Karaoke, which people ask us for
Reception karaoke, in the room rather than off in a corner.
It comes up every season. Until now our answer was that we could hand somebody a microphone and hope for the best, which is not the same thing as a karaoke setup run by a person whose job it is.
The way couples want it is a portion of the night, not the whole night - usually the last thirty minutes to an hour, once the dance floor has had its run. That is the right instinct. The reception stays a reception, and then it turns into something else on purpose.
It suits our weddings particularly well. Ours tend to be a bit smaller and a lot less formal, and karaoke lands better in a relaxed room than a starched one. It also picks up the guests who were never going to dance - the back table, the friends having a great night who are not getting up. That is a real group at every wedding and most of the night has nothing for them.
The sketch portraits do two jobs at once
The plotter arm.
This is not a screen and a printer. A robotic arm draws each portrait onto card in pen, while the guest stands there watching it happen. The drawing is the entertainment; the card is what they take home.
That is the useful part when you are keeping your vendor list short. It is one booking covering both the entertainment and the favours, and it fills the dead stretch - cocktail hour, or the gap while you are away having photos taken.
About a minute per guest, so the queue keeps moving. It runs at the side of the room and needs nothing from us.
The basics
- Who
- Calvin
- Company
- Extreme Mobile Entertainment
- Based
- Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
- Covers
- Jacksonville and St. Johns County
- For weddings
- Karaoke setup, robotic sketch portraits
- Also does
- Laser tag, mini golf, game show, LED furniture
- Phone
- 661-440-3397
The rest of his kit is for a different party
Laser tag, mobile mini golf, a game show. Those are built for corporate events and team building, which is most of what he does, and they are a strange fit for a reception.
Where they do work is the night before. A welcome party or a rehearsal dinner is a looser room than the wedding, and if you have a lot of kids or a lot of cousins, that is the event to put them in.
One thing we are not sending you to him for: he offers photo booths and so do we. Ours is on the photo booth page. Seemed better to say that than quietly leave it off the list.
Do you need any of this?
Plenty of weddings do not, and we would rather say so. A room that works, food people like, and a dance floor is a full evening on its own.
It earns its place when the night has gaps in it - a long cocktail hour, a big gap between ceremony and reception, or a guest list where a lot of people are not dancers. Those are the nights where one more thing in the room is the difference between guests staying and guests heading to their cars early.