Rich Ellis
Abiqua Country Estate Wedding Silverton
Crystal and Nick’s Abiqua Country Estate wedding took place in Silverton, Oregon on Saturday, June 29, 2019.
Nestled in the foothills of the Willamette Valley, this rustic 100 acre venue offers several settings for the ceremony, including a gazaebo on a lake or a woodsy lush lawn with towering firs, of which this couple chose the latter on what turned out to be a comfortable Northwest summer day.
Abiqua Country Estate Wedding Ceremony Highlights:
- Wedding Party Entrance: Beach Boys – God Only Knows (Instrumental Version)
- Bride Entrance: Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ (String Quartet Version)
- Bride/Groom Exit: Beatles – All You Need Is Love (String Quartet Version)
After moving my sound system from the other side of the property where the ceremony was held to the main reception area, I resumed the background music as guests spent the next couple hours relaxing and enjoying conversation with family and friends while the newlyweds had professional photos taken. Background music featured a variety of selections, including Motown and Country as requested by the bride.
Abiqua Country Estate Wedding Reception Highlights:
- Grand Entrance: Dell Vikings – Come Go With Me
- First Dance: Al Green – Let’s Stay Together
- Last Dance: Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now
There was still a lot of daylight when the dance floor opened to everyone just after 7pm. With around 50 guests in attendance, the stairs to the dance floor made it look like a stage, but most were not shy about getting up there for the first slow dance, then sticking around for the fun fast songs that followed, such as The Beatles “Twist & Shout” and Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl,” plus Crystal and Nick’s requests for other older classics like “Little Bitty Pretty One” from Thurston Harris, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” Michael Jackson and more.
A little later, some recent favorites lit up the evening, including “Old Town Road,” and “Ride Wit Me” along with some old school 90’s from Coolio “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Summertime” from DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.
Congratulations Crystal and Nick and thank you for choosing PRO DJs.
Post Event Satisfaction Survey:
“Rich did a great job providing sound for the ceremony and the music for the reception. We picked about 25 songs to give him an idea of the vibe we wanted to create for the dinner portion and then the party portion and he did great.” -Nick & Crystal Jacoby
- Event Date: Saturday, June 29, 2019
- Event Type: Wedding & Reception
- Event Location: Abiqua Estates
- Event Staff: Rich Ellis
- Quality of Customer Service via Telephone: Excellent
- Quality of Customer Service via Internet: Excellent
- Quality of Customer Service at Event: Excellent
- Friendliness of your Entertainer: Excellent
- Promptness of your Entertainer: Excellent
- Professionalism of your Entertainer: Excellent
- Entertainer’s Performance: Excellent
- Entertainer’s Appearance: Excellent
- System Appearance: Excellent
- Sound Quality: Excellent
- Overall Volume Levels: Excellent
- Music Selection: Excellent
- Incorporation of Your Requests: Excellent
- Lighting Effects: N/A
- Equipment Appearance: Excellent
- Overall Customer Service: Excellent
- Planning Assistance: Excellent
- Entertainer’s Cooperation with Other Vendors: Excellent
- Overall Performance Rating: Excellent
- Would you recommend this service to others? Yes
Pacific Pediatrics Health Fair Woodburn
The calm before the storm. We got a good 90 minutes of dry weather at the Pacific Pediatrics Health Fair before the skies opened and thunder and lightning shut us down early on Thursday, June 27, 2019. Until then it was a fun time announcing the prize winners while spinning American and Mexican hit songs. Glad everyone got out safe today.
Post Event Satisfaction Survey:
Submitted By: Jessica Johnson, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic
- Event Date: Thursday, June 27, 2019
- Event Type: Family Health Fair
- Event Location: Pacific Pediatrics, Woodburn, Oregon
- Event Staff: Rich Ellis
- Quality of Customer Service via Telephone: Excellent
- Quality of Customer Service via Internet: Excellent
- Quality of Customer Service at Event: Excellent
- Friendliness of your Entertainer: Excellent
- Promptness of your Entertainer: Excellent
- Professionalism of your Entertainer: Excellent
- Entertainer’s Performance: Excellent
- Entertainer’s Appearance: Excellent
- System Appearance: Excellent
- Sound Quality: Excellent
- Overall Volume Levels: Excellent
- Music Selection: Excellent
- Incorporation of Your Requests: Excellent
- Lighting Effects: N/A
- Equipment Appearance: Excellent
- Overall Customer Service: Excellent
- Planning Assistance: Excellent
- Entertainer’s Cooperation with Other Vendors: Excellent
- Overall Performance Rating: Excellent
- Would you recommend this service to others? Yes
St. Helens Oregon Wedding And Reception
Meghan and Andrew’s St. Helens Oregon wedding ceremony was held at a private residence near the top of Columbia Heights on Saturday, June 22, 2019.
The gentleman who owns the property said you can normally see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams on a clear day. There was cloud cover for this one (photographers love that), but the temperature was perfect in the upper 60’s and no rain.
St. Helens Oregon Wedding Ceremony Highlights:
- Wedding Party Entrance: Matt Stell – Prayed For You
- Bride Entrance: Traditional Bridal Chorus (Classical)
- Unity Sand: Leona Lewis – Footsteps in the Sand
- Bride/Groom Exit: John Legend – Stay With You
Following the wedding ceremony, family photos were taken while guests relaxed with a cocktail on the lawn or on the deck. I played a mix of background music that included a variety of medium tempo hits, along with some Country favorites as requested by the bride.
Around 3:45, I faded the music and took down my sound system to get a head start on the guests for the reception scheduled to begin before 5pm at the Elks Lodge in St. Helens (about a 30 minute drive).
As guests arrived for the reception, similar background music from the cocktail hour continued before I softened up the selections for dinner after the newlyweds arrived. There was no grand entrance at this time. This was scheduled for later in the reception when the curtain was opened and the 75 guests were joined by everyone else in attendance at the lodge that night 🙂
St. Helens Oregon Wedding Reception Highlights:
- Grand March: LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
- Cake Cutting: James Taylor – How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
- First Dance: Russel Dickerson – Yours
- Bride and Father Dance: Brad Paisley – He Didn’t Have To Be
- Money Dance: Lil Nas X – Old Town Road, Garth Brooks – Friends and Low Places
- Bouquet Toss: Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
The opening slow dance from the Righteous Brothers got things going for everyone and with many older guests in attendance, selections from the Beatles, Van Morrison and a swing dance from Glenn Miller were well-received.
The rest of the night everyone enjoyed getting down to a variety of classics and recent hits, including ‘Uptown Funk,’ ‘Shout,’ ‘Cupid Shuffle,’ ‘Footloose’ and more.
By the time I spun the final slow song, the dance floor had been rockin’ a solid three hours.
Best wishes Meghan and Andrew!
Dance Where You Are At Oregon ZooBrew
PRO DJs spun the hits in Zone 1 at Oregon ZooBrew on Friday, June 7th and Saturday, June 8th, 2019.
DJ Rod Krause was there Friday night and had ’em dancing around 9:30 as the bands in the other zones wrapped their sets.
DJ Rich Ellis was there Saturday night to witness attendees dancing nearly everywhere… sometimes there’s no escaping a good beat.
It was a fun weekend with a great crowd. This, was the last song! Nobody wanted to leave 🙂
Memorial Day McMenamins Edgefield Wedding
Lisa and Jason’s Memorial Day McMenamins Edgefield wedding took place on Monday, May 27, 2019 in Troutdale, Oregon.
The ceremony and reception were held inside Blackberry Hall. Following the ceremony, guests had a chance to walk around the Edgefield property as the room was turned for the reception. This also allowed me time to set-up my sound system before returning with background music during dinner.
The newlyweds chose “Cross My Mind” by Arizona for their first dance. There were no other formal dances planned after, so I invited everyone out to the dance floor.
This was a great crowd and they were real excited to get going, turning out in large numbers for the opening slow dance, a request from the bride and groom for James Arthur’s “Say You Won’t Let Go.” and then packing the floor the rest of the night… moving and grooving to everything from The Beatles and Four Seasons to Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and more.
Lisa and Jason submitted a large number of out-of-the-mainstream song requests for their wedding reception… Most were selections from their Spotify playlists they enjoyed when travelling on road trips. Early on, Jason came up to me and said don’t worry about that list, just play what moves their guests 🙂 However, that list proved to work well with this group over the final hour or so. Songs such as “Summerthing” by Afrojack, “Inner Ninja” by Classified and “Fireproof” by Coleman Hell were well received by their friends.
Congratulations Lisa and Jason and thank you for choosing PRO DJs.
