What is 500 feet long, will steal your heart and make you jump for joy? The answer? No. It’s not the Ben Franklin Bridge. It’s Race Street Pier! Ok. The Pier itself is not 500 feet, but find out what’s on it that is!
When couples ask us, “What makes you different than other companies?” I LOVE to answer this question. Why? I have numerous examples of why we’ve been in business for over 15 years. A perfect scenario of our dedication to our clients happened yesterday.
Saturday, Nathan Barta and I hosted Andrew and Julie’s Wedding on Race Street Pier in Philadelphia, PA. Two weeks prior to the wedding, I met with Julie and Andrew to test out the electricity at the end of the pier where the ceremony was to be held. Everything was working fine. Nathan and I arrived at 2pm to start setting up for the big event. Nathan even commented to me, “Aren’t we here a little earlier than usual? We don’t start playing until 4pm?” (Normally we arrive to weddings about an hour and half early). I said, “I know Nathan. This location is just a little bit different than usual, so better to be earlier just in case.” Well, I should’ve said, “Just in case we need 500 feet of extension cord at the last minute!” Why? As Nathan and I were about to complete a sound check, we realized there was no electricity coming to the end of the pier! Nathan did discover the electricity was working at the end of the street. However, the amount of extension cords we would need to reach from the end of the pier to Columbus Blvd was 500 ft!!! (We had brought over 100 feet of extension cords with us. Much more than normally needed, or expected).
At that point, could we have thrown our hands up in the air and said, “Oh, well. Not our fault. Not our problem. There’s nothing we can do”? Sure, we could’ve. However, that’s not how we exceed our clients expectations! We’ve also been in the business long enough to know these things just happen.
Needless to say, with the help of the BEST MEN, Steve and Matt, we were all running to the nearest hotels, calling for help on the phone and running up and down the pier trying to do whatever we could to get electricity flowing, so we had ceremony music and microphones for Andrew and Julie’s big day! So, what happened? Believe it or not, we started the ceremony only 3 short minutes later than schedule! It took almost 45 long minutes, but with the help of the staff members of the pier, the Holiday Inn across the street and Power Plant Productions, we were able to get the job done! The ceremony was BEAUTIFUL. It was a gorgeous day to be married on Race Street Pier. After the ceremony, we wrapped it all up, then headed to Power Plant Productions to SHAKE IT OFF!
If you are a beginner DJ, one the best rules to follow is to always arrive EARLY to your events. You just never know what can happen. You need to give yourself plenty of time to troubleshoot should an uncontrollable situation arise! Accidents happen. Things go wrong.
Congratulations to an AWESOME couple, Andrew & Julie. And SPECIAL thanks to Nathan Barta for running almost 500 miles (LOL) for 500 feet of extension cord! One of the best men even commented to him later, “Oh, I didn’t know you were the other DJ! I though you were just some nice guy running up and down the pier to help us.” Nathan replied, “I am a nice guy. This just also happens to be part of my job.” Thanks Nathan! – DeeJay Shelly.
Are you getting married on Race Street Pier? We’re the perfect DJ’s for you! Contact us today. We want to be at your wedding!
(Photo by DeeJay Shelly – oh yeah we take great pics too!)