Archive for July, 2010

Map Out Your Wedding Day

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

A wedding in Washington, DC is exciting, and not just for the couple planning the event! Your guests will be thrilled to be invited, and many will make a vacatiWedding Mapperon out of your wedding weekend.

Imagine giving each guest a customized map (including directions) of the whens and wheres of your wedding?  With everyone using smart phones and toting laptops as they travel, having online access to “where to go” and “when to be there” is huge!

I came across Wedding Mapper and thought it was a really practical and cool tool and had to share it.

Users can create a free map that includes the locations of everything going on during their wedding. Couples can also map their favorite restaurants, shopping, attractions, and even where they were engaged. Using Wedding Mapper, you’ll be able share your city and your wedding day at the same time!

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Hotel Monaco Set Up

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Designed by the same architect who created the Washington Monument, the former US General Post Office building is now the Hotel Monaco. It’s located in Penn Quarter, a really great, vibrant part of town and right by the Verizon Center, so your guests will be close to all the action.

The Hotel Monaco’s large ballroom has a lot of character. Once the Post Office’s Library, it has beautiful natural light, gorgeous pillars, and graceful archways. It’s a really special venue for a wedding.

When you enter the space, it can be hard to imagine where a DJ would set up, have the best sound, and keep the speakers as inconspicuous as possible. I snuck some pictures of our wireless Bose speakers set up in the Hotel Monaco ballroom at a recent event, and, as you can see, they blend perfectly with the space! These speakers create a perfectly balanced sound throughout dinner for the music and announcements.

Hotel Monaco, Washington DC Hotel Monaco, Washington DC

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2010 Washingtonian Best Of Party!

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Washingtonian Best of Party 2010

We’ve been waiting for this one! Remember a few weeks ago when I spun the music for the Washingtonian Best Of Happy Hour? Well, ever since then, we’ve been waiting, tickets in hand, for the main event. The Washingtonian Best Of Party benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Washingtonian Best Of Party 2010-800wi

image source

The best Washington has to offer was there in full force. 50 of the 100 restaurants that won this year had booths set up, and believe me, the food was amazing. We walked around sampling…until we got a call from the babysitter! Everyone was OK, but we had to call the night short. Which was a good thing considering how much we had already eaten!

Washingtonian Best Of Party 2010

image source

Thanks again to Washingtonian for asking us to deejay the Best Of Happy Hour and then inviting us to this event! It is clearly the best food event of the year!



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2010 Wedding Wire Bride’s Choice Awards!

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Wedding Wire

WeddWedding Wire 2010 Bride's Choice Awardsing Wire awarded Chris Laich Music Services a 2010 Bride’s Choice Award!! Can you tell we’re excited? Out of over 100,000 wedding professionals, more than 500,000 newlyweds chose us as one of the best music providers in the Washington, DC area. Our clients’ happiness is our goal, so we can’t think of any better award to receive than one that’s based on their satisfaction. Wedding Wire is such an amazing site and resource for planning couples. If you aren’t already using it for everything from finding great wedding vendors to using their fantastic planning tools, check it out! You’ll be glad you did.


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{Real Wedding} Sarah & John, Annapolis Yacht Club

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Sarah and John  were married on July 3rd at the Annapolis Yacht Club, and we were there to provide the music.

What a gorgeous day we had for this event!  Mary, the site manager at the Yacht Club, is not only the sweetest person you could ever wish to work with, but she is also very flexible with schedule and set up options. It’s clear why the Yacht Club is easily one of the best sites in Annapolis.

Mary and her team asked us to set up out on the deck with some dinner tables, while the rest of the guests were inside the main dining area.  To ensure there was perfect sound coverage for dinner, dancing, and the welcome/blessing, we set up four of our Bose wireless speakers inside.  Here are few pics we took of the Bose speakers (marked with red arrows).  They fit right into the very tight set up and created great sound!

Sarah & John's July Wedding

Sarah and John shared a cool first dance, taking the floor to “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers. Then the party got started!

Sarah & John's July Wedding

As you can see, from our pictures, it was a great crowd despite the heat.

Sarah & John's July Wedding

Brian Tropiano was there photographing the event for Sarah and John, and we are really looking forward to seeing what are sure to be fabulous images.

The couple departed via water taxi and sparklers, which made for a perfect conclusion to a sensational event!

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{Real Wedding} Alyssa & Michael, Annapolis Marriott

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

In the middle of this heat wave, it’s hard to remember what the DC area was like in February!

Amidst record setting snowstorms, on February 6th, my clients Alyssa and Michael were celebrating their wedding in Annapolis at the Marriott.

In all of my 20 years in the DC area, I have never seen so much white stuff at one of my weddings.  To make sure I wouldn’t miss their Saturday wedding, I came down to Annapolis on Friday before the snow hit, and I am so glad I did.  The roads were nearly impassable the next day!

Alyssa and her parents were so sweet throughout the entire process, handling once-in-a-lifetime wedding weather conditions with such good humor and poise. Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone else handling it better! To accommodate the winter wonderland, we made some changes here and there, but the event still went off perfectly.

The Annapolis Marriott also went above and beyond to make sure Alyssa, Michael, their family, and friends celebrated in comfort.  Everything was so flawless inside, you never would have known there was 30” of snow outside!

Alyssa & Michaels Winter Wedding

We set up two of the Bose wireless speakers in the hall area for cocktail coverage (marked with red arrows in the images), and whether it was the weather or the fun crowd or both, everyone at the wedding wanted to dance!

Alyssa & Michaels Winter Wedding


Here are a few shots I took myself – can you believe how much snow there was?

Alyssa & Michaels Winter Wedding


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Congratulations to Michael Deltette!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010
Sometimes in the wedding industry, the party is for one of us!

Michael Deltette, an event superstar and true professional, recently moved from his position at the chic Mandarin Oriental to the role of Director of Catering at the very elegant and fashionable Park Hyatt Hotel in DC.

image by Elaine Studley


To celebrate, his new team at the Park Hyatt threw a stylish summer cocktail soiree and asked us to provide the music. We had worked with Michael several times over the years at the Mandarin Oriental, so it was our pleasure to help with an event welcoming him to his new hotel! To create a smooth, cosmopolitan, “loungy” vibe in the room, we focused on tracks byimage by Elaine Studley artists like Thievery Corporation and St. Germaine.

While at the party, we finally got to meet the sweet and very talented Elaine Studley!  In the funny way business works sometimes, we had emailed back and forth for years, and though my associates had worked with her, she and I never met in person.  It was great to finally put a face to all the emails.

A heartfelt congratulations on Michael’s move, and we look forward to continuing to work with him at the Park Hyatt in DC!

event images by Elaine Studley


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Best of Happy Hour Party!

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Washingotonian Best of Happy Hour

We had the best time at the Washingtonian Best Of Happy Hour at Redwood restaurant on Bethesda Row in downtown Bethesda. When Jan Haber at the Washingtonian invited invited us to participate, I knew it was going to be a blast, and I am so appreciative of the opportunity to be a part of it!

Since it was an outdoor event, we ran 8 of our wireless Bose speakers all around the space, and the sound was amazing!

I spun all kinds of music to create a block party feel!   I was keeping everything right on beat and put together some great sets including the new Katy Perry f. Snoop, Journey, Prince, Jay- Z, Madonna, some B.O.B., Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, old-school Shaggy, Taio Cruz, a club mix of Living on a Prayer as well as the new Lady Gaga.  All over the board!

The party was packed! I ran into a few wedding folks, including Allison Britton, Aimee Otto, and Brian Childs. The event would not have been complete with a guest appearance from the super-fab Jill Hudson Neal herself! It was so nice to see her albeit for about a minute.

One of the best parts of the night was the cupcakes my great friend Leslie, from Fancy Cakes by Leslie, gave me for my kids! Her shop is right there on Bethesda Ave., facing into Bethesda Row. Of course, we ate them in no time – there is NO wonder why she’s been voted the best in town for so many years. Her talent, passion, and dedication to her craft reveals itself in every product she produces!

After I was done deejaying, we had a delicious dinner at Redwood.  I spoke with the owner, Jared Rager, prior to the event  and he was very accommodating.  Jared owns two more places in DC, Sonoma and Blue Ridge.  He’s a local guy, and I love that Redwood sources almost everything on its menu from local organic farmers and focuses on environmentally sustainable choices.

Thanks to everyone for making it such a fantastic event!

Washingotonian Best of Happy Hour

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Dance Classes in Bethesda

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

If you want to make like Fred and Ginger, unless you’re lucky enough have the skill and talent to move across the dance floor like pros, you’re going to need dance lessons.

The cool thing about dance classes is that you get an automatic date night and get to spend time together preparing for your wedding day. Dance classes are also lot of fun, and the added benefit is that all the moves you learn will be helpful every time you step on the dance floor long after your wedding day.  We’ve talked bout swing and lindy hop classes in DC before, but what about Bethesda?

Dance Bethesda

Dance Bethesda (301-951-3660) offers flexible wedding dance packages that include a helpful DVD of your lesson to take home and practice to.  They also offer ballroom, swing, tango, and waltz classes at $15 if you drop in, or you can also buy an 8 or 50 class card.

DuShore Dance Studio

DuShor Dance Studios (301-656-7434) also offers a wedding package with a la carte private and group class schedules couples can take advantage of.  Like Dance Bethesda, DuShor offers $15 to drop in one of their group classes, as well as private lesson rates.

Even if you don’t want to officially take a private lesson to formally prepare you, a group lesson is a great alternative to movie night for about the same price.  Not to mention it will give you a little extra confidence for your first foray on the dance floor as newlyweds!

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