Tag Archives: Wedding

Weddings, Weddings, Weddings!

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It may appear obvious to most folks, but I am caught off-guard by the shear volume of contacts I receive from Brides and Grooms about their Weddings every winter at this time. I love it! There is something so exciting for me to answer a phone call or email from a Bride or Groom wanting information and guidance for their future Wedding. I feel totally of use as a professional Wedding DJ. My experience, knowledge and expertise are on full display and each Bride and Groom can feel the energy I create from the initial contact. I think that is one of the reasons I get hired for so many Rhode Island Weddings. Authenticity is a treasured commodity for planning a Rhode Island Wedding for a Bride or Groom. The Wedding industry is filled with ‘salespeople’ and ‘marketing pros’ that are smooth as silk in their presentation.

Fun Groom Partying with Rhode Island Wedding DJ

I think many Brides and Grooms today are looking for Wedding Professionals that are more authentic and offer simple and elegant Weddings for a fair price for the Bride and Groom and the Wedding Professional. It is my experience that you really do want to pay your Wedding DJ or Wedding Photographer what we are worth. As long as you are not being taken advantage of along the way. These days Brides get a bad rap in the media about being cheap and price-shoppers, without an eye for quality and taste. My Brides and Grooms are real people that want outstanding service and a very personal touch without acting like we are your brothers or sister; just an authentic professional co-creating an exceptional and unique Wedding with you. You want an experienced Wedding DJ that is fun, professional and authentic.

Beautiful Outdoor Wedding with Rhode Island Wedding DJ

Wedding Industry Con Artists

There is a video clip floating around the Internet about an ‘expose’ on Wedding Vendors conning Brides and Grooms. I saw a small clip of it and it broke my heart that this happens. Even if it is exaggerated grossly, the fact that this happens at all repulses me. How can somebody in clear conscious steal from a Bride and Groom trying to begin the next chapter of their life together? I will write more on this later in the week.

Bride Dancing with Fun Rhode Island Wedding DJ

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & Boston DJ

Garter Toss, Still OK at Weddings?

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I remember in my twenties, how the Garter Toss and subsequent putting the Garter onto the woman who caught the Bouquet Toss was such a fun and exciting moment at Weddings. As young guys, anything that involved competition, better yet, competition for a single woman, was totally a blast. Half the fun was laughing at each other while diving for a little garter from the leg of the woman a friend had just married added to the goofiness of the event. I doubt very much any of us knew the tradition behind the Bouquet Toss and Garter Toss.

 

It used to be believed that the woman who caught the Bouquet Toss at Weddings would be the next single woman to get married. BUT, did you know the same was true of the man who caught the Garter Toss as well? It’s true, the man who caught the Garter Toss was also believed to be the next single man to marry. I am sure that if we knew this tradition back then, none of us would have put in as much effort to catch the Garter Toss. Another Garter Toss tradition includes the Garter being raffled off after being removed from the Bride to help offset the financial burdens that the young couple would now endure. This is instead of having the Garter Toss placed on another woman. Of course today, couples get married older and often are financially solid already at the time of their wedding.

Fun Bouquet Toss at Wedding before Garter Toss with DJ Mystical Michael

Is the Garter Toss & placement on leg of the woman who catching the Bouquet still OK?

Let’s take a closer look at The Garter Toss based on experience as a professional Wedding DJ in the New Jersey, New York and Philly area and some social shifts that may have made the Garter Toss a little behind the times. I am not going to explore issues related to how this may or may not devalue women, that is a different topic than what is being reviewed in this piece.

Groom Takes Garter Off Bride At Wedding before Garter Toss with DJ Mystical Michael

When men and women were typcially only single till their early to mid-twenties, the man and woman that would be the participants in the man placing the Garter  Toss on the woman’s leg would be of similar age and ‘readiness’ to get married next. It was fun, playful, sexy and represented a set of values at the time. Today, we have many men that are single due to divorce and lifestyle choices in middle age. This creates a unique situation when the female that catches the Bouquet is possibly in her late teens or early twenties and the man who will be putting his hands and the Garter Toss up her leg in middle age. It can feel and be somewhat yucky, and maybe even creepy to watch.

 A Possible Solution To The Garter Toss Problem

As a professional Wedding DJ, I have a found a solution to those Brides and Grooms that still want to have the option of the Garter Toss being placed on the woman. If this kind of situation occurs, we have a predetermined, non-verbal hand signal that we give to each other to acknowledge and agree if it is good to go ahead or not, depending on how things worked out. I know this sounds funny but it works!

Beautiful Woman on Dance Floor at Wedding with DJ Mystical Michael before Garter Toss

I have experienced this a few times and the Bride and Groom were both so grateful we had come up with a plan in advance, to save everyone. This is especially true for the young woman, and an uncomfortable situation. In fact, I had a wedding this past Spring that the man and woman that caught the Bouquet Toss ad Garter Toss were a couple that just broke up recently and both were at the wedding with other dates! We all laughed later on after the Reception but at that moment, it was such a relief to have a system already in place.

 

Each Bride and Groom must make your own decision whether to include the Garter Toss and/or Garter Placement but I invite you to create a system you and your Wedding DJ agree on, in case something goes in a direction that you do not want at your wedding.

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Deb and Cory Wedding

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This gallery contains 19 photos.

  DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ    

Grant and Meng Wedding

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This gallery contains 11 photos.

  DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Caitlyn and Ryan Wedding

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DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married

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Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married is one of my favorite remixes ever! How bad can it be to have Run DMC beats and vocals with Let’s Get Married lyrics and Jagged Edge doing his thing? It is easy to not pay homage to Run DMC since they seem to have become the forgotten pioneers. It is too bad because they found the beauty in simplicity and staying true to what they wanted to say and produce beats that were danceable, strong and hard to ignore. They never veered from the roots of Hip Hop as a movement, not just a musical genre. Social awareness and sharing the The Struggle were what they did best and did not really feel the need to re-invent themselves as something different.

“Every turning point in American music has its originator, its progenitor, its King.  The blues had W.C. Handy and jazz had Louis Armstrong.  Swing had Benny Goodman and bebop had Charlie Parker.  Rhythm and blues had Ray Charles and rock and roll had Elvis Presley.  Punk rock had the Stooges and disco had Barry White.  And hip-hop had Run-DMC – and always will, with their uncompromised vision and attitude, as laid out on their formative albums and singles, serving as the DNA of rap music for more than two decades and counting.”  Run-DMC Website

As a professional Wedding DJ, Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married is one of the Wedding Introductions songs that is most fun to play. It is high energy without being over-the-top, gets everybody rockin’ and has the wedding message right there for all to hear.  I am glad that when I recommend Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married to Brides and Grooms, they often get excited if they happen to appreciate Hip Hop and R&B.

Jagged Edge Featuring Run-DMC Let’s Get Married Music Video

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Club Nouveau Lean On Me

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Club Nouveau Lean On Me. It was my one and only summer sleep-away camp experience. I was not a happy camper. I did however enjoy the days we had art. The art shop was nice and full of layers of used paint on the desks and all kinds of fun stuff to play with. My favorite part of art class at summer camp was the radio that sat on the end table next to the door.  It seemed every day that we were in the art room making who knows what kind of awful ‘paintings’, Bill Withers was on the radio. Some days it was “Lean On Me” and the other was “Ain’t No Sunshine” but it was always the bright spot of my day.  It is one of the classic Soul gems from the 70’s that every good professional DJ uses at liberty. Club Nouveau Lean On Me offers a fresh new sound to the old classic.

 

It is rare that a remake of such a classic can be even close to the original. In this case, I have read debates about which version is better, Club Nouveau Lean On Me or Bill Withers. The fact that there is even a discussion says how great the Club Nouveau Lean On Me version is.  I appreciate the fact that they made it their own with a different sound without losing the original feeling.  “Lean On Me” is now a classic in two generations and maybe a third someday. Club Nouveau Lean On Me is from The Album Life, Love & Pain in 1986. Club Nouveau Lean On Me made it to number one on The Billboard Hot 100 Charts for two weeks!

Club Nouveau Lean On Me:

http://youtu.be/XhBLfTULccA

Which do you like better, Club Nouveau Lean On Me or Bill Withers Lean On Me?

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ

Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love

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It was a rather large Internet Café that was also a coffee shop and fast food restaurant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan that I visited quite often making arrangements to return to Korea on my way back to The USA after eighteen months abroad! I first heard Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love there.

Almost every time I was in this establishment, in the background I could hear this incredibly interesting song with what I thought was a Turkish beat in the middle. The soft gentle rhythms contrasted well with the hard-driven but clean beats. I was aching to know whom and what this song was but could not find anyone who spoke enough English to ask. I would hear Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love in stores and buses all over Tashkent and everywhere else I visited in Central Asia. I left that part of the world hoping someday I would find Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love.

 

A few months ago, a young woman whom I am a close friends with was writing me about some things going on in her life. After we completed the serious part of our emailing, she said she wanted to turn me onto some great new stuff she was listening to. It turned out she was sending me an mp3 of Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love – the song I was searching for with no avail! Since then Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love has become an American hit on radio and clubs one year later for professional DJs everywhere.

 

It seems as if Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love was an international hit in Europe and Asia last year before finally making its way to The States, in my case, better late than never. He is a Romanian singer, writer and professional DJ. Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love comes from an Azerbaijan modern classic, not a pop or dance song at all.

 

Last night I was walking home from the gym and heard Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love playing out of three different cars while passing by. It made me smile and remember my time in Central Asia and how the Internet has helped artists make their way around the globe in ways we never thought possible in twenty years ago. This professional DJ is happier for this growth in technology and being able to find and play Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love.

Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love:

When and where did you first hear Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina Stereo Love?

DJ Mystical Michael Rhode Island DJ & NY DJ