This is a transcript of the interview with Peter Merry on wedding entertainment.

Dodie Rahlman
Good morning! Welcome once again to “In your neighborhood at 103.3 KLOU, and with us this morning is Peter Merry from California, he’s a wedding entertainment director - Good morning Peter!
Peter Merry
Good morning, Dodie.
Dodie Rahlman
And so today we’re going to talk about some of the preparations that transpire for more wedding receptions than the ceremonies themselves. I see you are a wedding entertainment director and so we want to talk about that and maybe some of your entertainment that that involves. Being a mobile disc jockey I believe you should be right in line with that.
Peter Merry
Well, yeah, in fact I call myself a wedding entertainment director for a reason because a lot of the time when people think of a mobile disc jockey they think about a guy who’s just going to play some tunes at their wedding and I tend to do a little bit more than that, so the term wedding entertainment director kind of encapsulates a little bit more of the service I provide for my clients.
Dodie Rahlman
Are you saying you’re more than just music?
Peter Merry
Pretty much! Yeah, I like to help my clients actually plan their event. I like to serve as their event coordinator to make sure everything goings to flow as smoothly as possible. And I also serve as their professional master of ceremonies, which means I’m really their spokesperson, and then I also serve as the DJ playing the music for just the right moments, also.
Dodie Rahlman
So, you know so many times people just think that, ‘well we’ll just hire the music’, and I know I hear that all the time here around the radio station and I’m finding out that you are more than just music.
Peter Merry
Well, it’s kind of funny you mention that. Because I’m so into weddings I go to all the bookstores all the time and I’m constantly checking out the latest magazines and books on weddings because I want to learn what the latest trends are, I want to keep an eye on what brides are being taught about their wedding day. And when they talk about my service, primarily they call myself or DJ’s or bands “music” and that’s all they call us. And that’s all they tell the brides and grooms to look for. And the reality in my experiences has been that if you want somebody who can play music that’s pretty easy to do. Pretty much anybody can show up and press “play” on a CD player. But finding somebody who can help you craft a really entertaining reception that your guests are going to remember for years to come — that’s going to take somebody with some real skill and talent who does some real hands-on planning and some event coordination as well.
Dodie Rahlman
You know I was talking to somebody that actually manages a banquet hall and last week, as a matter of fact, and they said that their Disk Jockey showed up and that’s the phrase that he used he goes “well, I’m just the music”, he actually said that.
Peter Merry
Well, it’s not to surprising in fact in my experience most DJ’s help propagate this myth that we’re just music because that’s the way they sell themselves to clients. They’ll ask the question “do you got music for your day?” Well, what about somebody to plan the event to make sure it’s going to flow smoothly, too? I used to show up and just play music, but then things would go wrong, and so as I started getting more involved in helping to plan and actually coordinate the timing of the event, the events went smoother, everybody had more fun, and I wound up giving away more business cards which meant I had more success in my business. So it really paid off to get more involved in making sure my events were fun and enjoyable for everybody and not just an event where I was pushing play on a CD player.
Dodie Rahlman
Well I want to do something right now I’m kinda role act, and say, I’m a bride and I’m organizing and planning my reception, and now I’m down to the point where I want to say well, we’re going to need some sort of music, some sort of entertainment. What should you look for?
Peter Merry
Well, that’s a really good question. There’s a lot of different things you should look for but primarily I think the number one thing you want to look for is somebody who has the personality and the skill and talent to make your day happen the way you want it to. There’re plenty of people out there who can provide wedding entertainment, and do the same old thing they’ve done for the last 15 to 20 years, but somebody’s who’s going to custom craft your event to fit who you are, I think is probably going to meet your needs the best because you’re going to get an event that reflects your personality and style, not just a cookie-cutter performance that’s been done for the last 10, 15 years the same exact way.
Dodie Rahlman
Well, yeah, but how do you see this? Do you go by and talk to the people and see them perform? You know, it’s kinda hard to find out what’s gonna be…what’s good, what’s bad until after the fact.
Peter Merry
That’s a valid question. In fact, a lot of the magazines and books will tell you that you should go and actually prescreen your DJ and watch them at the event. I would tell you a different route to find somebody who’s qualified. If a DJ will invite you to watch him at a wedding, than he’ll probably invite somebody to come and crash your wedding as well. And, at a private function like a wedding reception, the last thing you want is strangers poking in and sometimes helping themselves to the food or the bar, which is been known to happen with DJ’s who’ve actually invited clientele to come. It also creates split loyalties for the performer, because now he’s auditioning for you as well as trying to perform for his primary client. And so, those who really do it professionally will tell you that they won’t allow the client to come to a private function like that, but rather the way they’ll verify their talent and their service is through feedback surveys, client references you can actually call and speak with, video footage that shows them in action and shows some of the unique things they bring to the table. There are many different ways to verify the talent level, and the style of personality of a performer without having to go and crash a private function.
Dodie Rahlman
Well, you know so many times I’m sure the bride’s thinking of cost — of money — and that’s what they’re basing their decision on primarily.
Peter Merry
Mm-hmm.
Dodie Rahlman
Kind of hurts, doesn’t it?
Peter Merry
It can. Especially if they decide to spend too little money on their entertainment, because in my experience the entertainment is the one component of the wedding reception that will really make that function a memorable, fun event or an event that everybody is ready to leave early from because things are not going too well. I paint the picture this way: If you were to walk into a beautiful tent reception, and you saw the white linens on the chairs with the bows and silver tied around the backs of the chairs and you saw the place settings all set perfectly with the silverware polished and you saw the cake decorated with all the flowers on it and you saw the centerpieces looking just as beautiful as imaginable. And, in the center of the tent, of this beautiful tent reception, you see a large tent pole and it’s colored bright orange with surf stickers. That tent pole is the entertainment at the function,
Dodie Rahlman
Wow.
Peter Merry
…and if the entertainment does not match the environment that you’ve spent all this time and money and effort and emotion in creating than what you’re going to have is an orange tent pole with surf stickers on it. I’ve seen that personally — I’ve watched a DJ walk out into the middle of a crowd to introduce the bride’s father and step-father at a very, very formal wedding reception, and he held out the microphone and said “Who wants it?” and that’s how he introduced these two very important men to do a toast at this bride’s wedding. We never knew as guests which one was her dad or her step-father, we never knew what their names were. He did not match their event. And so it’s becoming more and more apparent to people that when it comes to hiring entertainment for their function it’s a good idea to put aside a good amount of your budget to make sure you’re going to get somebody with the talent and the skill and the personality to deliver the event that matches what you’re looking for. And it’s become my belief that anywhere from 10 to 15 to even 20 percent of your budget is a good amount to set aside for your entertainment because in surveys that we’ve done we’ve found that clients are saying 80 percent or more of the success of their reception was riding on the entertainment they chose. As a matter of fact, Dodie, in the Saint Louis Bride and Groom magazine in Summer/Fall of 2003 there’s an article titled “Survey Says: After the Vows”, it’s on page 108 if anybody’d like to look it up, and it says, “during wedding planning, brides say their highest priority is their attire, followed by their reception site, with reception entertainment among the least of their priorities — but within one week after their reception, 78 percent of brides say they would have made the entertainment their highest priority.” I think that number’s really, really high - and I think the reason why that number’s so high, and so many people are recognizing afterwards that the entertainment was important is because DJ’s primarily, but also the magazines and books, are telling them to just hire music.
Dodie Rahlman
You know, and as I think about it, when you look back towards some of the parties that you’ve attended, you don’t remember a whole lot of what happened - you know, the menu, or what the decorations looked like, but you remember if you had a good time or not.
Peter Merry
Well, as a matter of fact, in that same article, it says that when asked, 81 percent of the guests say the thing they remembered the most about a wedding was the entertainment. If they have a great time they leave raving about how much fun they had. If the entertainment was very, very inadequate? They leave complaining about how poor the entertainment was. That’s the number one factor that will determine whether or not the guests are going to be raving about it for years to come, or wheteher or not they’re going to be hoping they don’t get stuck at a wedding with THAT entertainer ever again.
Dodie Rahlman
You know, it’s kind of funny because that’s where I was thinking that if they’re spending, I don’t know, say use round figures 20,000 dollars that day, and you hire poor entertainment, and your guests leave an hour and a half, two hours early you start amortizing that money, you’ve just lost a whole bunch of money because you didn’t invest enough money in your entertainment.
Peter Merry
That’s absolutely correct. And our experience has shown us that the person who’s in charge of guiding and directing the flow of the event, making it fun for all the guests all the way through — not just when it’s time to dance, is the person who’s going to make sure the majority of your guests stay and enjoy your celebration with you. Whether the party ends early with a big send-off or whether it goes late into the wee hours of the night, making a great party last and making it fun for everybody is the job that’s primarily on the shoulders of the entertainment that you choose. And if you’re going with DJ entertainment, and you decide to save some money and get somebody who’s a little cheaper you could wind up getting somebody who’s going to make your guests start hitting the road a lot earlier than you want and that will cost you more than you spent on that entertainer. And that’s something I regret to see anybody make a mistake doing.
Dodie Rahlman
Should a client look at equipment, or even consider equipment when they’re looking at a potential DJ?
Peter Merry
The person who thinks a DJ’s equipment is the most important aspect is typically the mobile DJ. And that’s kind of funny, but it’s true. The equipment that a DJ brings to the event is one of several tools that he or she uses to provide great service. But if you try to find a DJ based just on equipment, you can find all the best gear, you can find all the best equipment, you can even find the best music list in the world, but if the person doesn’t have the talent and the skill to make the party happen, all those tools won’t matter a hill of beans towards making a great party. Just like when you go looking for a contractor to build your house, you want to find somebody with references who’s done a good reliable job and created great products such as a nice house or a nice addition to a house — you don’t want to find somebody who’s got a great list of tools. The tools are what he uses to provide his service, and the same way a DJ’s gear, his music and everything else are tools that he uses to provide his service, what you want to verify is the talent and quality and level of the service that he provides. You can bring in the most skilled DJ in the world and give him some of the worst tools and I guarantee you he’ll still make it a great party. But you can give all the best tools to somebody who has no skill and no talent whatsoever and that party will still tank.
Dodie Rahlman
I guess you just want the end result — you just want a good party.
Peter Merry
If you want the event to be fun, the number one component that’s going to make it fun, is the entertainment.
Dodie Rahlman
Well, Peter, thanks for spending some time with us this morning In Your Neighborhood!
Peter Merry
Thank you, sir!