*Keep Reading Below for a Wedding Tip!*

On October 28, 2017, I DJed my friends' wedding at the Camarillo Ranch House in Camarillo, CA. This was a Filipino wedding of about 200 people. I knew the couple from California State University of Northridge where we joined FASA together. It was such a great pleasure and honor to have been asked to DJ/MC for their wedding several years later.

It was my 3rd time DJing at the Camarillo Ranch House, and it's such a great property. They had their wedding ceremony at the gazebo and their cocktail on the other side of the building. At another wedding I DJed, the couple had their ceremony by the huge Oak tree (I believe that's the right kind of tree). As far as I know, there are 2 ceremony sites on property that the wedding couple choose; both equally gorgeous.

To get in detail with my DJ setup for both ceremony and cocktail areas, I used 1 speaker at each location and it was enough acoustically to project clear sound for everybody to hear. I used my new QSC K8.2 speakers on a speaker stand and running an iPod for music. For the microphone, I used a Shure GLXD24 wireless system.

Later on that evening, we invited guests over inside the barn for the reception. They decorated and designed the place so well that it looked like their wedding could be in a magazine. Below is a photo of what the reception looked like. And yes, I took this photo! #joeriveraphotography haha

The reception program was fun and different! For the grand entrance, we lined the sponsors and wedding party outside. After introducing the sponsors in, I played "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys and during the beat intro, I announced all the names of the bridal party and bride and groom and they all walked inside together at the chorus of the song. It was epic! Great decision to do this on the bride's part. Right after, Gizzelle & Matthew danced to their first dance song "I Swear" by All-4-One then went to a surprise choreographed dance with their wedding party to the song "The Moustache Song". It was great!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner, heard some great speeches, and witnessed the parent dances. What was unique about the parents' dances was that they had their friend, Carizza, sing the songs. She communicated with me days before the wedding and gave me the instrumental tracks that she will be singing to. For the Father & Daughter dance, she sang "Have I Told You Lately" and for the Mother & Son dance, she sang, "More Than You'll Ever Know". Having someone sing during the wedding reception added a nice personalized touch.

Afterwards, we continued the night with a first dance set catered to the Filipino crowd who love to line dance. I played songs such as "Cha Cha Slide", "Electric Slide", "Dancing Queen", and some disco. Then, we took a quick break for our bride and groom to do the cake cutting, bouquet toss, garter toss, and the Filipino money dance tradition. After the formalities, we continued to dance the night away with some hip hop, top 40, and fun, upbeat music. It was nothing but great vibes.

At the end of the night, we sent our newlyweds off by having a grand balloon farewell! We had all of the guests make 2 lines outside of the barn and hold a balloon. Our happy couple held even bigger balloons and at the count of three, they walked between the 2 lines of guests with their balloons. At the end of the tunnel, everybody released their balloons at the same time. Fortunately, I was able to capture all of this on my Snapchat video which you can watch below!

WEDDING TIP: Hire your videographer to last until the end of the reception. Some of the most memorable things happen towards the end once everybody is loosened up.

All-in-all, everybody had an amazing time, especially our bride and groom. Thank you, Gizzelle and Matthew for having me as your wedding DJ!

Also, don't forget to check out the professional video below created by Creative Bliss Events!

If you have any comments, questions, or would like to know more information about the wedding, please feel free to reach out!

In the meantime, check out these amazing vendors whom I had the pleasure to work with that evening:

Wedding Planner & Coordinator:
www.vitabellaevents.com

Catering, Rentals, Bar & Staff:
www.djscatering.com

Photographer:
www.joseaalvarado.com

Videographer:
www.creativeblissevents.com

Lighting & Draping:
www.inthemixevents.com

Florist:
Yamaguchi's Nursery

Beautiful Camarillo Ranch House Wedding!