Kelly Olson & Chauncy Hendershot

When: Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Where: Holiday Inn, Minot, ND
1st Dance Song: "Better Together" by Jack Johnson

Chauncy had his heart set on doing the robot for their introductions. When the time came, we walked the entire wedding party out to the dance floor, where they all froze. As I introduced each to Pretty Light's "Hot Like Sauce", each pair came to life and made their way to the head table. A great opening, but could have been better if I'd brought some lasers, but what can you do (other than bring the lasers, I suppose).



Instead of a traditional guest book, a type writer. Type your names, a joke, whatever. They also had a table cloth for guests to sign. A dessert table set out (looked fantastic). Custom shot glasses for favors, available up at the bar. Just order a 'Hendershot' and enjoy. Centerpieces included a cleverly redisguised lights. Taped up with green (or maybe its fabric), bundled together, it looks like a little lighted tree. Beverage napkins were custom printed with a little phrase: "chauncy=crazy; Kelly=Awesome; Chauncy + Kelly = Crazy Awesome."


I digitally edited their first dance song, cutting out the middle verse and chorus. This made the song just about two minutes long, and a more enjoyable first dance for them (and I do it for free!). As a side note, when you think of songs that fill a dance floor, its not usually "Don't Stop til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson. Can you even think of the tune? In my first hour, though, it was the big song. Good. That song is as danceable as anything.

No dollar dance, tonight. Bouquet and garter tosses. One dance off to Missy Elliot's "Lose Control." Two of her cousins wrote some new lyrics to the Archie's "Sugar, Sugar." I caught the video and audio (video to the right). One of the groomsmen also sang karaoke "Pride and Joy" and was pretty good though he had to dodge a couple of drunks who tried to join him.

Elisa Benson & KC Flynn

When: Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Where: Touch of Magic, Grand Forks, ND
1st Dance Song: "Drive On" by Jack Ingram

A few less responsibilities for me. A Touch of Magic has some very specific rules about what the DJ can and can't do. This means I didn't really start work until I got everyone ready for the speeches. Jazz on Tap handled the dinner music and welcomed Lisa and KC into the room.

Place cards assigned the seating. No dollar dance, no garter. Some excellent speeches here. One dad, best man, maid of honor, a bridesmaid, and a groomsmen. That's usually a bit long, but each was good, relatively short (under 3 minutes), and kept it moving.

For the bouquet toss, I brought out her brother, Alex. As the lone single groomsman, and recently turned 21, I figured he could use an introduction to our single ladies (not really though). He flew in from Australia. Another guest, from Argentinia. So no excuses about how you couldn't make it all the way from Fargo, people.

Nothing too demanding for their playlist. KC had some songs not to play, and Lisa likes the 80's. Their friends like newer top 40 and AAA rock (Modest Mouse, MGMT, Feist). Strict instructions that anything JT or MJ was to be played (Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson for those with the free time to say entire names).

Also present were superstar photographers, Shawna Noel and Kory Wallen. They setup a photo booth for guests until 10pm. All three of the photos here are courtesy of them (me, to the right) so that you nice folks don't have to look at my photography (It's bad. Just terrible pictures). Thanks, guys!

The weather took a turn towards 'Lightning' as the evening went on. When I went to load out my gear at the end of the night, it was a massive downpour and my tuxedo and I were soaked by the time I got to my car. But at least I forgot a change of clothes, right? Ugh.

Megan Malnory & Brad Fredrickson

When: Saturday, May 15, 2010

Where: Holiday Inn, Fargo, ND
1st Dance Song: "Then" by Brad Paisley

"Dear Robert, thank you so much for the fabulous job DJ'ing our wedding reception. Seeing you in action at Kali & Dan's wedding, we knew you'd be great and we wouldn't have to worry about anything. Your fun and engaging personality really helped make the reception wonderful, and I can't count how many compliments we got from our guests about you. Keep doing what you're doing! :)" -Brad & Megan Fredrickson

Megan & Brad were at a wedding I worked in September of 2008. As a result, they felt full confidence in me. We met once last year, but only emails between then and the reception. That's their choice, but always make me nervous for some reason. I guess I just prefer face to face to be clear on what they mean when they say what they want.

They hired me to make their video slide show. Traditional style, but they made it shorter (seven minutes down from ten) and swapped their song choices with two of mine (Eight Days a Week by the Beatles and I Love You, You Imbecile). I noticed, during the video, that the groomsmen kept cheering for certain things. The Vikes, Twins, Fighting Sioux. After the video I tried a little experiment.... simply saying the work 'Vikes' over the mic got a big cheer from them. Good to know.

No Chicken Dance, no hokey pokey, no dollar dance. Requests were all over the place... Justin Bieber to an Irish jig and one for Whitney Houston's I Want to Dance with Somebody." The list included "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton. At Megan's mom's wedding 28 years ago that song was a big deal, and they were singing so loudly the police came and broke up the party. Its been a tradition ever since for mom and her siblings.

Ashley Bezdicek & Riley Morgan

When: Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Where: Community Center, Minto, ND
1st Dance Song: "Waltz Across Texas" by Willie Nelson

The Minto Community Center is my favoritest place. They have 48 speakers in the ceiling making it easy to be heard in the entire (very large) room. It keeps it loud on the dance floor and no where else.

Early in the dance, I got a special request for a very old waltz. Ashley wanted it for her grandmother, a widower, who danced to it with her husband. Unfortunately, the only version I could dig up on short notice sounded like a recording off the radio. In 1946. It was still appreciated, all the same.

No bouquet toss and no garter tonight. Just a dollar dance for the events.

Greta Lee & Chad Gerloff

When: Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Where: Hilton Inn, Grand Forks, ND
1st Dance Song: "Something" by Beatles

A few years in the making, apparently. They've been dating five years (or was itseven?). They have a wonderful daughter, Bailee, who is shy to start, but warms up quickly. She was supposed to give the blessing, but froze up. 30 minutes later you had to take the microphone from her, she was so enthusiastic (and apparently knows the alphabet backwards, already).

The picture (sadly, one of the few before my camera failed) is of Greta's speech. She wrote her notes on the back of a Target receipt. Which is still better preparation than most speeches.

Trisha Richter & Cody Miller

When: Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Where: Bestwestern Doublewood Inn, Fargo, ND
1st Dance Song: "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flats

Apparently Cody had some trouble at the ceremony. Halfway through he turned white as a sheet and almost passed out. They sat him down, but he was a trooper and finished strong. He's much better now, thank you.

Turns out Bon Jovi is a big jerk. He was rude enough to schedule a concert at the Fargo Dome this same night which caused traffic headaches for guests trying to get from the church to the Doublwood.

Trisha made a video slide show. Rather than stopping everything to have guests watch, we put it on repeat in the corner. Guests could watch anytime they liked.

When it came time for the garter removal, Cody came prepared with head lamp flashlight. Pull the dress over his head and it all lights up like a lampshade. Very cool. Very funny.

Jill Morlock & Ryan Rood

When: Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Where: Eagles Club, Valley City, ND
1st Dance Song: "Faithfully" by Journey

I'll be honest and say I don't really like working at the Eagles. Its my third or fourth time there and the dance floor area where I setup is about 50 yards from the start of the dinner area where guests are seated. I ran all my speaker cords so I could have two speakers in the other room for speeches and background music. It also means a very long walk to make simple adjustsments to the volume during speeches.


Jill and her mom put together a very cool guest book. A large photo album scrap book using pics of Jill and Ryan with space for guests to write. Votive candles on all the tables had Jill and Ryan's name and wedding date on them. Beer can cozys for the favors. A candy table setup for guests until dinner.

Dinner was delayed about 40 minutes when the party bus carrying our wedding party was delayed. The Eagles had four buffet lines so once we did start, all the guests were through quickly.


Its always fun to learn things about people... like Ryan recently hosting an impromptu 80's party at 2 in the morning. His passion for 80's music led me to play Huey Lewis' 'Power of Love' which I've certainly never done before... The best man, Cory, kept trying to panic the maid of honor about her speech. Repeating 'crickets', as in, that will be the only sound when its over, it will be so bad. On the contrary, hers was excellent and her delivery was almost relaxed (though I doubt she'd say that).

Shannon Woods & DeeJay Johnson

When: Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Where: American Legion, Park River, ND
1st Dance Song: "She's Everything" by Brad Paisley

Hi Robert, Thank you so much---you did a great job, we had many compliments about the job you did!!! Thanks" - Shannon and Dee Jay Johnson



I had an assistant with me, James. This leaves me hands free for a few more things I like to do during a reception and not have to worry about starting the next song.

To the left, pictures of Shannon and DeeJay in a wedding when they were young.

No dollar dance, again, tonight. Bouquet toss and a garter raffle. For the raffle, the groomsmen sold decks of cards (tear them in half and you have tickets). They sold through three decks in only about 20 minutes. Easily the fastest I've ever seen. This setup a little game to give away the garter instead of drawing only one winner.

For the second week in a row we did a quick compatibility quiz for the bride and groom. See the video for what I'm talking about.

The cake was a barn with animals in between the tiers. They didn't cut it up, but served cheesecake in the buffet instead. Her son, Tucker, tried to feed frosting to one of the cows and you could see the kids' finger pokes in the frosting after about 10 minutes at the hall.

One of the groomsmen, Kelly, filled their car with shredded paper, covered their windows with spray snow. Apparently as revenge for DeeJay filling his car's heater unit with flour (when you turn the car on it *poof* sprays all over). Kelly's only mistake was admitting all this on camera. Woops.

Dance was fairly typical except that DeeJay wanted to add two extra hours and go until 1am. When your day starts at 1pm (or for the bride, 6am) that is one long day. But its not up to me and they were having fun. We also had some singing. First was Shannon's daughter, Jaylie. Then DeeJay sang two John Michael Montgomery songs (about an hour apart).

Lindsay & Justin Shulz

When: Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Where: A Touch of Magic, EGF, MN
1st Dance Song: "Only You Can Love Me This Way" by Keith Urban

Lindsay & Justin were actually married on January 11th, in Jamaica. Today was a reception only, but they dressed up. Bad weather was a concern, but they still had most of their guests arrive on time.

I'll admit, though, I wasn't happy with myself. There wasn't much dancing at all. I know the guests were still enjoying themselves but I always feel I can do better if there isn't a packed floor (and I mean packed). In this case we weren't even close. I also had a container with some party and emergency supplies go missing. Nothing too vital (backup toss bouquet, garter, etc), but it meant our plans to embarras the groomsmen weren't gonna happen. We did manage an air guitar contest, though.

Fun for me were two past clients, Katie & Ryer Stark (August 1st, 2009) and Greta & Tom Beard (November 21, 2009).

We skipped several traditions... no speeches, no dollar dance, no bouquet. They hired me to put together a short video, combining pictures and video from the wedding ceremony. We also raffled the garter off.

Bizzy Slavens & Tyler Burslie

When: Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Where: Valley Clubhouse, EGF, MN
1st Dance Song: "The Nearness of You" by Norah Jones

The life threatening cold temperatures are gone, and replaced with rain that will surely freeze and create streets of ice tonight, when I'm trying to drive the 30 miles home. More importantly, this limited guests who were largely from MacIntosh and so that an already relatively small reception (125) shrank down to almost half size. Fortunately, weather isn't enough to stop a good time.


The ceremony was earlier, 1pm, to allow pictures and a field trip afterwards. Bizzy and Tyler met when they both worked at Sam's Club so long ago and made a stop there today. The first song Bizzy and Tyler ever danced to was Taylor Swift's "Love Story," which is unfortunate (it references Romeo & Juliet, which, I'd point out, is a tragedy, not a love song). Bizzy chose Norah Jones because, well, it wasn't Ella Fitzgerald. See, she was at a wedding a year ago with that song by Ella. She loved the song but didn't want to copy the other couple. Subtle.
The guest book was a custom book of photos from Shutterfly.com. Favors were cute little buttons with their name and date on them. Cake was a single top tier with cupcakes for the rest. Wine and champagne was made available for everyone.