A Classy, FUN Tug Hill Vineyards Wedding for the books

It's October 7, and although peak wedding season 2013 is slowly but surely winding down, keeping up with blog posts is harder than ever. I don't get a chance to blog about EVERY wedding, but I think this one deserves a mention. On 8/31 I had the honor of helping Erin and Shane Manns celebrate their marriage, at the beautiful Tug Hill Vineyards, in Lowville, NY (A great venue with a staff that's second to none).

Erin and Shane are a great couple, who also happen to be police officers, who met while on duty, at a traffic stop! They were introduced to the "Cops" theme, and walked into the room cuffed to each other!

I had the pleasure of working with photographer Emmanuel Vaucher, whose pictures can be seen in this blog-post, tell the rest of the story.

Needless to say, Erin and Shane's friends and family were a TON of fun. Erin emailed me the following after her wedding:

"I would love to give you a wonderful review.  That evening went off without a hitch and you guys had a huge part in it. I will give Theresa (manager at he vineyard) your contact info, if you don't mind. I'm  trying to get her to put all of our vendors on their list that they hand out to everyone. we had such a blast." 

-Erin Barrett

Thanks Erin and Shane! It was a pleasure helping you celebrate your all important day!

Best, Kirk Rothrum, Select Receptions by CNY Select DJs

A 5 Star Wedding, at Greystone Castle, Canastota, NY

We recently has the honor of providing DJ services for Edward and Abigail Browka's all important day at Greystone Castle in Canastota. For Ed and Abby, we provided on-site ceremony services at their nearby family farm, as well as wireless uplights around the perimeter of the reception room. 

For the ceremony, we provided gentle prelude music for guests arriving, and wireless microphones for the officiants & readings. A Harpist from the DeSantis Orchestra provided music for the ceremony itself. 

It was a picture perfect ceremony and reception. After a delicious dinner catered by Carnegie Catering (one of my favs!) we slowly faded the warm amber uplighting, over to blue. It was time to party! The warm glow, turned an otherwise cold space, into intimate and elegant all at once.

Because dancing and music was so important to Edward and Abby, instead of being the upper 'loft' area of the room, they preferred to have us directly in front of the dancefloor. The result was awesome sound ON the dance-floor, rather than reverberating around the entire room, as is regularly the case at Greystone. 

 The floor was PACKED all night, and guests enjoyed an eclectic mix of music from all eras, including lots of current dance music. Edward and Abby were quite the dancers themselves, and they spent most of the evening with their guests, right on the dance-floor. 

After their wedding, Edward and Abigail kindly wrote the following review of our services: 

"Our wedding was awesome! One of the things that all of our friends and family are saying is that they have never seen a wedding were the dance floor was full from the first dance to the very last. There was artful and skillful flow from song to song, and the mix was fun yet tasteful, young and old alike felt comfortable. The MC introductions and announcements were very professional yet high high energy. One thing that I really liked is that Kirk was an advocate for us (the Bride and Groom) he worked with other vendors to make parts of the night work out well and how WE wanted. Kirk also took time before to really get to know us and help us discern what we really wanted. Our music choice was eclectic (hip hop to polka, country to classical... and Kirk worked with us to make it an awesome night! Also the light show was powerful and fun, and the sound system was clear and powerful, no distortion even when the volume went up toward the end of the night. I interviewed several DJs and Kirk is the rare combination of highly professional and truly fun."

Our dance-lights, lighting up the ceiling

Thanks so much for the kind words, and thanks especially  for entrusting us to carry out your wishes on this HUGELY important day! 

Best Wishes!!

-Kirk Rothrum

Select Receptions by CNY Select DJs

Syracuse, NY Wedding DJ

A Rockin FUN Sunday Wedding Reception at the Sherwood Inn, Skaneateles, NY

On Sunday, 8/25, I had the pleasure of providing DJ Services for the Skaneateles Wedding of Eric and Sarah Nalbach. Eric and Sarah are from the Buffalo area, but tied the know and celebrated their reception at the Sherwood in in Skaneateles, NY. The Sherwood is a favorite venue for me, as Nadine Duchene, the site coordinator, is an absolute pleasure and a total pro to work with. Eric and Sarah, being in their late 30's, decided they'd like to forego most of the formalities and pomp & circumstance of the more traditional reception events, and instead have a touch of formality, but mostly a fun cocktail and dinner party. The shared with me, that they weren't even considering a DJ in their initial planning. By the end of their wedding reception, Eric shared with me what a mistake that would have been. In their Select Receptions Client Tools account, they picked a ton of great cocktail and dinner music, as they didn't really expect dancing. 

After an elegant Cocktail hour and Dinner, we catered to some of the older guests (who would likely leave earliest) with some classic slow-songs.

After enjoying some oldies and slow songs, as expected, many older guests trickled out to head home early (it's Sunday after-all). 

It wasn't long before Eric and Sarah's friends were jamming the dance-floor...

One of Eric's long-time friends told me what a club kid Eric was in the early 90's. In no time flat The Sherwood was rocking to classic club tunes and throwback early 90's freestyle music and Old School Hip Hop. 

Some of the top classic club songs of the night inlcuded: 

* Montel Jordan - This Is How We Do It

* Salt N Pepa - Shoop

* Reel to Reel - I Like To Move It

* Wreckx-N-Effect - Rumpshaker

* Crystal Waters - 100% Pure Love

* Naughty by Nature - O.P.P.

* Snap - I've Got The Power

And many, many more classic bangers. 

Peppered in with some Disco Inferno and Old School Michael Jackson, the Eric and Sarah and friends were having a ball, and asked me to stay an additional hour so the party could go on. Unfortunately, because the rooms above the West Porch of the Sherwood were rented to other guests, the music had to stop as scheduled. We ending it with a bang, and received many compliments from all. 

What a fun Sunday wedding! Thanks again Eric and Sarah for the great memories. It was an honor to be a part of your big day. 

Best Wishes, 

Kirk Rothrum

Select Receptions by CNY Select DJs

Disctinctive, customized DJ Services for Syracuse, NY area Weddings

A Soulful, Packed Dancefloor at the Mandana Barn, Skaneateles, NY

On August 24, 2013 we had the pleasure of providing Wedding Reception DJ services for Ashley and Stuart Chesiere. Ashley is from Homer, NY, but she and Stuart current live in Oregon.

Their wedding reception was held at the Mandana Barn, in Mandana, NY (just outside of Skaneateles).

Ashley described herself as being "hipster" with musical tastes that were less than ideal for the average wedding guest. Because most of her guests were family, and on the older side, Ashley decided to avoid most modern music in favor of classic R&B and oldies. We worked together to create a playlist that was exactly as requested, full of great soulful oldies. The result was a dance-floor that was packed ALL night long. 

Guests danced to everything from Marvin Gaye, to the Jackson 5, to the Supremes and much more. It was a true anthology of classic, fun soul music from the 60's. As a fairly well-known "vinyl archaeologist" whose been featured in several publications and programs about the culture of record collecting, I know vintage soul music like the back of my hand. Obviously we had to stick to songs guests would recognize, and already know and love... But it was a blast to get to play so much classic soul at a wedding.

Toward the end of the night, as some of the older guests left, Ashley wanted some new music after all... She and her friends had a ball dancing to Miley Cyrus, Soulja Boy, Carly Rae Jepsen and more...

The wedding was truly a success, and guest after guest were kind enough to compliment us and thank us for the most fun they'd had in a long time. Of note, Ashley's parents a generous and thoughtful couple, spent 15-20 minutes after the wedding expressing their sincere thanks and telling us they'd be recommending us to anyone looking for a DJ, as the reception was such a success. That doesn't happen every time, and when it does, it's greatly appreciated. :)


I also had the opportunity to work with one of my favorite photographers in the area, Robert Kaussner!

Thanks Ashley and Stuart, for choosing Select Receptions!

Best,
Kirk Rothrum
Select Receptions by CNY Select DJs
Syracuse Wedding DJ