1998 International DJ Expo’s
Greatest Hits

Seminar panels at the 1998 International DJ Expo offered a truckload of marketing and performance tips for mobile DJs. Here’s a sampling of the many helpful pointers that were offered at two panels, 2001: A Marketing Odyssey, moderated by Brian Doyle, owner of the Bay Area’s Denon & Doyle, and The Wedding Market, moderated by Paradise Mike Alexander of Southern California’s Paradise Entertainment.

Bridal Fairs
“Instead of the typical bridal fair, where you dress up in a tuxedo, we went off on a tangent. We themed our 10-by-20 booth. We rented a big cabana, we had a huge lifeguard chair that was about 8-feet high, we wore tuxedo tops with Bermuda shorts and sandals. We had an inflatable pool, too, and sat a DJ in the lifeguard chair, put the zinc oxide on his nose, and he had a whistle that he would blow occasionally as people walked by. It’s totally obnoxious, but it worked because we trade as the Fun DJs. People would be walking by and, instead of handing them a brochure, we gave them a small little baggie that was tied with a string and inside was some sand and seashells, and a flyer that said, “You’ll have so much fun at your reception you’ll think you’re already on your honeymoon.” – Bob Deyoe, Desert DJs, Tucson, AZ If you’re using video in your bridal fair booth: “I’ve taken picture images from different weddings that I’ve done and burned them onto a CD-R. I have a computer in my booth, so when the bride says, ‘How do you do the bouquet and garter toss?’ I click it on right there and watch it with the bride immediately, instead of rewinding and fast forwarding a video and wasting everybody’s time.” — Steve, Celebrations Entertainment “In the Yellow Pages, you get a free listing when you open your business line account. If you’re going to do a display ad, use your free listing in another section of the Yellow Pages. Cross-reference over to the Wedding Professionals area. This way, when clients are looking through the Wedding Professionals section for other vendors for their party, they’ll see your name also.” — Cindy Burgess, Party Pro DJs

Cake Cutting
“When it comes time for the cutting of the cake, have the maid of honor and the best man come up and stand by the bride and groom. Tell them you’re doing this because it’s a great photo opportunity. When it comes time for the bride and groom to feed each other, instead of having the bride feed the groom and the groom feed the bride, nail the maid of honor and the best man with cake. This way, there’s no time wasted for cleaning up. And then have the bride and groom feed each other simultaneously.” — Keith Alan, Keith Alan Productions, Waterbury, CT

Garter Toss
“We auctioned off the right for someone to take the garter off the bride’s leg, which is quite fun. The groom stands right behind the bride and they wound up getting $450. For those of you who do the dollar dance, this is a nice variation on that.” “If you have a wild bride and groom, the following will work great. We take the garter off first and then call up all the single women – I usually play ‘Sandra D,’ ‘Greased Lighting.’ We have them make a straight line on the dancefloor, and then call up all the men, play ‘Greased Lightning’ and they make a straight line facing the women, so there’s an aisle between them. Then we have them take their shoes off and place them on the floor and turn around. Then we give the bride and groom a broom, we play ‘The Curly Shuffle,’ and they take all the shoes and sweep them in the middle so they’re all mixed up. Now, the women all have the same color shoes, and the men all have the shiny tux shoes. I take the brooms back from the bride and groom, play ‘Hand Jive,’ and they have to go out and find their shoes. The first woman to find her shoes and put them on has to run up to me, and the same goes for the guy. And that’s how the winners of the garter and bouquet are chosen. And that man will put the garter on that woman.” A time saver during the garter toss: “We do the garter first. The bride sits in the chair, and we bring the single guys up at that time. We tell the single guys, ‘Come on down, you get to watch the garter come off.’ It gets the guys up there automatically for the garter toss. The garter then comes off the bride, we slide the bride out of the way, and the guys are already there. It saves a lot of time.”
— Jim, Mr. DJ, Dayto

Intros
“We have a CD with samples of every song we’ve ever used over the years, and we let the bride and groom rent the CD a couple of months before the wedding. This way they can select which song they want for intros and couple dances. This way you don’t have to spend an hour in the office listening with them.”
— Russ Harris, Show on the Road Productions

Dollar Dance Alternatives
“Here’s an alternative to the dollar dance that was suggested to me by a client. If you want to make some money for the bride and groom, but you want to avoid the stigma of asking for money, try this: Before, the ceremony, the father of the bride went out and bought a used, ill-fitting $40 tuxedo at a bazaar. At one point during the ceremony, he changed into this tuxedo and came back, and said, ‘We’re going to make some money for the bride and groom right now. We’re a little mad at the tuxedo company, because they couldn’t fit me properly. So we’re going to auction off parts of the tuxedo.’ We started by cutting the lapel off, we got $50 for that, then we cut the arms off and so on. The father of the groom offered $300 for the back of the pants. Before we were done, we had about $1,000 for the couple, and the father of the bride was standing there in tatters, and he probably would have made more than $1,000 if he were willing to sell his underpants. It’s a great idea, and it’s not too risqué.
– Bob Deyoe, Desert DJs