Michigan Wedding DJ Royal Oak, MI

Michigan Wedding Ceremonies - Officiants Ministers Priests & DJ

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:57:50 +0000

I’ve seen a lot of funny things in my dj career of 19 years but this ceremony on youtube was a first. I have a client contracting me to not only dj her Michigan Wedding Reception but to officiate it as well in late 2010. I have never officiated a wedding ceremony in the Detroit, Michigan area before and chose to do so only because this bride and groom presented a bucket list opportunity to me. She wanted something really off the wall and creative for her ceremony at the Gem Theater in Detroit later this year. We are in essence going to turn her ceremony into a musical. Something I’ve always thought would be a blast. Though it is going to be different than the video below, i felt it only right to give 2 thumbs up to this couple for doing something different. Not to mention having to hire your dj to be at the ceremony is usually a good thing for the dj service as well.

New Years Eve Reception at The Colony Club in Detroit

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:48:26 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update and I have a few events I want to share with you. Well, this wedding reception on New Years Eve in the “D” was pretty darn cool. The bride and groom were totally cool and were actually referred to me by wedding coordinator Misty Trompeter of Bells & Bliss . She said “Dan, i just think you guys would be a good fit.” Well she was right.

I’d have to tell you that one of the greatest things about this reception besides the dancing was the food. Here we are at this very high end event venue and in each corner of the room were food stations. Station 1 had the busiest of all food offerings. They had tacos — not off the shelf standard Ortega variety taco shells but real mexican village style with nacho chips that were out of this world. In fact I need to contact the chef to find out where he got them. Corner number 2 with the second busiest station had stir fry with peanut and soy sauce to lay over the great chicken, shrimp and rice. Station number 3 was a pasta bar and the least busy station was I think prime rib and turkey. I am telling you people were getting 3rds and 4ths as I played music with Detroit Roots per the bride’s and groom’s request. Because I couldn’t help myself I threw out some cool salsa and merengue music into the mix (must have been those tacos) including Ray Barretto and Grover Washington. So their you have it - the food really stood out because they took the leap and went for it. Don’t get me wrong most of the food I eat in this industry is excellent but this was “excellenter” (I love adding er to words).

In addition they did this evening in a strolling fashion. What that means is there is no real assigned seating, stations open up and people are free to go anywhere in the room.
AND it also allows anyone at anytime to get up and start dancing. This is not always a good thing though for a number of reasons but it worked out fine at this Detroit Michigan Wedding Reception with Michigan Wedding DJ - yours truly.
Musically we were all over the board but the younger generation was doing most of the voting with their bodies so there was a decent dose of hip-hop both old and new sprinkled in with their more classic motown requests.

OH… one more thing they did right was to give me some direction on what they were after musically but also they made sure it was ultimately up to me to do what was necessary to get people out dancing.

Courtesy of Mod4.com

Picture Montage for Table Seating

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:43:13 +0000

Cool Wedding Seating Chart Idea

I’ve seen versions of this at other weddings in Michigan, pieces of this, but not done like this. How is that for a funky description. They simply grabbed photographs of places they have been together. They then labeled the tables with that destination and their wedding guests sat accordingly. The picture of the “board” pretty much answers any questions you may have about it. This looks like it was done at a place like Kinko’s wherein it was layed out on poster board and then copied so it would be all smooth and finished nicely. It could also be done I am sure in an art program with a large file output. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool so I figured I’d pass it on to you. The event was at Addison Oaks Sunday, September 27th, 2009.

It reminds me of another client I dj’d for last year. They had a surfboard with their pictures grafted right onto the board. Guests then signed their names on it. I tried to track down the vendor on this but had no luck. They simply emailed the pictures and the guy wrapped and glossed the whole board. It was cool. I will try to locate the client for an answer on this.

Remember, if you need a Michigan Wedding DJ - this is the site to find him.

Michigan Wedding DJ Suggests Bride’s Re-think Timing

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:00:28 +0000

Ok, this could get some brides thinking I am a militant hyper opinionated dj and business owner. Well, the truth is it’s really more about helping my clients have a great wedding. Here is the tip and a little background.

1) Michigan has the longest wedding receptions in the country already with 6 hours as the norm. Even New York is at 4 hours.
2) People with kids and those married over the age of 25 generally speaking, not always have some sort of internal ding that says “get to bed my midnight”. I didn’t create this ding - it just is.

So, if you do have the usual 6 hour Michigan Wedding Reception, consider that 6 hours is 2 times longer than you ever, even in your college party days, spent dancing. “Oh but Dan, my friends and I used to get to the club around 10 and dance until it closed”… OK OK - but the club didn’t have to play music for people of all ages. They often just played to that core target market and that is a whole lot easier than keeping 150 people going at a wedding where people have diverse tastes and stamina. I am not suggesting you cut back to less time but I sure hope you can see that 7 hours is for 99% of the crowds too long. The best weddings are the ones where the floor is still packed at closing time and that is way harder to do when the dance window goes from 3.5 hours to 4.5 hours. Not impossible (I’ve done it) but the law of diminishing returns comes to play.

Remember I mentioned the midnight and people’s internal ding? Here is a tricky way to use that to your advantage. Start your Michigan Wedding Reception at 5pm and go to 11pm. Now, everyone is home on time for their sitter and are surprised when the last dance comes an hour earlier than expected. Now, you have a full house at closing time. This is a good way to end. As a Michigan professional wedding dj, I am only suggesting that you’ll get more out of your night by having more people there for the entire evening than if they start rolling out to get home by midnight. For more great wedding reception tips check out the video below.

Silent Disco - Euroasian Dance Invasion - Silent Weddings

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:18:36 +0000

This is too cool and certainly something for brides and grooms that want to do something a little different in the USA. Especially Michigan brides hiring THE Michigan Wedding DJ. Watch the video about the silent disco craze. I can supply these for couples that want to book venues with sound ordinance issues, neighborhood noise laws, or just because they think it’s fun and odd. It’s a bit pricey but watching people dance to different rhythms and sing out loud acapella is a belly laugh of an evening. More info upon request.

Again, call Michigan Wedding DJ if you’d like to have a quiet wedding yet still have everyone dancing. 248-541-0250 They are also available for rent across the USA. I’ll drop ship them to you and your dj can simply plug in the transmitter and run 2 different genres all night giving everyone something to dance to. Headphone weddings… what is next?

A new favorite site for brides that want something a bit different!

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:03:27 +0000

If you live in Michigan or elsewhere you’ll find this site to be something really cool. If you get a little tired of the boiler plate wedding receptions check out Off Beat Bride. I give it 3 thumbs up! Maybe I’m a bit partial to it because I’ve booked two weddings as a result of brides sharing my name in it but really - it’s something different. Brides - do something different. I’ve got ideas to make your reception and your ceremony more fun. Of course music is a big piece of my ideas because I’m a dj but nonetheless go for it! If you’re into it, it’s a lot easier for me to “sell it” to your guests.

Michigan Wedding in Keego Harbor

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:52:41 +0000

Ok, this was one of those weddings I was a bit concerned about having all the right music for. The bride and groom had different musical tastes that bordered on very “indie” in some cases. They also had some pretty normal requests too — so frankly that soothed my dj soul. What gave me a bit more concern (nothing too heavy, I don’t get freaked anymore - I’ve seen all kinds of people over 18 years of doing weddings in Michigan) was when the guests started to arrive many of them had the very “hip” rock star hairstyles, there were many piercings and a groomsman asked if he could call me dj fancy pants. OK… here is how it all panned out. It was super, they came to have a good time and the thing they did right was pick some stuff to express their style at key points - during bridal entrance, bouquet and garter and the other few main bridal songs. Beyond that they understood that though they liked a lot of stuff their guests wouldn’t necessarily know, we could go a bit more mainstream during the rest of the evening shy of a few (as in 3) other requests. My favorite from their picks for dancing and one that could possibly even work with other crowds was “Detroit 67″ by Sam Roberts. It was simply a great song and man oh man the guy sounds just like Bono. Anyway, they gave me the freedom to do what i needed to do to get people dancing but still expressed themselves during key points of the evening. Also, they both enjoyed dancing and that never ever hurts the dance floor. OH, lest i forget the groom was a marine and he cut the cake with his sword and that was pretty cool too!

Ok, that’s it for now.
Michigan Wedding DJ

What The Bride & Groom Did Right

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:53:20 +0000

Hi, this is the first post wherein much like a movie critic I will share the highlights of my clients wedding receptions. I will share simply cool ideas, tips and so forth of their Michigan Wedding reception to help you come up with some ideas as well. Many of these will be very short posts AND I will not give away their names nor event dates. They will not be in any particular order either.

Location - Lovett Hall
Bride - She was beautiful and her makeup matched her eye coloring and even her flowers.
Bridesmaids - She had them all wear black and they reminded me of the Robert Palmer Girls. They looked great.
Facility - well it’s Lovett Hall. It’s very unique and it’s at many levels breathtaking. Ceilings are every bit of 30 feet high.
Different - she had a male as a bridesmaid. It actually worked out fine. Why not? It was her friend and he had no issues with it. I thought it was clear and fresh thinking actually.
Timing - She let me run the show as far as events and timing as she respected my dj experience. So… it was all perfect. One thing that worked out in her favor was that she had a fairly long cocktail hour which was more like 90 minutes. This was good because it shrunk the dancefloor window to about 2.5 hours. Compare this to most Michigan Weddings at 3.5 hours. This is a good thing because then the music played is more likely to be a hit as I don’t have to reach as deep to satisfy so many tastes for another hour. Again, Michigan DJ’s play longer than anywhere else in the country because our receptions are 6 hours. Timing is huge. Let your pro dj talk with you about the details of your day. He or she will have a far better handle on it than most wedding coordinators too. Our world is different than theirs. We understand and see things other pros can’t. We actually walk the walk, we’ve been in these shoes a while.
Party Favors - Crystal Wine Bottle Stoppers - they were pretty and boxed real nice. Maybe not a fit for everyone but then what is? I figure at least it is something people will use and remember them by.
Music - she actually was pretty insistent on 80’s and motown. So, I played 80’s and motown and the floor was jammed all night. It was a great event. She told me to limit the current top 40 hip hop stuff and stick to more classic music. Ahhh… it was a nice change of pace as it had “everyone” young and old involved all night. People stayed longer.
Food - Filet and Chicken - it was excellent and the servings were perfect size. Lovett hall has great food so there was little left over on the plates. Also, the salad was really good and colorful.
Cocktail hour was done outside - i dropped a remote speaker and they were good to go. Lovett Hall and the Henry Ford Properties in general have beautiful scenery for receptions and ceremonies in Michigan so it’s hard to go wrong with any of their locations including; The Eagle Tavern, Lovett Hall, Henry Ford Museum and the Dearborn Inn

Hiring a DJ Tips - What Brides & Grooms Should Know Before They Commit to a DJ

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:32:23 +0000

Hi, this video is something I put together for all those brides out there who feel very much in the dark as they navigate the waters of hiring a good mobile dj for their wedding. Though I am Michigan based these dj hiring tips should prove universal. Good luck in your quest for the dj that fits your needs.

Michigan Wedding DJ Dan Nichols may be available for your Michigan Wedding!

Grosse Pointe War Memorial - Michigan Wedding Reception Site Video Tour

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:25:13 +0000

I’ve performed as a wedding dj at many nice places and Grosse Pointe War Memorial is no different. It’s truly a classic amongst the estates on Jefferson Avenue off of Lake St. Clair. The landscaping is something off HGTV and the reception site out back is movie material with a wide expanse of Michigan Water as a backdrop. Like most places i play the biggest strength - it’s beauty is also one of the dj’s biggest hurdles. Hurdles because getting people (my dancers) off the terrace on a beautiful night or from walking over near the lakeside can prove a challenge. The food and wait staff are great and the way it’s set up with huge window views makes you almost feel like you’re on the water. The cocktail/receiving area just outside the ballroom doors is size-able enough to hold an average size wedding with enough spillover room throughout to accompany an even bigger crowd. I’ve done weddings in both the larger ballroom and the “library” (I think they call it the library) when the crowds were smaller. Either is a great choice especially for those that want a water view.

32 Lake Shore Rd
Grosse Pte Farms, MI 48236-3784
(313) 881-7511
Get directions

Michigan Wedding DJ (formerly Boogie Brothers Productions) is happy to serve brides in the area!