It is our IMMENSE pleasure to finally release our dance party promo video made in collaboration with Zachary Stowasser. This short video captures the complete event lighting effects we can bring to your Formal, Prom or School Dance. The energy in these clips speak for themselves.

Kramer Entertainment DJs & Event Lighting Promo from Kramer Entertainment on Vimeo.

Take your event to the next level with Kramer Formals.

Once in a while, you come across information that just HAS to be shared with the engaged couples out there.

Michael Ferino, an obvious professional, has written a piece for his blog called Mistakes Brides and Grooms Make and so far, it’s incredibly informative. This Connecticut DJ has definitely been around long enough to spot some faux-pas that couples make that can severely effect the flow of your wedding day. Here’s one of the big ones:

The Time between the church and reception.

If you are having a church wedding ceremony, the time planning process is crucial to making things convenient for your guests. Plan things correctly and the guests will arrive at the perfect time right as the wedding facility is ready to open the doors. Get it wrong, and your guests will be sitting and waiting in a parking lot. Here is the solution….

Find out the entire duration of the ceremony. If you are doing a receiving line at the church, add on an additional 15 minutes per 100 guests. On your free time, make the drive from the church to your wedding reception facility. If the route requires travel on a major highway, look into traffic issues. The highway will have different conditions for a Friday evening compared to a Sunday afternoon event. Calculate that time in and factor on your guests arriving 5-10 minutes before the reception start time. NEVER assume anything. You don’t want the wedding guests showing up 30 – 60 minutes before your contract start time. This can get ugly.

I have seen wedding guests forced to wait in the parking lot, or crowded into a hall way with the doors locked to the facility. Even if your hall lets the guests in early, it is a bad first impression when your guests are standing in a room where the staff are vacuuming, setting up tables and DJ doing a sound check.

If a caterer has another wedding during the day, they will need time to clean the room. Never assume that your guests can go wait outside in the garden area because what if it rains? What if there is a ceremony going on from another party? Always call your wedding facility and ask their policy on guest arrival. Get your facts straight and in advance so you know what to expect.

Thanks again to Michael Ferino, Founder of Music in Motion Entertainment.

A beautiful summer day, great friends and an everlasting marriage.

We were lucky enough to provide the DJ/MC and the lighting services to our dear friends Dan and Carlene Iverson during their much anticipated wedding at the gorgeous Avila Beach Golf Resort.

This was a perfect venue for the ~200 guests. Outdoor ceremony facing beautiful Avila Beach, a huge tent to shield the sun during cocktails and dinner with transparent walls to let the awesome surroundings in. We hung garden string lights inside the tent to give a warm, star filled vibe after sunset. (Awesome photos coming soon!)

Jack from Jack Hutchinson Videography shared his “Sneak Peak” with us and, as always, it’s awesome. I love this idea! Jack films and edits together some of the coolest shots from the ceremony and by the time cocktail hour is finished, he’s displaying the awesomeness on his huge monitor AT THE RECEPTION! It’s always a huge hit with the guests. Jack’s friendly, accommodating and most of all talented. Always a joy to work with.

Getting married on the Central Coast and have a desire to treat your guests to something other than a traditional cake? Well no doubt you’ve noticed the trend to feature gourmet cupcakes. Cupcakes are becoming super popular at weddings everywhere and the reasons are deliciously easy to see.

They’re made of mostly the same fantastic ingredients, so they can be every bit as good as a traditional cake. They’re individually packaged, so you dont have to pay your caterer extra or make your guests wait for it to be cut, and there’s tons of creative ways to display them! Our friends at TheKnot.com showcase a bunch of different ideas here.

Regardless of where or how you set them up, you should always make sure they’re well lit so they get the visual attention they deserve.

Our favorite cupcaker? Amy from Amy Bakes Cupcakes. She’s got a huge, yet ever growing menu of uniquely decadent cupcakes and is a dream to work with. Check her out here!

Got a wedding or party coming up? Wanna impress your friends and family with some sweet moves?

Well a great way to scoot around the dance floor, is to add a little SPICE. That’s right, I’m talkin’ about SALSA! For years the latin dance flair has been the talk of parties. And now, with a little cooperation with a Central Coast non-profit organization, you can get some experience from a real professional.

On July 24th at 6pm, meet some other Young Professionals at The Clubhouse in San Luis Obispo for a Salsa lesson with the beautiful Lilliana Graham all for the cost of a donation.

Learn the basic steps, a few twirls, get your confidence up and ready to impress the crowds. More importantly, how could this not be fun?!?

The legit wedding blogosphere knows the importance of working with professionals. Lucky for us, our Brides and Grooms are also legit.

Carley and Matt really put their trust in some of our favorite wedding vendors for their one-of-a-kind ceremony and reception held at the historic Santa Margarita Ranch. Let me tell you, it paid off.

The flowers, the decor, the food….. second to none. And the experts on chic at STYLE UNVEILED took notice.

Check out their write up on all things Carley & Matt.

Our favorite part is the “Advice from the couple”….. Hire a wedding coordinator and hire a PROFESSIONAL DJ. Do not have your friend “who has a lot of music and does house parties” DJ your wedding. You wedding DJ is so much more than someone who plays music. They help keep the time of the whole day, they are your voice/emcee of your wedding and they must have a knack for reading the crowd!

Kramer Entertainment DJ’d our reception. I have also worked with Kramer many times and I absolutely love them. Beau and Melissa are experienced, professional and just all around really fun energetic people. They both take great pride in what they do and have built an amazing business. They are great people to consult throughout the planning process and will make your life so much easier. They also have an amazing special event lighting business that includes gobs, uplighting and just about anything you can imagine. Their lighting services truly transformed our venue. I am a huge believer in event lighting and think it is a must for every wedding!

Thanks, Carley and Matt, for sharing your perfect wedding day with us as well as the STYLE UNVEILED spotlight!

Wow. I knew the wedding saavy crew at Here Comes The Guide.com was good, but after an in-depth look at their website, we’ll have to upgrade them to GREAT!

When it comes to an in-depth resource for all things wedding, they know where to point you. Although expanding to new areas like Chicago and DC, their real bread and butter (or wine and cheese?) is California. And not just the Central Coast. They’ve got the squeeze on trusted professionals in the Northern and Southern ends of the left-coast state.

If you’re looking for help such as finding a quality place to tie the knot, a gown to dress the part, a ring to seal the deal or a bridal fair for all of the above, the clear, concise organization of Here Comes The Guide.com will likely point you in the right direction. Even advice on how to pull off weddings on a budget or going green when wearing white is something these gals are happy to help with. Don’t forget to check out our Special Offer!

Check ‘em out. Chances are, you’ll learn something cool!

In case you’re not familiar with the Kramer Entertainment wedding philosophy, let me sum it up by saying first and foremost, we’re your wedding MC. Our main goal is to make sure your wedding flows incredibly smooth. We value the communication we have with our couples before the event, ensuring your ceremony and reception moves from one segment to the next seamlessly and comfortably. It’s what we do.

BUT, that doesn’t mean we dont live and breath with the music!

Music is one of the most important tools in our bag and we pride ourselves in utilizing our experience to play whatever’s necessary to give your event the unique vibe you’re looking for. From classical compositions of centuries ago, to the latest radio hits, if it’s available and conveys the emotion you want to share with your guests, than we’ll strive to make each track as much a part of your event as the names on the guest list.

In our quest to keep our tools sharp, we keep our eyes open for resources that can help our couples convey to us what they’re looking for with regards to music. For the more traditional wedding feel, we often use the Top 200 Most Requested Songs as a guideline. But if you’d like to stray away from the norm a bit, we recommend taking a look at this awesome collection of info Ashely from Hi-Fi Weddings has put together.

She has found that her followers like to “focus on those that want their wedding mix to be less “Top 40″ and more of music that is true to the soul.” Her blog allows you to browse through other couples who put a lot of importance on music and see what songs they chose to play and at which segment of their event.

She even creates special playlists for certain seasons like the Summer Love Songs mix she made for Green Wedding Shoes (another AWESOME resource for those interested in a little modern inspiration).

Ashley even compiles sweet YouTube playlists and provides the links to preview and download the suggested songs so you can fall in love with them at your own leisure. If you’re looking for a little direction in the wide world of tunes, this is a great place to start. Let us know when you’re ready to share your thoughts!

Big thanks to our dear friend, the bloomdiva at panacea event floral design for introducing us to Hi-Fi Weddings ;)

Those privy to the Central Coast wine trails are no doubt aware of Meridian Vineyards. The gorgeous arbor that marks the entry along the beautiful Highway 46 just outside of Paso Robles is hard to miss. A journey through the gates will lead you to a massive, but incredibly picturesque view of the East Side wine region, but the faces inside will always great you with a warm, small-town smile and some wonderful wines to compliment the scenery.

What they may not know about, are the merits to choosing Meridian Vineyards as a wedding ceremony and reception venue. With multiple breathtaking viewscapes capable of supplying any sized guest list with a memorable ceremony, beautiful gardens perfect for cocktail hour, infinite photo opportunities and an enormous, yet cozy barrel room, Meridian has something for all the senses.

With the wonderful teamwork of some of our favorite wedding professionals, we were able to give one of our couples an unforgettable experience with regards to their wedding decor.

Anxious to try out some of our latest decor lighting features in the gorgeous barrel room, we teamed up with superstar wedding coordinator Laura Robertson with TOS Events, the Bloomdiva herself, Corinne Smith with panacea event floral design and the all-star team of caterers with Epic Weddings. Laurie, the Special Events Supervisor at Meridian was a dream to work with, providing us with everything necessary to ensure the event would go off without a hitch.

Following the carefully thought out design plans of Laura and Corrine, we up-lit the surrounding barrels in brilliant light, draped the entire area with beautiful garden string lights, added pin-spots to showcase the beauty of panacea’s centerpieces and washed the dancefloor in a unique pattern of textured leaves.

Of course we really couldn’t share the magnificent decor without the help of the incredible photographic team of Jill and Allyson with Allyson Magda Photography. Jill jumped in the barrel room ready to shoot and captured every element that set Tara and Ty’s wedding apart. So excited to work with these two awesome gals at future weddings.

Photo from theknot.com

As wedding reception emcees, we see a LOT of different seating arrangements. There are a number of options to choose from with varying levels of planning necessary. Our friends at TheKnot.com said it best:

“If you’re having 50 guests to a buffet, you may or may not want to give people specific seating assignments. But if you’re having 100 guests or more and serving a seated meal, you’ll want to make sure everyone’s got a specific place to sit. Why? For one, people like to know where they’re sitting — and that you took the time to choose where and who they should sit with. It’s also helpful if you’re serving several different entree choices, because the caterer and wait staff can figure out beforehand how many chickens, filets, or veggie dishes a given table gets because they (you) know who’s sitting there. Read on for tips on how to seat neatly.“

From an entertainment standpoint, we also notice that the placement of the speakers is often something that gets overlooked. Depending on the way the venue is setup, often times, the DJ booth is placed in the last available corner. Us DJ’s are ok with being completely out of the lime-light as it is YOUR wedding, NOT ours. But, the placement of our speakers requires a little more thought. We want everybody to be able to hear the toasts, announcements and of course the music you’ve chosen but we absolutely do not want to blow anybody’s eardrums with too much sound.

Sometimes, the venue is designed in a way that we HAVE to raise our volume a little higher so the guest on the opposite ends of the room can still hear. But all too often, the seats next to the speakers happen to be the grandparents or other elderly guests that may already have a tough time communicating with each other over the background music.

Our suggestion: Contact your DJ when designing your seating arrangement. Chances are, (especially if you’re getting married on California’s beautiful central coast) we know the sound dynamics of your venue and can tell you where our speakers will likely be setup. Perhaps then you can choose to seat the younger kids, or your rowdier friends to sit closer to the speakers where they wont be as affected by the louder music. Hey, they may even enjoy it and be more likely to bring that energy out to the dancefloor once things really get hoppin’!