A Pop-a-Shot Wedding Reception at Strongwater Events!
What do you do when you realize that the March Madness basketball tournament kicks off during your wedding weekend, and that you and your friends are fans of a team or two that made the bracket? Well, if you’re Rita and Brian, you decide to lean in, and incorporate some basketball fun into the reception. We’re so glad they did!
Our friend Chaz from Photo 243 caught this awesome image of Rita and Brian playing the first pop-a-shot round.
Long time loves Rita and Brian decided to have some unique fun during their reception. Instead of a traditional dance with Mom and Dad, they organized a family bracket pop-a-shot tournament. And, guests could sign up for the friends bracket that happened later in the evening. Everyone had a blast with this both playing and watching. The “Jock Jam” type music was perfect for keeping the game vibe going, while still packing the dancefloor during the tournament moments. What a fun night!
We love to help our clients plan perfect events, and then guide things to make it all happen in the moment. This was a blast. The very last song of the night was Love Story by Taylor Swift, and we’re grateful that we got to be part of Rita and Brian’s Love Story. Looking for some fun ideas for your wedding reception? Check these out!
Thanks to Chaz at Photo 243 and our pals at Strongwater Events! Contact the Strongwater team to find out how you can have a fabulous wedding reception at Strongwater Events. The natural light, exposed brick, and unique structural framing of their venue make the various rooms of the Strongwater Event Space an ideal venue for wedding celebrations. The multi-room space displays an urban warehouse aesthetic throughout the venue showcasing original sawtooth window skylights and exposed brick everywhere. Their event space is a flexible and accommodating venue full of character.
Can we talk about the Wedding Dress Bustle?
Hooks, Ties, Buttons, Oh My!
Your GORGEOUS wedding dress with that stunning train will look amazing in your ceremony photos! We LOVE it. But at some point, that stunning train will need to be bustled so that you can transition from your ceremony elegance to your reception ready beauty. Once your train is securely and beautifully bustled, you will be comfortable, and ready to fully enjoy every moment of your reception without worries!
Chances are, your wedding dress bustle will be designed and added at one of your fittings. And because there are so many ways to add a beautiful bustle, we can’t give you direction on how to accomplish this. Rather, we want to encourage you to make sure you have a trusted team ready to take care of you and easily handle this job on your wedding day. The goals here: happy bride, beautiful gown, and no bustle-drama!
Have a Wedding Dress Bustle Party
We think a genius trend is the Wedding Dress Bustle Party! It’s simple … a couple of weeks before your wedding, gather your favorite beverages and a few snacks. Invite AT LEAST four of your bridesmaids or special friends, maybe a fun and capable aunt, and your mom. Model your beautiful gown, and then have each of them practice bustling your dress alone or in teams! It will make for a fun get together, and on your wedding day you will have several people who can confidently take care of you and your bustle!
If this idea isn’t possible, try to take AT LEAST two people to your final fitting, and practice the bustle a few times before leaving. Also (and we’re not kidding) take some pictures and a video of the process, no matter how simple it seems.
Why Practice Bustling?
Simply put, the bustle can take up too much precious time on your big day if no one knows how to do it, leading to some frustrations. Your perfectly planned reception, beautifully decorated room, excited guests, delicious food, and more can all be thrown off if the bustling process is taking too long, or if no one knows how to do it. With a little preparation and a tiny bit of practicing, this moment will be fun and simple and will prevent wedding day bustle-drama. Happy, beautiful, confident – yes please!
Need some more ideas for your wedding celebration? Check these out!
Find out more about the types of wedding dress bustles here.
Best of Columbus Weddings. It’s Official!
Once again, thanks to our many wonderful wedding couples and fantastic vendor friends, Night Music DJ Professionals AND Fizzy Cat Photo Booth have each been nominated for BEST of Columbus Weddings! We are grateful to be included among the elite of Columbus Weddings, and we’re thrilled with this honor.
What could be better than that?
Well, we think it would be fun to WIN this year, and we could really use your help! Just click this link, and vote for Night Music DJ Professionals in the DJ category, and also vote for Fizzy Cat Photo Booth in the Photo Booth category. (If you come across more vendors you love in the other categories, help them out, too!) Do it today, because voting ends soon.
This past year, we were lucky enough to be involved in making wedding dreams come true for so many memorable couples. We can picture and remember the fun, the love, the music, the party and the unique feeling of each and every event. That is the real reward … this is just for fun.
CLICK HERE to VOTE for Night Music and Fizzy Cat.
Voting ends February 3rd.
Thanks for all of your support. We couldn’t do it without you!
DJ Jodi & DJ Steve
Visiting your wedding guests.
So many guests … so little time.
Our wedding couples sometimes ask us how they can visit with or thank all of their guests during the reception. These are dear family and friends who have traveled to celebrate this big day, but, with a limited amount of time, this can be a tough task. As a worried bride once told us “We have 120 guests. If we talk to each one for a minute, that’s two hours. What are we going to do?” By the way, we figured that one out, and her Visit-Guests-Mission was accomplished using one of these ideas below.
Kelly and Tyler say HI to their guests. Photo by Story Told Photography
Here are a few ideas we have seen in action.
The perfect idea for visiting your wedding guests might be here, or this might spark another solution that is JUST RIGHT for your wedding.
1) Release rows or pews from the wedding ceremony
2) Receiving line after the ceremony or into the reception
3) Casual socializing during cocktail hour
4) Table Visits.
5) Table Touches
6) Ballroom Blitz, with a set amount of time (usually about 15 to 20 minutes total)
7) Table Photo Challenge (usually less than 5 minutes)
8) Thank You Toast from the couple to the guests on the microphone
9) Just knowing you’ll catch up with friends and family at the dessert table, the bar or on the dance floor!
If you have any questions about making one of these ideas work, just let us know. In fact, check out the the Ballroom Blitz HERE. And always, remember to talk with us about your vision and hopes for your celebration. We are happy to consult and brainstorm with you to make it all come true!
Songs for the parents dance at your wedding.
Rachel and her dad on the dance floor. Photo by Nicole Dixon.
Here are sixteen handpicked songs to consider using for dancing with a parent at your wedding reception. We’ve included good ones that were selected by some of our recent couples. These ideas include songs old and new, country and pop, with slow or mid-tempo beats. Maybe one of these will be perfect for your traditional parent dance at your wedding. Let us know if you’d like even more ideas … we’ve got bunches.
Listen to the songs on a Spotify playlist HERE
Need more ideas? Check out these playlists.
Understory. A new venue from Wolf’s Ridge Brewing
Finally! A truly beautiful location to meet for drinks or host a wedding in Old North Columbus! Understory at Open Air, 2571 Neil Ave, is a place we know you will love.
Going in for a tour with Private Events Coordinator, Emily Stenger, we knew we would love it because it combines so many things that we appreciate. Understory is close to nature, and has repurposed an unused historic building with beauty and intention so that it seems like this gorgeous NEW lounge and event space was this building’s destiny all along. Because we are long time fans of Wolf’s Ridge famous and award winning craft brews, commitment to service, and elevated chef driven food…well…let’s just say we were admirers before we even got the tour.
The patio overlooking pretty old growth trees and the Olentangy Trail is so inviting. We are sure that this will be a very popular place to meet friends or wow your out of town guests.
Put Understory on your Columbus Bucket List for a must visit place! And, if you have a special event or wedding in your future, get in touch with the super friendly and helpful Emily for a tour or a chat. Your friends will be so impressed that you discovered this hidden gem.
Sarah and Christian’s Wedding at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens Wells Barn
Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is without a doubt one of the most sought after locations in Columbus for a beautiful wedding celebration. It’s easy to see why, as they offer so many gorgeous venues within the park, and plenty of flexible indoor and outdoor spaces to host a perfect event. For many years, we have been proud to be one of the Conservatory’s preferred and trusted wedding vendors. It’s really an honor for us to be considered among the best of the best in helping the talented team at The Conservatory take great care of their clients!
A very happy day for Sarah and Christian – photo by Adam Lowe
One of the reasons that weddings at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens are so fantastic is Sarah, who helps wedding couples as their lead event coordinator. We were completely thrilled when Sarah contacted Night Music, and asked us to DJ and MC her wedding and reception. Sarah knows so many wedding professionals, that we were over the moon that she chose us to help make her day the best! Sarah and her husband Christian met at Miami University, and they had lots of fun friends to join in the celebration for their Miami Merger!
The dance party rages! – photo by Adam Lowe
Some of Sarah and Christian’s highlight songs
Grand Entrance: Sirius by Alan Parsons Project
Cake Cutting: Sugar by Maroon 5
Bride and Groom First Dance: Die a Happy Man by Thomas Rhett
Mother/Son Dance: My Wish by Rascal Flatts
Mother/Daughter Dance: The Best Day by Taylor Swift
Not only did we have fun on the dance floor with hot cuts from Lizzo, Harry Styles, The Kid Laroi and Halsey but rocking throwback sets with tunes from Mayday Parade, 3OH!3, and The Killers sent this party over the top!
The dance floor was alive with energy! photo by Adam Lowe
We love being part of weddings at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and The Wells Barn is a great setting for a wedding and incredible reception.
Any day we get to work with Ryan Pitts and his excellent team from Cameron Mitchell Premier Events is a good day! Good food, great location, and happy guests. Every single time!
Thanks to Adam Lowe for being so much fun to work with, and for capturing such beautiful images of Sarah and Christian. Sarah knows all the best wedding professionals. Gorgeous flowers by SunflowerKate Florals, and the yummy treats from Carrie’s Sugar Buzz really delighted the guests!
Special Thanks to friend and fantastic coordinator Julie Wagner for everything!
See another Night Music Wells Barn wedding here
Cocktail Party Playlist. With The Girls!
The holidays are are coming, and before you jump in to your favorite vat of holiday music, try this cocktail party playlist. Several of our favorite ladies have released some fantastic tracks lately, and we wanted to share them with you. This is our ongoing series of carefully curated cocktail party playlists designed to give you some great ideas for your next gathering.
We call this playlist With The Girls. Come on, who doesn’t want to be with the girls?
Listen to more. Click HERE to go to our Spotify page.
We have a lot of curated playlists to help inspire you when choosing music for your special celebration. You can find them HERE.
Ballroom Blitz at VUE Columbus
We love sharing cool new ideas that are designed to make your wedding memorable, fun and stress free. Here is a good one! So many of our couples have asked us for suggestions to manage fun and fast table visits after dinner. We know it can be done, but it can be tricky, that’s for sure.
We were thrilled when our recent couple Micah and Luke brought us the idea of “The Ballroom Blitz”! It worked great, and was really fun for the newlyweds and their guests.
Introducing … “The Ballroom Blitz”!
After dinner, immediately following the toasts, DJ Steve explained the activity to the guests. He let them know that Micah and Luke were so happy to see everyone, and that they were going to make their way around the entire room, stopping by each table to say hello and thank you! He also told the guests what once Micah and Luke completed their rounds, they would be cutting the cake followed shortly by dancing! (*Note: We LOVE to let the guests know what’s happening. It really makes everyone feel part of the fun).
The guests began applauding as DJ Steve said “They’re off!” and played the song “Ballroom Blitz” by Sweet. Because Micah and Luke were 100% committed to this fun idea, it worked perfectly, and everyone had a blast! Everyone understood this was going to be a whirlwind visit, so no one had hurt feelings for a short “hello”. Mission accomplished: each guest and every table got a visit from the bride and groom!
Thank you Micah and Luke for trusting us to make your idea perfect for you and your friends and family. And for letting us share this with others. We will definitely suggest this again!
Looking for other creative and unique ideas for your wedding? Check out our FUN IDEAS.
Thank you VUE Columbus and Jenna Fisher Photography!
Can you tell that we’re excited?
Night Music DJs Reopening Hilliard Office! We’re happy to announce that beginning May 3rd, we are reopening our Hilliard area office for in person consultations and meetings.
We have really missed the face-to-face visits and planning interactions with our clients and industry friends, and we are thrilled to be able to invite people back to our comfortable office. Of course, we will be following all safety guidelines, so, no worries.
By the way, if a simple phone call or Zoom meeting works better for you, it works better for us. We always want to make things easy for you!
Let’s talk soon ~ Reach out here
Night Music is a Preferred Vendor
Night Music is proud to be a preferred vendor at many of the city's best event venues. Listed below are just a few of the most spectacular party and reception venues where Night Music is a preferred vendor. Click the venue name to visit their website.
Franklin Park Conservatory
VUE Columbus
Jorgensen Farms
Retreat 21
Nationwide Hotel & Conference Center
Columbus Museum of Art
Strongwater Events
The Blackwell
Athletic Club of Columbus
The Westin Great Southern
Granville Inn
Wedgewood Golf & Country Club
The Exchange At Bridge Park
Heritage Golf Club
Understory
East Market Trolly District
The Ivory Room at Miranova
Bryn Du Mansion
Tartan Fields Golf Club
The Medallion Club
The Golf Club at Little Turtle
New Albany Country Club
Ohio Statehouse
Columbus Country Club
Combustion Brewery
Brookside Country Club
Hilton Columbus at Easton
Jefferson Country Club
BrewDog DogTap
Creekside Event Center
Reception House at Raymond Memorial
Marriot Columbus OSU
Magnolia Hill Farm
Hilton Columbus Downtown
Irongate Equestrian Center
COSI Columbus
Renaissance Columbus Downtown
The Fawcett Center
The Club at Corazon
Night Music DJ Reviews
