The Wedding & Celebration of a Recently Returned Soldier and His Bride – Mobile Music Interactive Entertainment March 11, 2014 – The Bottom Line – Business isn’t always about the money, the profitability, or even the financial bottom line. It is more often about integrity, heart, and doing what is right; even when you don’t know how right it is until after it is done. That is exactly what happened on an otherwise “business-as-usual”…

March 11, 2014 – The Bottom Line – Business isn’t always about the money, the profitability, or even the financial bottom line. It is more often about integrity, heart, and doing what is right; even when you don’t know how right it is until after it is done.

That is exactly what happened on an otherwise “business-as-usual” Saturday afternoon for Mobile Music Interactive Entertainment. We had a Crew in our warehouse, located in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, loading one of our trucks for an evening event; Carey Smolensky, President of Mobile Music Interactive Entertainment and Carey Smolensky Productions, was in the office attending to some last minute additions to the equipment list to accommodate the Client’s event. And, as usual, the phones would periodically ring and messages would be left for our staff of Event Producers to attend to Monday morning. It was not unlike most business in the special events industry. However, on this Saturday afternoon, a little before 1:15 pm, Carey retrieved a lone voicemail to hear “I have an emergency please call back as soon as you can”. Carey returned the call moments later to learn that the call was placed by the Mother of the Groom for a wedding celebration already in progress…and the DJ entertainment they hired was a no show!

Knowing nothing more about the Bride and Groom other than this was their special wedding celebration, Carey quickly gathered the vital information from the Mother of the Groom, informed her that although he was not personally available due to another event, he would have a DJ with equipment in place by 3:00 pm at their venue in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. The DJ would perform and provide entertainment until 4:30 pm before that Crew had to be on their way to another event. Within the discussion of information, Carey learned that their budget for their DJ was one-third lower than our basic wedding entertainment package; but it was more important to provide this couple entertainment than to charge full price to net a profit. The Mother of the Groom was grateful and the timing we were able to perform at their special reception would be ideal for them.

As promised, DJ Shani was in place and playing music to celebrate the first dance for the Bride and Groom by 2:45 pm. Shani was able to quickly pick up the event where they needed and danced the family and friends until the celebration ended. Now Carey had asked, that if it was possible, for Shani to send him a couple pictures from the wedding reception from her phone. Fortunately, Shani was able to do so without an interruption in the festivities. Let’s face it; it is nice to know who you are helping out of a jam; especially for an event as special as a wedding celebration.

Little did Carey know, until he received the second picture, that the “who” he was helping out was a U.S. Solider, recently returned home to surprise his Bride with the wedding reception and honeymoon they did not have before his deployment. Carey was brought to tears to learn that it was a Serviceman whom our team had been able to serve; one of the many Men and Women of the Armed Forces, who sacrifice so much for us to enjoy the freedom that we have in this country. All of us at Mobile Music are truly honored that we could give something special to this Man who has given so much to us. “Of the over 35 years I have been helping others to celebrate life, this celebration will be one I cherish for the rest of my life,” said Carey to his staff.

DJ Shani with the happy newlyweds.

Carey could have easily told the Mother of the Groom that we were already booked; he could have waited until Monday to return her call…after all, are there really emergencies in the world of special events? It’s just a party, right? But instead, Carey told the Mother of the Groom we were there to help and he made the necessary calls, switching staff schedules, to make it happen for them.

So you see; doing the right thing, giving the extra attention, taking those additional few moments is the bottom line that truly matters when it comes to good business, in both the special events and entertainment industry, and in life overall.

A Soldier Surprises His Bride at the United Center