Life & Work with Anna Marchese

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Marchese.

Hi Anna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our story started in 1997 when my husband and I first met and realized we both loved music and had experience in DJing and wedding services (catering, limousine, planning, etc.) At that time, I had been running my parents’ catering company in Palm Beach, Florida. My husband had just moved to Florida from Chicago, where he had been working with a mid-sized DJ company.

During many conversations about the future, we tossed around the idea of opening our own company working with brides and grooms that were working on somewhat limited budgets.

We opened our first company, A&S Productions, in 2000 out of our home in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. We specialized in full party/wedding planning, including DJ, Catering, Venues, Cakes, Limousine, Security, and more.

After traveling from one coast to the other, we arrived in Raleigh, NC, and decided we were going to focus on just two specific parts of our business, DJing and opening a wedding venue. DJ Storm Trooper has been successfully operating since 2017, and, we are happy to announce, we have opened our wedding venue, The Yellow House at West Meadows located in Warsaw, NC, this year.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
While it is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, any business owner will tell you that the road to a successful business is paved with frustrations, difficulties, and setbacks. In 2004, we had to place our business on hold. My husband was diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery for the removal. Unfortunately, cancer had spread, and within six months we were looking for specialists to treat him. After many battles, he was declared cancer-free in the summer of 2011, When we reopened our business after moving back to Colorado (We had moved to California for his treatment)

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
From the very beginning, our goals were to provide the very best customer experience to our clients. In our business that means pointing out the small items as well as the obvious. Lots of DJs will take time out for a brief interview to get an idea of the musical tastes of the client and guests. We go the extra mile in keeping regular contact with clients, whether it’s brides/grooms, corporate, or even charities, to make sure everything runs as smooth as possible from our side of the business.

We are very proud to state that since opening our business over 20 years ago, we have received consistent five stars (only ever had one 4.5 stars) reviews, But even more important to us are the referrals we get from past clients that bring us new business and new friends.

We are currently known for two things: our superior client service and our live Storm Trooper that can be added to any event.

DJ-421(our staff member who dons the entire stormtrooper costume) has been active at weddings making introductions and dancing with guests as well as appearing at corporate functions to entertain guests and family members.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
In business, there is no staying stagnant. If you are not making progress, your company will falter, and nobody wants that. While many business ventures were affected by the Covid-19 virus, the wedding industry was especially hard hit. We lost approx 40 to 50% of our business. During this time, we chose to focus on expanding our company to include not only the DJ service that we are known for but also adding wedding/party planning and opening our wedding venue. Opening The Yellow House at West Meadows was a very risky undertaking since we had no idea when Governor Cooper would reopen our state.

But we had faith that the right opportunity would present itself. After much prayer and focus, we were presented with the opportunity to take over an older, out-of-business restaurant, a 1920’s Victorian house set In a lovely country setting. And after 4+ months of work, worry, and some minor setbacks, we opened our venue on April 16th. At that grand opening, we gave away the first of our Complimentary Wedding Packages in our Share the Love wedding event. We have committed ourselves to help budget-conscious Brides and Grooms with affordable wedding packages. We are also going to be giving away two free wedding packages a year throughout 2021 and 2022, possibly even into 2023.

Pricing:

• 6 hours of Silver DJ package $875
• 6 hours of Gold DJ Package $1085
• 6 Hours of Platinum DJ Package $1300
• Yellow House Rental 12 hours $4000
• Yellow House Rental plus DJ $5000

Contact Info:

• Email: asproductionsco@gmail.com
• Website: Djstormtrooper.com or yellowhousevenue.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dj_storm_trooper_421/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJ-Storm-Trooper-421-107699674438431
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQOw6wTy9Syihxz7v8Ldzrg

Image Credits
Images courtesy of Sarah Hinckley photographer base In Raleigh NC, and DJST Staff