Playing for Kyle and Erica Came was so much fun!  The event took place a Noah’s Event Venue in Chandler, AZ.   For this event I only had to play for the dinner/dancing as the ceremony took place somewhere else.  As normal, I arrived 2 hours early to setup with my assistant.

First of all this place is REALLY nice!  You rent out the entire facility for your event and you have access to every room which includes bar/cocktail area, pool tables, room for both the bride and groom, etc.  Also. if you ever DJ here, ask the couple if they purchased the package which includes uplights.  If so, you will not need to bring yours as they put enough throughout the room.  The only reason you would bring yours is if you use them for other purposes.

We setup fairly quickly and I took a few early pictures.  Yes, I know… the cabling in the first picture is very messy.  I cleaned them up before the event started as I don’t like it to look like this.  I also created a gobo to display the couple’s names.  If you can see in the first picture it’s displayed on the dance floor, but it doesn’t look clear.  You can see this more in the second picture.  The reason is because the opposite wall is all windows which have shade screens, but the doors were also open and the sun was shining in really strong which made it really hard to see the gobo until it got dark which was unfortunate.  I tried to shine it in the wall behind me but I wasn’t centered enough and it didn’t look right.

What I should’ve done is move my truss and setup the gobo first so that it is centered on one of those panels in the back wall, but my mistake was I didn’t set it up until almost the end.   By then, it was too late to move the entire setup.  Lesson learned…

One small gripe about the venue is the big center chandelier cannot be dimmed or turned off.  We were able to turn of some of the lights, but it was still too bright for the lights to really pop.  Just something to be ready for, including myself as I have another event there this November.  Maybe I can play around with the lights myself and see if I can get the room a little darker next time.

Finally, the dancing.  Everyone had a great time as I played Cumbia’s, line dances, and hip hop (a lot from the 90’s!).  Check out the video I posted on YouTube.  Another successful event for One Step Beyond Productions!