highlights of a few of my favorite wedding celebrations!

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exclusive Williamsburg Weddings 

Tara + Kyle
Colonial Heritage Club
Annamarie Akins Photography

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Sue + Thomas
The Williamsburg Inn
Brad Howe Photography

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Megan + Scott
The Williamsburg Lodge
Brad Howe Photography

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Brittany  + Greg
Colonial Heritage Club
Rebecca Keeling Photography

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Meg + Steve
Trump Vineyard-Charlottesville
Jack Looney Photography

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Renee + Joe
Kingsmill Resort
Paul Harrison Photographer

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Will your guests dance?
Guaranteed!

I generally prefer to take the more subtle approach to opening the dance floor. Approximately 35 to 40 minutes into the one-hour scheduled for dinner, I begin what I like to call “musical foreplay”, building the tempo of music so that at the one-hour point I can break into an “obvious” dance song.  What song I choose depends upon the preferences of my couple.  If they're looking for a more modern vibe, I might choose "Uptown Funk” by my boy Bruno Mars and if they're way old school, I might choose “Old Time Rock and Roll” or another “high-energy” easily recognizable song chosen by the couple. The secret is that I’ve already started including energetic songs like "I choose You" by Sara Bareilles or "Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest to start building the energy and serepticiously encouraging “chair dancing". Once the house lights dim and the lights start to move, guests will swarm to the dance floor like bees to honey without the necessity of any announcement to “open the dance floor”.

This particular approach works very well at weddings, as there are generally many different age groups. My first dance set will last about 45 minutes and unless the bride has specified otherwise, I will stick to old school for this set. (this keeps mom and dad as well as grandparents happy) I will then go into a 2 or 3 ballad set so I can confirm that everything is ready for the cake and toasts. This allows for an extremely smooth flow from dancing into formalities.

After the toasts, cake, garter and bouquet, I will continue the energy into 90's and 2000's, depending upon the couple's preferences. After 45 minutes, I’ll toss out another ballad set for the folks who are only slow dancing. The final hour or so of the party, if the couple likes current dance music I will do that. If not, we play it safe and go with Michael Jackson or Madonna and other party “standards”.


If I want to test the waters outside the “norm”. . . say country music, I’ll throw out “Sweet Home Alabama” to see if it flies. Then I can continue with other country if it works. The same goes for Latin. I’ll toss out Ricky Martin or Jennifer Lopez and go from there. Once I’ve indicated that I have a versatile music library, I usually get more requests in that same genre.

If I read the crowd wrong, choose the wrong song or make a mistake... you know, like when I inadvertently played "Shake It Off" by Mariah Carey when I  meant to play the Taylor Swift song by the same title.  (The worst 5 seconds of my life.) And then there was that party that nobody knew who Usher was (when "Yeah" was #1 on the charts) and he cleared my dance floor.  I didn't play anything newer than Michael Jackson for the rest of the night.

The name of the game is to own it and then pivot as quickly as possible.  

Wedding DJs and Entertainment in Richmond and Northern VA

My theory to jumpstarting the dance floor

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Tara + Kyle
Williamsburg inn + colonial Heritage club

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