Martin/Melone @ the Adler Planetarium

The stars definitely came out for Michalene Martin and Mark Melone, who celebrated their wedding along with 200 of their loved ones at the scenic Adler Planetarium. My partner Kelly Hendricks and I were the deejay team poised and ready to play a night of music. The most enjoyable part of this evening was the fact that dancing virtually "happened:" Right after dessert, I received a request for some swing music, which I graciously went into. After that, I played a few fun 60s songs, and that got people bobbing their heads and moving their bodies. I then moved into Sam & Dave's "Soul Man," and the bridesmaids began to move towards the floor. From there, with every choice I made the dance floor was packed for almost the entire night. I felt that every song I played was a hit with the crowd, which does not always happen at each gig I perform at. Possibly the coolest move I made during the night was that I took a few seconds to dance with one of the bridesmaids who wanted for me to dance with her to Michael Jackson's "Rock With You," and coming back to the table just in time to pop in Johnny Cash's "I Walk The Line." Whoa-ho-ho! I think I could have called myself "DJ Bond—James Bond" at that moment. We played everything from hip-hop to 80s to funk and big band classics. I even think I hit my record of "the most Michael Jackson songs ever played at a wedding"—which was four for this night. We ended on Donna Summer's "Last Dance," which couldn't have been a better ending for the sizable crowd that were on the dance floor. My only disappointment was that I did not get to see both the bride and groom at the end of the night to thank them, but I was assured that they were pleased. I sure was, by golly. Typically, I am a person of structure—I like to follow a set timeline and take cues to begin events as they are called. Performing at Michalene and Mark's event strengthened my ability in loosening my structured self and going with the flow. Change is certainly a good thing.

– Brent Rolland, resident fig deejay