While I give Choice Entertainment high praise for their management of their DJ's, I have to share…read morethis review w/ the particular DJ my daughter & son-in-law chose for their wedding at the "Meet the DJ" event in Richmond. They selected Rick Pfamatter. I have to say, he was LESS than easy to work with. My daughter was so distraught because he was trying to get her to change the reception and cocktail hour time the month before the wedding. She had a 2pm wedding at St. Bridget Catholic Church in Richmond and then we were having a cocktail hour and reception starting at 6pm at The Wyndham Virginia Crossings. He insisted (REPEATEDLY) that she change the cocktail hour to 4pm because he said the wait in between would be "awkward". She explained that this was NOT possible and the guests were fully aware of their options. Many of our guests were coming from out of state and were actually staying at the Wyndham. Plus we had made it clear to our guests that there were options on the property to keep themselves occupied before the reception. This was not good enough for Rick. 4 weeks before the wedding, my daughter called me crying and asked me to "handle" him. I did and I am a Type-A person - EXTREMELY organized and detail oriented. I had to explain to him a minimum of 4 times that we were NOT changing the reception time or the cocktail hour. In the end, the reason he wanted to start earlier was because he thought the guests would see him preparing and he didn't want them to think he was unprepared! WHAT???!!
I got a template from Rick that was completely disorganized with a timeline and "suggestions" from him on how to proceed with the reception. I thanked him for the suggestions and organized the entire event making a very detailed playlist (linked to YouTube so there would be no question as to the version of the tunes we wanted), and even a script for him to follow as I had a feeling he would go rogue on me the night of the wedding.
We had a list for the cocktail hour, the reception hour, and the special dances, plus an entire playlist for the reception picked by my daughter, her fiance and our family. A trained monkey could have followed that script! For example, Rick had suggested that the bridal party be introduced and make a semi-circle on the dance floor so that when the bride and groom entered, they would dance in the middle. Well, THAT was ridiculous! How on earth are the guests supposed to see the first dance? I changed the "script" and specifically told him WHY we made the change. Wouldn't you know that when it came time to announce the parents and the bridal party he gave instructions to the brridal party to form a semi-circle! I nearly flipped! This was how we were going to start the evening? A battle of wills??? I stepped in front and told him and the group in no uncertain terms that the bridal party was going to proceed in front of the head table so they could watch the first dance and so the guests could all see them, as well. Apparently, everyone understood that made sense - EXCEPT Rick!
I gave him over 60 minutes of classic romantic ballads to play throughout the dinner service and by the end of the my meal (and I was done quite early), he was playing upbeat tunes that were NOT on our list. I approached him and asked why he was not playing the playlist and he said "Oh, we finished through all of those! I wanted to pick the pace up a little." Again, people are enjoying a lovely meal and relaxing. I didn't want anyone to feel rushed! His choice of music was exactly what I did NOT want!
Then when the special dances started, he did choose the selections we chose but decided to cut the dances short (for whatever reason) and cut my husband's dance with his daughter and my daughter's dance with her grandfather. I let that go. Perhaps he was short on time? Whatever....but by the time the reception started, he went completely off. I will give him credit for playing some of the highlighted songs we wanted but otherwise, he did his own thing playing a lot of remix CRAP and none of the 90's songs my daughter wanted played. Between the disco lights and him turning on the house lights in the middle of the reception by mistake, I was NOT impressed with his performance.
When someone hands you a list of music, PLAY IT! He wanted to play games and have contests and make special announcements (repeatedly) but I told him I wanted none of that. As it turned out, he made way too many announcements during dinner and it was becoming annoying. No one needs to be told that the bride is going to dance with her father 30 minutes before she does it! I sincerely think he just wanted to hear himself talk and it was annoying - to everyone!
In the end, we had a great time because we were a great crowd and were not going to let his music selections slow us down. But as far as following instructions, if you are a Type-A person who knows what you want, do NOT get Rick Pfamatter!