Meritage Entertainment — Local services in Wilmington

Something I really loved about booking vendors was hearing them recommend other vendors in the industry so highly! When I booked my photographer Brit Perkins, she asked me who I had booked as a DJ. I hadn’t started my search yet, and Brit immediately told me that Meritage is the BEST in the game, and that I would not be disappointed if I worked with them. It’s funny, the photo that first drew me in and connected me to Brit’s work was a photo of the wedding of one of the DJ’s from Meritage at my wedding venue. The New England Wedding industry is such a small word! I reached out to James DiNanno at Meritage and got the conversation started about our wedding. James was super responsive and set up a call right away to talk about what kind of music we listened to and what kind of vibe we were looking for. We booked James as our DJ for our August 2020 wedding, but unfortunately, we had to postpone due to the Global Pandemic. James was available for our new date in 2021 and was very accommodating throughout the entire process of moving things around. Additionally, we were able to book with him for the ceremony so that all the sound equipment was taken care of and everyone who needed a mic, got one. We added an uplighting package as well, which James’s wife Liz carefully curated for us. In the days leading up to our wedding, I hopped on a call with James and my wedding planner to discuss the questionnaire Meritage has all couples fill out. I loved how enthusiastic James was, and how on the same page we were about music and different genres and time periods. I felt super confident that James would take excellent care of us on our big day, and I was not disappointed! He made sure he knew how to pronounce everyone in the wedding party’s name, transitioned seamlessly, and kept the energy high. I have to take a moment here to apologize to James and note what a trooper he was; our wedding was on the last Saturday in July and what I believe was the only rain-free Saturday that whole month. After days and days of rain throughout the month and overall poor weather, the clouds cleared and the sun came out for our wedding weekend. As a result, it was a beautiful night that James had to compete with, at a venue with an amazing outdoor patio that was not only set up comfortably with plush couches, but also had offerings such as cigars and gelato. Due to the town noise ordinance, the dance floor was inside. James still managed to keep the dance floor bumpin when folks wanted to dance, and even played a couple extra songs at the end of the night for us and our wedding party to close out the party with. Thanks so much James! Be sure to book with Meritage and ask for James – you will be very well...

I recently had the pleasure of working with James and Liz for my wedding on September 17, 2016 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts. Let me begin by saying that selecting a quality DJ was of the utmost importance for me during my wedding planning. I feel that a DJ can often make or break a wedding. From the first time I met with James in his office I knew that he was the perfect man for the job! He was incredibly personable and an absolute pleasure to work with. Not only did he listen to all of my requests, but he truly understood them and executed every detail better than I could have ever anticipated. I did not give James a playlist for my wedding, which I was nervous about as so many people had suggested I give a list “to make sure good music was played”. Let me just say that no playlist I would have EVER given James would have been as AMAZING as what he played. He did an outstanding job of reading the crowd and knowing exactly what to put on next to keep people dancing all night long. There was the perfect mixture of old school classics and contemporary dance songs. People were enjoying the background music so much during dinner they were already up dancing during the first course. All night people raved about what an amazing DJ James was and they were shocked to find themselves on the dance floor all night! Throughout the evening I made a point of stopping a moment and taking in the night. It brought me great joy to see my guests having such a wonderful time, which I directly attribute to James DiNanno. I cannot recommend James DiNanno enough.

Liz was also absolutely amazing to work with. She took the time to discuss with us exactly what we wanted for our wedding. The concept of uplighting was something fairly new for me. I had seen it done before but never attended a wedding where it was done well. Liz created the most beautiful environment I had ever seen with her uplighting. The Fairmont is already such a gorgeous venue and somehow Liz managed to make it that much more beautiful. I, along with all of my guests, were truly impressed! It was the most magical environment I had ever seen, something I thought only existed in magazines. Thank you so much Liz.

If you truly want peace of mind knowing that your wedding will go smoothly and exactly the way you envisioned choose James and Liz at Meritage...

Andrew Tuminelli from Meritage Entertainment DJ'd our July 2023 wedding and he was AMAZING. We had one request and that was for our dance floor to be PACKED all night and Andrew totally pulled it off! Our guests raved about our music and have been telling us for weeks that our wedding was the most fun they've had in a long time. We feel 100% certain that it's because of Andrew and his talent.

Leading up to our big day, we worked with both Andrew and James (the owner of Meritage Entertainment) to customize our wedding music exactly how we wanted. We completed detailed questionnaires and had ongoing conversations with both of these men throughout the planning process to ensure we were getting exactly what we wanted. During one of our final conversations before the big day, Andrew thought to ask for the song titles of our parents' wedding songs to play during dinner. He suggested that this be a surprise for both of our parents, which it was, and it was a very sweet moment when both sets of parents realized their songs were playing. This was an extremely thoughtful touch on Andrew's part and really showed how kind and caring he is.

Andrew is attentive to the crowd and played off of our guests' energy all night. When a song didn't have people jumping up and down and singing along, he did his DJ thing and switched things up to something more popular or upbeat. He played every song on our "must play" list and made sure not to play any music we asked him not to, even if it was requested by a guest.

We also booked the GIF photo booth through Meritage and that was a huge hit! Our guests are still talking about how much fun it was to have the photo booth on the edge of the dance floor to capture the best (and worst!) dance moves of the night, plus some really funny and special moments. It had the photo booth feel, without long lines, props, and people gathering somewhere other than the dance floor. Even if you weren't dancing, you were on the dance floor for the gif booth, which is exactly what we wanted. Plus, everyone who put their phone number into the photo booth sometime throughout the night received ALL of the photos taken on our wedding night, which is just a really cool feature. I highly recommend adding this to your package!

Thank you, Meritage and Andrew!!! You guys...