

Do you want a packed dance floor??
Of course you do! People love a wedding, the romance, the food but most importantly, the party! Unfortunately, couples often make huge mistakes when it comes to hiring their entertainment. Here are three simple rules to remember when hiring your DJ:
1.) Make sure your DJ is experienced. With live events, things don't always go according to script. If something should go wrong, an experienced DJ will be able to make the appropriate adjustments, communicate with your other ve


She Married A Music Man
For as long as I can remember, music has made me happy. I remember fondly dancing to Steely Dan in the middle of our living room with my two brothers as a young kid. And no Bryant Christmas would be complete without the Alabama Christmas album on cassette. Constantly requiring us to flip the tape long after CD’s were invited! My love for music followed me to Virginia Tech. Some of my favorite memories from college are dance parties at Starkey’s and singing Pi Phi Queen as lou


DJ / CLIENT TRANSLATOR: “I LIKE EVERYTHING”
It’s the natural response from almost everyone questioned about their taste in music: “I like [some of] everything!” I get it; We all want to present ourselves as well-rounded, cultured people with open minds. After all, the alternative is to be thought of as one-dimensional and unrelatable. I say it too! And it’s not untrue. I have songs I like, or even love, in my collection from all major genres and subcategories of music. Truth is though, it’s much less rare that I bounc


It's OK to fail sometimes
When I started Music Makes You Happy in 2011, the original name was Music Makes You Happy DJ Services because that’s all we offered, DJ services. However, that quickly began to change and we started to add more services. Some have been really successful and taken off like our cool specialty lighting and our fun photo booths. Certain services fill a niche market and have started to find some real traction like our tailgate party services and our A/V rentals. Others, one in par


What kind of music do you listen to?
I’ve been playing music professionally for over 18 years. During that time, I have been exposed to a lot of different styles and genres of music. I have done Greek weddings, African weddings, Hispanic weddings, Caribbean weddings, Filipino weddings, Russian weddings and even an Indian wedding. Every culture has different traditions and different music and I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing each, first hand. Even music played at American weddings can differ based on where the


The Music Makes You Happy Experience (settle in, this is a long but important one)
With most of your other event vendors, you are going to receive something tangible for your investment. Your caterer is going to provide you food, your photographers will provide you with pictures, and your venue is allowing you to use their building or area. But with your DJ, you don’t get a tangible thing to hold on to. With your DJ, your experience is what you are paying for. We have all been to events where the experience was bad. Either the event started late, the food w


It's not only wedding season, it's running season too!
Before I start, a little background on how we got into race events. When I started Music Makes You Happy I hit the ground running (pun intended) and I was constantly looking for more events. Being that I didn’t have the safety net of a job to fall back on, the fire was lit under me to really push hard and look under every rock to see what I could find. Through a mutual friend, I was introduced to a group that just started gaining momentum producing race events on the peninsul


What’s Your Favorite Type of Event?
I get asked this question a lot and I’m never really sure how to answer. Weddings can be a lot of work and really stressful but they can also be a lot of fun. Corporate events and parties can be really entertaining but they also require the DJ to work really hard to find the music that everyone wants to hear. Race events are always outside and it’s nice to be outside using our large line array system. Races are also less structured as far as what needs to be played. This allo


Stepping outside your comfort zone
We’ve all heard that you need to step outside your comfort zone to achieve great things. Well, as much as I hate to say it, because I love my comfort zone, it’s true. As a business owner, I am presented with opportunities in which I could easily say no because they aren’t in the general scope of what we have always provided. These opportunities may be something that we’ve thought about providing. These opportunities may be closely aligned but slightly different than what we’v