Miss Espresso, Corona/Big Bear
Age and Occupation: 23, Recent Grad & Professional Interviewee
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 22, Maintenance Technician
Engagement Date: December 21, 2007
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: June 25, 2008
Venue: Outside a rustic b&b in Big Bear Lake
About Me: I'm a lover of all things good: coffee, music, travel, rain, and of course- my handsome fiance! I'm a full believer in the "Life is Short," mantra - and therefore, eat lots of dark chocolate. I'm a Geographer by degree and nerd by choice. I cook to the sound of French and Portuguese music even though I speak neither. I love road trips, camping, hiking, and capturing life through the lens of my camera. Take me to Anthropologie and I may never leave. I'm a sucker for pretty packaging, bargain finds, and old movies. Mr. Espresso and I are high school sweethearts and I am so blessed to be this amazing man's future wife.
We’re less than 50 days away from the wedding and we just booked our entertainment. Who’s been procrastinating? But in this instance, we had to wait in hopes of getting our top choice.
You see, back in June, I was researching entertainment and came across the musical awesomeness that is Mike and Brian. I emailed them immediately requesting a quote and their availability, but the price came out to be way over our budget. Insert frowning Espresso faces. I emailed them a couple times afterwards trying to figure out how we could cut the cost down and herein lies why we had to wait. Brian informed me that if I could wait a little over a month, and if nobody booked them for that date, he would perform at our wedding as a soloist and for a much cheaper price. So we waited, and waited, and waited. We wondered and prayed.
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Miss Pomegranate, Sacramento
Age and Occupation: 27, Technical Specialist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: August 23, 2007
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: June 5, 2008
Venue: R.H. Phillips Winery
About Me: Hi, I'm Miss Pomegranate and I'm a shopaholic. I have a weak spot for the chic cheap - especially anything I can re-create on the DIY. Shoes are my vice, music is my passion in life and technology is the medium by which I live and work. When I'm not scoping out a sale, I'm spending my quality time training for a marathon, playing Wii with my fiance and snuggling with my Silver Labrador and Teacup Panther - and oh yeah, planning my wedding!
We originally planned on having an iPod wedding - but anxiety got the best of me after lots and lots (and lots) of people told me that the DJ is the one thing that most brides wish they had spent more on. Well, that anxiety, teamed up with the fact that NOT ONE of my friends wanted to be the emcee, (come on people, normally you all are hams and show-offs!) pretty much cemented my decision to try and find an affordable DJ.
I had a few rules for said DJ, including the following:
- No wardrobe of shiny silver sequin vests, top hats or funky DJ wear.*
- The option to allow a couple of friends to “spin” a pre-determined short set during our wedding day dance-fest.
- A pleasant speaking voice - and no habit of interrupting or fast-talking.
- A music catalog that didn’t expire in the 80s or that contains mass amounts of country music or cheesy dance songs.
- Some form of lighting package for ambiance (this was Mr. Pom’s request).
- Under $1,000 for 5 hours.
You’d THINK this would be easy, right? Apparently, to-be-married peeps in the Sacramento/Bay Area area either love the chicken dance or like to spend loads of money on their music slingers. We interviewed a few folks, but nobody really grabbed us.
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Miss Candy Corn, Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: Senior Editor/Writer & Freelance Illustrator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Student
Engagement Date: September 1, 2004
Wedding Date: October, 2008
Blogging Since: May 6, 2008
Venue: Pennsylvania Museum of Archaelogy and Anthropology
About Me: I enjoy people watching (especially in New Jersey malls), obsessive collecting, drooling over contemporary art, browsing flea markets for vintage finds and eating an absurd amount of cheese. In my Philadelphia abode, I create mixed media artwork and one-of-a-kind home accessories in the company of my farmer-tanned fiancé, our Westiepoo (Betty White), our three rabbits (Cadbury, Willie Nelson and Applesauce) and our two frisky chinchillas (Ethel Funk and Maude).
I just realized I’ve never posted about our fabulous dj! At first, we were planning on DIY-ing our wedding music with an Ipod, but I knew I would end up freaking out about the music on the wedding day if we did it ourselves. I have this image in my head of me hauling a boombox around for backup. I was also scared there’d be a lot of this going on:

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Mrs. Lovebird, New York/Cancun
Age and Occupation: 25, Attorney
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Engagement Date: September 22, 2006
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Venue: Dreams Cancun Resort & Spa
About Me: Born and raised New Yorker planning a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico and a traditional Chinese banquet in New York City. Got proposed to in Cancun, so it’s only fitting we are going back to get married. I love trivia, board games, bargain shopping, asian dramas and eating yummy food!
When I thought only a few people would come to our destination wedding, I was fine with the idea of having an ipod wedding and dancing barefoot on the beach. When the numbers started climbing towards 90 and beyond, we threw that idea out the window.

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Mrs. Cherry Blossom, San Francisco
Age and Occupation: 27, Administrative Asst.
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, District Sales Manager
Engagement Date: December 23, 2006
Wedding Date: May 3, 2008
Venue: Zen Garden in the East Bay w/ reception in a floor-to-ceiling window Atrium with views of the Zen Garden
About Me: After 5 years of dating, we're finally ready to get hitched! I am a lovah of all things wedding, creative, crafty, and definitely DIY bc I love to add a personal touch to everything I gift or make. In my free time, I like to bake, spend time with our family, friends, and my doggies, read my guilty pleasure celebrity gossip and catch up on TV shows.

When we started searching for a DJ, the choices were unlimited. We had tons of friends who got into the DJ’ing business from HS, and continued it into a growing business from the club scene to weddings and social events. Finding one that fit our budget and had the ear for some bad-ass beat that makes you want to rip the floor up and shake your bon bon like no tomorrow was a different story.
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Mrs. Hibiscus, Orange County
Age and Occupation in 06: 25, Eyebal Doc
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Commerical Underwriter
Engagement Date: September 26, 2004
Wedding Date: July 7, 2007
Venue: Laguna Beach on the beach, reception on a yacht in Newport Beach
About Me: I'm an eyeball doc. Normal is boring. I'm a hat person and a cat person. I'm in love (so very very in love). I'm a dreamer. I want to change the world. Superheroes are my friends. Kindness is contagious. Music is in my heart. Carpe diem.
So far, I’ve already blogged about our photobooth and our slideshow. Another special aspect of our wedding (and Mr. Hibiscus’ favorite) was our first dance.

Now, we worked really hard to come up with a routine after a couple of lessons from Arthur Murray. I think we did a good job considering we had no previous training. It wasn’t “Dancing with the stars” by any means, but we were very proud. We recommend taking dance lessons to help relax you for your first dance. Shockingly, my hubby wants to continue our lessons. He loved it and it was his favorite part of the wedding because he had put so much work into it.
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Mrs. Bell Pepper, Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: 28, Resident Physician
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Resident Physician
Engagement Date: May 30, 2006
Wedding Date: June 2007
Venue: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
About Me: I love whimsical details and design, everything that *sparkles*, sipping on hazelnut lattes, pugs, shopping for antiques and second-hand goods, scenic photography, delicate flowers, and checking out new restaurants in the city with my fianc??. We are planning our wedding at a unique city venue for about 75 close family members and friends. I have a lot of DIY ideas and I like to blog about ways to save money on your wedding.

There was much debate whether or not we should have a band, DJ, or an iPod playing our music for the reception. My fiance’s mom liked the idea of having a band. The look of having a band at your reception is very classy and the sound is so much better live. The cons for having a band is that it’s very expensive and you really have a limited song list collection to choose from. I contacted most bands in the Philly/South NJ area and the minimum cost to book one was about $2000, which is way out of our price range. Read more…
Mrs. Snow Pea, New York
Age and Occupation: 26, Architectural Engineer and student
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Web Designer
Engagement Date: July 4, 2005
Wedding Date: August 18, 2007
About Me: I am a DIY gal. From cooking, home improvements to wedding. Mr. Snow Pea and I met in college, and since then we've been like peas and carrots! Love cooking, traveling, and fishing.
Live bands at a wedding were a new thing to me. In high school, a cool DJ was the most desired part of a Sweet Sixteen, was it not?
For Mr. Snow Pea’s birthday, we went to see Harry Connick Jr. in concert. He was amazing and his band was phenomenal! We love big band music and hearing them in person, so we knew a DJ couldn’t substitute the musical quality we were looking for. We compromised many things in order to book a live band for our wedding, but we’re so glad we did.
We looked into many bands including Slippery Band (who was booked), 747Orchestra, CTO World Entertainment, Chaser, and Ariel Entertainment. All of which are incredible bands and I personally highly recommend all of them. We went with EBE because they were recommended by Slippery Band (incredibly friendly service) and were willing to work within our budget.
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Mrs. Kiwi, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation in 06: 27, Bookkeeper
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, P.E. Teach/Coach @ private schools in LA
Engagement Date: March 31, 2006
Wedding Date: November 3, 2007
Venue: Radisson Hotel
About Me: I'm a bookkeeper who failed high school algebra. I'm currently living in Los Angeles, literally a street over from where I grew up with Mr. Kiwi, my honey of three years. We have a jumbo mini-dachshund (seriously, he's huuuuge), and we're planning an autumn themed wedding on a shoestring, paid for by ourselves. The wedding date is my late grandma's birthday, I needed her there somehow, and that seemed like the best way for us. I can't believe I'm a Bee! I couldn't be more proud!
Mr. Kiwi was given a few jobs to do - music, officiant, and his suit. So far, I’ve made appointments to visit various officiants, and ripped out suit ideas. And as of yesterday, we kinda booked a music guy.
He is Mr. Kiwi’s (wait for it…) assistant coach. Who is still in college. And who doesn’t know a thing about actually MC’ing a wedding. Since I honestly don’t care about the music so much, I told Mr. Kiwi we can agree to it, but I get complete input on the playlist.
So, how did we manage to hire him? At their game last night, we were groaning about how hard this planning thing is, especially finding a DJ. Then Mr. Kiwi jokingly asked Brandon, “How about you do it?” Heh heh heh. Oh, how I laughed and laughed. Then Brandon said, “Why don’t you just use your ipod?” Which began a discussion of speakers, amps, mics, and those things. That led to Mr. Kiwi saying, “Dude, can you do it? We’ll use my ipod! I’ll give you a hundred bucks?” The smile on my face was replaced with my shocked open mouth.
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Miss Peach, New Jersey/Atlanta
Age and Occupation in 07: 25, Mechanical Engineer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Student
Engagement Date: January 27, 2006
Wedding Date: March, 2007
Venue: Korean Presbyterian Church of Atlanta + Flint Hill
About Me: Mr. Peach and I started dating our senior year of high school when we both lived in Georgia. Since then, we spent 6 years in a long distance relationship. And now by the grace of God, we've made it through; we are living in the same state again (NJ) and we are gettin' married! I was originally going to ask if I could be Miss Mango bc I loveee mangos sooo much, but in the end decided to be true to my GA peach roots! woot!
Alrighty folks… I need your opinions!
The DJ I’m considering offers a motorized light show for an additional $75 with his services. Have any of you been to a wedding where they had a lightshow along with the music? What did you think?
My initial thoughts: could look cool, maybe it will really liven up the dance floor? But on the other hand it could look tacky - maybe a little too prom-y or club-ish??