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July 17, 2009

Palos Hills DJs

Ameritune DJs and Video were Palos Hills DJs last weekend. We go all over Chicagoland, one weekend its Palos, the next, its Gurnee! I’d like to write about dance lessons for the Bride and Groom. Dan and Lisa took lessons before their wedding and put on quite a show for their first dance.

Dan and Lisa Choreographed 1st Dance

Dan and Lisa Choreographed 1st Dance

The song they chose was Feelin Good by Michael Buble. I had never heard it before but I liked it. It was an old torch song, kind of jazzy, and very sexy. Dan and Lisa had obviously practiced their dance, and finished the song with a deep, deep dip that you see pictured above. Warning to all out of shape grooms Don’t try to dip, unless you are  strong. Dan didn’t have a problem because he is in great shape and Lisa is petite, but if I tried that move, I would’ve needed a stretcher, maybe two. Having your first dance choreographed is a no lose situation. If you’re good, it’s good. If you’re bad, its great. I have seen it done many times, and it never fails to get the dancing portion of the evening started with a bang. I think your guests recognize that you have put time and energy into your dance. They think its cute, and romantic. Well, believe it or not, it’s actually better if you are bad. Not super bad, but just a little bad. People get excited if you look like you have two left feet and are stiff and struggling through your steps. They’d rather see you tryng very hard with bad rythmn than smoothly gliding through your dance like professionals. Either way, if you’re the groom, get ready for your friends to tease you. It may not be macho to take dance lessons, but your friends will be secretly delighted, and maybe a little jealous that you can be so romantic.

What Lisa and Dan did that I’ve never seen before, was have the bridal party dance choreographed. They danced to  It Takes Two by Rob Base. They did a fun hiphop dance ending in two lines facing each other. Groomsmen on one side, Bridesmaid on the other, then they went down 2 by 2 like Soul Train.

Bridal Party Dance

Bridal Party Dance

 The crowd was suprised and very appreciative. Next was open dancing, and we kicked off the party with good momentum. It was a great reception, and I think the choreographed dances had a lot to do with it. Our videographer got lots of good footage. Ameritune DJs and Video are available for your special occasion anywhere in the Chicago are. Want to read more tips?  Chicago DJ blog.

July 14, 2009

Belvidere Chateau Banquet Hall

This weekend, I DJed at The Belvidere Chateau Banquet Hall in Palos Hills for Lisa and Dan Wagner. There were about 175 people in attendance and the reception went until 12:30AM. I really liked the place because it was divided into areas for two different separate weddings. There was no common area, so you felt like you had the hall to yourself.  There was another large wedding going on in the other part of the hall, but you’d never know it. The outside was nice enough, with beautiful landscaping, the inside opened up to an elegant entry area done in marble.

Marble Foyer

Marble Foyer

The banquet room was really three different rooms separated by pillars. The dinner room-

Dinner Room with staircase for intros

Dinner Room with staircase for intros

The good sized dancing room-

Wood floors with a lighted tree and fireplace in rear

Wood floors with a lighted tree and fireplace in rear

And the Bar room with lots of space for the photographer to set up in.

Bar Room

Bar Room

Food was tasty- Hors D’ouvres were served butler style and were individual portions sitting in paper sleeves. They served awesome homemade perogis, cheese sticks, chicken kabobs, and stuffed mushrooms. Dinner was family style, although I didn’t get to it right away because I was playing my live dinner music.  By the time I was able to sit down, dinner was nearly over but it was still very good. They had pork medallions, mashed potatoes, some kind of rolled up beef thing that was good, and a veggie plate. Although I had missed coffee, I asked the waitress for some and she brought it immediately. I had about 3 minutes to eat before it was time to set up our big screen equipment for the photo montage. We showed their homemade video during desert, and then after a few pictures, it was time for dancing, and a great party. Lisa and Dan had a lot of cool things at their wedding, and I will write more posts to describe them.  Click here to read more Chicago DJ tips and blog posts.