So far, event season 2013 has been filled with special events, bright smiles, delicious details and memorable moments. Here’s a recap of some of the fun in July and August.
A trendy cake with succulents! Mmmmm.
And an equally trendy cupcake station – with gluten free option!
We’ve been rockin’ events from NY …
To California …
To Florida … and many points in between.
The DJ has ‘em all lined up for a dance!
And then the bride busts a move!
As you can tell, we always have a lot of fun! Want to party with us? Hit us up! You can get a FREE consultation, right here on our website!
Did you know that B-Boy Productions Inc. does MORE than just put on a memorable night of music and dancing with highly skilled DJ/MC/Party Motivators? We also provide seasoned live musicians for wedding rehearsals, cocktail hour, corporate events and more. So whether you’re looking for a chill vibe or some upbeat blues, B-Boy Productions has a solo artist, duo or band on the roster that will fit your needs.
Here are three recent videos of performances from our amazing team of musicians:
Dan Austin – Guitarist/Vocalist Cocktail Hour Samples
Gino Rosaria Band 5-Piece Band (also performs as a 3-Piece Band)
Aaron Paul Bostic – Guitarist/Vocalist Cocktail Hour Samples
Our last photo blog post was so well received that we thought we’d give you another quick photographic tour of what the B-Boy Productions Inc. team is blessed to do and see on a weekly basis.
DJ Irving Gil teaches the wedding guests a line dance!
DJ Duane Mays rocking the dance floor!
Cocktail hour at the Emerald Grande in Destin, FL with West Emerson performing.
Creating perfect moments!
Double the DJ systems, double the fun!
Now THAT is a cake!
The aerialists WOW the crowd at Digital Graffiti 2013!
Event season is in full swing! In May we celebrated with old and new friends at 25 events that were filled with surprises and unique details. Take a look at some of what transpired …
B-Boy Team in Action
Irving Gil killing it!
Cam Ray (keyboardist) and Jessica Heit (violinist) perform at a beach wedding ceremony.
You Know It’s a Party When …
Accompaniment for the bride and groom’s first dance?
It’s All In the Details!
Wedding MadLibs!
We’re hoping to make this monthly photo recap a regular feature on our blog. Let us know what you think in the comments below?
You can also catch more of our photos on Instagram. Remember that every time we add 100 followers on Instagram, we will be giving away an iPod Shuffle. Get in on the action by following us today!
Every year in the DJ and entertainment industry we see new trends that become the “in” thing to feature at weddings and events. So far this year we are seeing colorful reception additions such as The Harlem Shake; non-traditional first dances; eclectic play lists as event hosts become more music savvy and single song purchases become more readily available; and the addition of more entertainment options to even “traditional” events.
One entertainment option that continues to be wildly popular is the stand-alone photo booth. The booth provides a fun diversion for guests, plus added memories and souvenir photos that can bring a lot of spirit and hilarious interactions to the party.
B-Boy Productions, Inc. partners with ShutterPods, Inc. out of Fort Walton Beach, FL for photo booth rentals for our Florida division. They offer our clients a discounted rate, in addition to their professional (and fun!) on-site booth attendants and this can be added to your existing B-Boy package and booked through us directly!
But don’t just take our word for it … We asked Todd Siegrist, co-owner of ShutterPods, Inc. to tell you a little bit more about what photo booth rental brings to the party:
1. Why should I consider budgeting for a photo booth at my event when I have a photographer and guests are taking photos with their phones already?
If you’ve never been to a wedding reception with a photo booth, then the benefit is just difficult to put into words. Not only will it give your guests something fun to do and a gift to take home, but our photo booth creates a really cool dynamic by bringing your guests (often complete strangers) together. Since the photos are immediately viewable on an HD monitor on the outside of the booth, your guests stand outside and laugh with each other as they watch. There’s nothing else you can do at your reception that promotes this kind of fun and positive interaction for your guests.
2. Will the photo booth look out of place at my event? Can it be customized to match my décor?
The complete opposite is true! Our booth won’t just blend in, but rather it will compliment your décor and look beautiful. The booth is all white and nearly seamless, and we can even customize the LED lights around the top of the booth to match your wedding colors. The minute you lay eyes on a ShutterPods Photo Booth you’ll want it at your reception.
3. Do my guests get to keep their candid photos? Or do I get to keep them?
Both! Your guests will receive their lab quality prints within 10 seconds to keep for themselves. They also have the ability to immediately share their photos by uploading to Facebook or sending to their email right from inside the booth. Then, at the end of the night, you will receive a flash drive with all of the high resolution event photos. Let the blackmailing begin!
4. What comes standard with the photo booth rental? And what other “must have” add-ons should I get?
You’ll always have a professional on-site attendant, prop table, unlimited prints and a flash drive of all your photos at the end of the night. For a small upcharge you can upload to Facebook from the booth, get double or triple prints, choose your favorite photo for a full 4×6 print, record video messages and more!
5. Just curious, how many people can fit into a photo booth at once?
The booth will comfortably sit 2, easily fit 3, barely fit 4 and with the help of an open bar, 5 is possible.
6. Can the DJ announce a “funniest photo” contest or something similar to get a competitive photo taking spirit going? I want to blackmail my friends after the event! (Just kidding.)
This is actually a FANTASTIC idea. Thank you!
So now that you’re convinced that photo booth rental will add spice and hilarity to your party, just call B-Boy Productions Inc. today (888.825.0655) to add one to your scheduled event!
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone has a Grand Entrance. Sometimes, it’s a small house wedding and a Grand Entrance would feel out-of-place. Some brides and grooms want to be a part of the cocktail hour with their guests and the element of surprise with the entrance is not needed. There are yet other couples who just don’t want the spotlight on them hardly at all so they’d rather bypass the Grand Entrance.
That said, almost every couple has a First Dance. After the First Dance, the next 2 popular formality dances would be the Father/Daughter dance and the Mother/Son dance. Trying to figure out the right song to use for these can be tricky, especially if music isn’t your thing or dancing isn’t your forte. Here’s a few things to keep in mind with the formality dances:
WHY DO THE DANCES AT ALL?
The formalities are more about the pictures that are taken during them than they are about the sentiments of the dance itself. If you’re not looking for these dance photo opportunities, it’s completely OK and not against etiquette to do only one or none of these dances. Don’t feel pressured to do them. It is all about you and your significant other. In this day and age, everything is customized. No longer do couples have to feel the added pressure of doing all the formalities of past generations.
CONSIDER THE LENGTH OF THE TRACK …
More often than not, ballads can be unusually long. An average song length for most tracks is around 3 minutes. Ballads, however, can range anywhere from 4-6 minutes. That can seem like an eternity if you’re not a natural-born dancer. You may be thinking, “If we cut it short, does it hurt the photography?” Not at all. Professional photographers are snapping a to of shots in milliseconds. After 2 minutes, they more than likely have enough shots of the dance from every angle possible. So, unless the song has extreme meaning to both of you or you have choreography for the dance, consider picking a shorter song or have the DJ fade out the track after 2-3 minutes. Not to mention, the quicker the formalities conclude, the quicker you can get to the open dancing and get your guests involved and the party can really go up another notch!
MAKE SURE THE SONG HAS A BEAT …
This is so often overlooked. If dancing isn’t your strong suit, using a song that has a beat can be extremely helpful. This doesn’t mean the song has to have a rock type sound with huge drums. It just needs something where you can feel the pulse of the tempo.
ADD A LIVE ELEMENT …
This can give a creative twist to any of your formality dances. If you have a live musician for your cocktail hour, consider keeping him/her there to do the First Dance as soon as the grand entrance is over. It’s an extra 5 or so minutes after the cocktail hour but can give the song a more intimate or custom feel. Another option is to have a vocalist sing to a karaoke track. It used to be tough to find karaoke tracks. Now with all music going digital, you can find the karaoke or instrumental for virtually any song.
First Dance
Traditionally, this dance was supposed to be a song that had deep meaning between the bride and groom. While that still can be the case, these days it’s happening less and less. If the song doesn’t instantly come to the both of you, here’s some thoughts.
FIND A SONG THAT IS TIMELESS …
One of the things my wife and I kept in mind while looking for our own First Dance song was that we wanted the song to still be relevant 50 years from now when we request it at a future wedding we attend or better yet, when we’re dancing at out our own 50th wedding anniversary surprise party! This does NOT mean you have to dance to the original version of a track necessarily (although there are some great ones). So many songs have great arrangements or covers done by current artists. With YouTube, you might even find an amazing version of your song by an amateur that you want to use. Check out some of these examples:
This is the latest trend in First Dances. This creates a memorable and creative way to handle a traditionally slow type of dance, not to mention that it brings energy and typically humor to the event immediately. If you’re not familiar with a “mashup”, this is where you take at least 2 tracks and mash them together into 1 song. You don’t have to necessarily create the custom track yourself. At B-Boy, we can create a custom edit for you (at no charge). Also, this is a great way to help make a “non dancer” look great because you can choreograph it! This is also something to be sure to get on video! Here’s some of the best we’ve seen.
Armanda & Joe:
Chad and Shawna (personal friends of ours):
THE SIGNATURE FIRST DANCE …
This is a custom and personal touch that we at B-Boy started in the Panhandle of Florida and have adopted in our other markets. This is where we meet with the bride and groom in person (preferably) or over the phone or virtually through the internet before the event and record them separately telling the story of how they first met or how they got engaged. We then take the “best of” from the interviews and splice it in various parts of the first dance as if they’re telling the story together. We surprise not only their guests but also the bride/groom with this gift. We give the bride/groom a keepsake of the custom song on a CD with the raw interviews. Crowds are either tearing up, laughing hysterically or both. Here’s a few of the ones we’ve done.
Graeme & Christen:
Paul & Kristin:
Father/Daughter Dance
A lot of the same concepts from above apply here as well. Dances with parents can be awkward if you’re not a dancing family. Those are the couples that tend to need our help finding a song. In those instances, I encourage them to find something upbeat and fun. The dance steps don’t have to be perfect in faster songs. The other problem that couples run into is there aren’t many songs these days ritten about a father/daughter relationship. Not to worry…pick a song about the woman. There are a ton of tracks about that. A couple popular ideas from the past year are:
By far, this is the toughest dance to find a song for no matter if you are a dancer or not. If you thought songs written about a father/daughter relationship are scarce, try finding one about a mother/son (and harder yet is finding one that isn’t cheesy). Good luck. Most men don’t dance with their moms often anyway, making the song selection choice that much tougher. A generic song about “gratitude” is always a safe route. Another idea is to defer to your mom in the selection of the song. Typically, her role in the wedding is minimal so this will give her a feeling of importance and purpose. Regardless, keep it upbeat and pick a short song. A few of the more popular selections we’ve used in the last year are:
Hope these tips are helpful. Again, if you’re a client of ours, e-mail us and we’ll send you a more comprehensive list of song ideas. Good luck in your selections! Our next and last installment of the formality series will deal with the other misc. formalities that need custom songs selected.
Rarely does an entertainer have a breakout year of the magnitude that Duane Mays has had. He started with B-Boy Productions, Inc. just 2 years ago. This year, however, his positive client reviews have gone through the roof and we attribute that to the hard work he’s put in. He’s now one of our most requested Florida panhandle entertainers. We sat down with Duane to ask him some questions on DJ’ing and specifically, DJ’ing weddings.
How long have you been in the music industry?
10 years come February.
Why did you get into DJ’ing?
I really enjoy the energy of dance music and the surprise of what I like to call “forgotten gems”. I love the look on the people’s faces when nostalgia hits and a song that they used to ‘jam out” to but have since forgotten is suddenly resurrected…it’s one of my favorite things about DJing.
What makes your style unique?
Since I have an extensive background as a performing artist, it gives me a unique perspective in reading a crowd. I am familiar with a lot more music in different genres than the typical DJ would be. Since I primarily DJ weddings, I have a knack for picking out that perfect “old school” track to bridge the gap between the young people and the older crowd. I want everyone dancing and having a good time so I focus on giving our clients and their crowd a well-balanced musical experience.
Speaking of weddings, what’s your favorite part as a DJ?
I love that moment at the reception where the bride and groom realize that they can relax with me at the helm. It’s like an “a ha” moment where it hits them that I’m taking all the pressure off of them and that I will be giving them an amazing party. It’s hard not to chuckle because I can’t even begin to tell you how many times a bride and groom are eating dinner at the reception, they glance over and give me that nod of satisfaction. It’s as if I’ve surpassed their expectations and usually when it happens, we haven’t even gotten to the dancing segments yet. I definitely consider working weddings a privilege and it never gets old.
Any advice you’d give a bride/groom as far as entertainment is concerned?
When it comes to entertainment on the big day, I’d want them to know that they can trust any DJ of B-Boy Productions, Inc. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve sat down with a bride/groom to do a planning session and the first thing out of their mouth is, “We don’t want the cheesy stuff. No Chicken Dance, YMCA, etc. The last few weddings we’ve attended were terrible…” well, I’d be one wealthy individual. They have no clue the amount of training our company does with our entertainers. Every month we get together to enhance our craft and we look for ways to get even better! Our #1 desire is to make sure that our clients and their closest family and friends experience the best reception ever! Don’t misunderstand me…that’s not to say we don’t want a bride and groom’s input. Of course, we want to know what they want and like…that’s a big part of our success at an event. The difference is that they can be rest assured that they and their guests will be talking positively about their reception for years to come. It’s a big responsibility for us and we don’t take it lightly.
To book Duane, go to the contact page and we’ll reserve him for your wedding reception!
Rarely does an entertainer have a breakout year of the magnitude that Duane Mays has had. He started with B-Boy Productions, Inc. just 2 years ago. This year, however, his positive client reviews have gone through the roof and we attribute that to the hard work he’s put in. He’s now one of our most requested Florida panhandle entertainers. We sat down with Duane to ask him some questions on DJ’ing and specifically, DJ’ing weddings.