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!

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 ;)

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’!

During your busy day, how much of your time is spent on marketing? Probably more than you think. Everything from the advertisements you develop and implement to the way you answer your phone portrays a lot about your business. Traits that brides and grooms discern and weigh when booking their wedding vendors.

How often do you get a chance to really analyze your sales and marketing procedures? If you’re like most wedding vendors, not much. Our days are jam-packed with the operations leaving little time for improvement. We all know that improvement is crucial, but where can we find time and resources to research, develop and implement change?

Enter: Wedding MBA

3 full days of wedding industry experts, associations and fellow professionals, gathered together, eyes and ears open, organized by conferences, seminars and focus groups with one major goal in mind: IMPROVEMENT. By means of education and collaboration, vendors have an unusual opportunity to remove themselves from their operations and immerse themselves in the much needed, yet ever-changing, resources sales and marketing experts are ready to share. Like you, there are other professionals who would love to know proven sales and marketing methods. Now is the time to remove the competitive veil. Compare, contrast and share the knowledge you hold and accept and implement strategies that will make your company stronger.

Do your business a favor, attend the convention. Schedule time away from the day-to-day stuff. Realize that you don’t have everything perfected. Come focused on listening and sharing. Take advantage of what you learned. Feel good about focusing on improvement. Your customers WILL take notice.

It’s a re-occuring theme. We constantly hear from our couples how cool the online planning forms are when working out the details of their weddings.

It’s pretty simple. Once you book your wedding entertainment services with us, we activate your online planning forms. You and you financé will receive a username and a password that you can use to login completely at your leisure.

The timeline planner will give you the framework to imagine the flow of your ceremony and reception and chose the events at your desired pace. Of course the most fun part is listing all of your song requests. Everything from your first dance as husband and wife, your must play favorites that you HAVE to hear during open dancing and of course a DO NOT PLAY list. The Chicken Dance isn’t for everybody ;)

What you chose to list is completely up to you. Perhaps you need a little direction from the professionals, no problem, we’re here to help. But, the online planning forms will at least give you access to the questions you’d like to starting thinking about. We want your wedding planning process to be as enjoyable and convenient as possible.

Login and have fun!

I know we’re getting closer to “the big day” for a lot of our couples. Their friends and family from all over the state, country and sometimes world will soon be landing on the Central Coast preparing to share the big day with their loved ones. But they wont be quite as busy as the couple are will likely be looking to get the most out of their vacation.

Well, lucy for them, your destination wedding is being held in a beautiful place with an abundance of unique activities. Make sure they take advantage of everything this beautiful area has to offer! Need some help? Check out VisitSlo.com. This awesome website is managed by the great San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce and offers something for everybody.

Help make your guests weekend as special as your wedding day!

Wow. A BIG thanks to Amy Wellenkamp Photography for her insight on decor lighting. We feel the same way! Get the most out of your venue, flowers, cake and everything else you spend time, money and energy on. Here it is in her words:

…Melissa from Kramer Entertainment was mixen it up for the dancers on the dance floor. Check out this extravagant lighting setup by Kramer Entertainment. Robert Hall Winery is so amazing, but at night it would be such a waste if it wasn’t lit like this. So spectacular. Wherever your event may be I highly recommend adding lighting design to it. It will make the atmosphere so much more inviting and exciting, plus the photos are so rich…

Read the rest of her post here: http://tiny.cc/zp40g

Thanks to all the volunteers, local fashionistas and the fabulous event staff at Robert Hall Winery, the public got to enjoy a glamourous night of runway action all for a good cause. Nearly 200 people came out to see the local trends, indulge in CateringUnlimited.com’s tasty concoctions, drink fantastic Robert Hall wines and raised $1400 for dear Cheyenne Willis and her fight with dystonia. Our own Melissa was there to DJ the event along with KSBY’s Carina Corral serving as emcee. We couldn’t be more proud of our lighting designer Zach’s work for the brilliant lighting layout. The brick walls were glowing and the spectators could enjoy every models ensemble thanks to the bath of white light lining the entire runway. Sophie from Mike Larson Photography provided the flash bulbs and captured the local talent. Local news coverage can be found here.

The Barn at the Santa Margarita Ranch is one of our favorite places to work. The balanced blend of lumber and stone leaves thousands of unique shadows in every nook and cranny. When lit correctly, those shadows leave a perfectly rustic texture that really sets the tone of the decor. That said, the Barn is far from rustic. It has all the amenities necessary for a perfect ceremony and reception and can easily fit 300 guests indoors. Here’s a few more shots from the talented Ashely at A. Blake photography.

Adding dedicated and focused lights to the buffet table REALLY brings out the beauty your caterers work. Similar the rest of your decor vendors, caterers spend a lot of time making sure your carefully chosen menu is as beautiful as it is tasty. Often times the buffets are stuck in darker corners where your guests are unable to really enjoy the visual aspects of their meal. Why allocate such a significant piece of your budget to a beautiful culinary spread when it can’t be enjoyed due to mis-managed lighting? Worse yet, caterers may ask to have the house lights turned on for convenience, drastically altering the ambiance and intimacy of your reception. These next images show the benefits of specialized lighting.