Makin’ Movies

Last week Alan, Gary and I spent a day shooting video with the brilliant John Stewart from Vison Productions at Southend Barns near Chichester. This was my first visit to Southend Barns and I really hope to go back soon ~ it’s absolutely gorgeous!

Owners William and Mariella really have created a wonderful wedding venue, it’s an amazing fusion of traditional buildings and contemporary design features. My pictures really don’t do justice to this beautiful location.

The ceremonies room is located in what was formerly the dairy barn and the adjoining milking parlour is now the Bridal Suite.

My favourite area is a covered outside space which is the perfect chill-out lounge, as you can see it’s really innovative.

We were there to shoot a series of videos called The Wedding Entertainment Show where we’ll be sharing our thoughts and ideas to help you create a fabulous wedding. John from Vision Productions and his team did their best to make us look good – that’s got to be a tough job – and we’re really looking forward to seeing the results.

Many thanks to John, Ryan and Nick for all their help and patience. We hope to launch our weekly video series before the end of June.

Southend Barns really is an excellent venue. Gary is one of their local preferred suppliers and I know that he would be delighted to tell you more about weddings there.

CLICK HERE to visit the Southend Barns website.

Ceremony Music

Another of the services I offer is providing the music for the wedding ceremony. Great production of the music for your ceremony can set the tone for the whole day. Before I returned to DJ’ing I’d actually been asked by several friends to play their ceremony music for them at their weddings ~ it was a really nerve-racking thing to do, I was pushing buttons on machines that I didn’t know and although I managed it was far from ideal.

Many venues provide a sound system, usually a domestic portable cd player or iPod doc, and usually expect you to provide the music to play and the person to control it for you. Is this the right way to start the most important ceremony in your life?

Here’s a document one of my colleagues, DJ Terry Lewis, developed. I’ve adapted it slightly and I hope it will give you food for thought.

Here’s a picture another colleague took at a local hotel recently.
You can see a small domestic CD player has been provided

Here’s our system at New Place last Saturday, set up discreetly at the rear of the room using professional sound equipment ~
Pioneer DDJ S1
MacBook Pro
Bose Compact speaker system

For more information about ceremony music please get in touch email paul@thepartydj.co.uk or call 023 8086 1715 or 07973 617 153

Superscrimpers

Food for thought.

SuperScrimpers on Weddings

Channel 4’s SuperScrimpers money saving expert Mrs Moneypenny looks at weddings – plenty to think about here 😉

The show is available courtesy of the 4 On Demand service

Toasts!

I’ve just been directed to these two very good videos on YouTube from THINKER.

First we have some tips on writing your toast …

and the second one, more great advice on delivering your toast

Toasts and speeches are covered for Bridegrooms in my special “men only” Bridegrooms workshop ~ Click here for more information. 😉

Newsflash … Groom’s Workshop Update!

Today I confirmed the date for my first Groom’s workshop – I’m so excited! 😉

The idea comes from a DJ in Hawaii who has been doing these for a few years now.

It’s just a chance for Bridegrooms to get together over a drink and find out what they can do to help make your day special. There is no-obligation to book me as your DJ – it’s just something I want to do. As I’ve been to hundreds of weddings I’ve seen lot’s of things that many people don’t know about, so the idea is to share them and see what else we can come up with. CLICK HERE for some more information.

I’ve just scheduled the first one for the evening of Tuesday 7th February, and it’s going to be at The Bell Inn in Bramshaw just off Junction 1 of the M27. It’s just a couple of hours and it’s totally FREE – all you have to do is buy your own drinks. Here are directions to The Bell

It’s a MEN ONLY event, open only to Bridegrooms. If these take off I have some ideas for other workshops, but you know if there is anything I can help you with all you have to do is ask.

Please let me know if you would like to attend, email paul@thepartydj.co.uk

So may couples, so little time!

Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days, it’s been a little mad here at Party DJ Towers!

Last Sunday, as mentioned previously, was the Wedding Fair at Winchester Guildhall. I’d forgotten just how wonderful the rooms there are. I’ve played for some great couples there in the past and had some fabulous parties. More information about weddings at Winchester Guildhall can be found here.

As well as meeting lots of lovely couples I also had a chance to meet a few suppliers I hadn’t talked with before. I’m always on the lookout for new gist ideas and I was particularly taken with the engraved bottles and giftware that Joe and Ria, from Beekhof Trading, had on display.

I was also very impressed with the Brandywine Trio. William, Paul and Sam played a brilliant mix of jazz standards from the fifties right up to date. If you are looking for some quality guitar-led jazz I’d strongly suggest you check these guys out.

This Sunday we are off to the races, well Salisbury Racecourse. Full details to follow soon, but if you’d like free admission get in touch with me now – email paul@thepartydj.co.uk

Fleming Park Fashion Show

You may remember I provided the music for the Fleming Park Wedding Fair a few weeks back, well here’s a video of the fashion show.

The show was put together by Valerie from VA Productions and featured dresses from Mojgan Bridal Wear in Bournemouth.

The video was shot by Video 4 a Day

Tuesday 6th ~ Don’t Tell The Bride

If your not watching the football, or like me out for a meeting tonight, you may be interested to know the new series of Don’t Tell The Bride starts at 9pm on BBC3.

This is the series in which the groom must choose every detail of his wedding, from venue to cake to wedding dress… seriously ladies, would you really let your man plan it all?

CLICK HERE for a link to the BBC website for more information about John & Jackie’s wedding.

There are numerous repeats (details at the bottom of the page linked above) and the show will also be available on the iPlayer.

Heads Up ~ Tuesday 9pm ~ Sky Living

Four Weddings US is back on the telebox. They are up to Season Three of the American show and this weeks looks like a cracker.

If you’ve never seen the show before it’s basically a look at 4 weddings (derrr!) and 4 Brides attend each others big day and score them for the venue, the dress, the food, and the overall experience. As I’m sure you can imagine they are all very nice to each other and never critical or down-right nasty!

CLICK HERE for a preview (after the advert)

Sky Living Tuesday 16th August 9pm BST

For more 4 Weddings information CLICK HERE