To make things even more fun, I offered to award a signed copy of TBWRE to the first person to correctly identify the photo. It took several guesses, but Brandon Lindsey was our winner!!! Brandon…your signed copy of TBWRE is on its way!
To give the photo more context, here is the shot turned over with the floor below it as well.
The Entrance to The Beatles LOVE Show
This was such a hoot, I will be posting a trivia photo every month and giving away a signed copy of TBWRE to each month’s winner.
Today, I’m in Dallas, Texas presenting seminars at the “North Texas Entertainers Conference” at the Ruthe Jacskon Center. We’re in the middle of a seminar about marketing and, in my efforts to show them how effective a blog can be, I am posting this from my iPhone with a photo of the attendees…
Brandon and Stephanie got married in Lake Tahoe on August 10th, 2008. They attended a short presentation I gave about my book at the Valencia Wedding Professionals Showcase on October 30th, 2007. They bought a copy of TBWRE and then called me later to see if I was available on their date. Unfortunately, I was already booked with a wedding reception in Santa Barbara. So…I recommened that they get in touch with Larry Williams, who entertains at weddings in the Lake Tahoe/Reno area.
Needless to say, I was completely proud that I had recommended Larry when I saw this video clip featuring comments from Brandon and Stephanie as their reception was ending…
As it turns out…the Santa Barbara reception that I was entertaining at on August 10th was attended by Matt & Janna Mohney, a San Diego couple who had hired Larry Williams for their Lake Tahoe reception back in September of 2007. They couldn’t stop raving about him either. What a small world…
Lisa and I are leaving in about 5 hours to catch our flight to Dallas, Texas!
YEEEEEEEE-HAWWWWWW!
Dallas has always been one of my favorite cities to visit and I know we’re in for a great time.
I have 3 speaking engagements on Monday at the “North Texas Entertainers Conference” hosted by The D/FW Chapter of the ADJA. But Saturday, I’ll get the opportunity to watch two of my friends in action as they provide the entertainment at their respective wedding receptions. I’ll be observing Chad Wandel with AI Weddings during the afternoon. Then in the evening, I get the pleasure of watching Andy Austin of Lite Dallas while he serves as the Master of Ceremonies.
I have been meaning to update the reviews listed on the TBWRE web site for quite some time now…but I was finally able to get it done this afternon. In the process of updating them (most of which came from the 26 reviews we have on our Amazon.com listing), I found this letter from someone quite unexpected…
WOW! A letter from Dick Clark...what a huge honor!
As it turns out, my friend and colleague, Larry Williams (a fellow W.E.D.Guild™ Member from Reno, NV), has a relationship with Mr. Clark and took the liberty of sending him a copy of my book awhile back.
And I also came across this e-mail review sent much earlier this year by Liz…
Raymond & Liz at their 10th Anniversary Wedding Reception
“I want to thank you for the suggestions in your book. I’m Elizabeth Clay from Florence KY and I got your book for my 10 year anniversary wedding. The reception was great! So many people said it was the best reception they’ve ever been too! One even said they felt like they were watching an exciting movie wondering what fun thing would happen next.
The intro of the wedding party went wonderful. We selected a “dream team” of friends and family to be a part of the show. Each person had their own theme music and the bio form you sent me really came in handy for their introduction. The crowd laughed and really enjoyed themselves.
I don’t have a copy of the surprise dance from the videographer yet but I have a few photos from the event. People stood and cheered for us as we danced. Especially when our son’s joined in on the surprise dance!”
Less than a month later, she sent a follow up e-mail with a link to the video footage on YouTube of their creative surprise First Dance routine.
You’ll notice that I have included ALL of the reviews…even the few that were not so glowing. If you would like to submit a review of the book, feel free to contact me with the e-mail address listed on the bottom of the reviews page.
We have been actively contacting several literary agents recently in an effort to get TBWR…E! picked up by a substantial publisher and distributed to the book stores. With my wife’s prodding…I finally wrapped up a synopsis submission about TBWR…E! for her to send out to these various literary agents. You can see it here…
If you know of a good literary agent that might like to consider TBWR…E!, feel free to send them here or forward them the synopsis.
Finally…today we also received our very first response from a literary agent and we couldn’t be more excited about it! We plan on making contact with several more literary agents and guaging their interest and qualifications before making any final decisions.
I booked a wedding reception for July of 2008 today that reminded me of an unforgettably funny moment from a wedding I performed at years ago.
In May of 1999, while entertaining at Craig & Kelly Cooper’s Reception, I was asked to to pull a fast one on Craig’s brother, Steve, who was one of his Best Men that day. During the Grand Entrance…we surprised him with a brief version of “The Dating Game” as a roast of his perpetual status as a single guy. Steve played along quit well…but when you see the footage…be sure to check out Bachelorette #2…what a HOTTIE!
Craig and Kelly had selected a casual Hawaiian theme and they had insisted that I wear board shorts and sandals. This is the only time I have ever performed at a reception in shorts. So I introduced myself to their guests on the mic as “DJ of Great White Legs.”
So fast forward to today…imagine my delight when I found out that Steve Cooper was finally getting married. And today he and his fiancé, Jessica, secured my services for their big day in July of 2008…when Jessica will become his wife…in San Francisco. Look out Craig…you know what they say about payback…
Doug & Jesse were just about two of cutest, wildest, and funniest people I have ever worked with over the years.
"Jesse...you're supposed to cut the Cake...not Doug!"
They loved to laugh and they wanted to give their guests something to talk about (and laugh about) for years to come. I had given them a copy of my new book, “The Best Wedding Reception…Ever!” and as we were discussing creative and memorable ideas, I showed them a YouTube video that was cited in my book as an example of how a bride and groom could create an enormous amount of fun energy amongst their guests by surprising everyone with a fun choreographed routine in the middle of their First Dance. The example I showed them can be seen here…
They liked this idea so much, they immediately started scouring YouTube for other video clips featuring fun dance routines, and that’s when they came across a routine by comedian, Judson Laipply, called “Evolution of Dance”…which can be seen here…
And so they selected a few of the favorite song clips and practiced their own routines. Meanwhile, they kept all of their guests, including their wedding party, in the dark about their plans. I helped them tighten up the edit of their song clips and we also created a fake CD skipping effect to fool the guests into thinking something had just gone horribly wrong in the middle of their First Dance…which only served to heighten the level of surprise as you will be able to see here…
To make sure we pulled this off correctly, and to segue the energy they had just created into some seriously fun open dancing, we scheduled their Father/Daughter Dance and Mother/Son Dance to take place before their First Dance…so we could just go right into the open dancing as soon as they were done.
When I first met with Brianna and her mother, Ginny, back in August of last year…she told me about an unusual activity that she wanted to work into her reception agenda. It turns out that Brianna’s favorite game of all time is “The Balloon Stomp.” She has enjoyed this game since childhood and she always looks forward to rolling it out at large family gatherings…”So I figured why not do it at my reception?” she said to me.
We brainstormed some fun musical selections and made a list of victims…volunteers…and then we scheduled it to happen after the bouquet and garter tosses but before resuming the open dancing. Once our group of victims…volunteers…had been gathered on the dance floor, we finally revealed that it was time for “The Balloon Stomp” as a small balloon was quickly tied around the right ankle of each participant. When the frantic sounding music began, everyone attempted to stomp out their opponents ballons while desperately trying to protect their own balloon from being popped. It was loud…it was crazy…it was fun…and Brianna was loving every minute of it.
