Last Saturday, I had the honor of hosting the Kahala Mall Wedding Spectacular, providing DJ services, and serving as the “warmup act” for Sweetie Pacarro from KSSK Radio. We had a great time.
My dealings with the production actually started much earlier. Julie, the publisher from Hawaii Bride & Groom Magazine, asked me sometime in April if I wanted to participate, and of course I said yes! As we got closer to the date, my role evolved from simply having a booth to eventually helping the show producers create an entertaining and elaborate “stage show” that would keep the audience entertained for the duration of the event.
On Tuesday (May 5), I met Kelly & Jennifer from Kahala Mall to go over the presentation, and they gave me the main “bullet points” that I needed to cover. With that information, I “scripted” my part of the presentation, added musical cues to enhance the production, and prepared some wedding games to involve the audience in.
On the day of the event, I loaded in around 8am, quickly set up the sound equipment, ran through a soundcheck, got dressed in my tux, and mentally went over the production. At 10:00am, I started playing music from Mamma Mia, the hit Broadway musical and one of the sponsors to the event.
Around 10:30am, the party started! After welcoming the audience, I explained the first game we would play throughout the day: The Cell Phone Game. After getting my cell phone number, audience members would call in with correct answers to trivia questions I would ask, and the first caller won raffle tickets for prizes later that day. The audience also played through a version of the Anniversary Game (with the winner ultimately announcing that she has been married 52 years) and Last Man Sitting (a garter giveaway game).
I also introduced Jayne & Kahele, Hawaii Bride & Groom’s Wedding of a Lifetime sweepstakes winner, to say a few words, as well as Matt & Cara, the stars of Oceanic Time Warner Cable’s hilarious digital TV commercials.
At 11:30am, with the audience sufficiently primed and ready to go, I turned the microphone over to Sweetie Pacarro from KSSK, who continued the fun by announcing the KSSK Prize Wheel and hosting a Mamma Mia dance contest. Contestants strutted their stuff and showed off their best dance moves to win tickets to Mamma Mia.
In the end, it was a lot of fun! I enjoyed it because I got to work with some wonderful professionals. And the audience had a great time with the games, dance contest, prize wheel, and more!