70’s rock and modern indie wedding, Elks Lodge #3, San Francisco, CA. Photo: Matthew Scheuller
“My husband and I had an absolutely amazing experience with Jamie DJ’ing our wedding a couple of weekends ago! We had a good feeling from the beginning - he hosts indie dance nights at a bar near our apartment and his sample playlists perfectly matched our tastes - and he totally exceeded our expectations.
The most important part first: Everyone had an amazing time at the event! Jamie covered the time before our ceremony, flawlessly handled music and audio during the ceremony, and kept the party going from the cocktail hour all the way through last call. He chose the perfect music for all the different parts of the evening, and managed to appeal to all the generations that were there. I knew he would nail it with the indie music, but he also did an amazing job getting up to speed some on some of our lower-brow pop favorites, which our friends loved.
Bigger picture: Jamie went above and beyond to help with our music. We did not have a wedding planner, so were stretched pretty thin at times. A less involved DJ might have all the music you want, but it will end up on you to spend a lot of time choosing exactly which songs you want to hear and when. All we had to do with Jamie was tell him our general concept, pick a few of the important songs, and mark the artists we liked in his catalog, and then he handled it all from there. I'm sure it was a lot of work for him, but we were immensely grateful that he was able to take vague direction from us and create an unforgettable musical experience.
I will be recommending Jamie to anyone I know in the Bay Area who is looking for a DJ! He does a fabulous job and is also a very nice person who is a lot of fun to be around!” - Patrick Malloy
”Jamie did such an amazing job with everything for my wedding a few months ago in San Francisco! He was super easy to communicate with leading up to the event, and did a great job working collaboratively with my husband and I to figure out music that would both feel distinctively like us but also appeal to all our friends and family – he’s so knowledgeable about so many genres, I got the impression he could work with pretty much anyone’s musical taste. He covered everything with day-of set up, did our sound during the ceremony, edited specific verses out of our recessional song – he was willing to step up and do basically anything we asked to help the event run smoothly (a really big deal, as we had no planner and were not familiar with event planning ourselves!). And above all, he did an incredible job getting our reception party started, keeping everyone dancing until it was time to shut down the venue. I’d enthusiastically recommend him and Ceremony DJs to anyone who needed a DJ for any event, and especially a wedding -- his music and all-around service was a huge part of what made the day so special for me, my husband and all our friends and family! (A sample text from a friend the day after about our wedding music: “THAT WAS LITERAL BLISS FOR ME”.)” - Diego Ruiz
A Moving, Heart Warming, Indie LGBT Wedding at The Elks Lodge #3 in San Francisco
When you live in the Bay Area being gay is kind of like having brown hair. It’s really easy to forget sometime after 20 years of living here that it’s not like that everywhere, it’s only recently that LGBT folks have gained full marriage equality, and that for most of people’s lives these things seemed like they might never have happened.
We have a lot of queer friends, and especially queer couple friends, and maybe I’ve just gotten really used to them having the same sorts of issues. You know people for so long it seems crazy that their was a time when they didn’t live together. You almost forget that final step of doing the whole ceremony and getting the certificate from city hall was out of reach.
When we first started doing weddings, I think in the back of my head I knew we’d be doing LGBT weddings like anyone else, but I somehow failed to realize how monumental of a thing that would be in practice once people’s personal stories started getting involved and the enormity of what that means for people emotionally and in the context of civil rights began to come into focus.
A Bordeline Historic Ceremony
We have so much in common with Patrick and Diego in so many ways, music taste, career background, friend circles, I think I was just really focused on that element throughout the whole planning. It really wasn’t until we were standing there doing the ceremony that I realized this was like witnessing a moment in history.
It was just really an honor.
These guys both work in progressive politics, so perhaps they just paid extra attention to the vows or wrote particularly articulate speeches, but really beyond that, it was really just inspiring to honor the journey these folks had taken with their families and how they really had overcome a lifetime of obstacles to get to this moment. When Rocky and I get married, I think there’s going to be a certain amount of celebrating perseverance but nothing like this. Straight people getting married is a feat. Queer people getting married is like a herculean miracle.
In any case, it was really moving.
A Subtly LGBT Dinner
We’ve done a few LGBT weddings before and there’s always an element of history and civic pride, but this really just drove the emotional point home in every way.
As far as music, we wanted to incorporate a little bit of LGBT history, some 70’s glam, some disco but keep the whole thing hip and modern with a smattering of house and indie dance. The event was mostly friends, and everyone was in the 20-30 years old range, so we could really get away with a lot of things like Hot Chip, Robyn and Disclosure.
A 2000’s Hip Hop Dance Party
We agreed up front though that the most raging part of the party would be 2000’s Bay Area Hip Hop and crunk which we definitely went to town with. We’ve been doing a 2000’s indie theme party for the last 5 years and as a special event we throw a strictly 2000’s hip hop version every couple months. So I’ve got Missy Elliot, Ludacris, Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins for days.
For the closer we did a bunch of 12 minute extended remix versions of the craziest crunk songs in the world. If you’ve never heard the club mix for Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins “Get Low” check that out. It goes on and on, and every time you think there’s going to be another chorus, there’s just twelve more rappers with a verse.
All and all this was a terrific party.
Big Ups & Shout Outs
But many special thanks to Patrick and Diego for having us for such a special moment.
Also shout out to Matthew Schueller photography for being so cool at the event and after.
I need to find these photos!
Ceremony Songs
Processional:
Sufjan Stevens “Futile Devices (Age of Adz Version)”
Recessional:
Father John Misty “Everyman Needs a Companion”
First Dance:
Jamie’s Crunk Remix Set:
T.I. “Bring Em Out”
Freeway “Flipside” ft. Peedi Crakk
Juelz Santana “There It Go (The Whistle Song)”
Peety Pablo “Freek-A-Leek”
Usher ft. Lil Jon & Ludarcis “Yeah”
Federation “Hyphy”
E-40 “Tell Me When to Go”
Too Short “Shake That Monkey” ft. Lil Jon
Mac Dre “Feelin’ Myself”
Lil Jon and the East Side Boys “Get Low (Remix)” ft. Elephant Man, Busta Rhymes & Ying Yang Twins)
Ying Yang Twins “Salt Shaker (Extended Remix)” ft. Juvenile, Murphy Lee, Lil Jon, Fat Joe, Pitbull, Jacki-O, BG & Fatman Scoop
Venue: Elks Lodge #3 / Photographer: Matthew Schueller Photography / DJ: Ceremony DJs
