Interview With: Gavin Thorogood
Company Name: 1Entertainments
Location / Coverage: Bedfordshire with UK wide coverage
Who are 1Entertainments?
1Entertainments is a professional wedding DJ hire company. Although I have many years of experience DJ’ing at various types of functions, and night clubs, I have decided to focus on the wedding market.
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How did 1Entertainments start about and how long has the business been going?
1Entertainments is only about a year old as a company. I started DJ’ing when I was 17, that is 16 years ago, but I have always worked for other agencies. About 5 years ago I decided to start my own business, but while working for other companies I never had the time to progress forward.
Last year I decided to just work for myself and offer my services to clients directly. The problem with a lot of agencies is the client does not really get much choice in what they get from the wedding entertainment. I want 1Entertainments to offer brides and grooms the best service and help make their wedding day extra special.
What wedding services do you provide?
We can offer pretty much anything entertainment related a couple getting married could want. This includes:
- Mobile Discos
- LED Up-Lighting / Mood Lighting
- Starlit Dance Floors
- Speaker Hire for the Wedding Ceremony
- Microphones for Speeches
- Starcloth
- Wedding Backdrops
- Bands
- Photo Booths
As a wedding DJ, how do you create your playlist?
When someone books me for their wedding they automatically get a login to my online music planning system. Once logged in they can create a music list of all their favourite tracks into ‘must play’ and ‘would like’ lists. This automatically gets emailed to me a few days before the wedding date and ensures I have all the music they could want. This section also allows them to create a ‘do not play’ list.
On the night I fit the music requests around the songs my 16 years of experience have taught me work well. As a wedding DJ you cannot have a set playlist that works at all weddings. Each wedding is unique, and the mixture of ages, sex and where people are from can change which music genre will work. This is why I carry a large selection of music from pretty much all genres and decades.
Do you encourage wedding guests to get involved in selecting songs?
Each couple get a personal section of my website to create their perfect wedding play list, and they can also have a guest login account to send to their wedding guests. This allows each guest to login and request up to 6 songs each. The bride and groom however can view this request list and remove any songs they would rather I didn’t play.
On the night I am very happy to take requests from guests and fit these in when I can.
What would you say makes a great wedding playlist?
My suggestion to couples is make sure you have a good mix of music, and don’t ask your DJ for too many tracks. On an average night your DJ will play about 16-18 songs per hour, so a request list of about 40 songs is plenty. This can also work as a guide to allow your DJ to see the type of music you like and program music that will go with your requests.
What sets 1Entertainments apart from other wedding DJs?
I would say our personal service. A lot of people do not realise that the wedding disco is the biggest section of the wedding day. Normally the disco will be the last 5 hours of the wedding and can be the one thing that your wedding guests will go away remembering.
I believe that each wedding is unique and we have to offer a service to fit in with that. This is why we offer to meet each couple at the venue to discuss what will work and will match the theme of the venue and the wedding.
Extra services like LED Mood Lighting can add an extra special feel, and can be matched to the colour theme the couple pick.
Another part of the wedding day that can be overlooked is the wedding ceremony. Normally the hotel will have a portable hi-fi playing the CD the bride and groom supply. This will mean your songs are chopped off abruptly once the bride reaches the groom. We can supply a professional, but small, sound system for this and will operate it ourselves. This means the wedding march will not suddenly stop but will gently fade out.
Extra services like this make me believe we offer more than just a “normal” DJ or disco you would get with your wedding package at a hotel.
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That is a hard question as I like so many. I can tell you I do not like pineapple on my pizza. I would say to go with a Ham, Chicken, Green Pepper and extra Cheese. I do like an egg with Rocket on my pizza as well.
What are your top tips for couples looking for a wedding DJ?
Make sure you get to meet your DJ and get their name. A lot of venues these days use companies to supply the DJ with the wedding package. Having worked this way in the past I know some companies pick a DJ one or two days before your wedding and may not care who they pick. I hate the thought that the biggest day of someone’s life can be treated with such disrespect.
Where can I find out more about 1Entertainments?
You can view our website at www.1entertainments.com or give me a call on 01234 356303; I am always happy to chat.
