DJ Splurge Excitement

I've been a bit of a downer with my budget "woes" in the last few weeks. And while it's entirely understandable that I'm having momentary panic attacks (the "total" number on our budget spreadsheet is frankly terrifying) I keep reminding myself that we're choosing to spend this money. While there's no way a venue, dinner, and drinks are ever going to be inexpensive for 150 people, we could have stopped there with our bare-bones needs. However, we're also choosing make additional expenditures on splurges that matter. And, even though I pale a bit when thinking about the deposit checks we've been writing lately, I am honestly giddy about our chosen splurges. Like, five-year-old-on-a-five-day-sugar-high giddy.

You already know that our venue isn't much of a splurge. And I'm getting happier and happier with cheaper dress options by the day. But we really are putting extra money into our guests. We're renting shuttles so no one has to brave the twisty canyon roads after too much booze. And (eeee! here comes the sugar-rush joy!) we just signed the contract with the most superfabulousamazing DJ in the entire dang world. Like, I could not be more excited about the music we're having at our wedding.

Michael Antonia, aka the Human Jukebox, aka founding member of The Flashdance wedding artist collective is going to be DJing our wedding, and my glee is at the just-mainlined-twelve-pixie-sticks level. No joke.

When we started this process, I ruled our budget with an ironclad grip. No wedding cake - we can't afford it and we have tons of friends with baking skills. No florist - we can't afford it and we can grow our own succulents. No DJ - we can't afford it and Jason has the best music collection and party playlist skills of anyone I've ever met.

Yeah, that "no DJ" directive lasted about two seconds after we heard Michael DJ at the Kick Ass Cake Bash event.  Jason couldn't even join in the conversation because he kept getting distracted by the DJ set in the next room. After the event, Jason not-so gently reminded me that this is his wedding too and that, after the ceremony, music is his number one wedding priority. Music has always been Jason's primary passion. As in, Jason's a musician, used to work for a major record label, and still helps independent artists as a side gig. As in, once we heard Michael spin, trying to ipod our own wedding was a lost cause. And trying to hire one of those generic djs was an equally lost cause. Instead, we get someone who describes his background and business venture like so:

Flashdance is an idea that has been brewing for nearly a decade... Way back in the day Whitney [of Our Labor of Love Photography] and Michael [our genius DJ] dreamed of having their own company together...

We didn’t get into this business because we thought it would be an easy way to earn a buck, we did it because our weddings were the most amazing days of our lives, and so much fun, that we decided to trade in the grind of corporate events, music festivals, and nightclubs, to make love and happiness the biggest part of our lives.

The music that I play at any event is determined soley by the people in attendance. I can confidently cover the last 50 years of soul, jazz, funk, & rock. More recent stuff includes mainstream and underground 80's, 90's and current hip-hop, electronic, disco, house-party hits, and dance music of every variety.

I AM NOT going to tell corny jokes on the mic
I AM NOT going to play trance at your wedding!
I AM NOT going to play desperate, crappy disco to try to “Please everyone”
I AM NOT GOING TO PLAY DESPERATE CRAPPY ANYTHING!
I AM NOT going to be an ego driven “artist” and only play what “I” want to hear
I AM NOT going to be a shitty wedding DJ!
I AM NOT going to play thug hip hop at your dinner (unless of course…)
I AM NOT going to play ipods/cds

I AM gonna play VINYL (remember that format?)
I AM going to play the perfect music for the mood of the people in attendance.
I AM going to be able to read the crowd and build the energy accordingly.
I AM going to seemlessly blend from dinner to dance party
I AM going to make you dance your ass off.
I AM going to make you laugh
I AM going to make you cry
I AM going to make your friends jealous.
I AM going to create lifelong memories… 

Um, YEEEEEEEEES PLEASE??!!

Especially when Michael makes wedding DJ sets like this!!!

And when he creates monthly playlists and curates guest mixes that keep me sane at work, like these!!!


So, we're splurging. Big time. And we couldn't be more excited about it, because it's right for us and all our love-to-party, music nerd and artist friends. We're investing in a party. And we're totally high on pixie-stick style joy about our DJ.