For CHERYL: Pics of MEREDITH & RAY'S wedding reception at the Hale Koa

I had a great conversation today with CHERYL. She is getting married in June at the Hale Koa Hotel, and we had a fantastic talk about her wedding plans. There's still much to be discussed, and we certainly would want to get her fiance involved in the conversation, but in the meantime, I promised her that I would be providing pictures of the ballroom in which their reception will be held, so as to help her get ideas as to how she would want to decorate the place for her own unique party.

And for everyone else, here are some photos from one of our presentations. MEREDITH & RAY got married at the Hale Koa in 2004. They invited 150 of their closest friends and family, and it was a good mix of people: some of them quite outgoing, others a little timid at first. The challenge was to get everyone out of their shells and participating in the presentation, so that by the time we opened the dancefloor at the end, everyone wanted to move the party over to the dancefloor!

The challenge was met, and it was a great party!

Please note that my staff and I are not professional photographers, so these images may not be as good as the professionals. However, we do know how to create a great party! And now, on with the show...

It's Time for the Grand Entrance!

Let's have some toasts!

The Circle Dance (unique alternative to the bouquet toss)

Last Man Sitting - Unique Garter Toss Alternative

The Reverse Garter: Garter Winner thinks he's putting the garter on the woman who won the bouquet...but there's a suprise twist:

We keep the energy going with a fun and entertaining centerpiece giveaway game...

The First Dance, followed by the Money/Dollar Dance...

From there, with the dancefloor opened and many of the guests already on it because of the Money Dance, it was simply a natural transition into fun party dance music, and we rocked the crowd for the rest of the night!

So how much does YOUR wedding cost?

Did you know that the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is now at $27,690, not including the honeymoon, engagement ring, bridal consultant or wedding planner?

Here on Oahu, these are your averages:

• Total Average: $31,840


• Attire (Gown, Dresses, Tuxes, accessories, hair & makeup, etc.): $2996


• Ceremony costs (accessories, site rental, decor, officiant, & rehearsal dinner): $2904


• Favors & bridal part gifts: $1290


• Photography & Video: $4241


• Reception Costs (food service, hall decor & rentals, beverages & bartender, cake, etc.): $16,293


• Flowers (includes bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, etc.): $2264
  "The Music" (DJ, Band, etc.): $1095

All of these statistics come from CostOfWedding.Com . So how does YOUR budget compare?

A few more interesting tidbits...

AFTER THE VOWS...

72% of all brides say they would have spent more time choosing their reception entertainment.

• Almost 100% say they would have spent more of their budget on the entertainment.


• During wedding planning, Brides say their highest priority is their attire, followed by the reception site and caterer - reception entertainment is among the least of their priorities. Within one week after their reception, 78% of Brides say they would have made the entertainment their highest priority!


• When asked, 81% of guests say the thing they remember most about a wedding is the entertainment.


• 65% of all couples that chose a band to entertain at their wedding, said, if they had it to do over again, they would have chosen a disc jockey.

These statistics were published in St. Louis Bride & Groom Magazine in 2003. Sources include: Simmons, 2001; USA Today, 2002; National Bridal Service, 2001; The Knot, 2002; Brides Magazine, 2001.

Today's Tip of The Day is a fun one, especially if you are having children or children-at-heart at your celebration. We've done this at past weddings, and it has ALWAYS been a success. You know how traditionally the guests would tap the glasses to get the newlyweds to kiss? It can get annoying and repetitive for the couple, and for the kids, they don't really care about it. They usually just run around and keep their parents busy making sure they don't get into any major mischief. So here's a good way to involve the children and let you not have to kiss so often.

Bring a small putting green, putter, and a few golf balls to your reception, and lay it out on the dancefloor when dinner begins. Tell your guests that, instead of tapping the glasses to get the newlyweds to kiss, the guests have to hit a hole-in-one. And to make things more fun and challenging, the farther away they are from the hole--and if they make it in--the longer your kiss will be! For the golfers in your group, this will be something they will enjoy. Your other guests will enjoy the fun watching others try (and usually miss) the hole-in-one. For the kids, it gives them something fun and entertaining to do instead of running around the ballroom causing all sorts of mischief. And for the parents of these children, they not only will have great photos of their kids having fun, but the kids will be out of their hair for the moment, allowing them to relax and enjoy your celebration more fully!

Have a great weekend, and I will see you on Monday!

Warmly,

Marino
Ninja Entertainment

Busy today

Hope you had a great day today!

Spent most of the day updating the music collection, getting new music from iTunes and other sources. I got all of the national music charts up-to-date; tomorrow or early next week I will pick up the local music charts. It's all an effort to get ready for JEN & MARK'S wedding next week!

In the evening, I was on youtube watching concert videos. Why? To get ideas from lighting designers! A lot of the designs they use can readily be adapted to a wedding performance, particularly during the dance portion.

This one's pretty cool.

Since we're talking about lighting, it's a great way to talk about today's Wedding Tip Of The Day. This one falls under the Fun and Memorable categories.

When it's time to dance, insist that the caterer turn off the lights over the dancefloor, and if possible, throughout the ballroom. Why? People would rather dance when it's dark. If there is too much light, most people won't venture over to the dancefloor for fear of being identified and becoming the subject of gossip the next day. Think of the last concert you went to. The stage area was lit, but where you were in the audience...dark, no? If it's dark enough, it may even encourage your Aunt Mildred, who never dances, to actually come to the dancefloor to let loose! If it's dark enough, she may unleash her inner Donna Summers!

Keep on dancing,

Marino
Ninja Entertainment

Of Cupid, Huge V-Day Cards, and Books About Weddings.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I hope all of your plans for romance and passion have come together, and that your mate is treating you right on this very special day!

No big romantic dinner or big bouquet of roses for me today though; my better half and I both agreed that such things are overdone and generally uber-expensive on this holiday...so we decided not to do it. I did get her a GINORMOUS Valentine's Day card, though, and a gorgeous non-rose floral arrangement, which she gratefully appreciated, and we will be doing lunch later today...Next week, when prices stabilize and the V-Day rush is off, I'll take her to a nice dinner and buy her a bouquet of tulips, since it will throw her off guard as she is expecting roses! (She likes roses...but she loooooooooves tulips.) Bwahahahah...


As promised, here's the info on Peter Merry's new book The Best Wedding Reception...Ever! Peter is a really good friend of mine who wrote this book on choosing the right entertainment for your wedding. He is a former president of the American Disc Jockey Association, and currently he operates Merry Weddings, a wedding entertainment service in Southern California that has a similar philosophy and approach to weddings as I do. You can download the Foreword and Introduction FOR FREE, and there will be instructions at the end of the sample on how to get the first two chapters...again for FREE! From what I have read so far, this will be a great resource to have, especially if you are want to have a FUN, STRESS-FREE, and certainly UNIQUE reception that your guests will REMEMBER FOREVER!

And that leads me to today's Wedding Tip Of The Day: Go download that sample and follow the instructions to get the first two chapters! It will be worth your time to read through it. You will get a basic idea of why it's important to invest in great entertainment for your celebration. If anything, you get a free chunk of the book!

Have a great Valentine's Day!

With much love,

Marino
Ninja Entertainment

This is why I don't sing...

In some weddings I have presented at, there may be a friend or cousin of the bride or groom who want to "honor" the bride & groom by serenading them or performing a hula/modern dance/Tahitian otea/etc. It's a thoughtful gesture, and many times, the performer usually has some sort of talent. But there have been some weddings in which you cringe and watch the bride & groom realize in horror that maybe having cousin Jeb sing may have not been a good idea...

That thought came to mind when I saw this on youtube. Funny stuff...I'm glad this doesn't happen often at my weddings!

Just an update on a few things:

First, I added meta-tags to the website. Hopefully it garners more hits from the spiders and bots that crawl the Net. This blog heading was updated too. Hope you like it.

Spent the rest of the day putting together the soundtrack for JEN & MARK'S wedding. Lots of cool jazz--Michael Buble, John Legend, Harry Connick Jr.--and some fun tunes.

Today's Wedding Tip Of The Day is a Stress-Free tip designed to help you choose the right date and location for your wedding. When it's time to choose the date and location, it helps to first identify if there's any big thing going on during that date, and where it will happen. For example, if planning a wedding in Waikiki, be sure to check the Honolulu Advertiser's Features Section to see if there are any parades or Sunset/Brunch On The Beach happening during that time. A parade will cause major traffic and will certainly be an issue with some of your guests. If your wedding is in Waimanalo, and the reception is in town, and you plan to drive the scenic way around Makapuu to get to town, there may be construction, or a marathon, or a bike race. Those things need to be taken into account.

Tomorrow, I'll post info on Peter Merry's new book The Best Wedding Reception Ever!

Marino
Ninja Entertainment

Big Bits O' News!

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Normally I don't post on weekends, but this is big: two big bits of news that can't wait for Monday.

First, my good friend Peter Merry just finished his book The Best Wedding Reception...Ever!. It's a great book about choosing the right entertainment for your celebration. Peter is a former president of the American Disc Jockey Association, and he operates Merry Weddings, a wedding entertainment service in Southern California that has a very similar philosophy and approach to wedding entertainment as mine. He was gracious enough to let me "beta-test" the first two chapters of the book, and from what I've read so far, it is one resource that every bride who wants a fun, stress-free wedding should have.

Tomorrow I will post the link where you can get foreword and introduction to the book (for FREE), and from there, you too will be able to download the first two chapters...FOR FREE! It's all an effort to make your wedding day so much more FUN, STRESS-FREE, UNIQUE, and MEMORABLE!

The other big news: I now accept all major credit cards! In the past, I was rather limited by my merchant services company to accept ONLY American Express, but with this new service (which uses Paypal), I can accept all credit cards, meaning more convenience for my clients...especially the ones trying to get Frequent Flyer Miles on their Visa or Mastercard! Hey every cent that goes to those miles for the honeymoon counts, right?


Have a great Sunday, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Yes, Web Designer is a part of my title.

It was a productive day today. Finished most of the projects I set out to do.

Spent most of the day laying out and sending February's e-newsletter. If you want to read it, you can find it here. Like this blog, it is filled with tips and advice for brides-to-be (current clients), marriage advice for recent brides (past clients), and news for my friends and colleagues. It's all an effort to stay in touch, keep you informed, and (in the case of future brides-to-be), make your wedding planning experience easier!

I also updated the website to link to this blog. After getting tired of updating each individual page, I found out about Textpad, a cool notepad replacement tool that allows you to make changes to all html files at once, rather than taking forever to do each individual one.

Still need to update the meta tags.

No weddings this weekend. The next one JEN & MARK's reception at the end of the month, and it will be a fun one. Just to give you an idea, we're introducing the wedding party to Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger, and when we introduce the bride & groom...Queen's We Will Rock You. It will be exciting! I'll reveal more as we get closer to the date; I have two weeks to rehearse and prepare.

And now, for today's Wedding Tip Of The Day, Part 2: Again, this is for the grooms-to-be. KEEP YOUR TUX JACKET ON DURING THE ENTIRE FORMAL PROGRAM. During all of the traditional moments of a reception (e.g., cake-cutting, garter toss, toasts, etc.), you will look much sharper and more confident in a full tux than a shirt and vest. And it will appear in the photos and videos. Your bride will love it. And besides...when else will she get to see you in a tux again? So keep it on until it's time to dance.

Coming up next week: an important tip when it comes to choosing your wedding date and location.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Let's add Marriage Counselor to my title

The other day, I was at Starbucks for a meeting with a bride & groom-to-be. After the meeting, as I was wrapping up and finishing my notes, the store manager Cheryl stops by my table. I've known Cheryl since college, and she's a dear friend. She says that her employees told her that her "marriage counselor" friend is here, and they pointed me out to her.

Fancy that..."marriage counselor."

Perhaps it's because I dole out so much advice and information at consultations, I seem like a marriage counselor.

Speaking of advice, here's today's Wedding Tip of the Day, Part 1:

Remember how I wrote yesterday that I would give grooms two strategies on how to make your bride really happy and to make you look good on your wedding day? Here's the first strategy, and the second will come later today.

On your wedding day, guys: REMEMBER TO ALWAYS KEEP SMILING. You never know when a camera is going to take a photo of you, and it's always nice to be caught with a smile on your face rather than a frown or dumb look. Besides, when you smile, you will appear more confident. It will make your bride more confident as well, and it will make your guests feel more comfortable. So let those pearly whites shine!

The second strategy comes later today, so stay tuned!

It's All About the Shoes, Baby! And The Iced Tea!

If you haven't visited The Wedding Cafe yet, you might want to drop by. It truly is a great local wedding resource. The owners Tanna & Bryson are uber-nice, and their staff is top notch. There is a lot of info there, as well as frequent seminars by top wedding industry professionals, so drop by. And you MUST try their iced teas too...The lychee and pineapple iced teas are simply fabulous! Tell them Marino sent you.

Starting today, with every new post I will be putting a Wedding Tip For The Day segment, which will fall into one of four categories: Fun, Stress-Free, Unique, and Memorable. These tips will help you make your wedding day be more fun, stress-free, unique, and memorable. So if you tune in regularly, you will pick up a few gems...The whole idea is to make the wedding planning experience and your wedding day as relaxing and fun as possible, so if you're paying attention, this will truly help.

Today's Tip falls under the Stress-Free category, since most brides I talk to don't want to be all stressed and frazzled on their wedding day. Buy your shoes early and break them in. Many brides don't wear their wedding shoes until the day of their wedding, but as you all know, wearing a brand new pair of heels or pumps can be quite painful. Remember that you will be spending a lot of time on your feet, so consider your footwear carefully. If the shoes are brand new, pick them at least three days before the wedding and break them in! Then on your wedding day, your feet won't hurt, leaving you to enjoy and relax at your reception!

Tomorrow's Tip will be for the grooms-to-be: I'm going to share two strategies that will make you look GREAT on your wedding day, and make your bride really really happy with you. And best of all, guys: it's FREE!

Yes, I know it's been a while.

Yes, I know it's been a while since I've posted. Life and work has been busy, with the business experiencing the usual growing pains. For now, though, I have refocused myself and the direction of the company in order to better serve my clients.

With the new year comes new choices, and one of the choices I have consciously made is to only work with clients who appreciate me and my service. I'm no longer going to chase after clients to simply fill dates on the calendar. After all, my clients deserve better than that. By cutting out the deadwood, I can better take care of my prize koa. Hokey analogy, yes, but it's what I feel. I would rather take care of great brides & grooms rather than ones that don't appreciate great entertainment at their wedding.

I'm also focusing on actively staying in touch with my current and former clients. Before, I would get so wrapped up in prepping for the next wedding, that my past clients, even the favorite ones, would be casted off to the wayside. But no more. I vow to keep in touch with them on a regular basis. This blog is one of the ways to do so. It provides an opportunity to speak to them, as well as to my new clients, as well as industry colleagues and friends.

Also in the works: a monthly e-newsletter filled with helpful tips and advice for your wedding. And if things go well, there may even be a syndicated podcast...we'll see what happens.

It's exciting, but also scary at the same time. With any major change, there's risks. But I've got a supportive bunch of friends, family, and colleagues, and an awesome group of clients that I love working with.

So what can you expect with this blog? Tips on planning your wedding. Inside info on the wedding industry. Wedding stories. And more. There's a lot of content that I've collected over the years, and I am very excited to share them with you.

The journey will be fun!