Pamela and Mark

Back in September I had the pleasure of working at The Merion. We work there a lot and Cliff and the crew always do a fabulous job. The food is great, the attention to detail is always spot on and the little touches they add to eachevent always make it memorable.





This wedding was for Pam and Mark and I met them last year at our new office, which if you haven’t seen you have to come stop by, and we clicked right away.





In our office you are not only able to relax and get a chance to meet us, but you are able to see all of our lighting options, as well as see how we mix. Our new DreamSpace is even bigger now, over 1000 square feet! During the meeting I was really able to get to know them and they were able to get to know me, which is the most important. Feeling comfortable with your DJ is key!





It was good that they were able to see the lighting too because Pam had always wanted to have pin spotting. We were able to show her that, as well as the up lighting. She had been to a few other places that offered up lighting, but was very impressed by the way we brought more fixtures and were able to make it look more like a wash and not a column like effect.





The day of the event was busy. We had four guys there to get the show up and with the tight turn around time we had, it took all of us the whole time to get it up and set. The result was awesomeness! The room looked great.





Our dance floor was full too! Like most of the couples that hire Synergetic, Pam and Mark allowed me to program most of the night myself. I was able to mix in older songs like "Run Around Sue," and "I Want You Back," as well as new songs like "Give Me Everything" and "Raise Your Glass." I was shocked on one song though, they loved ""Shake Shake Senora! There is always one song that just does it at a wedding.





We worked with Jennifer Childress on this wedding and she got some great shots. Working with her is so much fun and makes for a great night. When we work with friends and people we know well the end result is always that much better.





If you are looking for a DJ, I would love the chance to sit down and talk to you. Just call Kelly in the office and she'll get the process started.



-Kurt

{Video} A Carinwood Wedding with Lighting

Lauren and Martin

Every wedding is different. They each seem to have a life of their own. They unfold before us, sometimes just as you expect, and other times unexpected situations pop up. It is the unexpected situations that I love the most as a DJ. At Lauren and Martin's wedding at the Mendenhall Inn an unexpected situation popped up, but it was a good one.

Lauren and Martin were the quintessential bride and groom. They wanted to dance! And so did their friends. From the second the last meal was served, until the end of the night, their close friends were glued to the dance floor.

Now, Lauren and Martin knew what they wanted. First, they wanted a wow effect in the room. So as you can see from the pictures, up lighting in blue, dance floor wash in amber and a monogram to top it off, gave them the wow factor they were going for. The room really looked elegant. But, there were some things that needed to be addressed to get the room to look this way. Thanks to our Project Manager, Michael, we got all of the calculations we needed, lined up with the right fixtures in the right places to get the room looking the right way. All of our clients work with a project manager when they contract with us.

The Mendenhall Inn is a great place to get to married. The staff is so easy to work with and they serve dinner in a way that allows you and your guests the most amount of time for dancing. I love that.

We also were able to work with Marc from Marc Anthony Photography. Marc took some great pictures and was just so much fun to work with. I have worked with him quite a few times and we always have a good time. Thanks for the pictures Marc!

From there, Lauren really wanted to get people to dance. And she was trusting enough to leave most of the programming up to me. And boy did I get creative. Songs such as “Regulators,”
“Good vibrations,” and “Call On Me,” were played. In fact, as the night went on, the R&B of the late 90’s started to be the music of choice for Martin and his group of friends. It was amazing to see the groomsmen dance to “Billie Jean!”So you might ask what was so unexpected about this wedding. Well, it was the bride and groom. Very rarely do I ever see my bride AND groom on the dance floor at the same time for the WHOLE night. Lauren and Martin did just that. They danced to almost every song and that was so great to see!

Thanks for letting me spin for your family and friends Lauren and Martin. I had a great time.

-Jason

Meghan and Joe

Back in May I spun a wedding at Old York Road Country Club. I personally do a lot of work there - Joe and his staff do a great job and we always seem to have a blast when we're there. It was also neat to see Meghan and Joe ride up to their cocktail hour on a golf cart. Something that they always do at OYRCC.

Meghan and Joe chose to add up lighting to the DJ package and this is one of the venues where it really stands out. If you haven’t talked to us about how we do up lighting differently from our competition, give Kelly or Matt a call to learn more.

As much as I love the lighting, ultimately, the success of the night for me comes down to my mixing and programing . And to tell you the truth, I never have any idea of what I am going to play. I just let the crowd take me where they want to go. I think any good DJ has a number of song combinations that he can play, but waits till he/she gets to a wedding to put it together. And that’s what I did at Meghan and Joe’s wedding.

I managed to mix in some “Bruce,” with some “Jay Sean,” and even some “James,” all while keeping the dance floor flowing. My playlist from this wedding really is nice! I mean how many times do I get the chance to play “Man in the mirror,” and have everybody dance to it. Such a great night.

Victor was my second DJ that night and I really had to work him. It was such a nice night, that people did wander outside, so he was busy when it came time for the formalities. Our second DJs are always taking care of the little things and for me that is important. It gives me the most time to be creative and keep people dancing. I couldn’t imagine having to mix, then go find someone, then run back to mix, then go take two requests, then mix real quick, then go talk to the photographer ... ugh. Thank goodness Synergetic goes out with two people! Makes a world of a difference.

If you are still looking for a DJ, give Kelly call. I would be more the happy to sit down and talk about your wedding and tell you more about myself and my approach to DJing weddings.

Also, I wanted to give a shout out to Maggie of Maggie Wallace Cullen Photography. She was a lot of fun to work with and got some great shots.

-Chris

(Thanks to Jennifer Childress Photography for the image of Chris)

Lauren and Rob

This blog is long overdue. Every year there are a few couples that I do not forget. Sometimes they have great personalities, while other times their wedding goes way above anyones expectations. Lauren and Rob were both. I initially met Lauren at one of our Lighting Demonstrations and she fell in love with our intelligent lighting. Her theme was winter wonderland and we immediately clicked on how to design her ballroom with lighting.

Lauren and Rob's wedding was to be held at the Emerald Room in Northeast Philadelphia. The room was great on its own, but when design lighting was brought into the mix it really popped out. Lauren had booked uplighting around the entire ballroom and intelligent lighting set on the corners of the dance floor supported with trussing. She had went with the “house” DJ initially as it was built into her package with the Emerald Room. As Lauren and I continued to correspond about her lighting design, music was brought up. The best part of intelligent lighting isn’t its ability to change color, or have specific movements; its about the lighting designer who is controlling the lights. You could drive the fastest car in the world, but if you don't know how to shift properly, you will not get the full performance out of the car. The same goes for intelligent lighting, music, and the lighting designer. Music was a very important part of Lauren’s wedding as she was a huge MJ fan.

When I met Rob, he explained to me that he really wanted the lighting to accent the room and also energize the dance floor. After that initial meeting I had a feeling that our package was going to change. Lauren called me the next day to tell me they wanted to go with me as their DJ. I was very excited as I knew I could now personally ensure that their wedding was a success on all levels.

Our design was to have snowflakes rotating around the room in a light blue accenting the darker blue down lighting (that actually was provided by the Emerald room). During cocktail hour I could tell right away that the crowd was going to be a good one. They say it’s a DJ’s dream to be able to play anything you want and the dance floor energy rises with every new song. This was the case for Lauren and Rob’s wedding. During dinner we played a great mix of old and new music to get everyone to dance. Once dinner was over Lauren and Rob wanted the reception to take on a “club” atmosphere. Jessica (our expert lighting designer) was on point with her cues as it seemed as though everytime I was ready to mix a new song she had the lights strobing or was changing movements and colors.

The Dance music had such a Vegas vibe to it because I was able to mix out of each song after 30-45 seconds while hitting the best part of each. Once set that shook the room (with guests jumping and fist pumping) was Firework (Jump Smokers RMX), by Katy Perry into Party Rock Anthem, by LMFAO.

There are weddings where you go home after and are satisfied with the job you did, and there are others that you can’t go straight home after because you are way too strung up with energy. Lauren and Rob had one of those weddings. I’ll never forget the good time I had DJing their wedding, and I’ll certainly remember how cool of a couple they are.

On a side note, weeks after her wedding we became friends on Facebook, and realize that she is related to me (by marriage). I guess me DJing her wedding was meant to be.

-Matt

Thanks so much to Barnyard Photography for the images!

Kristie and Lester

This wedding had it all! From the soft red up lighting , to the dance floor wash and monogram, to the LCD screens for a slide show presentation, it was awesome. We worked at Deerfield Golf Club, an absolutely incredible place to light and DJ. Steve and the staff there really work with us - they understand that it isn’t all about them and that all of the professionals are there to make the day perfect for the bride and groom. One of the really interesting things we did with this wedding was let the photographer use the screens. They edited their pictures throughout the night, so that the guests could see the pictures that were taken during the day while they were eating. They were all very impressed. Steve Newbert of AOV productions was able to use the screens for live video transmission, always a crowd pleaser. And let’s not forgot about the DJ’ing ... 300 people at a wedding means there is going to be some serious dancing. And boy did they dance. Old school hip hop, some R & B and a few current tracks kept them at the same place the whole night, the dance floor! Make sure to check out the video blog we did a few months back on this event as well. And a big thanks to Rodrick Moore Photography for the images.

-Jason

The Request

For a DJ, a request can be the best and worst part of their whole night. You see, getting requests at a wedding is similar to when you ask your co-workers where you should go for lunch. You know where you want to go, but you are being nice by asking everyone else what they want. You inevitably get 10 answers and ultimately, piss off a bunch of people because you had to decide and you can't go to 10 different places. You probably would have been better off just going to lunch yourself and picking up something for everyone while you were there.

Trying to make everyone happy with your choice for lunch is fairly similar to how a DJ feels when it comes to playing a requested song. As a DJ, wait, let me start over again. As a great DJ, we have an idea of what we are going to play throughout the night. We use cocktail hour and dinner to read the crowd. We pay attention things like the age groups and ethnicities of your guests. What they are taping their feet to, what they are singing along with, and what they are getting up and dancing to.


We have all been to weddings that have a DJ that has no clue what he is doing. He is simply playing the music in no particular order and with no particular reason. We have a reason for playing every song we play. We don’t just randomly play a song. We have a diagram in our head of where we want to take the crowd. We have a whole plan on how the music is going to progress, keeping in mind all the things you want to get accomplished during your event.

So when a request is made, a change is made to that plan. And usually a change for the worse, because, for the most part, the requests we get simply won’t work. There are just no good reasons for playing both versions of the electric slide, the cha cha slide and the cupid shuffle at your event. But ultimately, we get hit with those requests at every single wedding we do. Imagine if we listened to every request your guests made, we would have 25 minutes of line dances. Instead, we have to filter. We have to figure out what the best song to play is - and the request might not be it.

For example, you gave us 3 slow songs you want to hear throughout the night. During the dancing set, one of your uncles comes up and he and his wife want to hear their wedding song, thus adding another slow song. We generally only play three to four slow songs at a wedding. So there is a good chance we won’t be able to play it, because you have already given us three. So we tell him, we will try. He comes back an hour later, and this time, he has had a few drinks. He wants the song next, because he is leaving. Now what do we do? We have a full dance floor. The other 198 people are rocking it out on the floor, but I have your uncle who thinks we are the worst DJs ever because we didn’t play his song. And worse yet, because we tell him we can’t play it next, he is now headed over to you, the bride and groom, to tell you what is going on.

In that situation, we understand that your uncle will probably tell you how bad we were the next day, but we also understand that we can’t change the party for everybody for the requests of a few. We will be the bad guys on some songs and we will make sure that we only pick the best songs out of the request lists from your guests. Keep in mind that many of the requests are songs we are going to play anyway. So we don’t want to not accept requests. We just want you to know that not every one gets played. A request is just that, a request.

-Jason

Recent weddings

We've gotten a bunch of new pictures in over the past couple of weeks from a few different weddings so I figured today was a good day to post them. Happy Monday! Enjoy!

Theresa and Corey had their receptin at Cairnwood. We DJ'd and did the lighting for them (monogram, up loghting, dance floor lighting). Thanks to Renita of Denlinger Photography for the images.

Jackie and Glenn had their reception at Cescaphe and Jason kept the dance floor packed! Thanks to Paula and Aleen of Creative Images for the pictures!

A couple of months ago we did some lighting and production work for a rave at Snipe's Farm. Thanks to Amy Kallicragas for the images.

Kelly and Brian had their reception at the Manor House. We DJ'd and did the lighting for them as well (Purple up lighting and butterflies on the dance floor). Thanks to Colleen at Full Circle Photography for the pictures!

The next two pictures are hysterical ...

-Becky