Vegas in da U.P. and a wonderful family...

The Gladstone High School Prom theme for 2008 was titled A Night on the Strip, with a tribute to Las Vegas. WOW! is all I could say when I walked into the beautifully decorated gymnasium that was transformed into a scene from the strip complete with the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Thanks to Danielle Carlson for assisting me with the students request all night. It helps that she knows the current music inside and out and knows what is appropriate to play and what is not. I’m not getting any younger J. The students and faculty of GHS did an outstanding job and had a blast until the late hours of Saturday night.

What an amazing facility and amazing people! I can’t recommend enough the services of Gary Cahee and the staff of Pine Grove CC. They are absolutely top-notch with the delivery of their services for potential clients, brides and grooms especially! I say this as I just got back from this weekend’s wedding at the Pine Grove Country Club in Iron Mountain. I was greeted by Gary and we went over the evening’s itinerary so both of us were together on the execution of the evening’s events. He was always there working hand in hand with me to make sure that everything was in its place before we proceeded to the next event such as cake knife, server, plate and napkins for the cake cutting to the pouring of the champagne before the toasts. Outstanding job Gary and staff!

People like the Trepanier and Rasmussen families make my job so enjoyable. They truly appreciate the extra time and effort that I put into their event and were wonderful people to work for. You can see how much fun the Father of the Bride Gene Trepanier and another guest had playing "air guitar" with the banquet facilities tray stands to the right. :) I’d like to give a public “Thank You” to everyone in the Trepanier and Rasmussen families for all of their help and support in making Tiffany and Mark’s reception a success. Their introductions went very smoothly, emotions were drawn out during the telling of their Love Story and when the Father of the Bride Gene took his daughter’s hand for the Father/Daughter dance, the expression on those two beautiful faces was priceless. It was a poignant moment just for the two of them and I was happy to have a hand in creating it. Thank you to Tiffany and Mark especially, who I am pictured with below.

I am off this weekend to entertain roughly 600 people in Niagara Wisconsin for a very fun reception with a really cool bride and groom, and then the following weekend it’s back to the Danforth Place in Escanaba for a VERY fun and entertaining program still being crafted by Alison, Brad and myself. Stay tuned.

Kickoff to the U.P.'s 2008 Wedding Season!

Yesterday morning, April 12th, 2008 I awoke to the sound of my children playing in the living room. I made my way into the living room and was slightly surprised with the view as I looked out the window. Mother Nature decided to dump 3 to 5 inches of snow on us on the overnight and I was faced with the task of snowblowing my driveway just so I could get out to perform at last night’s wedding reception. Bryan and Lindsey LaMarch had already been married 3 weeks earlier aboard the cruise ship the Norwegian Pearl, and were now having their celebration back home with family and friends. Of course being a former cruise ship entertainer I was immediately enchanted with this couple having learned of their plans of marriage during our initial interview. The setting for their reception was the Island Resort & Casino and as always, Sherry Skradski, the convention supervisor did a fabulous job in decorating the Paradise Room to reflect Lindsey and Bryan’s tropical themed wedding. She had amazing attention to detail with sea horses and starfish in the trees surrounding the room and a lavishly decorated buffet of heavy hors d’ouevres for guests to enjoy. The reception was designed to be more laid back and really just a party with very little of the traditional wedding formalities. A fellow Dream Day Event Center vendor, Tara was there in attendance and it was also great to see people that I hadn’t seen in awhile such as Paul Jacobs (my dentist)and his lovely wife, Jim Dufresne (the father of the bride) and Andrew and Karin Doutree (Matron of Honor). A great time was had by all with the personalized introductions seemingly being one of the highlights of the evening. As I look ahead, Gladstone High School’s prom will be this weekend. My wife, her sister and brother all graduated from Gladstone and we as a family are glad that my son and daughter will also be attending the same school system that my wife was educated through. I’ll be making my preparations during this week to rock 250 high school students and create Prom memories that will hopefully last a lifetime.

Reading and Rocking

Reading and Rocking! Wow! As I write this, it is the evening of April 1st, April Fools Day, when pranks are played on everyone it seems. I just got back from metro Detroit seeing some old friends again and hanging out with the company I used to work for in that market, Music Box Productions. Rod, Kim, Crash, Joey, Andrea, Sherman and Aaron all greeted me with open arms again. It was the second year in a row that Music Box Productions was invited to spin for Opening Day at Comerica Park as the Tigers start their baseball season. I was lucky in that last year I got a chance to get my picture taken with Ernie Harwell. Opening Day this year was a great success again thanks to the energy created by the personalities at Music Box. Back on March 17th, I got a chance to visit my son’s school and read to his classmates. I was amazed at the structure that these schools have and how they keep 5 year olds on such a rigid schedule. If only my wife and I were that successful! I walked in and the kids immediately stopped what they were doing. They all joined me in the storytime area and it was beautiful to see their faces being so attentive as I read them M is for Mitten (a book about the first letters of a word and how it corresponds to our state of Michigan). Here’s a picture of Hunter and I at his school just after the reading. Oh, how time flies! March 17th, 2007 was also the one year anniversary of one of the coolest weddings that I got to be a part of last year. Erin McCarthy and Scott Hoffman were married and had their reception at the now defunct Premier Center of Iron Mountain. There was a reason for this date as Erin is quite Irish and they both loved the traditions. They had a wonderful reception and truly are a beautiful couple. In fact, you can see them featured on my new website at http://www.tayloredweddings.com/. The picture of their famous introduction is on the Creation page. Thanks to Keith and Michelle Freeman of Freeman’s Photography for their incredible hard work at Erin and Scott’s wedding and also to Sarah Chouinard from RK Com Web Design for the design work of my new site. This is where you can find out more information about the wedding services I offer for my clientele. Thanks Sarah! You did a great job. Sarah’s site can be found here. We are just one week away from starting wedding season full steam ahead here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I’m quite excited for the year ahead and thrilled that I get to work with and for such wonderful people on the most amazing day of their lives…their wedding day.