H: Our DJ for sure and certain

Remember when we were talking about DIYing the music?

Yyyyyyyeah, we sorta knew going in that it would be a lot to ask our guests to do, and we weren't that interested asking our guests to do anything during our wedding and subsequent reception. Likewise, we weren't interested in manning the iTunes either, which led us to the realization that DIYing this particular aspect of our wedding was not going to work out. This totally stressed us out considering that we have a budget so tight that you could bounce a quarter off it (though not literally I'm afraid...we need that quarter). When we met with Kelly at Monte Verde Inn, she asked us if we have a DJ in mind. We said no, that we were planning to do that ourselves. She raised an eyebrow and quickly dismissed us, saying something about "we'll check with Joe". Joe. Who's Joe? Oh, he's the DJ on the preferred vendors list. Okie dokie.

Flash forward a few months and our amazing photographer Jessica emails us to ask if we'd booked Joe yet. Who is Joe? Oh, he's the DJ on her preferred vendors list, too. I emailed her back to say that, no we haven't but did she think he'd be willing to negotiate his prices? He answered me back that day saying that he got my information from Jessica, and yes he would, and would we like to meet? So we did at our preferred meeting-with-vendors place (Peet's Coffee).

It turns out that if you googled "rude, over-priced, annoying, egotistical, narcissitic, claw-my-face-off, not to mention mean" (anything really, as long as it's vile), the direct antonym of the result would most definitely - without question - be Joe. Seriously, this dude should take his rightful place in the Encyclopedia under "awesome". Not only does he only work by referral, not only has he been doing this for over 20 years, not only do people rave about him, not only is he extremely reasonably priced, but he is the nicest guy I think I've ever met. And I've met some! His attitude, his demeanor, his philosophy, everything about this man screamed "YES!"

And the best part of all of this? The negotiation. I've never had to negotiate a price before, so I didn't know how this would work, but I felt comfortable enough with Joe to tell him so. So he said, okay, let's talk about that. He then proceeded to list off all the stuff that he does at weddings and how much it costs. He then asked what we could do. I mumbled no more than a grand. His response?

"Oh. I was going to say $900".

!!!!

Who does that?

Joe does that. Joe of SJ's Disc Jockey. OUR Disc Jockey! The one that I just sent a signed contract to.

This is going to be the most rockin' shindig ever.