Tropical indie and afrobeat wedding, Shelldance Orchid Gardens, Pacifica, CA. Photo: Jennifer Sosa
“James DJ'd at my wedding 2 weeks ago and he completely blew away both me and my wife's expectations. From the first phone call I had with him, he was extremely enthusiastic and I knew we were in good hands. We simply gave him a list of some of our favorite songs and he managed to break them up perfectly into a groovy afrobeat cocktail hour and 70's inspired main set that had everyone on the dance floor. Couldn't recommend him enough.” - Cyrus Blankinship
”James was amazing! My husband talked to him on the phone when we were on the hunt for a DJ and called me up afterwards to tell me that he didn’t want to talk to any other ones, James was the one. He is super outgoing and attentive and really just seems like he loves his job. He played everything we wanted the night of our wedding and at some point during the night a friend said "how do I get this guys playlist?!" I would highly recommend to any friend or family member! “ - Katie Barsanti
A Tropical, Indie Dance Wedding in a Greenhouse
Katie and Cyrus are definitely the people we were imagining when we started the company. You think, there must people loads of people with cool ideas and good taste out there that just aren’t being served by the normal wedding DJ thing. And honestly, I think we all imagine everyone out there is just like us. They aren’t, but some of them are, and Katie and Cyrus are those guys. They are literally just like us.
The dream clients!
We’ve had a couple weddings with cool couples, and a couple weddings in greenhouses, but not that many with cool couples that were also in greenhouses! Also, it turned out that their families were really down to party in a way that turned out to be both spontaneous and fortuitous. You plan, you plan, you plan, but ultimately DJ’ing is in the moment and the creativity really comes out of the reaction and interaction with the audience and I gotta say, the families really brought the secret sauce on this one.
An Afrobeat Cocktail Hour
We knew Katie and Cyrus were super cool, we knew we wanted to accent the tropical vibe of the venue and we knew we wanted to incorporate classic stuff the families could hang with alongside modern stuff the friends could hang with. We ended up doing some cool 70’s folky stuff before the ceremony to set up kind of a coastal California vibe. Think Nick Drake “Pink Moon” or Big Star “Thirteen”. Cyrus had some great requests that were in the William Onyeabor afrobeat type wheelhouse and also some 80’s boogie ones that echoed the modern indie, so we went with all afrobeat for the cocktail hour and modern indie with tropical flavors for the dinner.
A Chill 70’s Dance Party
Where things really took off though was with the family dance. We get a lot of clients that when quizzed upon their families musical tastes come up with “my mom likes Fleetwood Mac” so we’ve developed kind of a whole chill 70’s style that incorporates elements of soft rock, disco and funk, but all with the kind of crazy, retro synth elements like you here on new indie songs. We’ve been basically raiding the 70’s station on Sirius XM for only the most chill samples and production elements and as a result we have this amazing catalog of songs from the 70’s that sound like they are current, or at least sound really hip and fresh in that context. As much as we’ve been working on this as sort of a passion project for the last few years, we really don’t get a lot of clients that seem like they could hang with us being as crazy and creative as we’re capable of in this regard, but it turns out Katie and Cyrus are those guys and their families really just ran away with it.
We’ve got a gag where we play Stevie Wonder “Living for the City” into the Bee Gees “Jive Talking” where both songs have this crazy prog riff on the keyboard. We’ve also raided all the famous disco tracks for the longest, most extended, original club mixes and people were just tearing through that stuff. There’s a reason why these songs were huge in the 70’s and it’s kind of amazing to see people react to them in real time like you were there. Probably as close as I’m going to get to Studio 54, so thanks to the families for making that possible!
An Afterhours Trap Set
After we tuckered everyone out with the throwback, sounds like new indie but it it’s from the 70’s set, we did trap for the friends, but only the ones that were more on the pop, tropical side of the equation, so like Nikki Minaj “Megatron” and Fetty Wap “Trap Queen”. Many thanks to the Shelldance Orchid Gardens for not throwing us out then and there, because we were on a hilltop by the ocean at night and it was really loud. We always live and die by the graciousness of our hosts in this regard, so thank you to those guys for being so understanding.
An Amazing Garter Toss
This review wouldn’t be complete without a special shout out to Cyrus for his garter toss. I’ve actually only seen one of these ever, and it was Cyrus, and it was amazing. Cyrus was actually too shy to do the first dance for very long, but he was apparently not shy at all when it comes to getting up in there with your teeth and getting the job done on the garter toss!
It was as amazing as it was risky and like much of this event, the risk was really where things paid off. I said to Cyrus afterwards, “How on earth did you do that?!” and the answer was practice. Which is the moral of the story here. The more you practice, the riskier you can be, and the greater the rewards. And this is why we spend weeks if not months preparing for your wedding!
You’re welcome.
Big Ups & Shout Outs
Special shout out to Harvesting Love Events. They did a great job staying on top of all the changes and getting everyone where they needed to go. The flowers and place settings and everything also looked really great. Especially the Talking Heads “This Must Be the Place” themed neon sign for the photo op.
Special shout out to Shelldance Orchid Gardens. A very inspiring venue with both rare plants and an amazing view. Not to be missed!
Ceremony Songs
Prelude:
The Beatles ”Here Comes the Sun”
Processional:
Recessional:
Talking Heads “This Must Be the Place”
Grand Entrance:
Hot Chocolate “You Sexy Thing”
Cake Cutting:
Average White Band “Cut the Cake”
First Dance:
Al Green “Let’s Stay Together”
Father Daughter Dance:
Mother Son Dance:
Garter Toss / Bouqet Toss:
Barry White “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Baby”
Last Song:
Requests:
Wings “Love Is Strange”
George Harrison “My Sweet Lord”
Leo Sayer “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”
Gerry Rafferty “Right Down the Line”
ESG “Dance”
Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band “Was Dog a Doughnut”
William Onyeabor “Body and Soul”
Steve Monite “Only You”
Marcos Valle “Estrelar”
Marvin Gaye “Sexual Healing”
Alexi Murdoch “Orange Sky”
Sylvan Esso “Rewind”
Father John Misty “Real Love Baby”
Lykke Li “Unchained Melody”
Beach House “Dive”
The Lagoons “California”
Big Thief “Shark Smile”
Leon Bridges “Pony”
Charles Bradley “Victim of Love”
Alabama Shakes “This Feeling”
James Blake “I’ll Come Too”
Jamie XX “I Know There’s Gonna Be Good Times”
Poolside “Harvest Moon”
Washed Out “Hard to Say Goodbye”
Cut Copy “Standing in the Middle of a Field”
Toro y Moi “Laws of the Universe”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra “Hunnybee”
Venue: Shelldance Orchid Gardens / Planner: Harvesting Love Events / Photographer: Jennifer Sosa / DJ: Ceremony DJs / Rentals: Abbey Party Rents
