Wedding Day
On November 19, 2021, my friends Dinna & Pedro got married! They held their wedding ceremony at the church and held their wedding reception at NOOR in Pasadena, Sofia Ballroom, for their family and friends.
Sound Challenge
On their wedding day, I was just in charge of their reception from 6pm-10pm. For the cocktail hour, NOOR played their playlist through their speakers on the main foyer as guests arrived at 5pm. For the reception, I set up the sound to cover the main room. The main challenge was making sure that everyone around the room can hear the music and announcements clearly because of the room layout. To give you examples, the dance floor was at a distance from the DJ booth and there were 2 columns in the room that affect the room sound acoustically. This is vital to know so I can figure out my speaker placements around the room. If I don’t have proper speaker placements, this will affect the listening experience for the guests in a bad way. If they can’t hear what’s going on, whether it’s the music or announcements, they will be disengaged with what’s going on and we won’t have their full attention.
My Sound Solution
So instead of just having 2 speakers by my DJ booth, I managed to have another satellite speaker in the back of the room aimed towards the dance floor. I used 1 QSC K8.2 speaker and ran wireless sound from my mixer board to my satellite speaker. I used my Shure PSM900 transmitter and my Shure P9RA bodypack receiver to transmit sound wirelessly. This helped tremendously so the people in the back of the room can hear sound much clearly and helps give it a full surround sound type of feeling in the middle of the dance floor. This way, the whole length of the dance floor can be maximized and the sound is more balanced.
Wedding Lighting & Visuals
The venue provides its own mood/ambiance lighting with uplights and production lighting above. The event manager helped out with the lighting changes depending on where we were in the program. Also, we had a special video presentation during the grand entrance. The venue has two HUGE televisions on the walls which we displayed a video up there. The venue has the option to connect to their sound, but to keep the sound in unison, we connected the video to my sound system.
Wedding Flow - Grand Entrance, First Dance & More
We first introduced the Primary Sponsors, Secondary Sponsors, Parents, and Wedding Party using songs “L-O-V-E”, “Stayin’ Alive”, and “Celebration”. Then we played the couple’s video presentation right after to build up the anticipation for the couple’s Grand Entrance. Then I introduced the newlyweds to the song “This Will Be An Everlasting Love”.
Shortly after, we had their First Dance “La Vie En Rose”, followed by an Anniversary Dance, Parent Dances, Welcome Speech, Recognition of Out-Of-Town Guests, One Game, and a Blessing of the Food all before Dinner Service. I MCed all of it and we were exactly on time with how things were planned out in the timeline.
During dinner, we had guests come up to the sweetheart table to take a picture with Dinna & Pedro. The coordinator helped release tables and our photographers were ready to take a picture with them. Then we had some speeches, cake cutting, bouquet toss, prosperity dance, and a thank you speech from Dinna & Pedro all before open dancing! This was great so that we knocked out all of the formalities and the rest of the night was just dancing.
A few key things to note, coincidentally enough, there were 151 guests that night, the same number of 151 Pokemon that are out there! Pedro, being a Pokemon fan, told me to make an announcement about it and people were amazed how much of a coincidence it was!
Also, right before we opened up the dance floor, there was a surprise dance from the family. I played “Uptown Funk” and they had a choreographed dance of it ready to go. Before the choreography happens, I made sure that Dinna & Pedro have a good view of it so I placed 2 chairs on the dance floor for them to sit and have a good view. I also made sure that the videographer was ready to film it and that everybody around the room are ready to watch the surprise. Then midway through the song, we invited everyone to join in and dance!
Then we continued to dance straight until 10pm! I played a mixture of Top 40, Disco, Line Dances, Filipino songs, and a bit of upbeat EDM towards the end of the night.
Overall Thoughts And What I Noticed That Helped Make This Wedding Great
The wedding was super fun! I was really proud of my sound setup as I think that definitely has helped out with the sound experience for the guests. Also, the display of Pedro & Dinna’s pictures on my Video DJ Booth has captured some great attention to add more of the personalization factor to my service. The stage where the sweetheart table was great because I used it as a platform to stand and MC to grab people’s attention when needed. The game that we did earlier in the night helped loosen some people up. My DJ assistant was helpful in fading in and out the music while I MCed to help with the show production value and remove any awkward silences in between events. The planner/coordinator was on top of everything and got all the people ready and where they needed to be. Vendors were super easy to work with and staff at NOOR were great and had their system down!
Other Things to Note
The bar was outside the main room so if guests were to step outside the main room and go to the bar for a drink, they wouldn’t know what’s happening inside.
The seating chart was displayed on the venue’s TVs in the foyer during the cocktail hour which was great!
For dancing, the lights got darker to set the mood for people to dance, but I wish the venue’s lights were more reactive to the energy of the music to create a more visual element to the experience.
Conclusion
Everything went well and happy with the way things turned out! Dinna & Pedro had an amazing time and I actually got a text from them the next day commenting about my service! (see below). Thank you, Dinna & Pedro, for having me!
Wedding Team’s Instagram
Venue: @noorpasadena
Coordinator: @lilmissmadel
Hair & Makeup: @luonglastingteam
Photographer: @malayaimages
Videographer: @daybreakweddings
DJ/MC: @dj_mojoe
Florist: @moss_and_meadow_florals
Pictures by @malayaimages
Interested in having DJ MOJOE at your wedding? Please visit his wedding page below and schedule a meeting!
About DJ MOJOE
I help set the right vibes and energy for your party through my tasteful music selections, smooth mixing, and tactful interactions all without being cheesy. My goal is to make you look good, be stress-free, and simply enjoy your celebration knowing that you're leaving your special event to a skilled professional. With 200+ events already performed just in the past 2 years and after gaining the trust of many satisfied clients, I look forward to creating even more memories and bringing the fun at your next event.