Chang/Kang @ the Garfield Park Conservatory

"Chang, Kang…they're almost the same name—they rhyme!"

Such humorous words could only come from the father of the bride. But this entry is not entirely about him—this is about Grace and Tony, a couple I had the pleasure of deejaying for this past Saturday. With sensational 80-degree weather and the lush green setting of the Garfield Park Conservatory, my partner Matt Carlson and I were definitely one with nature for this wedding celebration.

This evening, I was pitted (or, for the sake of the venue, should I say "potted?") against a big musical challenge: trying to satisfy the musical requests of the bride and the groom. The conundrum was that each of them supplied me with a list of songs that contained completely different genres: Grace was more inclined to hip-hop, funk, and house music, while Tony was more of an 80s-90s one-hit-wonder child. My main j-o-b and j-o-y is to make sure my clients hear their favorite songs during the night, as well as to read the crowd and play whatever will keep them dancing. It could have been the fairy spirits from the pink fairy plants that were housed in the Conservatory, but Matt and I pulled through really well. Some of my favorite transitions during the night were going from P!nk's "Get the Party Started" to Madonna's "Hung Up," as well as the movement from Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" to a slowed-down version of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby," which we ended the night with, believe it or not. The greatest part of the evening involved a huge dance circle to DJ Sammy's "Heaven," Darude's "Sandstorm," and a really great track from Paul Van Dyk. Although we could not get to all the songs the bride and groom requested, we played a majority of them and were able to spread them out wonderfully during the evening.

I do not think I have ever been up against such a challenge, but seeing that I am still alive, I have strengthened myself from this gig. Grace and Tony were quite grateful for our performance, and I was glad to have played for them. Here's to more green pastures, and fun deejay gigs.

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay