Lora McMeekan & Dean Quintas at Chicago City Centre

Lora and Dean had their wedding reception at the Chicago City Centre (formally the Holiday Inn). Brent and I were the deejays and we also had a video crew: Billy and Eric. I acted as the coordinator for the evening and made sure the timeline was happening and that everyone was on the same page. Brent deejayed for dinner and I hopped on the decks once we got to dancing. What I'm seeing looking back is that I should have stayed in the coordinator role during dancing, too. Switching roles like that got confusing. Actually, just communicating more about what I was thinking and what kind of role I wanted to have during the night would have been key. The dance floor was hard to get going, partly because Brent and I weren't completely on the same page. Dancing started off well, everyone came out, but at one point, everyone slowly left and it was hard to bring them back. What finally worked was the 80's hair bands. We ended up playing that for the last hour and wound up getting overtime. The crowd was intense. A lot of angry or assertive guests that wanted their way. It took a lot me asserting myself with them to have successful event. One of the guests wanted overtime, but spent 10 minutes trying to get me to lower our rate. Part of his tactic was trying to get me to feel either guilty for stopping or ashamed that I would be going back home and going to bed. What I'm learning about dealing with people who are belligerent is that I should set clear limits and boundaries. It wasn't until I said that I wasn't doing overtime that he finally agreed to it. I spent a lot of time talking with Brent throughout the night, venting my anger to keep in good shape and make great decisions.

--Jonathan