Those planning McHenry Weddings should check out Ameritune DJs and Video. On October 2, 2010 Ameritune Videotaped and DJed for Sara and Jeff Fewells wedding ceremony and reception. Here’s what Al, the DJ had to say.
This was a little different gig for me because I was also contracted to play for the ceremony at a park in McHenry. The reception was to follow at D’Andrea Banquets. There wasn’t going to be enough time for me to set up my DJ gear unless I did it before the ceremony. It made for a very long day, but I’m glad I did it that way, less stress is good! The weather for the afternoon ceremony was not the best. It was a blustery 60 degrees, and it ended up raining right before the ceremony started. Luckily, there were only a few drops and no damage to my PA system or our Videographers stuff. The ceremony went well and everybody hi-tailed it out of there. By the time I got to D’Andreas, I ended up having about 45 minutes to kill, so I took a little nap in the parking lot. SWEET!
Sara and Jeff Fewell
Mama Carlson set the tone for this reception with her emotional welcoming toast at dinner- She made everyone cry a little, and then she ended it with …”and I hope everyone gets drunk tonight!” The crowd roared! This was the second great Carlson group I’ve played for this year. I had played at the brides sisters (Matron of Honor Breeona and Mark Nachtmans) wedding a few months earlier.
Ameritune Video interviews Matron of Honor
As the night went on, they got more and more fun, the dance floor was always full, sometimes we even had to make more room for people to dance.
Hows the weather up there?
Sara’s Brother Brad is the last single Carlson from this family. Hurry up and get married Brad, I love playing for you guys!
Just havin fun
I took a million pics at this wedding and you can see them on the Ameritune Facebook page. Thanks and good luck to Jeff and Sara! Read more DJ BLOG. Ameritune is available to DJ and Video your special day, call us at (630) 372-TUNE (8863) for info.
Looking forBuffalo Grove DJs? Last week, Ameritune’s Al Mitchell played at The Arboretum Club in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. It was the wedding reception of Amy Glass and Greg Hammond on October 3rd, 2010. The day began a little harried for me because I went to the wrong banquet hall. In my mind, they were at the Meadows Club, but on my contract, they were at the Arboretum Club! Once again, good thing I always allow extra time. In over 27 years of DJing, I hadn’t made that mistake yet. Lol. This was the first time I had ever played at The Arboretum Club and I was impressed. The room is easily accessible from the back parking lot and the staff had their act together. I went to the foyer area after setting up and guests were arriving and were being served very tasty hors d’ourves and enjoying the open bar. Amy and Greg wanted to be unique with their cake. So they had a very small wedding cake that was just for them and a cup cake tree for the guests. They were delicious!
Cupcakes instead of wedding cake
In order to get Amy and Greg to kiss, guests clinked on their glasses and then Amy and Greg pulled a couples name from a hat and announced that they would come up and show Amy and Greg how to kiss, then Amy and Greg would duplicate their kiss. I played kissing music and flashed the dancing lights when each couple would kiss. Amy and Greg were racing fans, so I dropped in the sound bite”Gentlemen Start Your Engines ” when it was there turn to kiss. This was great fun and got a nice vibe going in the room. Some people who I was sitting with were hoping that they would get picked, so I went up and mentioned it to Greg when they weren’t paying attention. Of course they gave us a good show when Greg called their name.
Mr. and Mrs. Greg and Amy Hammond
Greg and Amy danced to Bring It On Home by Little Big Town. Later, we brought the Party Pack out and had some fun on the dance floor with glow necklaces, blowup guitars, and YMCA hats.
These guys had a good time!
Good luck to Amy and Greg! Read more of Al’s DJ TIPS If you’d like to see more pics from this wedding check out our facebook page Ameritune DJs on Facebook For booking and other info call Ameritune at (630) 372-8863 or email us info@ameritune.com.
Looking for Wheaton DJs , Ameritunes Al Mitchell played at Arrowhead Golf Course in Wheaton, IL for the wedding reception of Sara Iwanski and Scott Falli on October 9th, 2010. They also booked out wedding video service. They lucked out with perfect weather, although the bridal party looked a little warm when they arrived. I guess they had been taking pics outside in the sun. I remembered a lot of faces because we had done Sara’s brothers wedding a few years earlier. I remembered that this group liked to have fun, and man they were ready to party. I didn’t get dads dinner music list till the cocktail hour. There were around 11 songs on the list and I didn’t have any of them, so I downloaded them on the spot with my laptop and my high speed internet card. Yay! Dad was happy- mission accomplished.
Sara and Scott were basically neat for the cake cutting, although the married guys were cheering for “messy”
The room was shaped very long and narrow with the dance floor and head table in the middle. When figuring out how to show our Photo Montage so that everyone could see, I recommended that we show it 3 times. Once with the screen aimed at the head table, then once right, and then once left. Sara and Scott agreed that this would be the best way so that everyone could see it. The video was 6 minutes long and I played different musc each time, and since people were eating dessert, it worked out perfectly. No one had to move to see the screen. After the video it was time for the dancing to begin. Scott and Sara picked Only You Can Love Me Like This by Keith Urban . You can see that the mood was very nice and romantic.
Mr and Mrs Scott and Sara Falli
The second and third dances were dad /daughter and mom/ son dances then it was off to the races with open dancing. There was about 225 people there and I think they all were on the dance floor at one time or other. There were so many requests that it was hard to get them all in, but the group was understanding and patient.
Shout
As you can see RJ, our videographer was on top of things all night. What a great group, and a great party this was. Many thanks to the Iwanski family for taking such good care of us and their generousity! I took a ton more pictures and you can see them on our facebook page. Best wishes and good luck to the new Mr. and Mrs. Falli! If you’d like to read more DJ Wedding Tips.
Last weekend Ameritune’s Al Mitchell played for the wedding reception of Erica and Kevin Tierney at Riverside Receptions and Conference Center, in Geneva Illinois. There were around one hundred and fifteen guests and the reception was from 5:00 till 10:30 pm on Sunday 10/10/10. Wow, easy to remember your anniversary! It was a beautiful day and the ceremony was done out in the Courtyard at 4:00. Things must have been running on time because people started coming in the second floor room at 4:30. Good thing I was early, it was my pleasure to play an extra 1/2 hour of cocktail music for the guests (at no charge).
Erica and Kevin wanted to have fun, so they did a few things differently. Instead of the traditional clinking of glasses, I set up a microphone on the dance floor and if you wanted Erica and Kevin to kiss, you had to make an animal sound in the mic! People were having a good time with this, and there was a lot of kissing at the head table. They also had a photo booth, and the Ameritune Party Toy pack, which includes glow necklaces, YMCA hats, and inflatable guitars. There was a photo montage during desert and Mad Lib wedding tablets at the tables for guests to fill in the blanks during dinner. Later we did the Anniversary Countdown Dance to see who the longest married couple was on the dance floor.
Mr and Mrs Kevin and Erica Tierney
Erica and Kevin danced to Lucky by Mraz/ Calliet. Later, there was a dance for Erica and her two brothers (who walked her down the aisle) and then Kevin danced with his mom. The dance floor was busy all night long. Erica helped me out with a list of Spanish music to get for her relatives and I played a bunch of all eras and styles as well. The highlight of the night was when I played YMCA and we had 3 celebrity dance leaders taking the party to the next level.
Celebrity YMCA leaders
I know RJ our videographer got some great shots of that, they’re going to love their wedding video! All in all, I would say it was an awesome wedding. The folks at Riverside Receptions and Conference Center did a bang up job, too. Everything was perfect.
Uh Huh
I took a lot of pictures at this wedding and you can see them on our facebook page Ameritune DJs and Video/ Facebook . Good luck to Erica and Kevin and their lovely daughter Meggan! Click to to read more DJ Als Blog. For pricing and availability call Ameritune at (630) 372-8863.
Ameritune’s Al Mitchell played another Del Webb Huntley Wedding on the Seventeenth of September 2010 for Jodi Fetting and Chris West. This was wacky because I played there the weekend before. The dancefloor is too big in this place, so I talked to Jodi about setting up the tables straddling the dancefloor rather than around it effectively making it smaller. This worked well as people don’t like to dance in too big of wide open spaces. The size of their group was 115 people. For parties of 220 or more, I wouldn’t recommend making that dancefloor smaller. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. The ceremony was outside with a Dove Release. This is only my second Dove release in all the years of DJing.
Dove Release
In the ayer- ayer
Actually they are homing pidgeons. They flew around a couple of times then headed off back home. There were about 12 of them so it was a cool display. I had played at another wedding that Jodi was at and she liked what I did so she hired me and trusted me to pick most of their music. I helped her out with ceremony music, then it was cocktailing in the foyer and then dinner and dancing in the main room.
Jodi and Chris West
Jodi and Chris danced to I Just Call You Mine by Martina McBride. After their first dance Jodi had a dance with her Grandfather to Faith Hill’s There You’ll be, and I dedicated the song in memory of her Grandma Gummy. It was a touching moment. After that we had the Dad/ Daughter dance , Mom/Son Dance, then open dancing. That’s a lot of slow songs in a row, but Jodi was anxious to get them all in, and it worked out fine. I played a wide variety of styles of music and as usual, I was glad that I had my laptop with to play some requests that I downloaded on the spot. Very handy indeed! The weather was perfect, which meant that a lot of people were hanging outside instead of in the room which made it a little tough to keep the dancefloor full, but I received a lot of compliments and I think everyone had a good time. Good luck to Jodi and Chriss. For more info about booking and availability call Ameritune at (630) 372-TUNE (8863) More DJ Wedding Tips. To see more pics check out our facebook page
