You can have the outdoor wedding you've been dreaming of, as long as you are determined to plan the vision into reality. In order for you to help decide what kind of outdoor wedding, here are the important points that you have to remember:

1. Be it in the park, in your own backyard on the beach, the location must accommodate both the ceremony and the reception.

2. An outdoor wedding results to casualness and charm. You can also lessen the costs on flowers since it is already set in the garden anyway. Choose an atmosphere that has an ornamental surrounding. In order for you to come up with the right atmosphere, you must also put into consideration chair decorations, columns, aisle bows, topiaries and the traditional ceremony arch.

3. An advantage of an outdoor wedding is that your guests will find this quite convenient because they do not have to travel from the place where the ceremony was held to where the reception would be conducted. As mentioned before, an outdoor wedding generally equates to a single venue for both the ceremony and wedding.

4. You will be able to save money because of this move. You do not have to book a church and a restaurant. You can just reserve a gazebo a garden or any outdoor scenery. It's like hitting two birds with one stone.

5. An outdoor wedding defies the conventional. Besides, outdoor locations offer so many choices and this gives the event more luster than the kind that we're all used to seeing. It also gives the guests

6. Be mindful of the lighting. Make sure that it wouldn't cause any form of inconvenience to your guest or interruption on the even in general. If you want, you can drop by the location of your choice a year before the wedding, during the similar month on when you want to get married to check how the lighting is at that time.

7. It would be inconvenient for your guests to look directly into the sun. This will also affect the photographer's task of documenting the memorable event by taking photographers. Most couples opt for a late afternoon wedding so the sun would have set at that time. If that's the case, then take note of when the time sets. The next consideration is additional lighting after the sunset.

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Gone are the days of police beacons, strobe lights and flashing colored light bulbs. Currently there are many high tech options for lighting your wedding reception. Is your reception under a tent? The ceiling of the tent works wonderfully with theatrical style lighting, such as subtle color changes, flowing water patterns, or a custom gobo displaying images of constellations and a delicate blue tint onto the ceiling. Want more of a club feel? Enter the era of high-tech club style lighting, with fast moving, color changing lights, and lights that create spinning patterns all over the dance floor and walls. Or, do you simply want a shifting color wash on the walls or columns in your banquet facility? A professional DJ can create this type of soft atmosphere within your facility. Ask us about the possibilities in club style or color scheme lighting.

Just Added - under table lighting.  Light your head table, cake table or all of your guest tables from below.  Very unique and unforgettable effect.

17 Things To Think About When Planning Your Wedding

Are you or is someone you know having a wedding reception? Here are 17 things you probably never even thought of that professional mobile deejay, Dan Nichols of Boogie Brothers Productions LLC in Michigan suggests make for better parties. I first want to point out that it is rare that all these items are followed in any given event but the more you can adhere to them, the more likely your party will be at full steam come closing time.

1) Don't put the older guests next to the dance floor/speakers. If you have to ask why, then you may want to hire a harpist all night.

2) Don't cram your entertainment out of the way -- your entertainer should be seen. Powerful entertainers will work to get people on the dance floor but they must be seen as part of the action, not just some side show.

3) A party should end when it shouldn't end, not when it should. Ending a party before it dies down leaves everyone with the impression the floor was packed all night. It just feels better when people are left wanting more versus being completely burned out.

4) A "too small" dance floor is better than one that is too big. The answer is simple as it creates the illusion whether real or not that the floor is full. People are more likely to dance when the crowd on the floor is dense than when they feel like the only ones out there. Take it from the trade that knows about dancing and crowd psychology not from the banquet manager selling you on why a huge floor is so important. If people end up dancing on the carpet then great they end up dancing on the carpet and the story of your floor being so packed people couldn't even fit on the floor only further reinforces my point.

5) Darker is better than lighter for dancing. People feel less of a spectacle, less "on stage" when they think they're harder to see. That is why crime increases at night as well -- and yes, when some people dance it is a crime. This one works along the same lines of psychology as tip 4.

6) Keep exit doors closed. Doors are inviting and you don't want to invite people outside of the main room. Having them open allows more light into the room which again works against the psychodynamics of the dance floor. Open doors invite people to their cars in the parking lot. You want to keep their focus in the reception room for as long as possible.

7) This is a very general statement - Nicer places, (country clubs etc.) actually make it harder, especially in the summer and fall months to get people up and moving because they are so pre-occupied enjoying the scenery. Think about it...would you rather enjoy a cold beverage on a breezy deck outdoors amidst the trees or a sweaty dance indoors? It isn't that the night can't be great but all things being equal nicer venues pull from the floor potential. As a deejay I love playing nicer events and usually do as that's my target market but it can't change simple human nature. If you're having your party/reception at a really nice venue then you'll just want to pay closer attention to some of these other factors to tip the scales in your favor.

8) Bars should always be in the main room. Preferably closer to the dance floor but not in the way of any lines to the bar. If a bar and/or desserts are put out of the main room then a huge percentage of potential dancers are unavailable. Bars are like kitchens and they draw people to them. If you can help it, don't make your dj wrestle with the draw of a bar.

9) If you are going to shut the bar down for 30 minutes of say 6 hours, do it during dinner. If you do it at say 11:30 then the party will more likely die out as people will feel that it's time to go.

10) Happy music keeps things going. Keep away from any negative vibes at all. Keep the mood up up up.

11) Respect the musical opinions of your local professionals. They do this for a living. Be careful not to cut out all the "cliche" wedding music as you'll find this will negatively impact the dance floor potential. People dance to what they know. A wedding reception is not the time and place to prove to your friends and family that you are into obscure music. You've got a lot of people from all over your family tree that want to have a good time so let your deejay exercise all his or her tools and really work his or her craft.

12) Your wedding vendors should eat with the guests and not be fed a soggy club sandwich in the janitors closet. From years of experience, the more brides and grooms treat their vendors as guests, the more likely their unpaid guests will respect us too. I find it rather ironic that the nicest venues have some sort of craptitude (made up word) toward the dj, bands, photographers and video crew and will encourage the bride and groom to shovel them off away from the action during dinner with a plate of moldy (I’m not kidding) cold cuts. Wouldn’t it make sense that they be right near the action? Not to mention if you treat your vendors like second class citizens how do you think that affects their attitudes? Your pros will bend over backwards for you if you just treat them with the same respect you’d treat your guests with. I can tell you now that professional wedding vendors will go the extra mile for you when you treat them right.

13) Don't do a dollar dance. Why? The reason is that when the bride and groom are doing this the guests realize they won't be seen slipping out the door. It also stops the momentum. If you must do one, do it early on after the main dances and limit it to 3 songs maximum.

14) People tend to remember the beginning and the end of an event. That's why your deejay should do a strong grand introduction and play while your guests are enjoying cocktails early on. This helps him (or her) to build rapport early on and if done right it puts your dj in a more powerful position to work your crowd all night.

15) It is best for any traditional events or speeches to be done and out of the way before dancing begins. In addition, it is important for pictures of the bridal party and bride and groom to be done, when at all possible, before the dancing begins. As a deejay I have seen more parties lose steam because the bridal party is having pictures taken after the bridal dance. Do all the pictures before. It may cost you an extra hour earlier in the day but it will save you from losing a good handful of guests early on.

16) Do all you can to arrange your rehearsal dinner 2 nights before, NOT 1 night before the reception. Why? I have seen many weddings where the bridal party was burnt out from the night before and this can (not always) play a big factor in building some inertia on the dance floor.

17) If you have to cut corners don't compromise on the entertainment. My clients never complain that they paid too much for my services. Also, know that experience is king -- I am a better dj after every event I do.

Dan Nichols owns a small personal deejay service out of Royal Oak, MI and has been in operation for 16 years. His website can be found at http://www.theboogiebrothers.com/index2.htm  and he can be reached at 248-541-0250. In 2006 The Knot Wedding Pages surveyed Michigan Brides to come up with the top 10 entertainment companies in the state. 6 of them were bands and 4 were deejay companies. The only small dj company to make the list was Boogie Brothers Productions LLC. Dan is also a small business coach, published author and columnist for the Disc Jockey News.

iTunes Store offers Higher Quality Music Downloads

Apple recently announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes ( www.itunes.com ) in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song.

In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. There will be a one-click option for customers to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price.

With DRM-free music from the EMI catalog, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favorite EMI artists and play them on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, Apple TVs and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players.

iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog of over five million songs in the 128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM version at the current price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

The iTunes Store has sold over two billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

The DJ Network is a combination of three highly motivated and exclusive Disc Jockey companies: After Hours DJ Service, Atmosphere Productions & Standing Ovation. The combined talents of each companies professional Disc Jockeys makes us the largest organization of Disc Jockeys in New England.