Bunn DJ Company

Sara and Kevin had an amazing reception this past Saturday at one of my favorite NC venues, The Carolina Inn. Kate Foster and her staff put together an amazing looking room and kept the timeline moving from start to finish. I even ran into the officiant for their ceremony as I was setting up and we took a picture in the hall (see below). Kayelily Middleton is one of the best around and a very nice person to know too! Anyway, on to the reception! Their big introduction was to “Walk this Way” by Aerosmith and Run DMC. Great one! They went right into their first dance, “Everything I Do” by Bryan Adams. After that, the father of the bride gave a brief welcome and the delicious food stations opened. The guests got some food down, and then we opened up the dance floor and got them going! After some dancing, the toasts, cake cutting and parent dances all happened back to back. I have the mention the lovely cake from Swank Cake Designs Those guys are awesome! They even did my son’s spiderman cake a few weeks ago for his birthday! . I will have to say, this was a great reception and went by really fast. The bride and groom left out the back door to a shower of rose petals as I broke down my gear. Looking forward to a very busy April 4th weekend, the official kickoff of wedding season!

Check out these killer pics from Christopher Ferrer!

Matt and Amanda had their reception at a local Raleigh restaurant Tavola Rossa This was another wedding with Cara Zuehlke and her Southern Soiree team. They did a great job of planning this reception along with Amanda and her mom. Everything from the flowers by Fresh Affairs to the cake by Ashley Cakes to the DJ (me) was awesome! I think one of my favorite parts was their introduction. The bridal party came in to “The Cantina Song” from the Star Wars Theme and then Matt and Amanda came in to the original Star Wars Theme! People went nuts! Their dinner buffet started after a touching welcome and blessing. After eating, toasts and cake cutting, they went into their first dance “Ever Ever After” by Carrie Underwood from the Enchanted Soundtrack and then their parent dances were to “Butterfly Kisses” and “I Hope You Dance”. Both were excellent and very touching! Then, it was time to dance! They pretty much let me do my own thing, and I got folks out there with a mix of just about everything you can think of including some oldies, line dances, 90’s, and new stuff. It was a great party! You never know what you are going to get on a Sunday wedding with a smaller crowd, but these people came to have a good time. Great reception! Check out some of the photos below from Amy Turner with Your Still Life Photography.

Laura and Jason’s wedding reception was held at Durham’s “Hope Valley Country Club”: This is an older club, but has an amazing room for dancing. It looks and sounds just perfect. Laura looked amazing and the bridal party was ready to party as soon as we started lining them up. A friend of the bride and groom and an old friend of mine, Steve Gardner, was asked by the couple to do the introductions! I played the music and Steve did a nice job intro’ing them. I even offered him a DJ job afterwards! As soon as they got on the floor, they went into their first dance, “You Are the Best Thing” by Ray LaMontagne. This is one of my all time favorite songs and this was the first time playing it for a first dance! Loved it!!! They also did parent dances before moving into the other room for an amazing dinner station. After dinner, we moved into toasts, all of which were extremely funny. Tommy Gardner kept mentioning that “marriage is a perilous affair” which got a huge laugh every time he said it…me included. Once everyone moved back into the “dance room”, it as on! I was all over the map musically, but kept people dancing for over 2 hours. It was a great reception and I had an awesome time. Check out the pictures below from Lisa Brown with Bella Rose Photography

In an email I got from the mother of the bride, Susan, she writes, “A little bio on the bride and groom, met at NCSU, both NC natives. Christopher worked in campus ministry for a year and then decided to follow his dream of moving out west. Allie stayed back in NC and worked. A year later they decided they were meant to be together and a romantic proposal on top of a mountain after riding up there on horseback sealed the deal. Allie moved out to Wyoming last August and here we are back gathered in Morehead City (her hometown) for the wedding.” A great story indeed! I DJ’ed their rehearsal dinner at the Beaufort Maritime Museum. After a long dinner and several toasts, the guests finally emerged from the auditorium for some dancing. I played a mix of beach, Motown, line dances, and Top 40 for the crowd. It was a great time and I think that everyone had a fun time. I hope the wedding was fun too!

I just got the DVD of all of my wedding pictures from our photographer Unrue Photo in Southeast Florida. We got married almost 6 years ago on the Gulf in SW Florida in a town called Boca Grande where I’ve been going for many years to catch an amazing fish called a tarpon. I decided that year to do a wedding slash fishing trip! Our wedding was awesome and these pictures took me back. Ainsley looks just as amazing today as she did then (but now she’s a brunette and has 2 kids). I will share more as I go through them!

This past weekend’s wedding was a big one! Adrian and Shoshannah had their beautiful reception at Prestonwood with a great team led by Cara Zuehlke with A Southern Soiree Cara and Shoshannah planned an amazing event and I am glad I was part of it! Everything from the room (nice job Fresh Affairs) to the cake were perfect. Their reception started with a big introduction of the bridal party and then the bride and groom coming from down the grand staircase. They went right into their first dance, a fast one, I loved it, “Signed Sealed Delivered” by Stevie Wonder. After a welcome from the mother of the bride and a blessing, dinner began. The staff at Prestonwood hustled the dinners out to almost 300 guests and did a fantastic job as usual. As soon as dinner was wrapping up, the best man and maid of honor gave toasts. One of the highlights of the evening was when the best man did a version of “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” but changed the words to pertain to Adrian (who is a revered by the way, so the words definitely needed to be changed)! It was hilarious! After the cake cutting to “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, Shoshannah danced with her father and Adrian danced with his mom. These songs were actually played live by their friends and family. Both were oustanding! After that…time for me to do my thing. As soon as the first open dance song came on, people started moving towards the dance floor. We had a great crowd on there for almost 2 full hours and wrapped with my closer “Shout” and sent the newlyweds off with a sparkler shower! Great reception! I am looking forward to getting some pictures soon from the photographer Sarah Seay.

Yes, this is a Tuesday wedding, and a very special one at that. The local chapter of NACE, National Association of Catering Executives, gave away a huge wedding yesterday for a great couple, Christina and Josh. The wedding was held at The Sutherland, an awesome new venue in Wake Forest. Any brides looking for a new venue in a uniqe setting, check this place out. Jennifer and Ashlee over there are great.

Anyway, back to the wedding. There were so many people that made this dream wedding come true, that I can’t even list them all. Their ceremony was held around 6:30 on a perfect Spring day. After the ceremony, their friends and family and our NACE group made our way to the tent and we had a brief presentation by the Biltmore. Christina and Josh did their first dance to “When You Love Someone” by Bryan Adams and then cut their amazing cake. After that, it as party time! We got them on the dance floor along with their 3 young kids, friends, family, and NACE members. It was alot of fun, and I was very proud to have been a part of this event and I hope that they had a great time! You can read more about the event and see a video clip at this link from WRAL. The first 2 pictures below are from Brian Mullins Photography, and this slideshow is from Kristine Dittmer Photography.

Jennifer and Don’s reception took place at Marbles in Raleigh. A great place for weddings (and to take your 4 year old by the way). Their reception started off a little late, but we got back on track with a rocking introduction to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses and then “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen! After that, they went right into their first dance “What a Good Boy” by Barenaked Ladies (it’s always great to hear new first dances). Dinner was a massive buffet by Cafe Luna who always does a great job. After dinner, we had a great toast by the father of the bride, the bride/father dance to “You’re the Inspiration” by Chicago, the groom/mother dance to “You Are the Sunshine of my Life” by Stevie Wonder, and finally a hilarious toast by Jennifer’s sister Kelly. We then went right into the cake, followed by open dancing. I got the crowd up with some wedding classics, a few line dances, some country, and even a little beach. A great music mix! I worked with Megan Kime Photography that day also. Check out the pictures below.

This past Thursday we participated in a unique bridal show at the lovely Umstead Hotel & Spa There were all sorts of wedding vendors there representing many different categories. It was put on by Cary Magazine and was the first time it was held at The Umstead, and the first year that Joe Bunn DJ Company did the show. I’m glad we did! It was very well attended, and we actually booked some shows on the spot! Thanks Cary Magazine and The Umstead! Check out the booth that I thought up and Leslie Ivey built for us. I think it’s pretty unique! Thanks also to Brian Mullins Photography for the picture. Pictured is Randy Bennett and Mark Toney, two of my DJs.

Hey guys, I spent all afternoon and evening with James Walters of Walters & Walters Photography shooting new pictures for our website and promo stuff. We did the shoot at Ess Lounge on Davie St. in downtown Raleigh. A great location and a great photographer are going to make these pictures HOT! Check out this teaser that James sent me last night! We should have the rest of the DJs next week!

Well, this was my last weekend off for many, many months, and of course it rained the entire time. Oh well, my family and I had some good times and then got up bright and early today for some March snow sledding. Weird…snow in NC…in March? Oh well, it was good times. I did have a couple of cool shots from Whitney and Ben’s wedding last year that my friend Amanda Caldwell sent me. I’m sure these will brighten your day and make you happy until next week’s blog post. LOL. Probably not, but the pics are still cool.