DJ Impressions, LLC Dance Weblog

I have met with the bride and groom in advance and we prepared a timeline with an order of events and all contact information.  They gave me pictures for their video montage and I took them to Ferguson Fotography and they digitally put them onto cd for ease of use.  The video was constructed over one long night, it was 6:30 a.m. before I was satisfied with it.  A week later… I arrived at the Grand Prairie Hotel and set up in the Endevour I banquet room.  Brent Henderson from Funke Munke Karaoke & DJ Services was setting up for his wedding reception for Micah & Sara Smallwood down the hall.  Micah’s daughter Paige laughed as she told me about the dog in their wedding ceremony.  My wife Nen works with Paige’s mom Ammie at Salon Uptown.  It is a small world.  Eric from Complete Music was in another room but I didn’t get a chance to visit with him.  I met Diane (and her husband Gaylon) who made the cake for Eddie & Dorthea, they were from Diane’s Cake Specialties.  Sarah from the staff and Seth from maintenence assisted in a couple changes for me to be able to set up the full audio, lighting and video for the reception.  Everything was set up and tested and I was off to my sons football game.  Jeremy plays for the Celtics through the YMCA, they won their game against Andover.  Off to the house to shower and dress for an elegant night of entertainment. 

Sarah and another staff member assisted on cue to open the doors for the newly weds as Celebration started playing for the Grand Entrance and everyone cheered as they entered.  They were introduced as Mr & Mrs Eddie Wooten.  I usually do not eat dinner but Eddie is a great friend of mine, so I made an exception.  I had the pleasure of setting with Virgil and Ruby.  We talked about our families and found out they live just a couple blocks away from the Grand Prairie Hotel and a couple houses away from Eddie and Dorthea.  We had a nice visit and a couple good laughs.  After dinner a photo opportunity happened as Eddie got a face full of cake from Dorthea, they kissed and she then had frosting on her nose.  I remember Eddie saying “this is really good cake” as he cleaned it from his face.   A detail was overlooked as there was no one to cut and serve the cake, I assisted one of the guest and was showing how a wedding cake was cut and then the hotel staff stepped in to save the day.  Once everyone sat down, Kyleigh the Maid of Honor toasted the bride and the groom (she is the brides daughter).  You could feel the love and the acceptance of her new stepfather.  Then we turned the attention to the video montage starting out with Dorthea’s pictures to “My Girl”, followed up by Eddie’s pictures to “When I Grow Up To Be A Man” by the beetles.  The last part of the video was to the song “Making Memories” and many memories were made this evening. 

Kent Kershner the Foto Cowboy took many pictures as they danced to “I Swear”, the original version by John Michael Montgomery.  We followed it up by the boquet and garter toss.  Be sure to view these picture at fotocowboy.com.  Earth, Wind and Fire was one of the first request I played along with Sister Sledge.   We then had dollar dance which also acted as a receiving line, this let them visit with the guest on a personal level.  Kyleigh helped throughout the night as needed and was one of the best go-to persons I have ever had.  I remember her brother Jordan dancing with their mom to his favorite song by Rodney Atkins “Watching You”.  There were many request including a song from Seether and a song from Theory of a Deadman requested by Eddie’s best friends.  One of the kids had me call him on his cell phone before ACDC played so he would be ready to dance to it.  He was my sidekick for the evening.  Eric Clapton finished off the night as a table of teens finished off the cake.  I loaded up and chatted with staff as they cleaned up.  Another “Wonderful Tonight” and I was off to bed!

The rain has passed for a second day in a row and the sun looks down at the small church in Mt Vernon, Kansas.  This picture perfect 2 horse town is the setting for a dreamy small wedding for Susie Gorges and Rod Goetz.  Small by no means, I found out that not everyone was invited to the wedding, mostly family and a couple of others.  There was not an empty seat in the church.  The colors were purple and white, including ties and vest.  I asked if they were K-State fans, “no, Susie likes these colors and she must have some pull on her friends, many of them are KU fans and they are wearing purple for her”, said Rod.  I was setup with light background music playing a selection of greats from the rat pack, and some jazz favorites also.  The church doors opened up as the guest, family and friends poured out of the church and into the reception hall.  Cars kept arriving and it was no wonder they couldn’t invite everyone to the wedding due to seating space in the church.

We started the festivities with the cutting of the cake to “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies.  Some of the guest didn’t get a picture of the quick kiss and asked them to kiss again.  This romantic, long winded kiss you couldn’t have missed even if you had to change batteries in your camera, the oohs and aahs from the guest said it all.  A receiving line to meet and greet the new bride and groom was set right before the cake table.  Deb and her ladies in charge of the reception planning started to cut the cake, not with a knife but with dental floss.  It makes a clean cut and saves a lot of time.  I love learning these little tricks.

My dad is from the Willowdale/Zenda Area as were many of the guest.  It was a pleasure to visit with friends and even some family that I get to see only about once a year.  The first dance followed a delicious dinner catered by Ray’s Countryside Catering (Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Sausage and a choice of many sides.  The couple shined during their dance, smiles radiated from them the whole night.  Following their song “Unchained Melody” was “Can’t Help Falling In Love” for the Wedding Party and finally “Last Date” by Floyd Kramer for every to join in on the dance floor.  The music format was oldies, country and guest request for the evening.  It is a nice change to get away from the urban/rap and top 40, it was perfect for the guest we had also.  A comment from Susie about her coworkers from Spirit Aero was that they usually only stay a 1/2 hour into any dance, tonight they stayed until we wrapped it up at 11:00.

Susie works for Spirit Aero, she is the only gal in the shop.  We recognized all of her friends from Spirit Aero and then said “are you in compliance? Let’s get started”  it was then explained that this is how they start their morning meeting everyday and they got a kick out of it.  We had a lot of fun, in fact I found out we had a celebrity in the room.  Adrian Conyac, the Limbo King was in our presence and he started out the limbo competion.  He mentioned that it was 10 years ago when he held this title, maybe not as limber anymore he was still impressive in the limbo. 

 Rod was greeted later with a rubber chicken from a friend to start off the chicken dance.  There were swing dancers, two steppers, waltzers and rockers.

It was great reminescing to some of the music that I remember on 45’s like Eddie Rabbit “I Love A Rainy Night”.  The guys from Spirit Aero brought the Spirit with them as they entertained us through out the night.  There was not a dollar dance, but instead a grooms dance followed by a brides dance.  This was a chance for the guest to congratulate the newley weds.  Another variety of getting away from the dollar dance is to donate the money to a charity.  Any way it is done, the bride and groom get a chance to see old and new faces, share old memories and create new ones.  One memory I will keep, is the honor I had, to give the blessing of the meal.  When all was said and done the area CYO made fast work of cleaning up the facility for a donation to their skiing trip.