New Trendy Idea for your Cleveland Wedding!

Those that are familiar with Troy Entertainment Wedding & Event DJ Productions know that at the start of each year we look for new and exciting ideas.  This year is no exception.  Brides and grooms looking to add a splash of fun and excitement to their wedding reception now have a new trendy option to include in their entertainment package with our “Wedding Lantern Release”.

If you've never heard of these, here is a brief explanation:

The lanterns are airborne paper lanterns traditionally found in some Asian cultures. They are made from rice paper on a bamboo frame, and contain a small fuel cake composed of a waxy flammable material. When lit, the flame from the burning fuel cake heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density causing the lantern to rise into the air. The lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays alight, after which the lantern will float back to the ground. They are very eco-friendly and they create a very dramatic effect for all of the your guests to see.

Our Lanterns can be used during the day or night and although colored lanterns can be used for a daytime display they still do not match the dramatic effect of an evening release.

Another great idea is to have your wedding guests write their own good luck messages on the lanterns before releasing them. It is said that by writing a wish on a lantern before its release, ones bad luck; ill feeling and misfortunes are given to the heavens. As the wedding wish lantern rises it takes away your trouble and sends fortune & prosperity.

If you are having an outdoor event or have access to an outdoor patio just outside your ballroom, this can be made into an exciting guest participation activity at the end of the reception during the bride and grooms departure as the official honeymoon send off.  

Feel free to give us a call to explore this and other add-on options to your event with Troy Entertainment Wedding & Event Productions.

Cleveland DJ Troy Entertainment Wins Couples Choice Award 2017

Cleveland, Ohio – January 10, 2017 – WeddingWire, the nation's leading online wedding marketplace, is thrilled to announce that Troy Entertainment DJ & Event Production Company has been selected as a winner of the prestigious WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ 2013 for Wedding DJ in Cleveland Ohio!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. Troy Entertainment’s selection as a Couple's Choice Award 2017 winner was selected based on the positive experiences expressed by past clients on WeddingWire, the world’s largest wedding review site with over one million reviews.  While many industry awards are given by the host organization, the WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ winners are determined solely based on reviews from real newlyweds and their experiences working with Troy Entertainment.

The WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards™ 2017 are given to the top local wedding vendors in more than 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on professional achievements from the previous year. Award-winning vendors are distinguished for the quality, quantity, consistency and timeliness of the reviews they have received from their past clients.  As a Couples' Choice Awards winner, Troy Entertainment is highlighted within the WeddingWire Network, which is comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States, Canada and abroad.

“Each year, WeddingWire looks forward to celebrating the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Network,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Now in its eight year, the Couples' Choice Awards™ program continues to recognize  the elite wedding professionals who exemplify a commitment to quality, service and professionalism. These businesses were chosen by our bridal community for their responsiveness and dedication to their clients over the past year. We are honored to recognize Troy Entertainment for their impressive achievements within the wedding industry.” 

Troy Entertainment is thrilled to be one of the top Wedding DJ's in Cleveland, Ohio in the WeddingWire Network of sites, which include leading wedding sites such as WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee.

"Again, we would like to express our gratitude to all of you.  We feel so fortunate to have such great clients that fill our lives with joy and offer us such amazing opportunities". - Troy Entertainment

The Anatomy of a Wedding Reception: “Making it Flo”.

The Troy Entertainment DJ’s philosophy on wedding flow and getting the party started!

It’s been said many times “ I want my wedding to have good flow”. This article will provide you with insight on some of the ideas and techniques we utilize to create not only good transitions between formalities but also how we achieve the wanted response from your guests, whether we are trying to move them into a mood, a seat, or onto the dance floor.

Each wedding reception we do can have several components or formalities. Most weddings will start with a bed of music during cocktail hour. For a moment think about the time your guests arrive. They enter the room slightly self-conscious and may go straight to the bar or they may try to locate a friend or group familiar to them. The DJ’s music should be uplifting but at a comfortable level. Music sometimes termed as “elevator music” may be too mundane and not inspiring enough to create what we call a “party mood” in the room. During cocktail hour sound level is extremely important, if kept just right guests will not have to strain to talk to one another.

Now it comes to the time to get your wedding guests into a seat.  For the DJ this is a process. Think about what people are doing at this point in the evening. They are in the middle of conversations and they have had a few cocktails.  You can hear that “buzz in the room”.  For this reason our DJ’s use what we call the “3 times a charm” method of DJ announcements. We repeat the information 3 times in the body of the same announcement. For example, if the DJ just opened up the microphone and said “We would like to have everyone find the seats” Most guests would probably miss the announcement entirely. Using the 3 times method and saying something like “Ladies and gentlemen, please find you tables and your seats, the introductions of the evening are next as soon as we get everyone comfortably seated, so once again let’s find our tables and our seats, thank you”. The first time they notice something is said, the second time they listen, and the third imbeds the information.

During dinner is a good time to play those smooth selections and keep it mellow to provide a comfortable backdrop so your guests can enjoy their meals and converse some more.

Let the dancing begin!  A novice DJ would think all you have to do is play the current hottest song and guests will come running to the floor. How often have you seen that a good song is played by the DJ yet nobody wants to “break the ice” and be first on the floor? This is common but there is an easy fix. First, let’s think about what we do know about the guests at wedding. In general  you have couples in attendance and we know men don’t dance much. They can however be made to feel obligated to dance. Our DJ’s can use several methods or tactics to start the night. We may use “peer pressure” to get them to commit to at least one dance and that’s how we will get are best chance to kick start the party.  Our DJ may say something like “Gentlemen, we want you to take your significant other, be it your wife, girlfriend, or date by the hand and look her in the eyes and ask her for this first slow dance of the evening”.  The minute some other guy does this you can bet most men will circum to the social pressure. Once the dance floor ice is broken you can bet all couples will follow.

Now Our DJ has a good opportunity to launch the party. He has all the couples on the floor. They are within crowd so they don’t feel like everyone is looking at them.  So what will we do next?  We then can pull out that popular song that has mass appeal and get the crowd moving.  We sometimes pass out “party enhancers” right before the transition from the slow song to the first dance hit just to keep the non-dancers engaged. Not everyone can bust a move, but they will waive a wand or shake a LED baton in the air with their friends!

We love talking to people about how we do what we do. If you have and comments or questions please feel free to ask. You are always welcome to see what our clients are saying at their event on our Youtube channel.

Planning a Cleveland Wedding?

Insight on Cleveland wedding DJ entertainment:
Most couples who are planning a wedding reception share a common desire or goal. They want the wedding DJ to fill the dance floor from the beginning to the end and they want their guests to have fun. So let’s look into what makes a wedding reception such a unique set of circumstances.

First, most wedding receptions are frequented by a wide range on ages from grandparents to siblings, as well as friends, relatives and co-workers. Unless you are socially connected to these people on a weekly basis you really wouldn't be able to determine what would drive them to the dance floor. That’s the reason various genres of music should be chosen as well allowing the DJ to exercise their ability feel out the crowd and try various styles of dance music. This broad range approach to music programming from the very beginning of the dancing portion of the wedding reception will send the message to the audience that there will be something for everybody from the very start.

The second thing to keep in mind about wedding reception entertainment is that the DJ is limited to playing danceable music and that those selections are a qualified hit. That means it’s either popular at the moment, a recurrent hit, or a hit that stands the test of time. You have to determine if the request is dance music or just good listening music, if your ultimate goal is to drive guest to the dance floor.

A good wedding DJ will arrange music into sets. These sets will fit together in a way that not only seamlessly transitions from song to song but builds energy and excitement. A good Wedding DJ will be able to use various mixing techniques to smoothly blend in an out of dance music or change the genre of the music without losing the floor. A good wedding DJ will also be able to play requests by fitting them into a set at the best harmonic and sensible time within the music program.

Slow music is a very important tool used by wedding DJ’s as it will most likely ensure to get everyone, especially guys with their dates to participate.

What separated wedding DJ’s from one another is talent and experience. Talent in this case is having a musical vocabulary in their head that they can draw upon almost instantly. If your requests include Motown and you like “sugar pie, honey bunch (can’t help myself) you’ll probably like “build me up buttercup” as well. And if guests request Pitbull they probable like Flo Rida too.

Lastly, you should always leave room for your guests to make requests. The wedding DJ should have that "approachable personality" that makes guests feel welcome to stop by the DJ booth. A mix of the couples requests, request from the guests, and the wedding DJ's ability to “think on their feet” will ensure your wedding reception is a dance floor hit for you and your guests.

Cleveland Wedding DJs from Troy Entertainment keep the dance floor packed
photograph provided by Making The Moment Photography