*Keep Reading Below for a Wedding Tip!*

On October 28, 2017, I DJed my friends' wedding at the Camarillo Ranch House in Camarillo, CA. This was a Filipino wedding of about 200 people. I knew the couple from California State University of Northridge where we joined FASA together. It was such a great pleasure and honor to have been asked to DJ/MC for their wedding several years later.

It was my 3rd time DJing at the Camarillo Ranch House, and it's such a great property. They had their wedding ceremony at the gazebo and their cocktail on the other side of the building. At another wedding I DJed, the couple had their ceremony by the huge Oak tree (I believe that's the right kind of tree). As far as I know, there are 2 ceremony sites on property that the wedding couple choose; both equally gorgeous.

To get in detail with my DJ setup for both ceremony and cocktail areas, I used 1 speaker at each location and it was enough acoustically to project clear sound for everybody to hear. I used my new QSC K8.2 speakers on a speaker stand and running an iPod for music. For the microphone, I used a Shure GLXD24 wireless system.

Later on that evening, we invited guests over inside the barn for the reception. They decorated and designed the place so well that it looked like their wedding could be in a magazine. Below is a photo of what the reception looked like. And yes, I took this photo! #joeriveraphotography haha

The reception program was fun and different! For the grand entrance, we lined the sponsors and wedding party outside. After introducing the sponsors in, I played "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys and during the beat intro, I announced all the names of the bridal party and bride and groom and they all walked inside together at the chorus of the song. It was epic! Great decision to do this on the bride's part. Right after, Gizzelle & Matthew danced to their first dance song "I Swear" by All-4-One then went to a surprise choreographed dance with their wedding party to the song "The Moustache Song". It was great!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner, heard some great speeches, and witnessed the parent dances. What was unique about the parents' dances was that they had their friend, Carizza, sing the songs. She communicated with me days before the wedding and gave me the instrumental tracks that she will be singing to. For the Father & Daughter dance, she sang "Have I Told You Lately" and for the Mother & Son dance, she sang, "More Than You'll Ever Know". Having someone sing during the wedding reception added a nice personalized touch.

Afterwards, we continued the night with a first dance set catered to the Filipino crowd who love to line dance. I played songs such as "Cha Cha Slide", "Electric Slide", "Dancing Queen", and some disco. Then, we took a quick break for our bride and groom to do the cake cutting, bouquet toss, garter toss, and the Filipino money dance tradition. After the formalities, we continued to dance the night away with some hip hop, top 40, and fun, upbeat music. It was nothing but great vibes.

At the end of the night, we sent our newlyweds off by having a grand balloon farewell! We had all of the guests make 2 lines outside of the barn and hold a balloon. Our happy couple held even bigger balloons and at the count of three, they walked between the 2 lines of guests with their balloons. At the end of the tunnel, everybody released their balloons at the same time. Fortunately, I was able to capture all of this on my Snapchat video which you can watch below!

WEDDING TIP: Hire your videographer to last until the end of the reception. Some of the most memorable things happen towards the end once everybody is loosened up.

All-in-all, everybody had an amazing time, especially our bride and groom. Thank you, Gizzelle and Matthew for having me as your wedding DJ!

Also, don't forget to check out the professional video below created by Creative Bliss Events!

If you have any comments, questions, or would like to know more information about the wedding, please feel free to reach out!

In the meantime, check out these amazing vendors whom I had the pleasure to work with that evening:

Wedding Planner & Coordinator:
www.vitabellaevents.com

Catering, Rentals, Bar & Staff:
www.djscatering.com

Photographer:
www.joseaalvarado.com

Videographer:
www.creativeblissevents.com

Lighting & Draping:
www.inthemixevents.com

Florist:
Yamaguchi's Nursery

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On May 14, 2017, I was hired from VOX DJs to DJ and host the wedding of Chelsea and Scott at the Camarillo Ranch House in Camarillo, CA. It was a Filpino-American Wedding, and they had a guest count of 250 as most of their family came from cities all over the US to witness this special occasion. This was a big wedding and was glad I worked with a team of professionals. Jane and her team from www.janealexanderevents.com helped me out throughout the day to ensure everything went smoothly.

That day I was in charge of their ceremony, cocktail, and reception. I didn't have an assistant with me to help me out, but fortunately, I arrived there early enough to handle it all on my own. For the ceremony, I setup near the large tree at the back of the ranch. I used my QSC K8 speaker to project sound, as well as my Alto ZMX122 mixer. They also had a special performance from The Brown Brothers who sang during the ceremony. For them, I setup 3 microphones on mic stands, 1 QSC K12 speaker on the floor as the monitor, and hooked up their keyboard to my mixer. The whole ceremony was beautiful and went flawless.

Shortly after the ceremony was the cocktail hour which I have used my battery-powered Denon speaker. I connected my iPad to it and played a playlist that I created on Spotify. I played a mixture of upbeat wedding music that catered to all ages. Even the staff had complimented and told me that they enjoyed the music. Thank you!

While people were enjoying the cocktail hour, I was doing my last touch ups, cleaning up, and sound check over at the reception area. When it was time to welcome guests, I had some upbeat wedding music in the background. I then lined up the wedding party outside and this even included their sponsors. The grand entrance was fun and the guests were cheering them on as they made their way inside. Right after the bride and groom's entrance, we did their first dance. Afterwards was a welcome speech from the bride's parents and a blessing from their officiant. Then it was time to eat.

While people are enjoying their delicious meals catered by Simply Marvelous BBQ (http://simplymarvelousbbq.com/), we had some special performances to entertain the guests. There were a total of 4 acts with 3 of them were solo singers. They provided me their iPhone to play the YouTube karaoke version of the song and they sang on top of the music. They were all great singers! The 4th act was from the group, The Brown Brothers. They sang over a music track that they've given me on a CD dedicated to the bride and groom. They sounded amazing!

Next, we had speeches and toasts. Following was the parents dances, and then an open dance floor! It was time to party! I played a mixture of Top 40 and classic funky and disco hits. I even played some Filipino favorites such as "Todo Todo" and other line dancing songs that gets people on the dance floor. About 30 minutes into the dance set, we took a break for the bride and groom to do their cake cutting, bouquet, and garter toss. My favorite parts was the bouquet toss because I played the song "Move B****" by Ludacris as the bride's request. You know it's going to be a fun party. Then we continued with more dancing and mixing the music up for everyone to dance. Finally, we ended the night with "Don't Stop Believing". I gathered people around the dance floor to surround Chelsea and Scott with their love. They were singing and shouting having a great time.

Overall, the whole night was a success! And importantly, Chelsea and Scott had an amazing time at their wedding. It was a pleasure to have been their DJ. Congrats Scott and Chelsea!

VENUE:
Camarillo Ranch House
http://camarilloranch.org/

COORDINATOR:
Jane and Team
http://janealexandraevents.com/

PHOTOGRAPHER:
Stefani Ciotti Photography
http://stefaniciottiphotography.com/

VIDEOGRAPHER:
Taylor from Moonlight Media
http://www.moonlightmedia.net/

DJ Company I worked for that night:
VOX DJs
http://voxdjs.com/

DJ BLOG

Beautiful Camarillo Ranch House Wedding!

Wedding of Chelsea & Scott