The Santaluz Club Wedding: Matt and Meghan

I’m happy to be sharing with you the wedding of Matt and Meghan at The Santaluz Club in San Diego. Matt and Meghan are actually personal friends of mine. I met Matt through his brother Jon, whose wedding I also DJ’d and I have featured on this blog as well (Jon and Cristy). Through mutual friends over the years Matt and I have seen each other on a fairly regular basis and were able to reconnect while Matt and Meghan were planning their wedding. Starting at Jon and Cristy’s wedding Matt, Meghan and I started brainstorming ideas for their dream wedding from everything from music, to some popular venues etc.

Our initial consultation was pretty straightforward. We met at a Panera late on evening and talked about everything from music, itinerary, special events and everything else. From the beginning, one thing I really enjoyed about working with Matt and Meghan was their passion. You were able to see this passion throughout every aspect of their wedding day and I thought that was really neat. Matt was much more involved, particularly on the music portion, than most Groom’s I’ve worked with in the past. He is a guy that really knows what he wants and he isn’t afraid to work hard to make it happen. This, believe it or not, is great for me as a customer service based DJ as it really takes the guess work out of my job and I am able to know without a doubt that what I am doing is what my client wants!

While I always had a strong musical connection with Matt’s brother Jon, I never really knew that Matt also had a strong passion for music until we started working on their wedding together. Matt had a lot of specific criteria, as did Meghan for what they wanted to hear and when. Something else that was unique for me at Matt and Meghans wedding was the live music aspect. Jon (Matt’s brother) and Cristy’s wedding was one of the first weddings I have mixed my passion for singing and playing guitar with my career as a wedding DJ. Jon used to help manage/book a band I was in, in my early 20’s and Matt was often at shows himself keeping up with our progress as a band, so it seemed only natural for Matt and Meghan to ask me to play some live music as well. Matt and Meghan loved the concept of live music in addition to DJ’ing at their wedding so much, that they actually had my trio (Mandolin, guitar and upright bass) come in and play for most of dinner hour. Towards the end of dinner hour, a couple of Matt’s students (he is a high school teacher) did a performance as we transitioned into toasts, events and dancing.

Something very cool about Matt and Meghan is their passion for marriage equality. Their wedding took place on the same day as “Pride” San Diego, and many people from the wedding party actually went on a “run with the groom” with these shirts on. Of course those who were not running, were also wearing the shirts while they were getting ready. Very cool!

This is myself and my band playing during dinner hour. We played everything from love songs, an original song, and some Django Reinhardt (Gypsy Jazz) songs. We also played a couple of bluegrass standards. Again, I have yet to incorporate this as an official side of my business and have only been doing this for my friends and family. Maybe this will change in time, who knows? While I NEVER wear jeans to an event, I had a bit of a wardrobe problem this day and I had to. I learned a valuable lesson and that is: always bring a backup pair of slacks to you events! Hah!

After dinner hour and after myself and my trio played some live music, Matt’s Students took over and played a couple of songs for their awesome teacher.

Matt and Meghan having their first dance. The outdoor patio was nice and dark and intimate immediately following the dinner hour.

And then of course, it was time to ask all of the guests to join the newlyweds on the dance floor!

At least from this photo, it looks as though Meghan won this fight. What do you think? Pretty sure I would give this one to Meghan 🙂

And then of course, everyone started getting down. Matt had a lot of awesome old school hip-hop and some flavorful top 40 planned for me to spin on the turntables and get everyone on the dance floor!

I am pretty sure Matt was digging the music. At least, this is evidence that Matt was definitely digging it! I love it when someone passionate about their playlist shows it on the dance floor.

And then we started winding things down before the send off with the bride & groom after lots of fun and open dancing.

And then the last dance with the bride & groom before the send off. They did an awesome job planning their wedding and I think they were truly relaxed and enjoying this moment.

I really enjoyed working with Matt and Meghan and I was so happy that everything seemed to go perfectly smooth on their day that was so very important to them. Such a passionate and enthusiastic couple which to me, are the best ones to work with. Matt and I had a blast getting together for breakfast and hanging out talking shop with music, and masterminding the open dance floor set. Such great people, great music, a beautiful wedding and absolute flawless weather. This wedding really shows why San Diego is one of the best places in the nation!