We used Bil Copeland - Thunder DJ for our wedding in June in Ancaster. This review is 2 parts, first, the upfront planning and dealing with the company (Bil Copeland - Thunder DJ) and how they handle the communication. They use an online planning form. We found this method to be OK, we would have much rather dealt with an actual person when planning the DJ part of our wedding. The part that concerned us the most was we could not meet our actual DJ prior to the wedding. We feel it`s important to get a good feel for the personality of the DJ. We even specifically asked if we could meet the DJ who they would assign to our wedding, and we could not meet him during the planning, only at the venue on the day of the wedding. Bil Copeland acts as a middle man handling the communication, and then dispatches the DJ`s with your notes to your wedding. We would recommend cutting out the middle step and work directly with the source. Bil Copeland (Thunder DJ) has an extensive library of music, however we wanted one Frank Sinatra song (not too obscure) that they did not have in their library. We then were asked to download it, and upload it in mp4 format. I know downloading music and converting from itunes is not difficult, however, during the wedding planning phase you don`t really want to worry about finding and converting music files, that is essentially we hoped what the DJ could help with. During the planning phase we also had a few emails from their staff who were training, requesting information we had already provided, not a big deal, but another sign they may not be too organized handing their clerical portion of the business. The second part of the review is the DJ who worked our reception was not too good. I wish we had the chance to meet him prior to the day of the wedding. He had a few problems throughout the night that was not a deal breaker, but we expected more from Bil Copeland (Thunder DJ), that may be our fault for believing the hype we had been told at the marketing booth at the Hamilton Wedding show, and a visit to their office in Burlington. At one point during the dinner I left the head table to ask him if he was going to play dinner music as the guest were eating? He responded that was the plan and he was having troubles loading something on his computer, he was trying to figure it out and get it going again, during that time it was just quiet. The dead air was long enough for me to notice from the head table and go find out what was going on? We thought by hiring a professional DJ service and sound checks we would not have dead air during our wedding but we were wrong. The DJ also cleared the dance floor a few times, he played 2-3 really good songs that had everyone dancing, and followed it up with songs nobody knew, and everyone left the dance floor. On one of those dance clearing song choices my wifes 10 year old cousin went up to the DJ to tell him to play something people want to dance to, that would be the cue to phase out of the poor song choice, and phase in another song to try to salvage the dancing crowd. There was no phasing out of the dance floor clearing songs, we had to listen to the whole song for some reason?
We informed Bil Copeland (Thunder DJ) of our concerns and they wanted to work through those concerns, a few weeks would go by and there would be no contact from them, it seems that the feedback of a poor performance from the company from start to finish was heard, but there was no follow up with us. The review is posted to share our experience, and frustration dealing with Bil Copeland Thunder DJ.
The driver was very courteous and helped us load
everything into the limo, held umbrella during times when it was raining, and was very professional. Would recommend Mermaid Limo to anyone for any occasion.