A stock pile of pirate goodies

About a year ago, I wrote a blog about how I would plan a “pirate wedding.” The way I write my wedding theme blogs are I either go to a wedding that has an awesome theme and absolutely have to share what I saw, or I do a bunch of research up on an idea and write.

Pirate Theme Wedding Centerpiece

Before posting the finished draft of the blog, my fiancee read it and told me I shouldn’t put it out there for everyone to read.

“Why?” I asked. “Is it not realistic? Do you think nobody will want to do it?”

“No. No. Not at all,” she replied. “I don’t want anyone stealing it, because I want it for our wedding.”

A woman into the idea of a pirate theme?! This is why I am marrying her!

Anyhow, we have had an absolute blast planning for our own special day.

Here are some shots of the best man, or first mate, Marty Carbone and myself, sporting the costumes that didn’t quite make the cut:

First Mate Marty Carbone - Best Man

The DJ Kenny Casanova Pirate Wedding Extravaganza - one costume that didn't quite make the cut.

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INVITATIONS – Setting the mood immediately, when you send out your RSVP’s, do it 80′s style. A good way to get inspiration for this is to take a look at 80s pictures on a Google search and work with your invitation printer. Looking at images will give you a glance at the neons and pastels that were trademarks of this time frame. It will also bring some ideas into the mix. Any 80’s color schemes and images that you choose are fine are fine, but most important of all is to remember to tell everyone to dress 80s, and/or come dressed as their favorite 80′s star.

ENTRANCE – Rides with style were everything in the 1980′s. If you can find one, it may be a perfect blast from the past to use a DeLorean as your limo! (One complete with a flux-capacitor would be even more so ideal.) Also a customized A-team van, a Trans-Am or any iconic 80s ride would be unforgettable. Imagine how “def” a Knight Rider entrance! Word!

Clothing can make or break your 80s wedding theme. Opt to break, break-dance that is.

Encourage your guests to engage in the fun too. Have them dressing up in bleached and torn up jeans, neon legwarmers with excessive makeup, and sport some crazy 80’s teased up hair. For accessories, dig up some jelly bracelet’s, Swatch-watches, and Risky Business sunglasses.

Typically, some guests will not want to dress up, but will wish they did after they see all the fun the other guests are having, once they get there. For those who do not come prepared, make sure to have extra of jelly bracelets on the tables, and a stashed duffle bag full of ugly neon bright t-shirts, fishnet gloves and punky wigs.

The 80s was not only rock n roll. Hip hop became really popular in the 80s. The guys could dress up in the Adidas jumpsuits and big gold chains and sunglasses. Girls in the baggy overalls, big buckle belt and stupid fresh gold jewelry, you know, def dookie ropes.

TALK THE TALK – WORD LISTS - Why not put 1980′s dictionary sheets around the dinner tables? In the 80′s, “Valley Girl” speak totally took off in a big way, dude… ‘fer shurr.

DECORATIONS – Again, I cannot stress enough to you that looking at pictures is going to be one of the greatest ways to come up with ideas that you will want for your wedding reception. You may want to put pink and blue streamers all over the room. Or, perhaps, how about decorating with neons and pastels, like blue, yellow, pink, and green balloons?

If you are going to go 80’s, why not go all the way. Posters and pictures of Back To The Future, Silver Spoons, The A-Team, and The Ninja Turtles are a must, pinend up everywhere you can. (Make sure you check with theh all before pinning up anything. If they are against this, you can always use foam boards and make little displays.) How about tossing garbage pail kids collecting cards all over the tables? Old Teen Beat magazines, and pull-out magazine posters. Vintage 80′s clothes like a Michael Jackson glove or jackets, Cabbage Patch Kids , cardboard cutouts, and don’t forget movie posters like Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.

Another good idea is to incorporate music into your décor. That’s what it is all about, right? Look for 1980’s record singles, that’s right, 45′s from the eighties and hang them everywhere, from the light fixtures to the head table.

FAVORS - Another idea for the nostalgic romantics, why not make Custom Mix tapes? If cassette tapes feel too much of a waste of time to you, you can cheat. Burn a CD with top 80’s movies and tv show themes, as well as some of the number one hits of this era.

CENTERPIECES & TABLES – At a recent 80’s wedding I was the disc jockey for, they had decorated their tables with eighties albums and 45’s, including Like a Virgin, Pac Man Fever and Olivia Newton John’s “Physical.” As a centerpiece, a basket full of 80’s junk like magic eight balls, rubik’s cube, pop rocks, Star Wars and He-Man toys and what ever eBay can help you with. A basket full of 80’s retro junk is totally awesome.

But how can you give your centerpiece away? Well, how about a Rubik’s Cube Contest? (They now have pretty decent Rubik Cube knock-offs at the dollar store. Maybe these would make good party favor answers as well?) While the Rubik Challenge can be done several ways, probably the quickest payoff is to award the winner as being whoever can solve the most sides done within one song. The Rubik champion will then get the centerpiece.

ACTIVITY OPTIONS – While you can still have a blast with your traditional flower and garter toss festivities working in songs and styles of this theme, there are other 80s activities you can do as well. For one, 80s lip synch contests could be a great option. Since many people will be dressed up anyhow, you could put the spotlight on a few of your guests and hand them a microphone… if you dare!

Once the dancing begins, an impromptu “Breakdance Contest,” is also a must-have at an 80’s wedding.

Jeopardy Challenge – During the meal, Jeopardy questions could become a big party favorite. All you need are some standard 80s trivia questions, here and there, and the people will love it. (Make sure to ask your DJ if he can grow an Alex Trebek mustache to sport during the audio daily double.)

Wedding Song List

Pepsi Challenge Drinking Games - How about Pepsi Challenge. (Coke vs. Pepsi. Can you tell the difference blindfolded? Pour some rum in one of them and really get the party going.)

Video Game Challenges - A lot of people rent photo booths for weddings now. The photo booth has really turned into an up-coming fun past time at weddings. How about renting or even buy an authentic 1981 Pacman arcade game and setting that up in the corner?

ATARI! If you can’t afford a legit Arcade game, Atari Inc. recently released a new game system with the feel of the original Atari system. It is black and wood grain and also has the original joysticks. The new classic system easily plugs directly into the a/c jack of and runs on AA batteries… it gives the feel of the old joystick and the games are not updated at all

…imagine having a Space Invaders, Asteroids or Combat contest using the original joystick, on a big screen TV, or digitally projected on the wall.

MUSIC IDEAS - Thanks to the early music video-playing channel, MTV, a defined style came into existence. If you choose to go this theme, everyone will be able to join in on the fun. Yes, back then, MTV played Music videos.

A year or two back, I put up an awesome music list post to help you pump up the jam, appropriately. Here are a list of songs you may have heard and seen watching MTV back in the day. CLICK HERE TO OPEN LIST

A pirate wedding is just one of the many themes you can choose.

If you really think about it, the traditional wedding with tuxedos and the big white dress and the huge cake is a theme now, in itself. Everyone does the traditional wedding thing, or at least some elements of it. So, do you want to dare to be different? If you really want your special day to be different and memeorable, you have to take a risk and break the norm. There are many many ways to make your wedding stand out and be different from the rest. One sure way to do that is to add a fun theme to your special day.

Don’t get me wrong. You can keep traditions, but tradition doesn’t have to happen to the point of nausea, anymore. Keep the ceremony sacred, keep the white dress, and keep whatever you want from the traditional guidelines. But remember, guidelines are just that… GUIDELINES. When you add a theme to your wedding, the whole game changes.

Everyone loves a gimmick.

Adding a fun theme where people actually dress the role or can participate in some fun and different way, makes everyone feel connected. Everything is united under one common idea. This idea fosters creativity and participation at the sime time. People come together and want to help you plan and even decorate. And brides, I have even noticed that when an interesting theme has been added, creative grooms buy into the planning even more. (See my not-yet written future blog here: My Pirate Wedding)

Lately, I have found my niche. I have become one of the area’s number one choices for theme weddings when selecting a disc jockey. With my past experience in the entertainment field, as well as being a fiction writer, it only makes sense that my creative side does well with theme weddings as a DJ.

Here is a list of possible wedding themes that I have come across and been a part of:

Awesome 80′s / 1980s
African
Asian Fusion / Japanese & Chinese
Autumn
Beach
Butterfly
Caribbean
Country
Cinderella
Christmas
Daisey
Disney
Easter
Elvis
Ethnic
Fairy Tale
Fall
Fifties / 1950s
Garden

A Star Wars Wedding is just one of the many themes you could pick!

Gone With the Wind
Goth
Halloween
Hawaiian
Heavy Metal
Hippie / Grateful Dead / 1960s
Irish / Celtic
Italian
International (many nations represented, or specific regions)
Japanese
Jewish
Mardi Gras

Masquerade
Medieval / Renaissance
Military
Pirate
Rose
Royalty
Sci Fi / Outerspace
Star Wars
Star Trek
Superhero
Under the Sea / Ocean /nautical
Vegas / Rat Pack
Valentines / Hearts
Victorian
Western / Old West / Cowboy
Winter wonderland

A few wedding theme options on the above list are hyperlinks. For more wedding theme ideas, check out our other blogs at www.thedjservice.com/blog

(PHOTO CREDIT: Http://www.unrealitymag.com )

At This Willy Wonka Theme Birthday Party - Character Photo Opps Were Available!

First off, let me say my sister is nuts! So, when she recently called me and asked if I could draw an Oompa Loompa without a face on a foam board, it didn’t seem like an unusual request from her. I completed the task with ease. Little did I know that she was planning a ridiculously huge theme party for her two kids’ birthdays: WILLY WONKA STYLE!

Willy Wonka? You mean the creepy chocolate guy? That’s right, and it was a huge success!

Below is a valuable link to planning tips for her recent Wonka Birthday party that she threw for her kids – complete with invitations, Wonka Bars, the Contract, Games, Party Supplies, Coloring Pages, Cakes, Pictures, Music, Soundtracks, Golden Tickets, Lickable Wallpaper, Trivia, Wonka Decorations, Thank You Notes, Prizes, Pinatas, Wonka Candy of all kinds. You name it, and it is here!

Rather than to try and write up everything I saw, here is some of what my sister, Kathy Bechand, wrote up about it – with photos:

CLICK HERE TO GET INFO -> How to Throw the Ultimate Willy Wonka Birthday Party.

Pirate Wedding - DJ Kenny Casanova

Well blow me down! You are actually thinking of planning a wedding reception with a pirate theme? Arrrgghh! Well, after all, with the huge box-office smash Pirates of the Caribbean , the pirate-themed reception has sparked new interest, of late. And by pillaging and plundering around, it will be really easy to steal yourself some great tips for your party! Below I have categorized each  aspect of a wedding reception, through the eye patch of a pirate.

INVITATIONS - For wedding invitations, live the gimmick. Print them up on antique looking paper-stock, or age the paper yourself by staining with in coffee (How to Antique Paper). For the intro, start with an eye-catcher like ,”Ahoy! Come walk the plank” or, “Shake your Pirate booty!” Chart a course to your reception with location, time and date in the form of a treasure map. If you want to be REALLY creative and can afford a little extra postage, go to the dollar store and put the map-like invitation into bottles with corks and mail them out!

Any Pirate reception invitation will look more authentic when printed on tan paper at the edges, and maybe made wet with coffee or tea stains. This is normal. You can literally dip each invitation into tea or coffee water and then let it dry to make each invitation look antiquated with age. The older they look, the more convincing they are! You can also add some sand and little tiny decorative seashells or gold covered chocolate coins to each invitation.

COSTUMES - Guests in costumes… You gotta do it! Nuff said!

PLACE CARDS – On each of the place cards, you can opt to write each guest’s name by adding “Pirate” or “Buccaneer” before their name (for example: “Pirate Paul” or “Buccaneer Bob”). You can also make up Pirate-related sounding names like “Peg-Leg Pete”, “Captain Carrie,” “Long-Tooth Larry”, “Blind-Eye Barbie”, “Scarface Sammy”, “Dirty Dog Donny”, and so on and so forth.

GUEST BOOK – You can also have your whole guest population sign their good luck wishes in a book with a huge feather pen… Or how about on a real Pirate flag, posted to the wall. If it’s a typical Jolly Roger flag with the white skull and crossbones on a black flag, it’s best to use a white-out, fabric pen or one of those metallic silver pens for their writing. These can then be attached to feather sticks and left on the tables.

DECORATIONS - To decorate your hall, you know what to do, matey. Think about sailing the sea! You can use anything from sand and sea shells, to bowls of live gold fish. Also, remember to hang pirate flags and fishing nets all around the reception, for that extra finishing touch.

And for that eerie atmosphere, you can take out some of your Halloween decorations (cobwebs, spiders, skeletons, etc.). Here’s a great selection of skeletons. On a skeleton you can put an eye patch around it’s head, a bandana and/or hoop earring, color a few of the teeth with a gold marker, and hang Mardi Gras necklaces around it’s neck. 

Costumes are EVERYTHING!

GUEST TABLES

- It would also fun to disperse those gold foil-wrapped chocolate coins, plastic jewels, and a bit of sand and seashells onto your tables. You can also use fishing nets over any kind of tablecloth for your tables. Stick rubber fish, seahorses, plastic oyster shells, lobsters and crabs in the fish net.

PIRATE BOAT PICTURE BOOTH – Picture booths are HUGE at weddings now (awesome example). Now add pirate theme, and BANG! You have a Kodak moment in the making. Have each of your guests pose as a pirate at a ship wheel with some kind of mast or pirate flag in the background. (If Uncle Jerry didn’t come in costume, remember to have extra pirate hats or bandannas around.) Make sure to have each guest ham it up and say, “Aaaargh” while posing for the shot.

If you are creative, you can also make a whole Pirate ship out of cardboard. You’ll need a few refrigerator boxes. Use a hot glue gun and/or duct tape to attach everything together is probably your best bet. Paint it up nice.  It won’t take much, just decorate the Pirate ship with a Pirate flag, a mast, a plank (just a piece of long cardboard) and you should be good to go.

MUSIC - Music will really help the atmosphere and set the mood to your pirate wedding reception. You can either have the DJ mix in music from any kind of Pirate movie you can think of, or throw in an occasional Peter Pan, Captain Bogg & Salty, Toucan Pirates, or Jimmy Buffet. (Just make sure to only do it here and there between good songs, to add to the flavor.)

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES – should be lots of fun for everyone, if many guests arrive in costume. You can add pirates to any line dance with instant success. Also, you can try some kind of pirate Scavenger Hunt, or something to do with walking a plank, or picking something up with a hook set to music.

CANDY TABLE – BOOTY BAGS –You have seen the candy tables, right? When the reception is over, thank your guests for coming with booty bags filled with goofy prizes pirate booty such as toy compasses, foil-wrapped candy coins, or other treasures.

FOOD – Good seafood, of course, needs to be at least one of the choices! Ask your caterer on this one.

BEVERAGES – Pirates love their bottles of rum. It won’t be a pirate-theme without beverages inside real sweet treasure chests. If you’re not up to making your own treasure chest, there are a few really nice Treasure Chests can be found online. You can, however, easily make your own. Take a Styrofoam cooler and paint it brown. You can use gold ribbon to trim the lid and the base of the chest. Then take craft foam and glue panels on to the center of the lid in the front and the other directly below to make the lock. Around the treasure chests, throw around your gold chocolate coins, gummy fish, starburst candies (they look like little treasures), colored beaded necklaces and whatever cool treasures you can find. Then add the ultimate treasure, beverage bottles that only pirates would like. (Maybe Pete’s wicked Ale?)

PUNCH BOWL – Serve your sea faring guests grog or bumboo, made with Caribbean coconut rum for the adults and make soda based for the kids, from the bowls marked with or without an “XXX”.

PIRATE LANGUAGE LIST – You should name your tables as such and have pirate language printed out for people to get into the spirit. Here’s a list of pirate phrases:

Avast! (Hey!)
Aye (another way to say – “Yes!”)
Ahoy, me Hearties! (just like saying – Hello, my friends)
Blow me down! (expression of shock, disbelief, strong emotion, surprise)
Booty (treasure)
Buccaneer (a Pirate)
Dead men tell no tales (expression indicating to leave no survivors)
Fair winds! (goodbye, good luck!)Thar’ she blows! (whale sighting)
Grog (generally, any alcoholic drink Pirate’s drink)
Grub (food)
Heave Ho (give it some strength and muscle)
Jolly Roger (a Pirate’s flag – one with a white skull and crossbones over black)
Lookout (someone posted to keep watch on the horizon for signs of land or other ships)
Swab the deck (to clean the deck)
Shiver me timbers! (expression of shock, disbelief, strong emotion, surprise)
Sea-dog (an experienced sea-man)
Me (my)
Me Hearties (a typical way for a Pirate to address his crew)
Shark bait (foes)
Sail ho! (I see a ship!)
Shipshape (well organized, finished, under control…)
Yo-ho-ho (something Pirate’s tend to say, whether it actually means anything or not)

Have fun with whatever you do, and don’t be afraid to be different. Non-traditional wedding receptions are the ones people always remember, and isn’t that the point?