Lobo/Corey @ Hotel InterContinental

Erik Friedly and myself were situated at the lavish Hotel Inter-Continental to celebrate the marriage of Maria Lobo and Jason Corey. Sounds pretty rosy so far, right? Sure it does. There is more to the story, though: The couple had a concern around me being the best fit for their wedding, although I clicked well with the couple and I chose them based on their music list, which I was quite familiar with. Working with their producer (and one of our fellow deejays) on the event, Brian Carey, I made sure to make Maria and Jason feel super-secure by meeting with them twice, answering all their e-mails immediately, and serving their concerns. The back-end work was done well; the true test of my efforts was all in their wedding day. To make a long story short, the night went better than I hoped it would. Erik and I played every song off of their playlist—which included lots of fun, forgotten 80s tunes (i.e. "Situation" from Yaz and "Party Train" from the Gap Band) and some funk and 70s hits. The genres that Maria and Jason liked were the fortés of Erik and myself, and we were able to create a long-lasting dance party for the 150 people that were there. The synergy that we had with each other and the crowd led to us getting 30 minutes of overtime, which totally unexpected. I had my fears around Jason and Maria not being fully satisfied, but I let my fears go and simply played from the heart. We ended the night with "California Stars"—quite apt for two of Chicago's biggest Wilco fans. Our couple called us "terrific," which was very welcoming to hear. This was a night of good success and enjoyment, and I am glad that I focused on making the celebration fun, rather than surround myself with fear. That's what celebrating is all about.

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay