My Deejay is MyDeejay

on Apr 26 in Deejay

A great deejay makes a great party. There are some great deejays in this town, and many of my favorites are with MyDeejay. I asked Jennifer Reitmeyer, president of MyDeejay, to tell me a few things about what makes them so awesome.

Describe your main business and wedding services offered.
MyDeejay provides wedding disc jockeys to couples who are passionate about music and value the importance of a great party atmosphere and a packed dance floor. All our DJs are available through our company and are creative, artistic, positive and down-to-earth. We’re really thrilled about the industry accolades we’ve received, but the glowing reviews and thank-you notes from clients are way more rewarding! It’s amazing to know we’ve made someone’s wedding all the more magical.

Photo by Amy Raab Photography

What is special about your business?

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Washingtonian Best Of

on Apr 20 in Awards/Honors, Baltimore Wedding, Corporate Video, Deejay, Destination Weddings, Wedding Cake, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Planner, wedding photographer, wedding video

I was pleased, once again, to be included in Washingtonian Magazine’s Best Wedding Vendor list as one of the best wedding videographers in the DC Metro area. It is an honor to be included, especially considering the company.

I want to take a moment to call out some of my good friends who are on the list with me. I love working with the best, and these are all wonderful people and companies who will make your wedding day unforgettable when you work with them!

Bridal Attire:
Blush Bridal Boutique
7332 Atlas Walk Way, Gainesville, Virginia
T: 703-753-8303

Punk Rock Bride
320 3rd St., NE, Washington, District of Columbia
T: 202-506-3126

Cakes:
Kendall’s Cakes
Falls Church, Virginia
T: 703-536-2200

Florists:
Elegance & Simplicity
Bethesda, Maryland
T: 800-768-8814

Holly Heider Chapple Flowers
Leesburg, Virginia
T: 703-777-8227

Music & Entertainment
MyDeejay
Columbia, Maryland
T: 888-438-6935

MSE Productions
Reston, Virginia
T: 703-620-5554

Aaron Couch (Disc Jockeys On Call)
Bethesda, Maryland
T: 301-907-9097

Photographers
K. Thompson Photography
Alexandria, Virginia
T: 703-447-0834

Documentary Associates
Bethesda, Maryland
T: 301-758-3085

The Observatory
Arlington, Virginia
T: 877-618-3561

Genevieve Leiper Photography
Ashburn, Virginia
T: 703-200-0428

Kristi Odom Photography
Reston, Virginia
T: 703-390-1209

Wedding Planners:
For All Occasions
Fairfax, Virginia
T: 703-222-5912

Elegance & Simplicity
Bethesda, Maryland
T: 800-768-8814

Wedding Reception at Meridian House

on Mar 22 in Wedding Planner, wedding photographer, wedding video

Jessica Pi Productions recently finished an HD wedding video for a couple who held their reception at the beautiful Meridian House. You can see some of the beautiful setting in this short video.

Michael Alvarez, an associate videographer with Jessica Pi, was the videographer on site for this wedding. In addition to getting to capture fabulous footage of a great couple in a great setting, Mike also got to work with two very talented wedding vendors - Myrna Hyman, of For All Occasions, and Andrea Jacobson of The Observatory.

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Happy Pi Day

on Mar 14 in wedding video

I know it is silly, but I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Pi Day - 3.14.

My maiden name is Piscitelli and it’s hard to spell and to pronounce, which is where I got the idea for “Pi.” Turns out, pronunciation on that isn’t so obvious either. Occasionally people ask how to pronounce the “Pi” in Jessica Pi Productions and I always say “like Pi, 3.14.” I might get a better reaction if I just said “like pie, the yummy stuff you eat,” but, being a stickler for spelling, I try to reference the correct term.

Happy Pi Day from Jessica Pi Productions!

Jessica Pi Productions Got Married

on Feb 14 in wedding video

By Jessica Piscitelli Robinson

Mike and I both got married last year - just not to each other! Mike is an associate videographer here at Jessica Pi Productions. He shoots a lot of weddings for me and always does a great job. Last year’s dual weddings worked out really well because we essentially swapped services. I videotaped his wedding and he videotaped mine. We both edited our own videos.

Here is a short video of Mike’s wedding ceremony.

Christina was such a beautiful bride and I loved their vows! The ceremony and reception were both at the lovely Thomas Birkby House. Mike Read More

Jessica Piscitelli Got Married - Part 2

on Jan 17 in Deejay, Wedding, Wedding Cake, wedding photographer, wedding video

In my previous post about my fantastic wedding team, I focused on pre-ceremony and ceremony, with a little touch of reception, but this blog is really going to focus a lot on what happened after we said “I do!”

After the wedding ceremony, we had our photo/video session.  It’s generally referred to as the photo session/cocktail hour, but since video plays such an integral roll, especially in my wedding, I’ll call it the photo/video session.

Kristi Odom, of Kristi Odom Photography was a fantastic photographer to work with.  Not only did I love the end result - the photos I have and am sharing on these blogs - but, and maybe more importantly, she was a pleasure to work with on the day of.  Of course I have to remember I wasn’t “working with” her that day, as I have done on many weddings.  I was simply the subject of her work, but she, and her assistant, Christopher Yost, were both fun to be around, professional, and didn’t  get in the way of anything we were doing that day - yet somehow came back with great photos.

Then, of course, there is my video.  I obviously couldn’t shoot this one myself so I used my associate videographer, Mike Alvarez, to capture the day.

I did edit the video myself, I must admit, but he gave me so many great shots to work with and I was so excited when I saw the footage.  I also have to confess that I cried when I watched the video of Bart and I saying our vows.  There is something about reliving that moment, something about the way video brings that day to life, that is moving in the way nothing else can be.

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Jessica Piscitelli Got Married - Part 1

on Jan 11 in Deejay, Wedding, Wedding Cake, Wedding Flowers, wedding photographer, wedding video

I fell in love with a wonderful man.  He gave me a beautiful ring in return for my hand.  That was the easy part.  Planning the wedding was a little more complicated.

As you can imagine, I have a lot of friends who work in the wedding industry, and only one wedding to go around.  If I could, and my now husband would put up with it, I would get married three times at least just to be able to work with all the wonderful vendors I know in this area.  Alas, I am sure he would not put up with it and so I had to choose.  It was very difficult, but I ended up with the best wedding team a girl could ever hope for.

I have listed everyone I worked with with at the end of this post.  They were all fabulous and I highly recommend every one of them, so please follow links to their websites and hire them for all of your weddings (especially if you are lucky enough to have three or more!).

But I need to say a few words about all of them, because it really was a fantastic wedding and I hardly had to do anything but show up.  Turns out I have a lot to say, so this blog is going to come in part 1 and part 2.

First of all, my hair and makeup team.  I am not a girlie girl and you don’t want to let me near a hair dryer or a makeup kit, so I knew I needed some extra help.  I have been going to Jennifer Erk Reed, at Studio 61, for about five years.  I first got her card at a wedding I was videotaping because she did such a fantastic job on the bride’s hair.  She does a great job cutting and coloring my hair on a regular basis, but she really blew it out of the park with the hair style for my wedding!  She also did the mother of the groom’s hair, who looked gorgeous from head to toe, but especially the head.

And, of course, I loved my makeup as well.  It was certainly not something I could’ve done myself, so I hired the lovely and talented Kim Giammaria, with Beauty Mark.  Even though I was running late due to - you guessed it - traffic, she was very calm helping get my makeup done half an hour before my ceremony was going to start, and it looked great the whole day through.

In the following video, I made sure to include live audio from both the procession and the recession because Eric Waters, a guitarist with MSE Productions, did such a fantastic job.  I married a Robinson so the recession song was particularly key and, even though it wasn’t on his playlist, he learned it especially for my wedding.

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Jewish Wedding at Sixth & I

on Dec 14 in Awards/Honors, Baltimore Wedding, Corporate Video, Deejay, Destination Weddings, Wedding Cake, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Planner, wedding photographer, wedding video

I recently finished a wedding video that was jam packed with so many of my favorite things - Sixth & I, Elegance & Simplicity, Tom Van Veen, of Documentary Associates, and the Decatur House. You can see from this short recap some of the highlights of the ketubah signing, the ceremony, and the reception.

The ketubah signing, bedeken and ceremony were at historic Sixth & I. It’s such a great place to have a ceremony and the chuppah was gorgeous. The flowers, provided by Elegance & Simplicity, were, if course, beautiful. Elegance & Simplicity also did the wedding planning, so everything ran on track.

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Fall Wedding at the Omni Shoreham

on Dec 06 in Wedding, Wedding Planner, wedding video

I sent the bride and groom their Blu-Ray discs over two weeks ago. Now, it isn’t always the case that I hear back right away. Sometimes I never hear back. Different people respond differently. But I was so excited when I finished this wedding. It was beautiful in so many ways, and I was very sad to not hear anything.

And then my phone rang. It was the bride. She had been out of town and had only just watched the video the night before. After watching it “My husband told me to call Jessica right away and tell her how much we love the video. We do, Jessica. It’s perfect. We love it!”

I love hearing that. It’s why I do weddings.
Here’s a short version of their recap so you can see a little of what made them so happy.

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Live Streaming in Lieu of Catering

on Nov 03 in Deejay, Wedding Flowers, wedding video

A second wedding for both the bride and groom, this couple wanted to keep costs down, keep the event simple, but still include friends and family in their wedding ceremony. How to do all that? Simple, broadcast the event live.

To live stream the event, I set up one camera to be the live feed to the web, for all the friends and family tuning in at home. I also videotaped with a second camera, which gave me more flexibility for editing later. When you live stream, you need the camera to be connected to a computer which is online, so that camera really can’t move around much. Since the bride and groom also wanted their video edited, I recorded both the footage from the streaming camera as well as from a second, mobile, camera.

The result? Well, here’s what they had to say:
“I could not imagine a better videography vendor! Jessica provided top-notch quality, consultative, personal, creative, and timely service. Through the entire process of the initial planning sessions to logistics to the big day to the final product of a lovely video, everything was smooth. My husband and I watched the video and cried and laughed over and over when we received it, and we will enjoy it for years to come. I will recommend Jessica Pi Productions to anyone who needs a videographer.”
-Stacy & Damian

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