I Left My Heart at A New Leaf

Jeanne and Joe had a freakin’ awesome wedding and reception at A New Leaf tonight. They were married in the courtyard and then went into cocktails, dinner, and then dancing. For a Sunday night, it was rockin’. Fig also did photography. Brian, James, and Joe were on photo. Myself and Alvin were on DJ. Going into dancing, I was a little worried. The reception was laid back with the only real structure being a few introductions going into speeches. We cut the cake later in the evening and were supposed to do a first dance, but the Jeanne and Joe said to just go into dancing. I announced that the dance floor was open and let the party happen. At A New Leaf, the DJ is on the mezzanine level and to get up there, you have to go up a long flight of stairs. It’s typically a challenge to get people up there, and it’s the kind of space where you just have to let the party happen and can’t really force the guests to do anything. We were ending dinner with some upbeat Motown and old R&B, lesser known but awesome tunes. So making the transition musically into dancing wasn’t difficult. We made the announcement, and just kept playing great music. We switched into more popular stuff, hitting Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson. The guests started coming up into the end of “Billie Jean” and I transitioned into “Promiscuous Girl” when they started dancing. Odd song to start off dancing for a wedding, but it worked. What I was thinking before they came up was what’s new and beat matches with Billie Jean and kind of fits with their song list. When I saw them coming, I started thinking, “Oh Crap. I’m not sure if this will work. They’ll walk all the way up, hear the song, and walk all the way back down.” I said, F it, and went ahead and played it. Worked great. We played another current song and then worked our way back in time. Another odd thing about the night was when we were packing up, the groom’s brother came up to me saying thank you and stuff, then he gets me three bumper stickers with the map of Oregon and a heart inside it. “I Left My Heart in Oregon” I believe is the slogan. That’s where he lives. That’s where my brothers live. Odd. Cool. Boss.

--Jonathan
Resident DJ, lead for the gig, DJ Operations Manager for fig, professor hood in the streets.