The wedding reception itself was small and very personable. Around the facility, they had up lighting that added a special aura to the room.  16 up lights were used to surround the whole venue. 

As the dj, I wanted to be close to the dancefloor and the Marriot made it happen. We were able to produce a pretty gobo to project. We did have enough space to include a 7-foot screen and a projector. 

What I liked about this place was we went a few minutes over and the staff was not rushing us out nor tell me to stop on the dot. They let me play the last slow song of the night. Also one of my favorite vibes of the night was the positive energy on the dance floor. The wedding had a mariachi for dinner but I provided the tunes for dancing and it consisted of Spanish music (cumbia and salsa). So the majority was Spanish music and the rest of the music was old school funk. The Couple knew how to have a good time and provided the positive energy in the room.