Premier Productions provided Entertainment, Lighting and Videography

Photography and Guestbooth by: Deidre Lynn Photography

Event Design and Coordination by: So-Chic Events

Below is the Love Story and Same Day Edit shown at the reception!

We also produced several slide shows that were shown on a loop throughout the reception.

We provided Entertainment, Videography, LED/LCD TVs (with a custom slideshow) and our Intelligent lighting package.

Ben Miller, Wedding Entertainment Director, was the Master of Ceremonies and DJ for the event.  Ben also provided custom introductions (as seen in the video).
Photography by Mark Romine (Find his blog post HERE)
Cakes by Janet’s Cakes
Reception Location: Holiday Inn (by the Airport) Bloomington, IL
Flowers by Sheri’s Happily Ever After Florist

Ben does his best to take a photo during a touching moment

From Ben Miller: Owner of Premier Productions

About every six months or so I’ll hear a photographer friend tell me that the talk around the proverbial photographer’s water cooler is that Premier Productions will start offering photography… it’s just inevitable.

The rumors couldn’t be more wrong!  I’m a photographer as a hobbyist.  I enjoy taking pictures of my children and will occasionally “try” to take some good ones.  To me, it comes down to a law of averages and the rule of 10,000 hours.

On average, if I take 100 photos, 2-3 might be really, really good.  20-30 are average, and the rest should be deleted.  When I watch my friends who are pros, their statistics are much, much higher.  Out of a hundred, only a few are deleted… lol.

The “rule of 10,000 hours” basically says that if you spend 10,000 on anything…. you’ll become an expert.  Well, I don’t have 10,000 hours to invest in learning to be a pro… especially when I have so many friends who can do it SO much better than I ever could.

Don’t forget about the ART that comes with photography.  Being able to see the final product in your mind while you’re framing up the shot is something I just don’t have either.

You WILL see me at weddings with my camera.  I’ll be taking pictures to [eventually] put on a blog.  I’ve taken pictures at weddings for years… and I just haven’t gotten into the sorting out the bad photos or the putting them on a blog… yet!

So, to be fun… here are the top 10 reasons I’ll never be a professional photographer.

10.  Um, it’s hard. I don’t tell my clients to hire an amateur who just got started, and I hope that my photographer friends aren’t telling their clients to go with the newest, cheapest, amateur DJ.

9.  While I have excellent photography equipment… it doesn’t mean I know how to use it. I’ve shoot on automatic.  Just say’in.

8.  Creativity…. I lack the “art”.  While I think I’m taking a cool photo, I can’t even begin to create what pro’s do.

7.  Training – The last lesson in photography I got was in High School… and it lasted for about 15 minutes.

6.  Investment. I’ve already got hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in entertainment and production equipment.  And while it would be fun to have lots of different lenses and other photo toys… I just can’t bring myself to do it! (plus my wife would kill me)

5. Time – I know my photography colleagues will spend 30-50+ man hours producing their amazing wedding albums.  That doesn’t even remotely sound like fun for me (see #4)

4.  I Probably Have ADD – Let’s just say I had 50 extra hours a week to produce wedding albums (I don’t)… I don’t think I could do it.  My personality lends itself to being creative and creating amazingly entertaining wedding receptions…. I could never sit in front of a computer that long during the week without going crazy.

3.  Photography can’t pack a dance floor – I love what I do.  There is no greater joy than to create a celebration that my clients and their friends and family will remember for the rest of their lives.  Photography documents those moments… but doesn’t create them.

2.  I don’t need another business. Seriously.  Everything we do (Entertainment, Lighting, Videography, and Photo Booths), we strive to be the absolute BEST at.  So, why would I start a business that (based on all of the above reasons), we would just be “Average” at?   NO ONE deserves average.

1.  Friends. I love my photographer friends… They’ve been good to me, my business and my family.  So there is no reason for me to compete with them for business.  (they’re starting to have as much competition as DJs… lol).

I wanted to give a list of photographers worth checking out…  And to order them, I’ll do my absolute best to order them based on how long I’ve known them… that is the ONLY order, and I’m probably going to get that wrong… lol.

You will see a LOT of different styles, personalities and prices.  I know I’m going to shoot myself in the foot and forget some names.
I would recommend checking out BNWeddings.com or BehindEveryBride.com for a more extensive list.

Bruer Photography – Washington

Mark Romine – Normal (Literally next door to our office)

Greg Linder – Normal (A tiger woods golf ball hit from our office)

Beyond The Well - Bloomington

Jeff and Julia Woods – Washington

Imaginate Photography – Normal

Howards End – Bloomington

Images By Whitney – Normal

Megan Renae Photography – Normal

Seth Morris Photography – Peoria

Deidre Lynn Photography – Peoria

However, a lot of friends also say that they want it to be “fun…. but elegant”.   Keep in mind that they’re saying this in our first meeting, before they’ve decided to hire us, and certainly don’t know anything about us other than what they’ve heard from others via referrals.

So, when someone says “fun….. BUT elegant”… we understand that if you just tell some “crazy weekend warrior wedding DJ” to be “fun”, who knows what you’re going to get!

Most people have seen a corny Disc Jockey (LOTS more on that in future blogs)… very few have seen wedding DJs (or in our case Master’s of Ceremonies) that can be fun, polite, well behaved (and groomed) and appropriate.  So most brides and grooms are hesitant to hand over the power to some nutty “wedding dj” on the off chance that they’ll ruin their wedding.!

If you look at your entire wedding reception (in Bloomington, Normal and Peoria IL areas we have 6-7 hour wedding receptions)… what portion do you only want to be fun?  [Careful, it's a trick question!]

Most people say that they want the dancing portion of the evening to be fun.  If a typical dance is 2-3 hours, what was the first 3-4 hours of your wedding reception like?  If it’s not fun, then what is it?  What’s the opposite of fun?  Boring?  Slow?  Not exciting or interactive in any way?

So then the question has to be asked… when is the last time that you went to a wedding reception where the cocktail hour wasn’t fun, the dinner wasn’t fun, desert wasn’t fun….  What are the chances of the dance somehow being magically fun?  If you’re bored during cocktail hour, bored during dinner, bored during desert, why would people expect anything else but to be bored during the dance?

Think about the last few weddings you’ve been to.  Did it take forever for people to come up and start dancing?  Did the dance floor not “pick up” until almost towards the end of the night?

An atmosphere of “fun” doesn’t magically happen.  It takes a professional with incredible talent who has the same desires and goals as you do to make sure people have fun throughout the evening, not just during the dance.

We encourage clients to forget the “but” in the “fun BUT elegant” sentence…. and replace it with “and”.   We believe that a wedding reception can be fun AND elegant at the same time.

The next step is making sure that you and whoever you hire for your wedding reception entertainment has the same definition of “fun”, as well as “corny”.  Lol!

We suggest you take a look at The Best Wedding Reception Ever by Peter Merry. It’s the only book on the shelve that gives solid ideas for having FUN at wedding receptions.  (You’ll even see that our company has a few contributions to the book!)

We’ll typically sit down for 1-2 hours to go over every aspect of the wedding reception and how we can help make it go more smoothly.

An obvious question that we ask in our meeting is “who will be giving the toasts [if there are toasts]?”  Usually it’s just the best man, maid of honor and potentially a parent of the bride (as the host of the evening). (We don’t recommend having more than 2-3 as the average toast is around 5-6 minutes)

The next question that I ask is much more important.  Does the [best man, maid of honor, etc] KNOW they’re giving a toast?  One of the key words things that we’ll tell our friends is that they should talk to their attendants giving toasts and ask them to PREPARE a toast.

It seems like such a simple concept, but I’ve seen a handful of times where the bride and groom didn’t tell their friends that they were expected to give a toast.  Imagine how good a toast is when the DJ hands over the microphone and the best man is completely unprepared or didn’t even know they were giving a speech?

Not everyone is comfortable with a microphone.  Not everyone is comfortable standing in front of strangers hearing their voice amplified.  In fact, for some people, giving a toast might be enough for them to turn down the role of best man or maid of honor.

A talented Master of Ceremonies will spend a few minutes with each of the people giving toasts; let them know how to hold the microphone and playfully remind them to actually offer a “toast” at the end!

When a great toast ends… no one thinks “hey the DJ is really great!  I bet he showed the Best Man how to hold the microphone properly so that everyone could hear the toast!”  This is just one of hundreds of things we’re doing behind the scenes to make sure your wedding runs smoothly! Smooth receptions where everyone has a great time don’t just magically happen… they’re created by a professional Master of Ceremonies.

Here’s an example of a best man who was both nervous, but obviously unprepared:

In order to provide an excellent service, we need to get to know our clients very well.  We want to know where you work, what you do, what’s important to you, what you do for fun, etc.  If we know you, then we can create something that is truly YOU.

Therefore, we’ve stopped saying the word “clients”.  Instead, we say “friends”.  From the first call, to your wedding day and beyond, we want to build a relationship with you that will last a lifetime.  We want you to be friends with us on Facebook and Twitter! We want you to swing by our office when you’re in the neighborhood…  Say hi when you see us out!

Being a good friend isn’t easy, but nothing that we do is.  It’s easy to just answer the phone, send a contract and show up the day of your wedding.  It’s takes much more effort to build a relationship of trust.

Here is a great list of “How to be a good friend”.  Some of the things they recommend is: Be honest, be loyal, be respectful, give advice (when asked) and never make a promise you can’t keep.   When looking for a Master of Ceremonies for your wedding day, wouldn’t you want someone who has the attributes on this list?  We also promise never to do number #18 LOL!

Call or e-mail us today to make a new friend!  (and we don’t mind if you stalk us on Facebook or Twitter!)

One of the things that she brought up was that she didn’t like “corny” songs being played at her wedding reception.  Whenever someone says that to me, I usually ask them to go into more detail on what they consider “corny”…. remember, no two brides are alike, so while one might love Michael Jackson, the other might hate all of his music and consider it “corny”.

Too often DJs just immediately interrupt their clients and say “Well, I don’t play corny music, so don’t worry!”.  But, again, with my Michael Jackson analogy, if that DJ showed up at your wedding and you hated MJ… and the DJ played it, you’d be upset.

So the goal is to be on the same page (you’ll see that almost all of my posts refer to being on the same page as your entertainment!).  You should both AGREE on what is considered corny, cheesy, distasteful, and downright inappropriate for wedding receptions.

Every one of our friends has the opportunity to create their own Playlist, which includes a “absolutely play, play if possible and do not play list” (more on that in a future blog).  I thought it might be beneficial to potential clients to know what is on OUR “Do Not Play” list.

HUGE DISCLAIMER! The idea behind this list is that we are listing the songs that we don’t typically play.  That doesn’t mean you can’t have them at your wedding reception!!  What it means is, unless you (and only you… not the best man, not your uncle, YOU.) specifically tell us to play these songs, you won’t hear them!  Below are both the reasons that we won’t play them, but more importantly to show our flexibility… we’ve added some reasons why we have played them in the past.

Here are three songs that we consider “corny”.

"If you love the Chicken Dance, we Love the Chicken Dance... if you HATE the Chicken Dance, we HATE the Chicken Dance!"

The Chicken Dance

The Hokey Pokey

The Macarana

Why they’re on our Do Not Playlist:
Ten years ago, we would play these at almost every wedding we did.  So, most of our friends don’t want to hear them because they were played SO much way back then.  Most brides and Grooms also don’t like the idea of standing in a big circle looking at all of their friends and family making chicken motions, etc.

Why they might be on your playlist:
We do still occasionally play a couple of these songs (honestly I can’t remember the last time we played the macarena.  It has to have been at least 7-8 years ago).  But for the most part, it’s requested by friends who have lots of children coming to their wedding.  We played the Chicken Dance in October for a Bride in Peoria, IL who had been hearing from the flower girl for 6 months leading up to the wedding that all she wanted was to do Chicken Dance at the Bride’s wedding.   When we did it, the flower girl was elated, and more than 60% of the guests had joined in to see the smile on her face.

Here are some songs that we think might have been popular at one time, but for the most part, we try to stay away from:

Paradise by the dashboard light (This song seems like it’s 25 minutes long!)

White Wedding (This song only reached #36 on the billboard charts, and it came out in 1982)

Starway to Heaven (Once in a great while, I’ll get a guy who has been holding up the bar all night come over and ask for some Zepplin. If paradise by the dashboard light is 25 minutes, Stairway feels like it’s 2 hours!)

We also try to stay away from songs that involve Divorce, Breaking up, and Ex-Wifes! LOL! (These are just for fun)

George Straight – All my exs live in Texas

R.E.M. – Its the end of the world as we know it

Queen – Another One Bites the Dust

Paul Simon – 50 Ways to leave your lovers

Love Stinks – J. Geils Band

Separate Ways – Journey

IN GENERAL: There are some GREAT songs out there, but some are much better listened to on your ipod, or on your drive to work.  Those songs don’t always translate to a dance floor! (I’ve got a great blog coming up about how to pick music for your wedding reception that is basically a “part 2″ of this post)

So, what do you think is CHEESY, CORNY, or just downright not appropriate for a wedding?

-Ben Miller
Owner

I wish I could have sat down with Jill and Kevin both before and after their wedding day!  Typically when I meet with Brides and Grooms I’ll ask them what they’re looking for, but more importantly what do they (and their guests) want to experience?

If we asked Jill and Kevin that exact question before their wedding, they probably would have said that they wanted “laughter”, “fun”, and LOTS of memories.

Remember… the video above happened in the CEREMONY!  Imagine how much fun their guests had at the reception!  (More about creating an atmosphere of entertainment and celebration in a future blog post)

When I sit down with my clients, we spend a lot of time trying to come up with moments that their friends and family will remember forever.  So, what can we do to make receptions more memorable?  How can we be creative?  Most importantly, how can we get their friends and family leaving your reception saying “I’ve never seen that before at a wedding!”.

The key is to be different.  Unique.  One of a kind.  I’m sure lots of couples have done something fun like Jill and Kevin did at their ceremony… but that doesn’t mean that everyone has.  In fact, a big reason this video is so popular online is that so many people have never seen ANYTHING like this before.

I love to brainstorm with my clients to find out what makes THEM unique!

Have you ever been to a wedding reception where the DJ did something goofy, corny or worse…. CHEESY?  I hear horror stories from clients all the time about weddings they’ve been to where the DJ did something that just downright embarrassed the Bride, Groom and their families.  I have lots and lots of idea of things that we can do to make their wedding reception different, but suggesting (or forcing) something that doesn’t fit their style or personality will come across as being something that isn’t unique, and looks more like the DJ just tried to push something they thought was clever.

Two things to remember… 1)  Be creative!  Do the unexpected and WOW your friends.  2)  Know your entertainment.  Know them so well that you’re positive they won’t do anything that will embarrass you, or do something that your friends will just consider cheesy and boring.

Ben Miller, Wedding Entertainment Director™, is a contributor to the book, so watch for when Ben puts Peter on the spot about who his favorite contributor is throughout his book!

Link to YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_abnictdqc

“The Best Wedding Reception Ever” Is available EVERYWHERE on October 12th, 2010!

Chris and Kelly Cutting their Cake - October 3rd, 2009

In just a few weeks one of my best friends Chris will be celebrating his one year anniversary with his wife Kelly. Not too often do I get to be on the other side of the head table, just enjoying a wedding reception like any other guest.

Chris has been one of my friend and DJs for over 15 years. In high school we played in a band together. (He’s a drummer, I pretended to know how to play guitar)

Chris has a very wide appreciation for music, and I love how incredibly clever he is.

When it came time for Chris and Kelly to cut the cake at their reception, I expected the DJ to play something out of the normal “DJ Toolbox”; Sugar Sugar, How Sweet it is [to be loved by you], etc.

However, Chris had picked out an incredible song for the cake cutting. A song that music connoisseurs would immediately appreciate: Cake [The band]‘s song “I want to love you madly”.

It’s a GREAT song.  Here are just a few of the lyrics:

Click here to listen to this song

I don’t want to think about it
I don’t want to talk about it
When I kiss your lips
I want to sink down to the bottom
Of the sea

I want to love you madly
I want to love you now, yeah
I want to love you madly, ouais
I want to love you, love you
Love you madly

I don’t want to hold back
I don’t want to slip down
I don’t want to think back to the one thing that I know I
Should have done

I don’t want to doubt you
Know everything about you
I don’t want to sit across the table from you
Wishing I could run

Thank you Chris and Kelly for another great idea!