Carlysle Entertainment

ture. Most of our vendors were wedding professionals we became friends with, or knew from working together at other weddings, including Bill, our DJ, who I met when I was working at my very first job as a server for a restaurant & catering venue. He was also the DJ at my older brother's wedding, then my younger sister, two cousins, and a few other friends’ weddings before we finally had him DJ our wedding almost 14 years later. We both enjoy a wide range of music and gave Bill a rather long list of songs that he took the time to go over with us during one of our planning meetings so we could group together a list of must play songs and songs that could be used during cocktails, dinner, and dancing. He also mentioned that he made up a list of the first dance songs from each of the other weddings and asked if we would mind if he ended up including a few of them during dinner. We were having a multi course formal seated dinner and were hoping guests would get up and dance between courses if they wanted. Bill’s real plan was to include each of those first dance songs into the dinner list which created several special moments. Later he also used some dance songs that he found to be on at least a few of the must play lists from those weddings that were also on our list that really helped set the mood for dancing all night.

also help us coordinate our ceremony and reception, facilitate a surprise appearance by Elvis to marry us, and later perform one of his Vegas sets during dinner leading into our second dance, then, since Elvis could not perform weddings outside of Vegas or Graceland, Bill ultimately become an ordained Dudeist Priest of the Church of The Latter Day Dude to be the real officiant for our ceremony. Along with all that Bill also worked through our eclectic song list that ranged from Vegas Lounge, Country, and Classic Rock to Pat Travers, Usher, LMFAO, Disturbed, and Remmstein. At 58 & 60 years old we both had our own ideas for how we wanted our wedding, and Bill found a way to blend them together for a perfect afternoon and evening with our families and friends.

g our experience the best he could and made it unique to our experience. He had helpful advice in the time leading up to the event about the music and the overall flow of the event. The night of the wedding he kept the dance floor alive from when it opened to the end of the night. Overall a fantastic experience.

hrough the ceremony and reception. They also provided amber colored up lights for around the ballroom, and a different type of up lights mixed in around the dance floor end of the room that switched from a solid color to a dance mode, changing colors with the music. Those lights really added a little flair to the party atmosphere without making it look like we were in a club. What impressed us even more was how Bill utilized our very long song list to include songs that were just right for cocktails and dinner, while saving some of the best for later to keep everyone dancing. We always felt as if Bill wanted to go an extra step to make our wedding even better than we expected, and it was.

That was exactly what we were looking for because neither of us had been to many weddings before ours and we needed some guidance. We exchanged a few emails with Bill Marsh and he gave us very detailed answers to our questions, so we decided to schedule a virtual meeting with him. In the meeting Bill was more than willing to not just answer our questions but offer suggestions and help us see how our wedding reception would flow from the formalities to a fun party. He warned us that time would fly by and recommended we add an hour to the reception if we wanted to have a few moments to just relax and not worry about what was next. It was exactly how we wanted our wedding reception to be, but we did not even know that until Bill helped us realize that.

an easy choice to book him for our wedding. We are keeping Bill in the family because my husband's parents recently booked him to DJ their 40th anniversary party next year and his sister hopes to have him DJ her wedding when she and her fiancé finally settle on a date.

hemed reception. We have a small farm property with a big pond that we call Lake Minnetonka, so that is where we had our ceremony and reception under a huge tent that Carlysle Entertainment turned into our Purple Rain Paradise with a combination lighting and drapery with glass beading hanging down from the tent ceiling and sides. They also used purple and white lights to light up several of the large trees we have around the property. We only gave Bill a list of about 20 songs including our original first dance and our "new second first dance" as he called it, but he had everyone dancing for several hours including over an hour past the planned end time. Hopefully we will be able to have him DJ our next milestone event when we both turn 60 in the same month as our 30th anniversary.

ere to start. I am not going to say much about the horrible experience we had trying to communicate with them, but eventually we were done trying and asked our venue's catering coordinator if she had any advice. She understood our concerns and gave us a list with three DJs on it. The first one we called was Bill Marsh at Carlysle Entertainment and not only did he pick up the phone and answer several questions we had for him, he also offered to set up a Zoom meeting for us later that evening after learning our wedding was just a few months away. From that moment, we knew we wanted to book him and after the Zoom meeting he offered to meet us at the venue to see how different lighting colors would look in the room before we decided to add them into the contract. A week later we had another Zoom meeting for him to help us with some song selections and then a final planning meeting a few weeks before the wedding. We went from being ghosted to feeling like we were the only wedding on Carlysle Entertainment's schedule, and it came as no surprise that we were able to relax and enjoy an amazing wedding night.

l talking about how much fun both of our weddings were even though they were in very unique settings. We had a rather plain venue, so we wanted to use some drapery and lighting to hide a couple of ugly walls. When we walked into the room for some group photos before the ceremony it looked like we walked into a winter wonderland. Later while we were dancing, Bill had some of the up lights set to change colors as if they were almost literally dancing to the music with everyone, and it definitely enhanced the party vibe we wanted. There are lots of DJs to choose from, but we know there are very few that are as passionate about their craft and dedicated to the couples they serve as Bill, and we are thrilled to know he will be the DJ at my sister's wedding next October.

-- very personal. Bill Marsh did just that. He was fantastic. He worked with us to make sure the processional, the background music, and the dance music were all exactly what we wanted. Bill has a vast music library; and if he didn’t have a song we requested, he went and got it. Everything was perfect and memorable. Thank you, Carlysle Entertainment, for helping to make our wedding a perfect day!

video chat he was having with Bill from Carlysle Entertainment, who was our original wedding DJ, and could tell they were talking about birthday party plans. It turned out that was intentional to throw me off the real plan, and Bill did most of the coordinating with the other wedding related vendors to help keep the surprise even more secret. As we walked into the dimly lit venue, I was expecting the lights to come on and the obligatory SURPRISE! However, the real surprise was that everyone was seated at their tables holding candles and Bill began playing the string quartet version of "At Last" that was the same song we walked down the aisle together for our wedding ceremony. This time we just went to the center of the dance floor and as we did everyone gathered around us with their candles for the ceremony and then instead of playing our recessional song from the wedding, Bill played our first dance and created the most amazing moment. Then he played our recessional song, which was Signed, Sealed, Delivered, by Stevie Wonder and we were dancing and mingling with everyone for the rest of the night. Bill & My husband collaborated to not only surprise me, which is nearly impossible, but also create an unbelievably amazing party.

e wedding couple intended for one reason or another. It was important to us that we not feel rushed, be surrounded by our families and friends, and have plenty of time to enjoy the entire day not just savor a few special moments. My cousin is a corporate event planner and helped us achieve those goals with the help from her favorite DJ, Bill Marsh from Carlysle Entertainment. We booked a venue that only hosted one wedding per weekend and a catering company that did not go crazy when we said we wanted to have a laid back six hour reception. Bill worked with us to create several different phases of music for the day to compliment the spread out timeline and by the end of the evening more than half of our guests were gathered in a big circle as we enjoyed out last dance which is just what we wanted.

ers referred them to the company for their first big holiday party after they did her wedding. Bill was our DJ and, in some ways, also our coordinator because our wedding was not at a typical wedding venue. Whenever I had questions or needed something Bill was quick to respond with answers and solutions or recommendations for services and items Carlysle Entertainment could not provide directly. He also guided us through planning out our timeline and of course the song selections for our ceremony and reception. Thanks to Bill we were able to enjoy our wedding day with our family and friends, including my co-worker and her wife who Bill knew would be there, so he played their first dance during dinner. I guess that was a popular first dance song because several other couples got up to dance and I do not think the dance floor was ever empty again for the rest of the reception.

the other venues we visited so we checked out their reviews and decided to send them an email. Bill Marsh responded to our email quickly and asked us to call him at our convenience so we called that evening. After answering several of our questions on the phone for about 20 minutes he offered to schedule a time for us to meet in person or virtually on Zoom, and I jokingly said why not do that now. The next thing I know Bill sent us a Zoom link and we spent the next hour or so talking about the things Carlysle Entertainment could do for our wedding and the next day we booked Bill to be our DJ. Bill lived up to all of the great things other people said about him in their reviews and helped us keep our sanity through the random ups and downs of planning our wedding. The day of our wedding was a blur but we are constantly reminded how much fun everyone had ever since then and my sister in law already booked Carlysle Entertainment for her wedding next summer.

ith Bill, he said he was familiar with our venue and that the cover photo from the Carlysle Entertainment Facebook page was from the first wedding he did there. It looked nothing like our venue at first but when he sent us the before and after photos, we were amazed how some white drapery and up lights could completely transform the room. We never even considered that our wedding DJ would also help us with decorating our venue, but it quickly became obvious that we would be getting a lot more than just a wedding DJ after meeting with Bill in person. We even booked a photo booth that could also make video greetings from everyone that turned out to be a lot more fun than we expected. We definitely recommend Bill Marsh and Carlysle Entertainment to anyone looking for an outstanding wedding DJ and so much more.

that he offered to host on Zoom after learning we lived in Richmond. From the first time we talked it was obvious that Bill really enjoys weddings and was always willing to answer questions, share ideas, and offer solutions whenever we reached out to him. He even helped us with our floor plan and timeline because the venue coordinator would not be assigned to us until a couple weeks before our wedding. We had a small group of guests but everyone had a great time and many of them stayed on the dance floor with us right up to the very end when Bill had them make a circle for us to begin the last dance. I am sure the circle for the last dance is nothing new but Bill put a little extra twist on it that created a perfect moment. We absolutely recommend Carlysle Entertainment to anyone looking for an outstanding wedding DJ and be sure to ask about the last dance circle.

ts, we really owe most of it to our DJ, Bill Marsh from Carlysle Entertainment. Bill was the DJ at a co-worker's wedding that was the first "wedding date" my husband and I went on together, only a few months after we had our first real date. We met at a bar near my office that had weekly bar trivia and music bingo nights on rival teams of regulars. When we booked Bill in 2019 for our 2020 wedding we had no idea how crazy things were about to become but he was a calm reassuring guide though the many months of chaos that ensued. As soon as it became obvious that we were not going to be back to normal any time soon, we were quick to reschedule our wedding to 2022 because our venue had the original Saturday we wanted available, and Carlysle Entertainment was incredibly accommodating in the rescheduling process. We are not big dancers but love to go out and have fun at our favorite local hangouts. When we talked with Bill about this and brought up where we met, he suggested we include a wedding version of bar trivia into the cocktails and dinner portion of our reception and have music bingo going through the whole reception using the bingo cards as our place cards. Since we had a couple extra years to work on our song lists, we had more than enough songs to fill the bingo cards so in the end they were all winning cards as long as people kept track of the songs being played. Bill also suggested using our First Dance song as the Free Spot in the middle and included our other formal songs on every card. We also added giant Jenga and giant Connect Four that were set up on the patio with fire pits so between the games, trivia, bingo, and even dancing there was something for everyone to enjoy all night.

e. This turned out to be incredibly helpful because our DJ, Bill Marsh, was always willing to answer any questions we had, offer recommendations for other vendors, share ideas based on his past experiences, and help us with some of our song selections. We are both fairly laid back, but it was nice to have someone looking out for us and making sure we did not leave out anything or miss any special moments on the night of our wedding so we could just have fun with our families and friends.

eir reputation is well earned based on our experience and we had a great time planning our wedding reception with some helpful suggestions from Bill whenever we needed anything. My husband and I both love a good party and knew our friends and family would follow our lead. We just had no idea how some diverse tastes in music would work but Bill was able to find ways to keep the dance floor busy playing everything from Big Band to Gaga, Lizzo to ABBA and even DJ Kool to the Backstreet Boys. After so many compliments from friends we think might be getting married soon, I would say we will see Bill and or Freddie again sometime.

sy decision to book Bill for our wedding, and it was as if we were working with an old friend by the time we had our finally planning meeting. With Bill's help we found several ways to include our hot air balloon passion into our wedding including a hot air balloon themed centerpieces plus a balloon glow and tethered balloon ride departure photo op. We are not big dancers and had a late afternoon reception, but Bill managed to keep some of our family and friends dancing while also mixing in every song on our request list. It was a magical day we will never forget.

; you can tell he loves his job. We appreciated that Bill had extensive experience working with our venue, so we had absolute confidence in his recommendations for our ceremony sound, flow for the night, and music suggestions. We wanted an awesome dance party that would have our guests dancing the whole reception, and Bill delivered!

were considering. When we settled on our venue, we asked them for their personal favorites that showed up on both lists, and Bill Marsh from Carlysle Entertainment was the DJ they mentioned. After a few email exchanges, a phone conversation, and a Zoom meeting that Bill encouraged and hosted, we knew we found our DJ. Over the next fourteen months leading up to our wedding, Bill became the vendor we reached out to the most for help sorting through ideas, and he even hosted a couple group Zoom meetings with family and other vendors since we had very limited opportunities to be in Maryland before the wedding. Everything we read in prior reviews about Carlysle Entertainment was right but if we had to narrow our review down to a few key words they would be words like, accommodating, outstanding, and spectacular.

ight. We knew he’d be a great choice for our wedding, so we booked him as soon as we locked in our wedding date. Bill guided us through pretty much the entire wedding planning process, offering tips and suggestions along the way over countless Zoom calls and emails. And on the day of the wedding, he ran the show, from playing many of our favorite songs during the ceremony prelude to getting our guests warmed up for our reception entrance and first dance to keeping people on the dance floor throughout the night with a great mix of crowd-pleasing hits. Thanks for making our wedding night so fun and special, Bill, and thanks for helping us stay sane as we navigated planning a wedding during such weird times!

ng. From the first time meeting Freddie & Bill (who did my brother's wedding) we knew Freddie's positive energy was what we needed on the day of our wedding. As soon as my husband and I arrived at the reception he came and greeted us and let us know he was there to make the evening run smoothly. He made us feel like he’d known us for our whole relationship and was there every step of the way from the first time meeting up until the end of the wedding night. He helped make our night even more special than we could have imagined!

would have a microphone for the ceremony and that made me rethink things and I found myself searching for a DJ five weeks before our wedding. I sent out a few emails to DJs from a wedding expo we attended right after getting engaged in 2019 and the first to reply was Bill Marsh from Carlysle Entertainment. He offered to schedule a virtual meeting that evening since our wedding date was so close. The next night we met on Zoom and everything just clicked so well in the first hour or our meeting that we spent the next two hours with Bill walking us through their planning forms and helping us create a timeline for the entire wedding. The simple cocktail reception with no dancing we were settling for became a memorable cocktail party that even included some dancing and ended with our guests surrounding us on the dance floor singing along to Take Me Home Country Roads. We did not even pick a last dance because we did not expect anyone to dance but Bill figured out my wife went to WVU and said it was an obvious choice since it was checked off on one of his song lists.

in the bridal party. Bill from Carlysle Entertainment was her DJ and we knew we had to book him for our wedding since he was kind of like our matchmaker. The night of my sister’s wedding flew by so we extended the reception by an hour when we booked the venue. Bill kept the music mix flowing and the dance floor was always busy, but the best compliment came from me sister who said she was having more fun the second time around. Fortunately we will not have to wait another 15 years because my cousin already booked Carlysle Entertainment for her wedding next year.

mmon details that stood out for us we’re their creativity and willingness to help solve any issues that might arise. After talking with Bill on the phone and meeting him in person we knew we found our DJ. Thanks to Bill we also found our sanity through the COVID craziness of 2020. Our wedding was a year late but far better than if it had been on time because no one wanted the party to end and we are still sharing stories about how much fun we all had that night.

id forced us to change our wedding date from 2020 to 2021 but our venue did not have any weekend dates open in May so we were considering switching venues. In a conversation with Bill about a few of the venues we looked at he mentioned that a lot of couples were switching to weekday dates so they could keep their venues. This was perfect for us because my birthday is May 4th and we are both big Star Wars fans, probably because our parents are big Star Wars fans. It turned out to be an even more special night because a lot of family and friends that already had conflicts with out first date were able to be there with us dancing under the stars on a Tuesday night. Thanks to Covid and Bill’s suggestion we had an even more perfect wedding than we could have ever dreamed of and May the Fourth will be with us, always.

musical cues and timing, and had endless tips and suggestions gained from his experience as a wedding DJ and entertainer. Whenever we had a question he was ready with a prompt response, always offering to speak on the phone or meet at the venue to make sure we got the answers and information we needed. Could not recommend him enough for any major event, 5 stars!

learned in our first meeting that Bill was always willing to answer questions, give recommendations, and help us turn some of our ideas into real elements of our wedding. At his suggestion we had our final planning meeting at our venue and did a walk through of the rooms we were using so we could see how the colors we wanted for up lighting would look. We also had a very diverse song list that he went through the list and sorted out what would work well for cocktails, dinner, and dancing. plus he asked us to mark off any must play songs or important songs for family members like our parent's first dance songs. Thanks to our wedding photos I will always remember how incredible everything looked, and thanks to our friends and family we will never forget how much fun we all had dancing and even singing along to so many great songs throughout the night. Bill Marsh was an amazing DJ and we definitely recommend Carlysle Entertainment.

ot show up on many wedding song lists and I rarely have any free time because I run my own business. Shopping for a DJ ended up being easy because our venue and one of our friends recommended the same company, Carlysle Entertainment. We called and met with Bill Marsh, who was incredibly flexible scheduling and rescheduling our meeting to work around our crazy jobs. What we did not know when we finally met and booked Bill 21 months before our 10/02/20 wedding was that 2020 was not going to be a normal year. When everything was shut down in March due to Covid we did not think it would have any impact on our wedding almost 7 months later but as the shutdown continued things became doubtful quickly and by July we were afraid our venue would not be reopened. We emailed Bill to ask about rescheduling if it became necessary but he came up with a different idea. Since he knew we lived on several acres and had a large building to store equipment for my business, plus that our venue also offered outside catering service, so he suggested we move the wedding to our place. He helped design the set up with a large tent on each side of my equipment building with all of the garage doors open on both sides to use the garage space as a huge dance floor and guest tables spread out in both tents. Carlysle Entertainment had also implemented several safety measures of their own to keep everyone as safe as possible, such as giving each person making a toast their own microphone cover and keeping the microphone on a stand so they did not need to pass it from person to person. They also made a custom QR code with our engagement photo in the background and put them in a frame on each table so guests could make song requests from their phones, although Bill said he did not get very many requests so I guess they liked what he was playing which somehow included several of my favorite songs, and as I mentioned before, they did not seem like wedding songs to me, so that was a very pleasant surprise. In the insane year of 2020, Bill Marsh and Carlysle Entertainment proved to be a 20 on a scale of 1-10.

our first meeting with Bill was how much we would come to rely on Bill to have the answer for just about any question we had about our wedding through the entire planning process. He definitely did not disappoint when it came to living up to our expectations from our friend's wedding, and we are happily recommending Bill and Carlysle Entertainment to anyone we know getting married or planning a party. In fact, he would have been the DJ for my husband's company anniversary event this summer, but like everything else, that has been postponed to next year.

oking him to DJ our wedding was an easy choice. Bill was always an email or phone call away and eager to answer questions, make suggestions, recommend other vendors, and brainstorm ideas to help make our wedding perfect. For our wedding Carlysle Entertainment provided wooden yard games and lighting inside and outside of our venue including lights that had custom "welcome" and "thank you" messages on them. We already knew Bill would play great music all night so we only gave him a list of songs for the ceremony and reception formalities plus a few special requests. He crushed it! We are still getting compliments from our guests about the music and how much fun everyone had that night.

ill Marsh and Carlysle Entertainment. We both work with race horses for a living and planned our wedding for the Sunday after the Preakness since we are from Maryland and several of our out of state friends would be in town for the race. Thanks to the Covid-19 shutdown we had to postpone our wedding and decided to wait until the same day next year. Bill from Carlysle Entertainment made this a very smooth process because they already had a clause in their contract to address the unimaginable need to postpone. As the months went by we realized we just wanted to get married and were offered an opportunity to have our wedding at the breeding farm we work for in Maryland. We called Bill on September 3rd, and told him our crazy idea to have the wedding on the 20th. We did not have any other vendors on board except our photographer, but Bill made a few suggestions and by the 7th we had everything else covered. Bill hosted a virtual meeting for us to plan out the music for the evening and he discussed several safety precautions they have been implementing to help prevent any issues. A week later he hosted a second virtual meeting with us including the photographer and caterer to wrap up the details and finalize the timeline. In seventeen days we went from a blank canvas to a wedding that far exceeded our original vision and the sounds of everyone singing along to Tiny Dancer, Dancing Queen, and Good As Hell are still stuck in our heads.

t him at all because he made good suggestions and we noticed early on he knew what he was talking about from experience. He was so helpful with everything from song choices to how specific lighting would look at our venue. What we also liked is that he was very personable and friendly, which made wedding planning SO much easier. We highly recommend him!

usic and he more than accommodated our requests. He also offered help for any other services we would need. We would recommend him to any one for any event. He is very knowledgeable and experienced when it comes to making an event special. We are very thankful for Mr. Marsh.

J, MC and provide AV services for an annual event over the past 10 years or more so picking Bill to be my wedding DJ was easier than picking my venue. Coincidentally Bill helped me with that by recommending a few different venues to consider and we fell in love with the first venue on his list. My fiancé / wife and I had been to several weddings before ours and we decided we just wanted a party instead of all the typical wedding stuff. We did our first dance and opened the dinner stations after a few toasts then it felt like we never stopped dancing after that. The entire day and night were perfect and Carlysle Entertainment had a lot to do with that.

ten as necessary to ensure he understood our vision for the evening. Bill made sure he explained the remote microphone situation for the reception with my husband and there were no awkward mic issues common at such venues. We had many Spanish guests and he read the crowd well, providing salsa selections including numerous requests for Despacito! We've had many compliments regarding his service, which I think some guests tend to take for granted. I believe the music can make a reception and we were thrilled with Bill's music selection and general demeanor during the evening. Thanks, Bill, for adding to wonderful memories of such a special day.

t about every question we asked, and we asked a lot. We had some challenging family issues to overcome and even our parents were impressed with how he went out of his way to make sure everyone was happy during the reception, while making sure we remained the focus of the night. We had a lengthy song list that included our special requests and a list of requests from the guests, but Bill managed the music perfectly and kept the dance floor moving the whole time. People even danced their way outside at the end of the night to do our sparkler send off that we learned the week of our wedding could not be a sparkler send off because the venue does not allow sparklers. We called Bill in a panic to see if he had any suggestions and he was able to save the day by getting us glow sticks to use instead of sparklers. I have to admit I think they look better than sparklers would have after getting to see the photos.

met in a local theater group and both did theater in high school, so we knew right then that Bill was our kind of DJ because he picked up on the nod to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar with our wedding date. Before our wedding we met a few times for planning meetings and a lighting demo Bill set up at our venue. With three theater geeks minds working on our wedding we had a blast coming up with interesting ways to tie in some subtle and some not so subtle references to our favorite plays and the different theaters we have gone to see plays and musicals at by using their names instead of table numbers and making up our own Playbill style program. Musically speaking Bill found numerous ways to incorporate some Broadway hits into the play list for the night including several instrumental versions mixed into cocktail hour. The rest of the night he had us up dancing and singing with our guests so much that we added an hour of overtime to our reception. Bill Marsh and Carlysle Entertainment certainly helped turn our wedding into one singular sensation!

a location that was more convenient, helping us choose our ceremony music a week before the wedding (I was very indecisive), or dealing with a less than helpful day-of-coordinator at our venue. People were dancing all night and everything ran smoothly from start to finish! We highly recommend Bill!

was able to find the obscure songs that we walked down the aisle to, and was easy to work with. Thank you so much for everything Bill.

respond and we set up a meeting with Bill Marsh later the same week. We knew we wanted to book them 20 minutes into the meeting but kept talking with Bill for at least another hour brainstorming ideas for our wedding. He had a bunch of great suggestions and we would have kept talking even longer but had to get to another meeting. Carlysle Entertainment ended up taking care of more than just the DJ and MC for our wedding. They also did up lighting inside and outside for the front entrance of the venue along with music for our ceremony. Bill also helped us with ideas for our guest book, centerpieces, and when we asked if they could help with a video screen and projector for a slide show during dinner, Bill suggested what turned out to be a much better and less expensive option to have a large flat screen TV set up near the bar so the slide show could have more photos and run all night not just once while we were eating. All of our wedding vendors did a great job and we could not have been happier with all of our choices, but months later we are reminded of how much Bill and Carlysle Entertainment did for us when we look at photos from the wedding or have someone tell us how much fun they had that night. We will be seeing Bill again next summer at my brother's wedding so yes, we definitely recommend him and Carlysle Entertainment to anyone that wants a great DJ for their wedding.

er event we have!

was super impressed! Definitely recommend him!!