Thanks to everyone for making Saturday such a successful event! I don’t
have a final figure yet but I’ll report that once I have it. But overall,
We received a lot of positive feedback and I feel that the event ran very
smoothly. So thank you to all of you for making it happen. I think the
kids who participated had a great time.
- Brian & Jake
FYI – All money goes to the Mill Foundation for Kids. Butch
Driving home today, I heard Journey’s, Don’t Stop Believing. It brought a tear to my eye but I didn’t let it out. My wife was watching. Got to look tough you know! Even when she knows I’m not…all the time. She knows the story I had the privilege of coaching Little League for the past umpteen years. This is my first season not coaching in a long time. My sons are now playing AAU and High School baseball. I’m a great coach but maybe not the baseball guru to instill the necessary knowledge for a kid’s ascension to the Big Leagues. My mission was to keep kids having a great time, playing the greatest game. So back to the song… A couple of years back, we were on the wrong side of a lopsided score late in the game. All of a sudden, the kids on their own started to sing Don’t Stop Believing’. It was one of those great moments. I wish that I could tell you that they came back and won the game. We didn’t. What did happen was the kids bonded and played hard, always encouraged each other, and represented everything that you could ever want from a Little League team. Can you tell I miss it? lol Most of my Marlins have continued to play after Little League. The numbers of kids that stuck with it is amazing! Locally, most kids do not play baseball after Little League. Many of the Marlins are great athletes but I think most play because I encouraged them and taught them how to shed the pressure of the game and play with joy. We lost more than we won but we learned each game we played. The Marlins last season came one game short of winning the League Championship and many of them played on an All Star Team that won a Summer Little League Tournament Championship.
My hope is that all the kids from the teams I’ve coached (Marlins, Tsunami, Cyclones, Tar Heels, etc.) continue to play and love the game.
Marlins Nation Forever! Coach Butch
<a href=" 
” title=”Candlewood Inn, Brookfield, CT”>Candlewood Inn, Brookfield, CT
Thank you, Kristen & Michael!
{Southington,CT} – January 25, 2012 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding Marketplace, is excited to announce Butch Gray, Disc Jockey/Entertainer, LLC has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for DJ!
The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Butch Gray, Disc Jockey/Entertainer, LLC was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.
Butch Gray, Disc Jockey/Entertainer, LLC is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.
“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Butch Gray, Disc Jockey/Entertainer, LLC for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”
We are happy to announce that Butch Gray, Disc Jockey/Entertainer, LLC is one of the very best DJs within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ for 2012.
For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/butch-gray-disc-jockeyentertainer-llc-southington/45e7b899830488d6.ht.
We are excited to announce Butch Gray, Disc Jockey/Entertainer, LLC has won the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012. This prestigious award is determined by reviews from past clients and recognizes the top 5 percent of local Wedding Professionals from the WeddingWire Network.
“My wife and I hired Butch to DJ our wedding reception. Our request to Butch was that he be like the bass in jazz — you don’t always notice when it’s there, but you’d know if it was missing. Butch understood what we meant. He made sure that he was not the center of attention — for reasons good or bad — but rather that my wife and I were. He played the music we requested, he read our guests well and put on the right piece at the right time. His equipment was top-rate; the room was full of sound and light, but it wasn’t overwhelming. Our guests had a great time in large part because of Butch, but without necessarily appreciating how much of a role Butch played. That’s exactly what we wanted. Thanks, Butch.”
Congratulations Andrew and Kate! Arriving 3 hours early I had some time to take pictures of the area and a few other oddities. Enjoy.
My clients probably think it’s a sales spiel that I use when I tell them I’ve traveled through blizzards to DJ a bar mitzvah. It’s not…March 1993, my wife, pregnant with our first child, and I took our two vehicles to the Tower Ridge Country Club in Simsbury, CT. She drove because the company I rented vehicles from was closed because of the storm. My wife is awesome!
Guests of the bar mitzvah rented every 4 wheel drive vehicle available at Bradley Memorial Airport and shuttled all of the guests to the event.
This Sunday was a little different. My wife was worried about me leaving this Sunday. It looked very threatening when I left 5 hours early for the usual 45 minute trip. A huge branch was ripped from one of our beautiful trees and she took it as a sign from the Big Guy Upstairs! I looked into my wife’s beautiful blue eyes and told her, “Baby doll relax! DJ Butch Gray has got this all figured out.” (At that moment, I was really telling her the truth. When I reached exit 11 later, I realized it was total B.S.!)
I told her that my client says it’s just a light rain in Monroe, CT with an occasional wind gust. He really did write this in his email. How bad can it be, I asked myself. Meeting with my clients a week ago and going through the details a few days ago, they seemed very level headed and would not put me in harms way…
Well, I got on the highway after filling up at BJ’s ($3.66/gallon) and passing by Shell ($4.39/gallon). Is that price gouging??? McDonalds and most everything else is closed. No coffee for the road trip today.
There were not many cars to contend with on the highway and the trip on I84 was really not bad. But when I reached Monroe, I knew that I was not in Kansas anymore. Once I got off of exit 11, it really did remind me of that black and white scene from the Wizard of Oz. Trees were down and roads were shut. My trusty GPS guided me when I avoided obstacles and traveled down the unfamiliar streets. Do my eyes and ears deceive me or is that really a flying monkey shouting obscenities at me?lol
The Waterview in Monroe is about 5 miles from exit 11 but it seemed like I travelled a lot further today. Maybe due to the numerous re-routing and having to go under a huge tree supported by a power line. Fun! I actually almost drove by the Waterview because I didnt recognize the landscape. Trees lining the main entrance to the facility were knocked down! The exit had to serve as the main entrance.
Admittedly, there was only a gentle breeze and a light rain as I unloaded my equipment from the van. A relaxing hum from a huge generator powering the facility reassured me that I would be performing today. That’s a good thing. It would have been very upsetting to me if after all this effort, the event was cancelled.
Once inside, I met with the groom -to-be, his family, and the Waterview crew. We joked about the weather and crossed our fingers that guests would attend. The groom told me that he got a call from the Fire Chief telling them that a tree had fallen on their new house. Also, if the Wedding did not go on today, the venue would not return any of their money.
We never discussed my trip to Monroe. Even though I risked it a little, it was important for me to be here. They had enough going on in their world and they need me to rock it more than they will ever realize!
Thirty one of the one hundred confirmed guests arrived, the generator broke down for about 20 minutes, some staff were not able to get to the facility from their homes but the Wedding and Reception were terrific.
With the huge Ballroom and 31 guests, I invited everyone to gather around the Bride and Groom for their first dance. A moment that the Bride said was “Perfect!” when she hugged me during dinner.
All of their guests were not able to make it but the bride and groom spent more time with the ones that did. During cocktail hour, the power went down and I walked around with my iPhone playing music and joking around with the guests. They felt at ease requesting music because we knew each other! Serving the meal took a little longer but I opened up the dance floor between courses and everyone had a great time.
Am I crazy for going through the aftermath of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene? Maybe a little but I love to be there for people at the moment I’m needed the most!
