By Helena Tavares Kennedy

If you check out Firedog Entertainment LLC’s website, you’ll notice their modern vibe, a host of information about the DJs and a complete list of FAQs that answer many questions brides and grooms want to know before they hire their wedding DJ service.

What you won’t find is some really cool and interesting information about Firedog Entertainment, like the fact that they handle about 25 events each year with 90% of them being weddings. So if you are looking for DJs that know weddings, these are your guys - DJ Joe Peralis, who is also the owner of the business, and DJ Craig Noto are the ones who will handle your wedding entertainment needs.

With tons of experience (Noto was a radio DJ and Peralis was a Club DJ both here and in Nebraska), Firedog Entertainment offers high tech DJ and music entertainment services. This includes an impressive digital music library of over 250,000 songs from almost any time period and type of music, so brides and grooms have a huge range of music to choose from. If you have a particular song you want played at your wedding, but it’s somehow not on their list of over 150,000, don’t worry! Firedog Entertainment will buy that song for your wedding, assuming it’s commercially available, so that you can have that special song on your special day.

Firedog Entertainment also offers fun photo booths, lighting design and more, with photo booths being an option that many weddings are now including in their packages.

One of the most popular requests they get from wedding clients are to do sound and music for outdoor ceremonies, which makes sense given the increased number of weddings lately at local wineries. They also can handle the wedding party introductions and making all the announcements, which is great given their former college radio DJ experience and their comfortableness in front of a microphone. “It is shocking how many other companies out there charge extra for these services or are not comfortable doing them,” said DJ Craig. “As a former college radio DJ, if you could not talk on the microphone, you did not last long on air.”

Not all wedding requests are normal or the usual, but Firedog Entertainment is prepared and customizes everything they can to your wedding and your specific requests – they will even dress how you want them to dress! “I once had a wedding that was beach themed. Instead of our usual dress the couple had me in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts,” said DJ Craig.

They also spend time to get to know you and your unique requests so you get exactly what you hope for on your wedding day. “I had a client that was a big Lakers fan; he wanted the grand entrance to be a basketball game intro,” said DJ Joe. “What I pictured and what he actually wanted was way off, as we talked about it and I understood what he wanted I explained the amount of time it would take for the intros so we cut the intros down to a more manageable time frame.”

So what advice do these experienced DJs have for you as you plan your wedding? “Take the time to meet your DJ before your hire them,” said DJ Joe. “You can tell a lot about what you are going to get in person, as opposed to over the phone. Besides, it is what we are here for and just a part of what we do.” DJ Craig’s advice is to get to know your DJ and share what your vision is for your wedding day. “We take the time to find out exactly what clients want and then do our very best to deliver it,” said DJ Craig.

There are a lot of DJs to choose from out there and most of them say they are different and they listen to their clients, but what makes Firedog Entertainment unique? DJ Joe said, “For us it is being memorable and relatable - by sitting down and meeting us you get to see what our personalities are like and if we will fit, how we are excited to be talking to you about YOUR event and what YOUR vision is. We try to find out about you as a couple and your friends and family to incorporate this into your dream day. Sure, we can do this over the phone but meet with us in person and you will see why we are different.”

DJ Craig said “No two customers are ever the same. The biggest myth in customer service is to treat the customer how you would want to be treated. No!! You take the time to get to know your customers and you treat them the way THEY want to be treated. That is why our motto says ‘Because YOU are that important!’”

To get more information about Firedog Entertainment, you can check out their website: firedogentertainment.com.

Helena Tavares Kennedy (hkennedy@princewilliamliving.com), a longtime Prince William County resident, is a freelance writer and communications consultant a