Tell me a little bit about your business!
We at Mike Medved Weddings are very thankful to be the soundtrack during your entire wedding day! From the ceremony to the reception, live music, or the artist’s recorded version of the song, microphones and speakers, dance floor lighting and uplighting, Mike and his excellent roster of musicians and DJs have it all covered. With 12 years of experience and hundreds of incredible reviews, we absolutely love working for couples on the most important day of their lives.
If you are planning a massive reception or a small gathering, we are well suited for Pittsburgh’s biggest and most intimate spaces. We have worked 25-person weddings at Kentuck Knob and 300-person weddings at Hotel Monaco and the Omni William Penn Hotel. Mike got into the wedding world by accident at 22-years old. After college, Mike began performing at his best friends’ ceremonies, cocktail hours, and for their first dances. The guests at those first weddings asked Mike to work for them the following year and Mike fell in love with working for couples on their wedding day! Over time, Mike has added some of the most talented musicians and DJs in Pittsburgh to give couples the ability to use the service that Mike has designed when he is already booked.
We are often performing around the city and we would love to meet you! Come out to Narcisi Winery in Gibsonia or Apericena in Upper St. Clair and see a live show and say hello sometime!
What makes your work unique?
We are very proud of the fact that we can handle every music and sound system need that you may have throughout your entire wedding day. When you work with Mike and his team, every detail, from start to finish, is planned with Mike. You do not have to coordinate ceremony music details with one vendor and then reception details with a different vendor. With us, there is no need to explain the venue to multiple companies. We really love that we get to alleviate some of the planning and communication stress that can come along with working with multiple music vendors for your ceremony and your reception.
We also love that we get to bring the emotion of live music to your wedding day. There’s really nothing like a song being played live during your walk down the aisle, your fist dance, or throughout cocktail hour.
What is your ideal client like?
We enjoy working with all couples and we are especially fond of couples who love music. Learning new music for couples is one of our favorite things to do and we encourage our couples to request songs for their special moments and cocktail hour. While we do provide sample song lists for inspiration, we do not require couples to choose songs from those lists. We have been learning new songs for couples for years and we do not upcharge for songs we have to learn. Our main purpose as a company is to provide couples with a personal and customizable service on their wedding day.
How do you get to know a couple’s taste in music?
We get to know a couple’s taste in music during our intro phone conversation and then again during the planning process. We use a form that Mike has crafted over the years to help everyone organize and plan the important details for each wedding.
How do you motivate guests to get on the dance floor?
We let the music do the talking. You will never see us wearing a Britney Spears style headset mic, parading around the venue, and encouraging people to dance while we do the moonwalk. Your wedding day is your big day, and we avoid the cringe and the attention grabbing.
We love getting to know you throughout the months that we are planning the wedding. During that time, we will discuss the style of music that you and your friends and family love. We will also decide if you’d like to open the dance floor with a fast dance or a slow dance, which caters to different styles of couples and guests. Opening the night with a slow song encourages both your older family members and all of your friends to join you on the dance floor immediately, and once there, they are more likely to stay on the floor when we follow up with a fast song. If the age range of your guests is overall a bit younger, or you’d just like to open the dance floor with a high energy track despite having some older relatives in attendance, we will pick some absolute bangers to start the night off. In 12 years, we’ve never had a less than packed dance floor and we have gained an incredible amount of experience that helps us keep it that way.
How would you describe your emcee style?
Simple and classy. For example, when it is time to cut the cake, we will lower the music a bit and say, “Ladies and gentlemen, please direct your attention to the cake table. It is time for the cutting of the cake,” and we will turn the microphone off until the photographer is done getting photos and you’ve had a chance to share your special moment. We will not be trampling on that moment by saying through the PA system, “Will they be naughty or nice?” or “Is someone getting cake in their face?!” or any other distracting comment. At the conclusion of the cutting of the cake, we will say, “One more time for Mr. and Mrs. _____” and fade the music back in or transition to parent dances. That’s not to say that we don’t help provide energy from the microphone. We absolutely do, but we do that naturally and during moments like your wedding party introduction and your grand entrance to your reception!
