Aug 25

Written by: Bill McElree
Wednesday, August 25, 2010 10:01:15 PM 

It’s always good to have a reason.  A raison d’être.  It took me years to discover mine.  Weddings.   A two year broadcasting diploma, 15 years as a broadcaster and five years of computer science didn’t compare to the joy I felt in giving a couple a day they never thought possible.  There is something about two people committing their lives to each other that is both profound and unlike anything else we do in our lives.  Weddings are a solemnization of that commitment and the reception is the celebration.  It is for that reason that I love performing ceremonies and acting as wedding director/entertainer at receptions.

I started out twenty years ago also enamoured with the toys.  The louder the better!  Back in the day it was all about hauling enough records, huge speakers and laying wires out everywhere.  You were lucky to get lights because most of us couldn’t fit them in our cars as we traipsed from party to party.  DJ lighting (otherwise known as spin and pukes) was great at bringing that disco bar feeling to a wedding…if you wanted that sort of thing.  Records, reel to reels, cassettes, DAT, CDs and now MP3s.    It mirrored the changes that were going on in my real job as a radio broadcaster.  The toys were changing but the reason for weddings stayed the same.

About 1995, I discovered Mobile DJ conventions and a whole industry that had passed by Sudbury, and most of Canada for that matter.  Discovering thousands of men and women that thought their job was more than cool toys and a cheap bar tab wasn’t really a revelation for me but gave me a whole new avenue in which to learn new ways to enjoy a job I already loved.  We shared horror stories in the hallways and learned new ways to handle train wrecks we saw unfolding as we sat behind our booths.  It was the beginning of a journey that saw me accepting more responsibility for the success of the party and ultimately the day.

Since then, I have travelled thousands of miles to take seminars and courses to be more proficient in my chosen craft, attended classes at the Wedding Planner’s Institute of Canada (WPIC) to receive my Wedding Planner Certification, and taken two years to become a Humanist Wedding Officiant - all because the wedding day matters.  And it’s simply the best job I have ever had.