Yet another Heritage Inn wedding reception...and another wonderful family gathering. For those of you in the planning stages of your own wedding reception, here's something very important to keep in mind: even though you get family and friends to RSVP a yes to coming to your event, you can almost guarantee that not everyone will actually show up. A good rule of thumb is to expect roughly 20% of those who commit to not be there. Sometimes it can be even higher.

This weekend's show was very successful, and I kept the crowd there until the Heritage Inn's closing time of midnight. I ran the music for the ceremony at the Foothills Community Christian School (the old St. Gerard's) and somehow made it to the reception afterwards before any of the guests arrived. The reception was very smooth, and everyone had a great time. After nine hours of music, I was pretty exhausted, but felt extremely good about how everything went. We even had a group of people that pulled some tables and chairs from the pool area to where they could listen to the music and were very appreciative to the Bride and Groom for allowing them to take part in at least listening to the entertainment. I made a new contact with a professional photographer from Lewistown who was part of that group, and hope to book some events in her area.

Here's to the start of another great wedding season in Montana!

Well, they got me to come back to work at Club Bighouse. I'll be performing most Fridays, MCing the comedy show and DJing on the club side. This last weekend, the comedians were hilarious. The headliner was Darryl Lennox, who is set to be featured on Comedy Central sometime in February on a Jamie Fox special. My first official weekend back started off pretty well over in the club, and it felt good to be back. I received a great welcome, and it will be nice to work on building Fridays back to where they should be. I'm taking this Friday off, but will be back on February 10th. The cash box has been doing well, with $1200 already given away. It's back up to $400 in cash right now, with 4 chances to win given away every Friday night. Be in by 9:00 for the comedy show, and receive 5 tickets, and by 10:30 for 1 ticket. This Friday night is their Bikini Bash 2006, and DJ Jade from Spokane will be in spinning vinyl.

Well, I'm back at the Halftime Sportsbar for New Year's Eve. It's been a few years since I've played there, but am really excited about being back. I ran the last couple of New Year's bashes for Club Bighouse, and it will be nice to play at a different venue, especially one that brings back such great memories. This year, the Halftime has plenty of things to add to the party. Free t-shirts and party favors will be given away during the night, champagne at midnight, $25 machine play prizes to be drawn throughout the evening, and $100 in cash to one lucky winner. And, of course, plenty of music to dance to with effects lighting, drinks, and good company.

I spent last Tuesday night at the Heritage Inn with the employees of N.E.W., roughly 650 of them. The Heritage did another wonderful job of setting up and running their end of the event. Feeding that many people must be a challenge, yet they pulled it off as usual, and the place was also decorated to perfection. I really enjoyed playing music for the crowd, and provided effects lighting to add even more energy to the room. We ran a dance contest, an awards presentation, and the night was filled with door prize giveaways. It was an extremely easy night for me as far as the music selection, as the crowd was extremely diverse. I delved into just about every genre of music, and the evening was very successful. I look forward to working with them again next year.

Christmas Season is definitely here. Snow in more abundance than we have seen in years, and of course, holiday parties galore. This weekend officially kicked them off for me, starting it all off at San Remo's. I was somewhat concerned at first, as I wasn't quite sure what to expect there, but was pleasantly surprised at just how much the place felt like Christmas with the way the back restaurant has been transformed into a small event location. It was decorated with just enough of the season to make people feel the holiday spirit. Cindy's Catering did a great job taking care of the food and the bar, and we ran a chinese gift exchange which went over quite well. All in all, a successful start to the holiday season. This coming Tuesday brings another Christmas Party on a much larger scale. I'll be playing music at the Heritage Inn for N.E.W. for somewhere between 800 and 1000 people, and I'm sure it will be quite an event.