Tag Archive for: cheap djs
The Hawks Landing Tasting Event
is the perfect opportunity for engaged brides and grooms to get a taste of exactly what Hawks Landing has to offer. Bring your family, friends, and bridal party to help you pick out the perfect menu for your wedding or special event!
Enjoy food, fun, dancing, our photo booth and experience what some of CT’s best wedding vendors have to offer.
The tasting is from 6pm to 10pm at the Bella Vista Banquet Room this Saturday, February 13th 2016. It’s just $25 per guest and groups of 8 or more guests will receive $10 off of their total table.
Call Jamie at 860-793-6000 ext. 8 or email jamie@hawkslandingcc.com to purchase tickets! We’ll see you tomorrow at HAWKS!
Use Spotify for your wedding and SAVE!!!
You’re probably asking yourself right now, “Ok, you’re an entertainment company that specializes in weddings. Why on earth would you promote a cheaper alternative?” Let’s begin.
Recently, Spotify has been promoting their ability to DJ your wedding for you with the use of custom playlists for your wedding. How awesome is that? Just hook up your iphone to a speaker and you’re good to go! It sounds too good to be true.
I understand the need to be budget conscious on some things. But knowing what to invest in and what to be frugal with are a matter of priority. If you want that 10,000 dollar dress and as a result, can’t afford a professional wedding photographer to capture you in your Vera Wang 5 digit dress, $800 Chris Louboutin heels, and designer necklace, what good is spending $10,000 on a dress? Same goes for your entertainment.
You’ve taken great care for making sure that every last detail is how you want it. The venue is exactly as you dreamed it would be, the centerpieces are just perfect, and every chair back comes wrapped in linen and decorated with a bow. A beautiful setting fit for a queen. And right near the dance floor is a speaker sitting on the floor with your iphone sitting on top and a cord draped over the speaker. Charming!
Now here it comes time for your introductions and first dance. Who announces you and your bridal party in? Who controls the iphone while you’re busy with introductions? Can they use them simultaneously to announce you in and change the music and or volume if it’s too loud or soft? Will spotify decide it’s a great time to let your 150 guests know that you can enjoy even more music by using Spotify premium for just $10 a month? Will the person using the microphone stand far enough away from the speaker to not let it feed back and squeal with delight during your introductions?
Phew! Now that we’ve got the intros and first dance out of the way, we’ve got to do a toast to the happy couple. Your besties head up to the lone speaker on the floor and grab the microphone and set their whiskey sour on the speaker. (Where else would they put it? They have 3 pages of stories to tell) In a moment of excitement, the best man bumps into the speaker knocking your $600 iphone to the floor and to add insult to injury, siri does a shot of whiskey sour to soften the blow when his drink crashes to the floor. Your iphone needs to be dried out to prevent it from shorting out so you run up and quickly dry it off with an expensive napkin from your table only to find out that the phone is toast. You quickly beg someone for their iphone to use and try to download spotify into their phone to get your music back but alas, it won’t be your account because the phone is assigned to it’s owner with an entirely different email address. Your wedding list is gone.
Thankfully, you can still stream regular spotify so you choose one of the safe playlists like jazz for dinner and like clockwork, every 3rd song has a commercial before it. Nice! You want to dance with your father following dinner but can’t seem to remember what song it was because it was in your whiskey soaked phone and you didn’t need to write it down because Spotify had you covered. So you pick a song quickly and grab your dad. Theres a long pause while the phone buffers a new song and finally begins to play. You and dad dance for 3.5 minutes and at the end you hear a round of applause followed by, “Did you know? Spotify Premium is just $10 a month!”
I don’t think I need to tell you that there is more to come.
It’s no secret. You can have spotify for your wedding, of course! But, what do you have to play it on? Are you going to invest in a pair of $600 powered speakers (That’s as cheap as they get. We are an authorized dealer for many brands of audio and lighting), speakers stands ($90/pair), a microphone, extension cables to plug it in and tape to ensure that your guests don’t trip over your thrifty investment? After all is said and done, you’re going to spend at least that much on a wedding DJ. Its your wedding. You deserve BETTER.
Prom advisor tips – Hiring the right prom dj
Being a prom advisor can be a daunting task. You’ve got a budget to figure out, students to make happy, and the administration’s microscope on every decision you make. So how do you pick the right entertainment for your school?
The $300 dilema.
Three Hundred Dollars seems to be the number that is carelessly tossed about in conversation when it comes to disc jockeys. Why is that? It all depends on who you ask. $300 won’t get you very far. The old adage “Good things aren’t cheap and cheap things aren’t good.” is very appropriate when it comes to hiring entertainment. So what should you look for?
Your prom DJ should be professional through and through. They should have commercial liability insurance to protect your school and themselves should an emergency arise. They should have experience with students and a clean track record. They should use a music subscription service like ‘PrimeCuts’ that updates their music library weekly with CLEAN and Radio Friendly music. They should have ample equipment to facilitate 500 students or more and not use things like iPods or consumer grade equipment. They should offer lighting that is event appropriate. And last but not least, the should have references.
All of these items mentioned are crucial to the success of your prom. And by the same token, those things come with a price tag. In the end, it’s all about value and how much your peace of mind is worth. When it comes to proms, remember one thing. It’s one night. You get one shot. There are no do overs. It’s got to be PERFECT.
School Dances: Back to the grind…
I recently saw a post in a mobile DJ forum that seems to be a hot button lately for school dances. The grind issue.
Now speaking from my experiences from when I went to high school, the “dance” trends were a little different. It was all about who could show off their best MC Hammer or Michael Jackson moves or maybe a battle of the headbangers would ensue when Metallica was played. My parents did the twist and the stroll. And their parents did the swing and the foxtrot. But kids today are pushing the envelope and grinding teachers and faculty down to a fine powder.
So what is grinding exactly? To put it metaphorically, it is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire. This type of “dancing” is inappropriate for people of this age group and teachers are counting on us as entertainers to enforce strict “no grinding” policies when it comes to school dances. That being said, where does the responsibility lie? The DJ is there to provide music entertainment for the students and faculty. The chaperones and teachers are there to ensure that the school dance is a safe environment for the students. A true experienced professional who specializes in youth events would never encourage his audience to participate in destructive or lewd behavior.
So, what can we do as DJs to help create a fun environment without grinding? It’s simple.
Every consult that I go to with a school I always say the same thing. “Grinding for kids is like a big red button. The more you tell them not to push that button, the more likely they will.” I’m sure we can all remember when we were teens, we pushed boundaries and tested the waters to see how far we could go. The truth is, most students are there to have a good time. Not all kids participate in grinding. The best thing a school could do is to leave well enough alone and take care of the few “bad seeds” when necessary. The DJ can also support this by playing more upbeat songs with a higher BPM. Engaging the audience with a simple, “PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR. NOW EVERYBODY SCREAM” is a sure fire way to keep the excitement up and the grinding to a minimum.
All of these small steps can be taken to keep the kids happy, the faculty happy, and the DJ happy. So just remember the next time you are planning your next school social event… Don’t stress over grinding. Just plan on having the time of your life…