A Celebration of life is an event to remember someone who is no longer with us. We try to invite friends and families to the event. Especially at these times it is difficult since there is a pandemic going on and people are trying to stay in their homes. People can still partake in the activities but just need to be safe in these situations. 

We had a small gathering at Fortino Winery. We had around 15 people present. We were playing music that the guest of honor loved. It was a lot of 70s rock. His bride also had music she loved which was classic r&b. 

In the middle of the celebration friends and family took turns sharing stories. They had a nice touch with pictures of the guest of honor on the table. They also had a board with a lot of pictures. I have seen other Celebrations of life use projectors with pictures showing through the whole event. 

Celebration of Life is an opportunity to share stories and to give one last good bye. From what I seen mostly there are appetizers at the event. It can be a solemn time but also a joyous time. The person being honored is being celebrated and friends and family can relive the good times they had with each other. It gives an opportunity for family to get together with the guest of honor’s friends and share words and food with each other.

Finding the right DJ

The year of the wedding was marked 2020. Everyone wanted to be married on that year. Bam then covid hit and in California pretty much shut down. Some folks were able to reschedule their wedding with smaller guest lists in 2021. Then people were saying 2022 is going to be the year full of weddings and while I type this there is an increase of Covid Cases. It might be a short phase or it may continue. Some folks are opting for quick small weddings without a reception due to the restrictions in California. 

  Having a destination wedding in California can be the answer. There is plenty of open space venues that will be a solution during these uncertain times. A lot of destination weddings are smaller in attendance since it is not local to the attendees. Setting up a destination wedding can be difficult since most of the vendors will be new to the couple and have not used before. Setting up a wedding is like having a second job since there is a lot of prep to interview the vendors and then having to select the perfect one for the job. To make it easier there are venues that are all inclusive to take out all the guess work. That is one way to make it easier.

Finding the right dj for your destination wedding maybe a wee bit more difficult. Some venues may have in-house djs but I would not trust that. It’s a dj they always use and most of the time maybe only exclusive for that venue. But if the dj is on the venue’s preferred vendor list then that maybe better to choose for. It shows that the dj has been there before and did a good job so they recommend them. An in-house dj means the fee paid for the dj goes into the venue’s pockets and dj maybe good or not so good but the venue will recommend them either way since it means better profits. 

I recommend actually talking to the dj and getting a feel for them. These times it’s so easy to send a text or an email and get information about the dj but I feel getting the right dj is so important. They are going to be your party director or the Fun Ninja of your big event. It’s their job to build the energy of the event. In the phone call you will feel of their musical knowledge and if they actually like the music that you enjoy. Ask them about their wedding knowledge and what they recommend for the order of events. How quickly can they respond to you is important? You want a dj to have the best communication. You want them to help you with the playlist and give you suggestions and offer suggestions on how to do the events. They should be open-minded to the events you want to do or not do. A wedding is your event and you should have it any way you want since it’s a representative of you and your new spouse. 

Right before new years I got to be part of a private party. It was from a family I djed before at a different venue and they wanted to celebrate different events since everyone was locked down for so long. Miss L gave me a good list to work with. She had a lot of songs she grew up listening to plus she had different family members share their list with her. It was a mix of old school and good dance music. We traveled from the 50s sock hop era with stops with 70s classic rock, and 90s dance. 

 The event was at the Double Tree at the Pruneyard in Campbell. They had a banquet room on the second floor. They had around 7 tables and there were under 30 folks in attendance. There was a dance floor there. It was cute since the staff wanted to put a table on the dance floor for appetizers and Miss L was not going to have it. She was like we are going to dance the whole night so please move the table elsewhere. She was right. Dancing was happening the whole night. Double Tree even had my silverware ready on my table but I did not have a chance to eat since there was always someone dancing. Typically, you play music with low to medium energy during dinner time but we were putting up the energy in high gear. 

  Venue space was nice and staff was very courtesy. Guests were polite and loved to dance. It was a good night!

I was all over the bay area for 3 holiday corporate events. Saturday we were doing a big internet company bash in Morgan hill. This is the 3rd event I have for the group. They gave me a lot of songs in their playlist of their liking. Mama mia served up a master meal. A few of the leaders spoke about achievements and talked about folks they wanted to hi light. We finished up the night on the dance floor.

The following day we were doing a corporate event in Fremont which was primarily Spanish music. This was the first corporate event where most of the music was Spanish. I started the event with a little xmas music then 15 min in when folks started showing up I then went with Spanish. I did throw in some old school classics in English. The boss was a young man and his assistant were running the events. They were running games for their employees for nice prizes. Later on they did a raffle and gave out prizes. The songs that got everyone grooving was cumbia and salsa.

Then on Thursday we had a real estate party. They know how to party and they did it on a weekday. It was at their office and they were very happy folks. It was supposed to be a 3 hour event but it was extended to an extra hour. It was all old school and r&b the whole night, No new music the past 5 years was played. There were no announcements and the theme was just to eat drink and be merry. All of them succeeded!

Homecoming at Kings Academy

This is the first time I am doing a dance right after a football game. The dance starts at 9 and will finish close to midnight. I had a list of over 300 songs. A lot of the songs were very good dance music. These were the songs I can use for the event and could not stray from the list. It does have a feel good vibe with the music. 

 I was underneath a huge tent and my power was close by. I was able to set up my big boy speakers and lights in an hour time. It did take some more time since I had to take my gear through a few gates from my car. 

 I loved the positive energy. Once I was set up a girl from the leadership team asked if I needed a drink or snacks. Then she came up again and asked if I was ok. That was awesome!!!

At the end of the night I got assistance in putting my gear away which was a big help.

At the beginning of the dance I knew it would be different. At the start, students were at the front and cheering in all the students that came in. Imagine hearing the applause when you walked in! Some students would run in. Some of the artists that were on the list were Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. The list itself was preapproved so the content was student appropriate. I did notice they would like to bounce with the cool house/edm songs.

Overall a fabulous night with Kings Academy. These students were ready to dance and they had the positive vibe!

We had a homecoming event at Independence High School. For homecoming this year we it has been out door events. Independence is a big school so we were in a large area. I had to make sure there was enough sound and light for the area. Sound was easily covered. I brought my (2)3 way speakers plus my other speakers I bring to all my events. My smaller speakers can actually fill up a small gym. I also set up my lights to cover the dance area. 

It was the day before Halloween so I only snuck in two Halloween songs. One was thriller which the students enjoyed but also threw in Ghostbusters since I saw one guy wearing a ghost busters outfit. But the vibe was definitely hip hop and we played a lot of the current songs and a lot of the classic mainstays. I was able to go deep with 00s music then go do a few Spanish Songs then back to the newer stuff. I do like the fact that older house music is popular. Songs by Calvin Harris and Pitbull were popular. Those songs are over 10 years old but they were still hitting. I did notice that at some dances the djs play only one genre but I like to put a lot of different genres there so more folks can get more into. I even went with Taylor Swift and that did hit pretty hard. 

They had food trucks and boba drinks. There was a good vibe happening and the weather was cooperative. There is always the question if the weather is going to be an issue but it was a good feel outside. I love working with schools.