DJs now have to charge 5% Sales Tax in Maine

Yes, it's true.

LD 1495, which was a compromise bill (LD 1088) was passed quickly by both houses of the Maine Legislature and signed by Gov. Baldacci late last week.

That means as of January 1, 2010, I now have to charge my clientele an extra 5% Sales tax.

I wouldn't be opposed to the new tax if it were across the board. Unfortunately, Maine is a cherry picking state that special interest groups control.

Don't be shocked if more than a few DJ companies try to cheat their way around this tax (I certainly will not)

Prepping for a New Wedding Season

The 2009 wedding season is just about here and I am really excited about this year's couples!

As you may or may not know, I only book between 20 and 30 weddings per year because I want to keep the quality of service high and to make sure I never burn out of this business.

To me, weddings are very rewarding. I get the honor of hosting their memorable party as the bride and groom share their love with their friends and family. It's something I take seriously and I make certain that my brides and grooms are always the center of attention. That's the way it should be!

Because I do not limit my market to just Greater Portland, I get to see many different places in my travels throughout Maine, NH and Massachusetts. This season is no different. Here is a sampling of where I am playing this season

The Retreat at French's Point near Belfast
Mariner's Church in Portland
Spruce Point Inn, Boothbay Harbor (Several times)
Bald Peak Colony Club in Moultonborough, NH
Dunegrass Country Club in Old Orchard Beach
Portland Country Club in Falmouth
York Golf and Tennis Club
Fisherman's Wharf Inn in Boothbay Harbor
Harpswell Inn
Camp Hammond in Yarmouth
Martindale Country Club in Auburn
Apple Hill Music Center near Keene, NH
Grandeur Sun in Waterville, ME
Coastal House in Wells

I will also be doing other events in these cities and towns:
Skowhegan, Oakland, ME, Yarmouth, Harrison, Freeport, Windham, Kittery, Baileyville (YES!), Ossipee NH, Derry, NH and more!

This season looks to be among my busiest ever and I am really looking forward to helping all of my brides and grooms have the party they deserve as newlyweds.

Great Wedding at the Mt. Washington Resort

Greetings!

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to all of my friends, colleagues, and current, future of past clientele!

Today, I want to describe the beauty and wonder that is the Mt. Washington Resort.

I did my first wedding there on December 6th for a bride that had booked me previously (the first guy did not pan out).

I did a site walk back in the summertime and realized what a large place this was in the middle of nowhere.

Well, it is a much different atmosphere close to Christmas. It was beautifully decorated with Christmas trees everywhere and a gingerbread replica of the Resort itself.

The ballroom there is massive with a capacity of around 400 - 500. High towering colums surrond the area and as I nestled my gear in between two of them adjacent to dance floor, I could tell this would be a fun evening.

Here is the feedback I received from that night from the Mother of the Bride. Enjoy!

*******************************************************************************
Name: Lynda Payette
Date: December 6, 2008
TypeOfEvent: Wedding
Friendly: checked
Enthusiastic: checked
Courteous: checked
Listened_to_needs: checked
Professional: checked
Return_Calls_Email: yes
Appearance: Outstanding
Personality: Outstanding
Music: Outstanding
PrePlan: Outstanding
Website: AboveAverage
Overall: Outstanding
ValueOfService: Yes
DJ_Value: Equal
DJ_Importance: 50_percent
Reference: Yes
EMailTelephone: Jim or Lynda Payette at (603) 869-2097 or LyndaPayette@msn.com or JimPayette@msn.com
B1: Submit

Comments:

From the momemnt I met with Jim, we hit it off. You usually can tell from the first impression if someone is going to be right for your event or not, and I was right on. Jim took charge when appropriate and stayed in the shadows when necessary. It is very tricky to be able to have the creativity such as Jim Casey to keep the dance floor alive. It is so very important at a wedding working with such a diverse age group, to keep the dancing going, but Jim in his spacing out the activities and being so darn organized was able to pull it off without a hitch. Totally awesome entertainer! A must have! Our guests are still talking about the DJ!!

TRL 1998-2008

Ok...I admit it, I have been a fan of this type of show since MTV premiered Dial MTV back in 1986 (remember Motley Crue "Home Sweet Home")

The show isn't as good as it was in 1998-2000, but the star power that showed up for the finale is amazing.

The Backstreet Boys were just on the show at about 10:10pm and it brought back a weird memory I have (and what would be an embarrssing one for my son Connor)

I watched the show religiously to keep up with current music. One day, my son was sitting on my lap (he was barely over one year old) and it happened to be the day that Backstreet shut down Times Square promoting their Millenium album.

They sang "I Want It That Way" and my boy was literally moving to the song - the first one that I noticed he did that to. It was so cute, but I realized that someday he would be completely embarrassed about this fact.

Oh-oh. :)

Summertime Update

Summertime Update


Well...what a weird summer to date!

Here we are in the middle of August and the temperature hasn;t touched 90 ALL SUMMER! Are we kidding? It hasn't been 80 in August so far. It rains and we have violent Thunderstorms almost daily.

Today, we have the largest hailstorm I have seen in 25 years. Sent some video to WCSH6's website. It was crazy - 15 minutes of heavy hail. That stuff hurts.

Enough weather.

Went down to Atlantic City for a DJ Convention last week. AC is OVERRATED at best. What a waste of space. Unless you are an addicted gambler, even with the boardwalk, I found AC to be boring and nothing more than a stretched out Old Orchard Beach. Seminar content was light at the show too.

Just before that, I did EIGHT events in four days. 1 Wednesday, 4 Thursday, 1 Friday, 2 Saturday. Very busy indeed. It all ended with a great wedding (booked very last minute) in Biddeford. Good stuff!

Well, got a very busy September ahead with 8 weddings. Looking forward to it!

A Tremendous Tip!

Hello!

This past weekend was another great one for my service. I only did one wedding and it happened to be in Wellesley, Massachusetts at Wellesley College Club. The bride and groom had met me the previous September when he was the best man at his sister's wedding in Lincolnville, Maine.

That wedding was a tremendous success and expectations were very high.

Because of the rain, the wedding ceremony was moved inside. I had to setup in three different rooms. One for the ceremony on the 2nd floor, one for cocktails also on the 2nd floor, and the reception which was held on the 1st floor.

Setup went very smoothly with equipment in place within 35 minutes.
The wedding itself could not have gone more smoothly or perfectly. My new lavalier mic worked without a hitch, gave clean, crisp sound and allowed everyone to hear the bride and groom too!

At the end of cocktails, I had to remind everyone to do downstairs for the ceremony. They slowly left and dinner started roughly 20 minutes later than scheduled.

This was a wedding that I did not have to do any introductions, bouquet/garter tosses, anniversary dance or any other formal events outside of 1st dance and parent dances.

It took a couple of music blocks for the dance floor to heat up, but once it did they were there right up to the end at 11:00pm.

The bride and groom thanked me for my help putting together their ceremony (we did this only 4 days beforehand) and the groom handed me an envelope.

I told him he did not need to do this and his exact words to me were: "Yes I do" He smiled and walked away. I finished loading and said my goodbyes.

When I got to my hotel and opened up the envelope. I almost fell on the floor when I saw what was inside.

It was easily the largest tip I had ever received and I almost felt guilty about it. Rather than giving the amount of the tip, let's just say it was for 25% of the original contract. I am always extremely grateful when a client feels I did a great enough job to warrant a tip at the end of the night, but this one just absolutely blew me away.

I am very happy that he thought that much of the service I offered him and his new wife. I always strive for excellence and apparently they thought my service was excellent.

Good morning!

Everything continues to be a mess with my Windstar repairs. Lee Auto is refusing to work on the van saying that Atlas Auto Body in Windham should work on the job again. This is my worst case scenario. I am in total disbelief! I just wish the van had been totalled so I could have moved on.

On the wedding front, I travel to Wellesley, Massachusetts on Saturday for the wedding of the gentleman pictured on the front of my trading card sized business cards. He happened to be the best man and brother of a bride who's wedding I performed at last September. It should be fun to see the family again, albeit 5 hours south of last year's wedding.

The wedding season as a whole has been very inconsistent here in Maine. For the first time I have a wedding on Thanksgiving Day Weekend, but I have 4 of the next 6 Saturdays completely open (July 29, Aug 5, 26, Sep 2). A couple of those weeks have a Friday or Sunday wedding, but not all. It will be great to spend that time with my family which in past wedding seasons has not been the case.

Well, off to fight the batlle of the Windstar. I have no idea what my next move should be.

Have a great day!