Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Come on a ride along with a Veteran Homicide Detective as the twists and turns of the job suddenly end his career and nearly his life; discover how something wonderful is born out of the Darkness. Embark on the journey from helping people on their worst days, to bringing life, excitement and smiles on their best days.
Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Making Magic with My Son: Inside Streamlines Most Unforgettable Wedding Season Yet
What happens when a former cop trades the radio for a microphone and a dance floor? We take you behind the scenes of a full wedding season at Streamline Events and Entertainment, where I work shoulder to shoulder with my son, Keegan, to turn timelines into memories and playlists into stories. From the first consultation to the last dance, we share the playbook that keeps energy high, dead time invisible, and couples at the center of a night they’ll never forget.
We unpack why every wedding is a Super Bowl: the redundancies that make tech issues vanish, the MC flow that steers crowds without stealing the spotlight, and the relationship-first approach that shapes everything from ceremony cues to grand exits. You’ll hear how we navigate cultural sensitivities—like DJing for a crowd with Amish family members—while keeping the floor full with clean, danceable hits. We also talk shop on the craft of reading a room, rotating genres to invite new groups, and adjusting in real time when a crowd resists.
The stories are wild and human: an 18-hour mega-setup with an Eagles tribute band, a ceremony drowned out by a slow, buzzing plane, a vineyard leaf blower at precisely the wrong moment, and a giant beetle that refused to be evicted. We step into coordinator roles when a planner is missing, line up processions, and run room flips so the night feels seamless. Along the way, Keegan shares his perspective on learning the trade, the joy of weekly wins, and the plan for next year—more wedding shows, smarter bookings, and deeper client onboarding to tailor every celebration.
If you love weddings, live events, DJ life, or father–son teamwork, you’ll find a mix of practical insights, hard-earned lessons, and a few laugh-out-loud mishaps. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s planning a wedding, and leave a review with the one song you think no dance floor should skip.
Gift For You!!! Murders to Music will be releasing "SNAPSHOTS" periodcally to keep you entertained throughout the week! Snapshots will be short, concise bonus episodes containing funny stories, tid bits of brilliance and magical moments!!! Give them a listen and keep up on the tea!
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Murders to Music Podcast. My name is Aaron. I'm your host, and thank you guys so much for coming back to a show that I have been looking forward to doing for quite a while. You see, this show is about murders to music, and I we really focus on the murder side quite a bit, but I never really talk about the music side. And we, you know, I am just coming out of our 2025 wedding season, and that's what I want to talk a little bit about tonight. So on the music side of this thread is this, you know, I for those who don't know, I started playing drums when I was about five. I started playing in bands when I was 13. I've been in bands my entire life. I've played in church since I was about 19 years old, and I started DJing at 16. 16 to about 20, I DJed in Alaska and Phoenix. And what I specialized in during those years was weddings. I'm not a club DJ, I'm not a I'm not that guy. I am more of the wedding DJ, but I try not to be the cheesy wedding DJ wearing the cumber bun. Uh, I try to be a little bit more professional than that. So that is what I did. But then when I became into law enforcement, I didn't have the time to dedicate that weddings needed. So I got out of the DJ thing. And uh about three, four years ago, when I came out of law enforcement, I wanted to get back into it. So I reached out to a buddy that I had met and he put me in touch with somebody else. And this other guy's name's Justin. And Justin owns Paradox Productions, which is based in the Portland metro area. And if you can't hire Streamline, hire Paradox Productions if you're looking for something. Uh him and his team are freaking amazing. They are absolute rock stars. So when I'm working with talking to Justin, I'm like, hey dude, here's my story, man. I'm a cop, I'm coming out, I got this PTSD thing going on, and I I used to DJ, I want to get back into it. I don't even know what a DJ controller does. Can you help me out? And he's like, absolutely. So he let me shadow him for about a year, a year and a half. And I got to working with him and DJing with him, and that was a lot of fun. And during that time, I got to bring my son Keegan into the mix, and Keegan got to work with Justin and assist with him and his team. And, you know, it kind of got re-immersed back into this DJ world. And I'm like, you know what? Things really haven't changed. People are still dancing to the YMCA 25, 30 years later. So I can do this. So uh I started branching out on my own and opened up Streamline Events and Entertainment back in 2022, late 2022, I opened up Streamline. So opened up Streamline and started taking on weddings and building the business. And as a result of that, I got busy enough where I needed to bring on an assistant. And that assistant got to be Keegan. So a couple of really cool things have happened here. One, in the murder world, which I was in that business for a long time, it was a dark, gross world. And I got to help people, but it was on their worst days. Now I get to help people on their best days. I still get to serve people just in a different way. Instead of being the worst memory of their lifetime, I get to help them celebrate and build memories and produce the soundtrack of love, which sounds cheesy, but that's really what we're doing, on their wedding days. And I get to help them on their brightest and best days. Not only that, I get to do it with my son, which is super awesome. We get a ton of experiences together, get to meet a lot of cool people, get to meet a lot of not cool people, and uh either way, it's a good time. We get to do it together, a lot of long days, a lot of sweat, but uh it's a ton of fun. So on tonight's show, I want to recap a little bit about our wedding season. I want to introduce you to my son Keegan. He's here with me on the show, and uh, we'll go from there. So before I let Keegan take the mic and start chitting and chatting, you guys might remember Keegan from episode number 12, and that was Submersion to Survival, the Near Drowning Experience. That's the one where I'm scuba diving with Keegan. Keegan's 13 years old at the time, we're out in the Pacific Ocean, and something happens to my gear and it fails, and I start getting sucked down with 36 pounds of weight on. I get sucked down into the bottom of the ocean and I start drowning. And Keegan is there with me. And uh, if you haven't listened to it, listen to that episode. It's great, and you'll hear all about him. But without any further ado, Keegan, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, how's it going?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, it's going awesome, dude. Hey, tell me about yourself. Tell the listeners, I know all about you, but tell the listeners about yourself and kind of what you're into, what you do, how old you are, goals, aspirations, all that stuff, man. Introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Sweet. Uh, my name is Keegan. I am 19 years old. Graduated high school 2024, two years ago now. Uh, let's see, what do I do? I I work on cars. I work at a Ford dealership in my area. Uh, I enjoy cars a lot. I played lacrosse for a few for a handful of years. I really enjoy lacrosse. And uh I enjoy working with you and making making good days happen and good weddings happen. That's what the last handful of months has looked like for us, is a lot of weddings.
SPEAKER_00:So awesome. Yeah, it's awesome, dude. Um, so and I really enjoy working with you as well. I enjoy getting to teach and train you in this world, right? Because every wedding is a super bowl. And I know you've heard me say this before. Every wedding is a super bowl, and we don't get a second chance, you know, to make that first impression. And we never get a second chance at that Super Bowl ring. So we need to make sure that everything is done right. And um, working with you and and teaching you that has been super, super cool. So uh it's awesome, man. So we spoke a little bit about Justin, we spoke about Paradox, kind of how we both got here, and you know, you had no idea what DJ World was all about prior to coming to this three, four years ago, and now you're kind of immersed into it, you know, we'll talk about at the end, but you're getting ready to do your first show all by yourself, um, which I'm pretty excited because I get to see you growing and learning in this field, and uh it's it's pretty cool. But before we get to talking about that, so you started helping me when 2023, 2022.
SPEAKER_01:I was still with Justin running his photo booth, and then the wedding season 23 is when I stopped and hopped on with you.
SPEAKER_00:So 23, 24, 25. We've probably done 30 weddings together, something like that. And uh that's pretty cool. So, especially, you know, for a new business, right? And I get it, there's people out there listening like, oh, dude, you're gonna do 60 weddings a year. Well, that's really cool. Good for you. Um, you know, and that and and I know there's people out there because the DJ world, the only thing more toxic than the police officer world is the DJ world, right? And if you don't believe me, jump on some DJ forum on Facebook and they all talk crap to each other all day. Um, so anyway, DJ's out there, listen. Super cool for you guys. Uh, neat story. So, but we've done about 30 weddings together. Um, in those, tell me about your experiences in this field. What do you like, don't like. Explain that to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, I there's a lot I like. I I think um just putting on a show, kind of the entertainment side of this job. I enjoy that. I'm a social person. I you know, like being around people and groups and parties and all that. So uh I would say I definitely enjoy the social side of things and you know the production of it. And uh even just seeing like all the smiles, like we make a lot of days happen, you know. And like you said, it's the Super Bowl, it's their biggest day. And if it goes super smoothly, if your team wins, you know, everyone's super happy and everything's great, and just being part of that happy moment, you know, once a week is it's pretty nice to just be around. Um things I don't like, honestly, this season makes it hard to say things I don't like just because of how smooth things went. I would say in the past, mostly with uh when I ran the photo booth for another company with the weddings, uh that was just stressful is what made that part hard because lots of technical difficulties and learning new things and uh kind of that sort just made it stressful. So it was the same fun environment, but just higher stress, and that's kind of how our first seasons looked with uh streamlined, just you know, trying to learn the gear and learn learn our rhythm and all that would make us more stressful for sure. But with this season, how smooth it went, that stress was completely gone. So I, you know, maybe long days, you know, long days aren't always great, but it pays off and it's good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's you know, and talking about the smoothness this year, bro, we didn't really have a whole lot of technical issues at all. I mean, I I think of one where maybe our wireless uh sound system didn't work or our wireless transmitter or something didn't work at at Jacob's wedding. Yeah. But other than that, I mean we've got a backup, right? Everything we do, we've got redundancies. Um, you know, two is one and one is none. And that's kind of the philosophy that we take. So if one system goes down, we just back it up with the other system and nobody, you know, we never miss a beat. And that's what occurred in that case. But other than that one little flaw, which wasn't even critical, um, I we had a pretty smooth season. Um I don't remember getting pissed off this season at all, really, um, which I thought was pretty cool because that doesn't happen very often.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I'll say for the viewers listening, is um under those circumstances, little small, you know, problems or things that might arise end up being a lot bigger of a deal because of the crazy high stress level, because you want to make sure it's perfect for the day and you don't have you know anything going wrong. And so, you know, small little things can really set the set your mood or you know, change everything. And so even that's what I'm saying is nothing small even happened.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And when those things do happen, it's very important for us, you know, and streamlined philosophy is the customer is never gonna know there's a hiccup. Um, first of all, we're never gonna fail at whatever we do. No matter what we put forward or we tell the customer we're gonna do, we're gonna get it done one way or the other. Um, so the customer is never gonna know the difference, and we're always gonna have that smile on our face. And that doesn't mean inside we're not, you know, freaking out because we're like, dear God, please don't let the microphone drop out. But uh on the outside, the customer is never gonna know the difference. So um, but this year there was really no stress, which was super cool. So that was pretty awesome. What is your biggest highlight since you've been doing this?
SPEAKER_01:I think Jacob's wedding as a whole. Um tell me about it. Why we grew up with him, he was my childhood, one of my childhood best friends since you know early elementary school, and you know, being his friend for so long, it's pretty cool to be there for his one of the biggest days of his life. Um, and just everyone in that that wedding, I we know all of them, you know, it's close friends, and uh, it's just pretty cool to be around those people and be part of someone's big day when you really have a connection with them. And I know you make good connections with all the clients you take, but oftentimes I don't get those same connections from the very start. And uh, so having that connection made that day definitely special.
SPEAKER_00:That is cool. Yeah, it was a fun day. Um, I was so blessed. I think we were so blessed, but personally speaking for myself, I was so blessed to be a part. So, Jacob, like Keegan Bear said, that Jacob uh is a friend of ours who moved in and was our neighbor as a small kid, and he and Keegan were the same age and grew up together, and we're about the same age and grew up together, and we grew up in each other's houses and the siblings, and it was just a lot of fun. And then I got asked to a DJ and MC their wedding, and they threw down, they had an awesome party, you know. And what's cool about this wedding is half the family is Amish. Um, so we have a bunch of Amish people there, and in a wedding environment, it's tough enough, right? If you're the DJ, um, nobody wants a bad wedding, nobody wants bad music selected, nobody wants a cheesy MC, you know, that goes on the way, everybody welcome. You know, nobody wants that guy. So having all these Amish people on the house, it may it elevated my stress level because now I'm picking the music and I'm trying to pick my words. And instead of just speaking naturally like I do at every other wedding, um, I I was really, I don't know, be extra cautious because I wanted to be respectful of them because not only are they Amish and they have some different belief systems, but they're friends of me and friends of my family. So, and then I go to picking the music, right? And these are kids, these are 20, 25-year-old kids, and uh, they're gonna want the dance music, and the dance music might talk about things like sex or whatever. And I have to be very, very cautious when I play those things, you know. And at the end of the day, um, they threw down it was a party and everybody had a great time, but it just really elevated my stress level. It's already hard enough to be a DJ and look out across that dance floor and try to decide what song you're gonna play next, because it's your job to keep that dance floor packed, and you got to play to the majority, not the minority. So if you got six people on the dance floor, but 60 people sitting on their butts, you got to figure out how to get those 60 people off their butts and onto that dance floor. And sometimes it's just throwing the best of the different genres at them, you know, and it's really, really tough. And uh sometimes you have crowds that just don't want to dance, not very often with us, uh it seems, and but sometimes that happens. But um, now you take that same environment where you're like, what's gonna get these people on the dance floor? Oh, yeah, I have to filter this through the Amish filter. It made it really, really hard for us. But I agree that wedding was super, super cool. So, Keiggs, you mentioned something a second ago that I've never really considered, and I need to change this for next year, and that is that I build the relationship with the clients and you don't necessarily get that opportunity. This next year, I want to have you involved more in that process and that onboarding process. You see, everybody, the way that Streamline works is we'll go to a wedding show or a bridal show and we'll cultivate, you know, 10, 12, 15 different relationships with these brides and these grooms. And we might book 10 or 12 of those. And when we book those 10 or 12, the process is we have initial consultation and then I take them out to a happy hour and I pay for the happy hour, but that pays dividends with getting to know these people on a personal level. Anybody can walk in and hit a Spotify playlist, but it takes knowing your clients on a personal level to get the attention to detail about that couple. What makes this couple unique and special? And how am I gonna take those details and wrap that into the production of their wedding day? And I say production because we are literally producing the event, the most epic party they are ever gonna throw, we are at the center of as the DJ Entertainment and MC. And if we're not, we're doing our job wrong. Not because it's about me, but because it's our job to get these people on a journey from the moment they step out of their car through the pre-ceremony, through the ceremony, through the cocktail hour, through the toasts and through the cake and the ice cream and the dessert into the dancing to the very last dance and leave them going to their car humming the last song that they got off that dance floor to, thinking that is the rattest wedding I have ever been to in my life. That is our job. If we don't act as the cruise director for this day, then oftentimes we find that it's chopping. And you guys have been there. People listening to this podcast right now have been to that wedding where you've been to the ones that are great, and you're like, man, that was just like a breath of fresh air. It was great. And then you've been to the ones that felt miserable because there's the dead time, the down time, the quiet time, nobody knew what they were doing time. That is uh complete, you know, opposite of what a professional DJ is going to do. And that's what Keegan and I do. But we can't get there without having that personal consultation or that personal happy hour over drinks, appetizers, coffee, whatever it may be, to get to know these people on a personal level. Because then we get to bring some personal touch to their wedding. We get to hear the stories, how they met, their nicknames, their family background, their crazy aunt, whatever it may be. We get to talk about all that stuff, which is pretty, pretty cool. So this year, Keegans, I'm gonna get you involved in more of those and um let you start taking the driver's seat a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think that'd be cool.
SPEAKER_00:Be way cool. So on the wedding side of things, uh you know, not every time we go to a wedding, um things have gone smooth for us, but maybe not for everybody else involved. So, as part of the streamline events business, we have live music and we have DJ. And last year, Jeff, uh the other part of my band, my band is called Double Down, and we're a duo, but we can also be up to a full five, six-piece band if we need to be, depending on what the event is. But the other half of the duo is names Jeff, and he's been on this show as well. And Jeff and I did a wedding last year, it was a really cool wedding for a couple of reasons, but we're gonna talk about crazy people. Here we go. So the wedding was cool for this. The first night we're in uh Hood River, it's 118 degrees, and Jeff and I are playing live music outside on a lawn underneath a little umbrella. And there's probably 100, 150 people at this reception dinner, and they're playing cornhole and drinking wine and you know, doing whatever they do. And Jeff and I are playing there, and as we're playing, this is kind of cool. We're playing, I'm in the middle of singing a song, it's 118 degrees, I'm sweating like crazy, and all of a sudden I get pelted with cold water. Like they forgot to turn off the sprinklers, so I am getting soaked and like there's thermal shock. If you've ever stepped into a cold shower, had your shower go cold, you you know, that's what I'm talking about. So I'm trying to sing a song because I want to be perfect, and I don't want to miss a note or a beat or anything else. So I'm trying to play drums, I'm trying to sing a song, and I am literally drenched with ice cold water, and it felt super refreshing in the 118-degree day. But uh anyway, it so we had to stop, make sure our gear wasn't getting ruined, and then we got back into the act. But that's not the point of the story. The point of the story is as we're doing this reception dinner, there was something weird going on. There was the bride's father is sitting on one side of the courtyard, the bride's mother is on the other side. They're divorced. The bride's father has his new wife with him, and then there's this woman that's bouncing all over the place. So we knew something was up, but we didn't know what. So then at the end of the night, I ask the bride, I'm like, hey, can you shed some light on what's going on here? There's like a weird dynamic, and I can't put my finger on it. And she's like, Yeah. She's like, My mom and dad were married. My dad had an affair with his mistress. My mom and dad got divorced. My dad got remarried. That's his new wife sitting right over there. Well, he invited his mistress to the wedding. That woman bouncing around, yeah, that's the mistress. She split up my mom and dad, and they're currently in an affair with my dad and about to split up my dad's second marriage. And she shows up at the wedding. And I'm like, wow, this is kind of cool. The good news is we have tomorrow night with you as well, because tomorrow night we're going up on Mount Hood and we're gonna go to the Silcox Hut. And what that means is it's snowy, and we have to get in a track machine and go halfway up the side of this mountain to go play in this ski chalet lodge that was built in the late 1800s with boulders the size of Ford pickup trucks by hand, and it's built into the side of the mountain. And this lodge holds sleeps 28 people, has a full gourmet kitchen, what looks like an old kind of cathedral style great room where the wedding is going to be. And tomorrow night, I get to watch this whole like uh Jerry Springer show play out in front of me again. So the next day, we go up to the mountain and we load in, and the wedding comes, and sure enough, here comes the bride's father, the bride's stepmom, the mistress, but no bride's mom. She didn't show up. Night one was way too much drama for her. So she didn't even show up to her own daughter's wedding. So we do the wedding, and as we do the wedding, the mistress, she was not selective, but she was floating around trying to hook up with every single dude in this place. And she could have any she would have taken anybody home that night. So the fact that she's destroyed one marriage tells me that she's not opposed to destroying many, many more. And that was a pretty strange environment for us to be in. And we got to watch the drama unfold, and I thought it was such a shame that Bride's mom was not at the wedding. Uh that was pretty disgusting. And Dad, well, not super impressed. So anyway, that was.
SPEAKER_01:Why would you invite your that makes no sense to me?
SPEAKER_00:Why would you yeah, Giga Bear, why would you invite your mistress to your daughter's wedding in the first place? Like, where did that even happen?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Especially if you're already married again.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Trying to hide. Yeah. Weird. So stupid. So stupid. There's crazy people. Yeah. Earlier you mentioned uh you mentioned Jacob's wedding. Uh tell me a little bit about that. What uh anything unique or odd happened at that wedding?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there was a there's a few little things at that wedding that made it uh a little different, a little interesting. Starting with the uh the officiant. So, you know, wedding's going smoothly, everything's going good. This is that wedding where we know everyone, we're friends with all the people, you know, close relations, all that. So the officiant of that wedding was uh a member from our church, great guy, and it was his first time doing a wedding like that, being the officiant for a wedding. So we come out to the ceremony area. It's a super nice outdoor venue area, um, kind of outdoor uh auditorium looking deal in this nice yard. It's pretty hot out that day, midsummer, probably 90 degrees, you know, beating down the sun. And so we come out there, you know, officiant brings in the uh the groom, and he brings in the wedding party, brings in the bride, you know, everything's going smooth. And when the when he brings in the bride, he has everyone stand up. You know, they rise for the bride, and he gets distracted and he's probably just a little bit nervous. It's his first time, and he forgets to uh tell the tell the people they can sit back down, and everyone's, you know, not just gonna choose to start sitting down, it seems weird. So, anyways, that entire ceremony was done standing up for the most part till about the last five, ten minutes, maybe he was like, Oh shoot, everyone can sit back down. And this made it funny. And uh do feel bad. It was so hot out that that probably wasn't great on any of the people just sweating and standing there in the sun.
SPEAKER_00:But out of all the weddings that we did this year, I think that that officiant, even though it was his first time doing it, uh he officiated the best wedding, in my opinion, out of any of them that we did. He was so well spoken, so eloquent, and um it was awesome. Now, we didn't get to hear all of it because an aeroplane flew over at like like you have seen those big bumblebees that move super slow and they're loud and obnoxious. That's exactly what this plane was literally through the entire like, do you take Bobby to take you know be your Luffywood husband or whatever? That entire time there's a slow big plane flying, you know, 100 feet over our head, and uh it was so obnoxious. Um anyway, less obnoxious than the leaf blower, at least. Yeah, another wedding I did there was in the middle of the ceremony, they had the windows open to the uh the event center that we were at, and the windows opened up to a winery vineyard, and the guy was out there with like a backpack blower blowing his leaves the entire time, and uh they didn't shut the windows and you couldn't hear anything that was being said. But anyway, so talking about your officiant, um, that's the same wedding with the Lady Phil, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that was funny. We uh well, not funny, not funny, ha ha funny.
SPEAKER_00:Like more like a kick in the nuts, funny.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. It was so coming into that that outdoor, you know, seating area where the ceremony was taking place was this staircase-ish. It was more like a path with that went downhill in steps.
SPEAKER_00:It's like uh it's this is like an amphitheater. Um big half semicircle, three big grass areas. Grass areas are split by a 10 foot wide, and each step is like probably, I don't know, four and a half feet or something. So you can't get two full steps, but anyway, like a you know, de declining staircase down to the stage at the bottom of the amphitheater.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So those steps, as me and me and Dav are unloading, bring our gear, and we both pointed out, man, these steps kind of suck because they're too long, they're too wide to step once, like you would on regular, you know, house stairs, but they're not quite wide enough to like step twice or three times. It's more like a you know, one and a half stutter as you come down these stairs. I think we even made the joke, like, you know, talking about people falling down and but what did happen was uh one of the guests did fall down the stairs after we discussed that. And uh, you know, that was a bummer. It was you know, she was okay, no permanent damage there, but her ego was hurt, you know.
SPEAKER_00:And we talk about these people uh falling down or we think about you know these things happening, it's because there's a sick humor, and we gotta talk crap about people because some of these people show up and it's like you swear they never saw a mirror, um, or these weird things happen. So we do sit back there. I'll be 100% honest with you. We do sit back and we do talk and we laugh and we have fun with each other, and it's all in good humor, it makes us laugh. Um, you know, we did one wedding where these everybody walks down the aisle.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00:Everybody walks down the aisle, and this is another wedding where they didn't really have a coordinator, they're kind of doing it on their own. Um, nobody was there to give them guidance. So you've got seven people in the bridal party that are walking down on the groom's side, seven different dudes. And then when they walk in, they all make that 90-degree corner to walk down the aisle towards the altar, and they all walk differently. Some of them had like a uh gangster, you know, kind of a uh shoulder dip, you know, swagger to them, like they're straight out of Chicago. Uh another guy came in, he was total military and like walking at attention with this mean mugging look straight ahead. I can still see him in my face. Everybody, you know, somebody comes in skipping down the aisle. I don't know. Everybody had this different walk, and we're like, man, you know, it was comical. So we had to laugh about it as they walked down the aisle.
SPEAKER_01:It wasn't even just like, you know, their walk's a little different. It was like they were almost intentionally doing something funny to like look cool.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they were. Like the dude with the swagger, you know. So if you've ever seen Seinfeld, you've seen Kramer when he's dressed up in like the fur coat and the fur hat and he's got the cane, he's walking down the street with that swagger. It's exactly what these people were doing down the aisle. Each one of them had this unique walk where they thought they were being cool, um, and instead of just walking, getting from point A to point B. But that's people, right? They're gonna do they're gonna everybody's gonna do things a little bit differently. Um, so there was this one wedding that Keegan and I did, and Keegan's job at a wedding, and well, Keegan, what is your job as weddings?
SPEAKER_01:I typically uh focus mostly on setting up for ceremony uh while you set up for the the reception. Uh I'm also just extra hands. I do lighting a lot too, setting up lighting. But yeah, my main job is rolling in our ceremony cart, you know, figuring out where the ceremony's taking place, setting up our booth, setting up the sound for it, you know, whatever else needs to happen, have our ceremony fully set up and ready, setting up mics, um, all that kind of stuff is like my first and main job. And then throughout the night, it's just being extra hands, setting up, helping you set up majority lights. Um and just, you know, helping, you know, be around the people. You know, song requests, you can come to me. If dad's, you know, busy DJing doing his thing, I'll take, you know, take quick notes. If, you know, I help release tables, just more like the small extra things.
SPEAKER_00:And one of the things is when we're setting up and tearing down, all of our stuff is in cases. And this one night we've got uh it's a long day. So we've been at this wedding for quite a while, and I'm gonna say we've been there 12, 13 hours at this point, and it's time to pack up and we are exhausted. This is a wedding where lesson learned, I did not meet with the bride and groom to do a walkthrough at the venue, and it's the only time I haven't, and it's the only time it bit me in the butt because we get there and nothing is as described. So we had to overcome and adapt and do things differently, and I lost a lot of money on that because had I known, I would have charged differently. But at the end of the day, we got the job taken care of. But at the end of that night, we're trying to load up and we didn't get to eat that day because the uh catering people said, Hey, we're gonna be here for another 30 minutes. And Keegan and I were busy, so by the time we got to go get our food, they were gone. So we are starving. It's now midnight ish or later. We're an hour and 15 hours and 20 minutes from home, and we still got to break this whole thing down. So I'm like, Keegan, and all of our stuff has covers, big canvas covers. I said, Keegan, go grab me that. Cover over there, and he goes to get the cover and he picks it up. And all I remember is he's like, Oh hell no. Okay. And he dropped this cover and he runs. And uh what was on the cover, kid?
SPEAKER_01:Dude, when I tell you that was I'm not afraid of bugs. In fact, as a kid, I was the bug boy because I had my parents or my sister and mom wouldn't want to deal with the bugs, so I have to get him out of the house every time. When I tell you, that was the biggest bug I've seen in my entire life. Like, I didn't even know bugs existed that big, much less in Oregon. That maybe in like Brazil. But seeing that, it was like a cockroach, I'm pretty sure, but it was seriously the size of a baseball dude. That thing was terrifying.
SPEAKER_00:It was so this this thing, I'm not kidding. And it was some kind of beetle, but it was probably, without exaggerating, two-thirds the size of a dollar bill, both long and wide.
SPEAKER_01:And it had those crazy antennas that were multiple inches after that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and it's holding on to this canvas bag. And I'm like, oh. So I go to kick it and I kick it, and all it does is grip. And I'm like a big man. And I kick this thing, hit it square in its ass, and all it does is hold on to the bag and be like, give me another one. So I kick it again and it rolls off and it rolls into the gravel and then writes itself. And you could literally hear it walking away through the gravel as it walks away. I'm like, that is a freaking huge bug. So anyway, we get this night loaded up, and we all get back, or he and I get back in the car. And as we're leaving, the lady's like, hey, do you want some cupcakes? And I'm like, Oh, I would love some cupcakes. I'll bring them home for my daughter because that's the kind of dad I am, right? I need to be a hero when I can. So I get these cupcakes. She's like, I don't have anything except a plate to put them on. I'm like, all right. And I had just got Keegan's suit cleaned for him. So he's got a brand new clean suit. And uh he's holding these cupcakes, and Keegan is a great kid, uh, unless he hasn't eaten and he's tired. I get very hangry.
SPEAKER_01:He gets super hangry that day for sure.
SPEAKER_00:He gets super hangry, I would say super short and like has these little pouty meltdowns. And uh so anyway, we're driving away in the car and he's holding these cupcakes on his lap for me, and they're just on this plate, and we pull up to this intersection, and the car in front of me stops suddenly. So I stop suddenly. Well, when I do, these cupcakes go flying, and they're all over the front of Keegan's suit, and he's pissed, and he's like, Oh, my clean suit! He's like, I'm throwing him up, and he opens a window, and the entire plate, and like four cupcakes, go flying out the window. And I'm like, Bro, are you okay? And he's uh, I can't believe this, I'm hungry. And so anyway, I had to get him some food to calm him down. He got some food, he went to sleep and slept for the last hour and a half on the way home, and life was good. So that was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01:That was just a long day.
SPEAKER_00:It was the biggest production we've had um was last year. We did uh Amy and Max wedding last year, and this wedding was freaking huge, guys. I'm not kidding. Um, Keegan and I were there for 18 hours uh at the wedding venue, and we had three different areas set up. We had uh a complete sound system in the middle of the woods that was set up for ceremony. We had a complete area of DJ and lighting and speakers and PA that was set up in an outdoor tent that was for the dinner and the reception area, and then we had our massive dance floor set up. We're talking pillars, moving lights, disco balls, all of the above. It was freaking awesome set up inside of this big barn. Well, also set up inside of this big barn was a ginormous stage with a huge band on it. They brought in an Eagles cover band from Canada called Eagle Eyes, and these guys are freaking amazing. They literally sound like the Eagles, and they came in, and the way that it worked is we did the ceremony, then we did that reception in the dinner tent, and then everybody moved to the barn, and the Eagles played for two hours, and then we DJ'd for two hours. What a freaking party it was! But at the end of the day, because we had to work around all these other vendors and professionals, at the end of the day, we were there 18 hours or more, and I lost three or four toenails as a result. My feet have never been so sore as they were in those little pointy shoes I was wearing that night. And uh, I limped for about a month and then I lost a bunch of toenails, and it just was stupid and sucked. But the wedding was pretty freaking phenomenal. So um, would you say that's our biggest one?
SPEAKER_01:Definitely, yeah. That was just the most production we've had for sure.
SPEAKER_00:And that one was so big that we were using, say, speakers in multiple areas or you know, whatever it was.
SPEAKER_01:So we were color-coding everything with all of our gear is now color-coded and sorted separately for that wedding.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we have like, you know, like okay, yellow tape means it's going to ceremony first, and we put black tape on top of that means it's going from ceremonia to the reception hall. So we kind of knew what everything was. We had to shuffle things around all day. What a huge production that wedding was. But it was so, so much fun. Wedding people, man. I'll tell you this story. Uh, this last weekend we had a wedding. It was our last wedding of this season, and I'll be honest with you, um, we did 13 this year, and we did 13 weddings. We were in front of about 1800 people is what we entertained this year. We were all within about a hundred and fifteen mile radius, 100 mile radius of uh where we lived, and it was a lot of fun. But I'm glad when that final wedding uh came and went, to be honest. It was a long, long season, you know. 13 weddings over a nine-week period, every weekend is booked with something. But this last wedding we did, you never know what you're gonna get with these people, you know. Sometimes you get people that, you know, a lot of times ours were packing the dance floors, and that was a lot of fun. So you got a lot of cool people that you meet. Um, overall experience with people is great, but sometimes you get like this last weekend, we had uh the mother's the bride's mother um was banned from the wedding. There was a restraining order in place, and there was undercover security throughout the venue to make sure that mom didn't show up and cause a scene at this wedding, you know, and thankfully she didn't, but it's things like that. You never really know what you're gonna run into. And then we run into these weddings where people don't know how to plan, and I may be the most wedding professional person in the house. There was a wedding this summer, and I I don't get this. And I'm gonna talk about tipping, and it's not like it's a tip culture thing. I believe that tips should be given when service goes above and beyond. And I believe that streamline the other side of that coin is charge more and don't worry about if you get tipped or not, you know, and I don't want to get tipped, but man, to feel appreciated sometimes is super important. And not because you go to the convenience store, buy a candy bar, and they want you to tip them because you know that's just what you do. I think that's ridiculous. But in our situation, if we're taking people out to happy hours, getting to know them personally, solving all of their problems, nothing is impossible at a wedding if I'm involved in it. And you know, sometimes we get to these weddings where they don't have wedding coordinators, so the only person there to run the show is me. So disc jockey. That would tell you that I jockey discs, and I'm the DJ and the MC. But what happens when there's not a wedding coordinator or a day of coordinator, and nobody knows how to line up for the wedding? Nobody knows how to send themselves down the aisle or what the timing should look like, or nobody knows how to line themselves up for the grand entrance, or when a room flip should happen, or how a room flip should happen, or where the dance floor should be located, or where the sweetheart table should be. Well, that falls on my shoulders. And because I am who I am, I don't uh I don't let that just flounder. I take control, take charge, give direction, and make this thing happen. And there was a wedding this year where that was a case. I got there and nobody knew anything other than the common sense approach. We should hang some flower baskets and give somebody, you know, give people a place to sit. But as far as like lighting up for the wedding or how to go down the aisle or anything like that, they had no, they had no uh outline or no script to follow. So I get there and I'm like, all right, who's going down the aisle first? Well, we don't know, haven't thought about it. Who is sending them down the aisle? How do I know when to play music? We haven't thought about that either. So because of this, Keegan and I jumped on board and we got some people trained up. We put a makeshift hasty team together, like a quick response team if I was still in the police department. And uh we got the wedding going, and then it was like talking about the room flip and when we should do the room flip and all these other things. So I kind of I literally walked them through every step of that wedding. And the wedding went off without a hitch. It was freaking awesome. It was a great wedding for an outdoor backdoor wedding. It was pretty phenomenal. And at the end of the night, as I'm loading up, I hear the bride's father talking to the bride's mom, and he says, Hey, are we gonna tip the DJ? And they're like, And he's like, No, are we gonna tip the DJ? And I what they're what they're trying to say is I'm standing right behind him, and I just move on, and uh they never gave a tip, and that shocked me a little bit, one, because of how closely I worked with the bride's mom to make her day a success, and how they heard she knew that I heard the question, and I just didn't understand, and I felt like you know, how could I go any more above and beyond for somebody to do the job of three or four people, not charge them for it? And at the end of the day, she made a conscious decision not to even say goodnight or thank you for that matter. Um, and I just don't get it. I just don't understand some people, you know. If I fall short, hold me accountable. If I give you an average, you know, then great. But if I go above and beyond, everybody wants to feel appreciated. Anyway, that was a weird one for me, and it kind of stuck in my crop for a minute, but I'm over it now, I think. You seem over it. Yeah, I am over it. I am. Um, anyway. Caught you crying about it yesterday. Stop it. So uh that was not what I was crying about. Anyway, so let's wrap this up, guys. So this year it's been a ton of fun uh teaching Kiki Bear and working with him and uh just getting to share this experience. You know, I started doing this when I was a lot younger, uh, even younger than Keegan, and it's something I'm still doing 40 years later or 35 years later, whatever it is, which is pretty, pretty cool. So um that's awesome. And uh so far we have nine weddings booked for next year, bro.
SPEAKER_01:Already?
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:How many you plan on taking next year?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I will probably take 12. And if we take any more, um I would I would take more, but it would have to be big ones. It would have to be worth it.
SPEAKER_01:You should try to limit down, like not take any small ones.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, I I I still think I still think people need a they still need the service, and I still want to help them, but um, yeah, you know, my and weddings aren't cheap, guys, just so you guys know. I mean, my wedding with everything that I give, and my weddings are on the oh, if I were to say cheap to expensive scale, and we're taking the$800,$1,000 DJs out of it. Take those people out. They're not even in the same category. But for a professional wedding DJ, kind of full service guy, um, and I don't know anybody else that does happy hour, I don't know anybody else that does the amount of meetings that I do and all of that stuff, but just your standard wedding DJ, those are gonna range from$2,500 to$7,000. My average wedding right now is running about$3,500, is what my average wedding is. Um, and I did 13 of them this year. So some are a little bit more, some are a little bit less, but average is probably$35. But there are those people that need those$3,000 weddings, right? They can't afford the$7,000 wedding every time. And I still want to provide a service for them, especially when I'm trying to build our business, you know? And in case you guys don't know, I say our business, I promoted Keegan last week to vice president of the company.
SPEAKER_01:Second in charge, right here.
SPEAKER_00:So congratulations, Keegan. Yeah. Uh he does not get a raise, uh, but he gets more responsibility.
SPEAKER_01:So it's a reminder there is just the two of us in this company. Yeah, there's nobody else. But I'm still co.
SPEAKER_00:You still get to be. Do you want to be just vice president or senior vice president? Oh, I feel like senior vice president's better ring to it. Yeah, it says it's gonna look better on the business cards.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Let's put that in my resume. Yeah, so senior vice president uh Keegan Turnage, he is uh he's in charge of the company. Do I get my own business cards coming up? Yeah, I'll get you some.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, sweet.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, next year I will take uh a dozen weddings and I'll try to up those a little bit. I don't want to eliminate the lower end weddings, at least not yet. I still want to build that. If I find that I'm getting more and more of the upper end or I'm catering to more of that luxury luxury crowd, uh elite crowd, then that's what I want to do. Really, that's the goal that I want, but I just gotta figure out how to get there.
SPEAKER_01:So anyway, I know the answer of how to get there. How? A few more wedding shows per year and then I'll accepting the higher paying ones.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that would work.
SPEAKER_01:Because you know, if you just take the first 12 people that come to you and you know the average is that's gonna that's just gonna be whatever it is. If you take the first 12, it you can't choose where that that margin of you know dollar is. But if you know you go to five or you know, four or whatever wedding shows, and you know, you get hundreds of people, you know, whatever it is, hundreds of couples looking at you, and then you pick out the top 12, then you have the you know that much higher price range.
SPEAKER_00:See, and that's why we have uh senior vice president. He's got this stuff dialed in. Anyway, dude, hey, well, Keegan, I love you, and uh it was been an awesome working with you this season, man. And I'm so excited to see what next year brings for us and all of our new couples. So it'll be cool. Me too. So thanks, dude. Yeah, all right, ladies and gentlemen, that is a murders to music podcast. And I just wanted to recap our season. I thought it would be cool to have my son on and talk to you guys about what we do. Some of you guys might be bored. I might have lost 87.4% of you. But what's important is I got to have this conversation with you guys, with my son, and uh tell you guys about the music side because really that is where my passion is. The passion I had for law enforcement, the attention to detail, the helping people on their important day, good or bad. That is where I have literally made the bread and butter of my life. And that is the gifts that God has given me. And now I get to use those tough people on their best day, and I get to do it with my son. And there is nothing cooler than that. So, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you guys have enjoyed this. That is a Murdered to Music Podcast.
