Weddings for friends and referral from friends. Those are the most fun! I DJ'd a wedding for some close friends on Saturday and it was a blast. When I do an event like that and I don't have to take direction from a ton of people it is a win situation for me! I always give my friends a rock bottom rate since I know I won't have the headaches that sometimes happen with an event so important, so this latest one was a blast. Didn't start that way though...
The day of the event, I took a close look at my lighting system and decided that I was not going to spend the afternoon trying to get the fixtures all screwed back in place and bulbs in working order and all that. I am partly to blame, I had them on loan for quite some time and should have gotten them back months ago to work on them and have them ready for my next gig. As I was packing my truck for the gig I loaded everything but the lights up. I decided to load my laptop and wireless mic last since they are the smallest of everything I carry they would ride in the front seat. Setting up my front seat I put the wireless mic on the roof of the truck put my laptop in the front seat and off I went to Guitar Center.
Now I start heading down the road I hear something sliding off the roof of my car. The cars behind me were honking the horns and swerving around my wireless mic and receiver that fell off the truck and busted in a million pieces. So now I had to add a wireless mic into my list of things to buy at Guitar Center. The lights I wanted were simple and easy to use so I bought 3 fixtures. They are "sound activated" so you pretty much just plug-n-play and go about your business. I told the salesman I needed a cheap wireless mic. He sold me one with an extended warranty and also an extended warranty on one of the light fixtures.
As he was showing me the wireless mic I made mention that it looked like it had been opened. He showed me a sealed AA battery and said "look it hasn't been opened". In most cases they have a huge box of batteries that are sealed that they throw in to stuff that might be missing one or whatever. I took my 3 light fixtures and wireless mic and headed back home. I parked in a no-parking zone and threw on my hazard lights and took my lights in the house so I can start getting them mounted and all that fun stuff. Once that was done I loaded them into the car, finished some music up and was ready to get to the gig. I could set up at 4:45pm so leaving the house at 4pm would be plenty of time, or so I thought.
I'm packed with all my gear, new lights, and a new wireless mic! I turn the key and my battery was dead! Of course I freaked out! You never wanna be the "late dj" even more so when it is somebody's wedding! My neighbors were no help so I called my wife freaking out! She was in the wedding about to walk down the aisle with everyone else in 30 minutes! She made it happen and called her Mom to show up to give me a jump! I got to the gig on time, was all set up and ready to go and went to do a "mic check" and it DID NOT WORK! Does it seem odd that the mic that I was worried about being open in the store did not work? Of course I had a corded mic so there were no issues on that end.
I plan on raising hell at Guitar Center and will get retail justice on my wireless mic! Of course if I was better at planning and didn't freak out, my mic would not have taken the tumble that it did, my lights would have been in working order and I would not spent about $450 in about 10 minutes for equipment.
So do I do weddings? The answer is yes! Do I like them to go without hassle and without having to buy a ton of gear? Yes to that to! Is my blood pressure still up? Yes.
