The HOT Seat: Finding a Wedding DJ

In The HOT Seat: Celebrity DJ Carl

"Hey DJ Carl, What tips would you give brides that are looking for a top notch wedding DJ?"


Planning a wedding is a lot of work and one of the most daunting tasks is securing a reputable and entertaining music source. Due to the vast number of disc jockey's serving Orlando, it can be difficult to narrow down the selection and choose the one who will provide a unique experience for your special event.

In any professional field, there are those who excel and those who act unethically; disappointing the client and ruining the event. Awareness and knowledge are the key to finding the right professional in the wedding entertainment field. It is important to do research on every DJ that you are considering. After gathering all of the necessary materials needed to make an educated purchasing decision, there are a couple of important questions you should consider asking your prospective disc jockey.

1. Meet the prospective DJ in person. A simple meeting will help in determining whether the DJ has the personality and most importantly entertaining style to manage your reception in a professional manner.

2. Ask the DJ/MC to vocalize how they would announce your wedding party introductions. Give them a couple names and have them prove to you that they can generate excitement and introduce your friends and family in an appropriate way.

3. Discuss the DJ's typical interaction with the guests. Ask them to explain how they involve your family and friends in the celebration. Ask about specific instances where they have encountered "unresponsive" wedding parties and how they revved up the energy of the party.

4. Ask the DJ how they typically work requests, dedications or special announcements into their program. Are they flexible during the reception? Think of different scenarios and have them explain their ideas and styles in working to keep the party moving smooth and effortlessly.

5. Ask about the music transitions. The DJ is vital to the flow of your reception music. A great DJ not only plays a variety of music, but the DJ should also play the right music at the right time. A great DJ can mix the music seamlessly and never allows any dead air unless someone is giving a toast or blessing.

Keep these 5 points in mind when meeting with all prospective DJs and you should feel confident in your final selection. The most important factor is that you feel comfortable and at ease while working with your DJ. Remember, it is your celebration. A professional and responsible disc jockey always respects and appreciates that and will go out of their way to help throw that perfect celebration!

photo of DJ Carl by Garrett Nudd photography

DJ Carl Williams is a highly sought after professional disc jockey and music trend specialist. He has been involved in the music industry for over fifteen years as a leading professional DJ and top Nightclub Entertainment Consultant. His extensive music industry knowledge and entertainment experience are extensive and well known in the industry. Learn more about Carl at http://www.djcarl.com/.

Meagan & Dwayne sizzle with Miami heat!

On Febuary 7th, our favorite girl from Miami, Meagan Owens, gave her hand to the debonair, Dwayne Jackson in a candlelit rooftop Orlando ceremony that brought many guests to tears. Brian & Richard from Flourish divulged the bride’s wishes with draperies, candles, and sparkle everywhere for her ceremony...

...then Flourish let flowers overflow and melt in gorgeous tall vases. Lead coordinator, Sharia Riley, played up the bride’s love of damask prints and bold color to accent the couple’s South Beach style. Can we say: Pistachio Crinkle Taffeta, Damask Velvet Linen, Chameleon Chloe Chairs, and Damask Plates? YUMMY!

The Grand Bohemian staff was on call for every guests’ wish and need, and served them well with a late night ice cream bar! Not to mention, DJ Carl, whom kept the beats pumping and the guests dancing.

Mercedes of the amazing, Bake Me A Cake, built a damask confection for Meagan!

A special thank you and "shout out" to Karla Fountain Photography for the amazing images!

Walking in a *MODERN* Winter Wonderland…

For her December 20th wedding, OB/GYN doctor & bride, Pamela Cates wanted to welcome her Indiana family and friends to a modern winter wonderland wedding reception set in Florida. But how do you host a winter themed wedding for snow birds from the North, without freezing temperatures, ice, and actual snow? Hire the ladies at YFA of course!

For their ceremony, Pamela & her fiancé, Dominic, wanted to engulf their guests with romance. The lights of the Omni ChampionsGate International Ballroom were turned down, dozens of pillar candles lined Pamela’s aisle, and Raining Roses built a candle topped altar that didn’t leave a dry eye in the house.
Lead coordinator, Sharia Riley, tossed the standard winter idea of all silvers and frost and challenged Pamela to go “modern bold” with sapphires, peacocks, and lots of white fur! We brought the snow to Florida; and guests entered a snow falling modern winter wonderland with live harp music.
Sharia brought up the final challenge to her team: Why do one tablescape when you can have five? The YFA ladies put our heads together to create 5 distinctly different tables that left every guest feeling like a VIP. No table was alike, not even the stemware, chargers, or flatware!
Long banquet tables with silver burst chargers and iridescent paillette chair covers and a runner.
Round tables with iridescent peacock linen and arrangements bursting with white orchids (a la Raining Roses). White velvet napkins and silver sparkle chargers.
Sapphire square tables with dark helix chargers, snow fur chair caps and napkin bands accented with sapphire brooches for the guests to take home.
Custom canopies were created for the Bride & Groom’s family. Inside the VIP tents hung a crystal chandelier, white cloth-back chairs, and each guest’s place setting held a bowl stuffed with white fur and a full bloom red rose (the Groom’s favorite color).
Close friends of the Bride & Groom sat at Vegas style booths near the dance floor. Instead of an expected arrangement of fresh flowers, Raining Roses and Wizard Connection froze a bouquet in a solid block of ice. Half of the guests sat at custom Room Service banquet booths, half sat in the trend setting ghost chair. Pamela & Dominic sat at their own custom built sweetheart table, covered in white satin and adorned with hanging crystals.
DJ Carl mixed R&B music from behind the couple's custom ice bar; and celebrity photographer, Damon Tucci, was on hand to take record of the whole evening.

Tips for a Successful Wedding at Home

If this isn’t your first wedding, or your budget is on the outs, you may be thinking that having your wedding at home is your only option. If you’ve explored other possibilities, and a home wedding is what you want, we have some tips to follow to ensure HOME WEDDING SUCCESS!

Take it from Melannie & Ricardo who recently married on August 8th (8-8-08)… home weddings can be fun, as long as certain guidelines are met:

Tip #1- Unless your home looks like it was taken out of “Beverly Hills 90210”, keep your guest list small and simple. Close family members and those that would have been bridesmaids/groomsmen only. Trying to squeeze hundreds of people into a typical size home isn’t realistic and you’ll end up blowing your budget by having to move things out or renting a tent. For Melannie & Ricardo, they stuck to the essentials and invited the 42 people that meant most to them. Parents, siblings, close relatives, and a handful of friends.


Tip #2 – Don’t scrimp on the linens, table rentals, and florals. Just because your wedding is at home, doesn’t mean it has to include plastic silverware, plates, Costco flowers, and people sitting on furniture all around the house. Use an area of your home to be a blank canvas and build the couture wedding of your dreams!

For Melannie, we used her parents’ pool patio as her wedding ballroom with one long banquet table and several hi-top tables for cocktail mingling. We accented the color of her non-white fuchsia dress (Who says the bride has to wear white anyway?!) with fuchsia napkins, chair ties, and place cards and tied this together with Apple Green bengaline table linens and chair pads.

We brought in more of her favorite bright summer colors with mango oranges in her centerpieces, along with more fuchsia, apple green, and white flowers.

Also remember, just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you have to resort to your PC’s printer. For Melannie & Ricardo, we enlisted the work of Sarah Hanna, artist and calligrapher to the stars to finish off her intimate look with silver inked fuchsia place cards.

Tip #3- If you’re trying to save on budget, try to have your wedding on an off-day and not a Saturday evening. You vendors are more likely to cut you great deals to book business on an “off-day” because that’s just extra money in the bank for them. Most vendors would rather be working than sitting at home, so be bold like Melannie and Ricardo and say “I do” on a Friday. Don’t worry your guests will still be there! Remember, a small guest list means that these people are the most important to you, and they won’t miss you becoming a Mrs.! …P.S.- We hear that 9-9-09 is on a Wednesday next year.

Tip #4 – Don’t try to cook a meal or bartend yourself. There are plenty of great companies out there that can come in and provide a lovely meal and can keep the party going at the bar. By hiring a professional catering company, you will keep down your own stress, and your wedding will have a much more professional, and seamless timeline.

Caterers Tony & Onofere and their masterpiece Paella!

Tip #5- If you ask Melannie and her family they’ll reply, “Hire a wedding planner!” With all the money you save on location rental fees, consider putting this towards a wedding planner to help with all the details. Having a wedding at home can be tricky; especially when you’re the only person that understands the location. Enlisting help of a professional coordinator will eliminate wedding day phone calls asking where you want tables set up, and annoying questions about deliveries and time schedules. Plus, like Melannie, you may find a way to squeeze space out of places that you never thought possible.

Details, Details, Details!

When the Brits invaded this 4th of July holiday, a new type of bold wedding emerged that Americans had never seen before. The wedding of native New Yorker, Erika Quinones, to British raised soccer phenom, Liam Rosenior, took Central Florida by storm. During the summer of 2007, Your Fantasy Affair began working with Erika on a wedding design that would knock her guests’ socks off. We dared her to be BOLD. We dared her to show her guests an event that had never been done before, and one they would not be likely to see again. How did we pull it off?? Attention to DETAIL and thinking out of the box.

How many ballroom weddings have you been to that consist of a room filled with square and/or round tables with some ivory linens and a simple arrangement of roses? We encouraged Erika to get creative, so instead of circles and squares we went to the next dimension – OCTAGONS! Tables, crystal risers, and the dance floor were all shaped as octagons, with crystals dripping from everything we could keep held down. Seen columns before in a ballroom? Sure you have… Now how about this: Ever seen a column of open air Plexiglas risers, dripping crystals, and exotic lush florals? Ah hah! We got you! Your Fantasy Affair and the team from Raining Roses worked hard to implement designs that would leave guests talking for decades (not years) to come.

Yearning for more details? How about the new ice chiavari chairs… some covered in white shimmer sheer and white payettes, and the others with custom tied turquoise ribbon and crystals? Half our tables had silver iced branches with dripping candles; the other half had a bold modern arrangement of solid gerbera daisies and hydrangea.

How did the Ritz-Carlton play to Erika’s need to be different? They implemented two completely separate menus of course. One menu of decadent poached lobster tail and filet mignon for our guests from the UK, and another Latin fare of plantain encrusted Chilean seabass and jerk chicken for Erika’s family of Puerto Rican descendants. “Let them eat cake?” Nah… the Ritz added zest to their service by a full fondue station with homemade marshmallows, fruits, and Erika’s favorite macaroons.

Of course we didn’t skip the tradition of a wedding cake. We do have SOME wedding standards… but did Erika and Liam have your everyday white cake with accenting florals? I think you know the answer. Bake Me a Cake created a masterpiece confection of layer upon layer of uniquely custom designs that towered over the couple. Raining Roses finished this off with a custom cake canopy of Asian rice paper and suspended crystals from the canopy center.

How did we spice up the ceremony? Raining roses created custom Plexiglas risers with engraved monograms and led lit candles.

Bands of hydrangea and gerbera daisies were hung from the beautiful Ritz-Carlton wedding gazebo, along with tied back sheets of shimmer sheer fabric. Forget “Here Comes the Bride,” Erika entered her ceremony to a quartet playing the famed Italian ballad, “Con Te Partiro.”

How do you change entertainment from your regular DJ or band? How about an illusionist that performed mind boggling tricks and fantasies while guests enjoyed cocktails, fireworks, and an outdoor swanky lounge?

Erika and Liam also loved the Asian themed clubs from the U.K. so an after-party was created in this image with separate grooves and beats to keep guests guessing what was to come next. Famed disc jockey extraordinaire, DJ Infrared, turned the Ritz-Carlton Tuscany ballroom into a swanky lounge straight from the London underground.

All of these details and more created the “It Factor” that makes Your Fantasy Affair one of the top design and coordination companies in the country. However, what wowed guests most were the dazzling bride and her doting new husband. The love of Erika and Liam filled not only the enormous Ritz-Carlton property, but spilt all over Central Florida. When all is said in done, Erika & Liam’s guests will never forget the way Liam’s eyes filled with tears as he snuck peaks at Erika as she entered the ceremony; how her eyes filled with emotion as they said, “I do;” and the pure moment of joy when the couple enjoyed that first kiss in front of God as man and wife.

Your Fantasy Affair has to thank the amazing vendors we worked with that made this event possible:
-The Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes
-Raining Roses
-Damon Tucci Photography
-Bake Me A Cake
-Kids Nite Out
-Room Service Rentals
-Quest Drape
-American Audiovisual
-Dragonfly Custom Design
-CVP Videography
-BBJ Linen
-Uniquely United’s Reverend Randall Miller
-Famed illusionist, Guy Bavli
-Panache Rentals
-Dale Dees Hair & Make-Up Design
-DJ Carl
-DJ Infrared
-Absolutely Fitting of Winter Park

-The Collection
-Beautiful Music

**Keep an eye out for a feature on Erika & Liam’s wedding in the upcoming issue of top magazine “Desination I Do” **