Rhodes Entertainment

This year is almost over. Whaaat?

It was incredible year and I can’t help but look back and feel nothing but love.

• Love for the wonderful couples I get to work with.

• Love for my “job” as a wedding entertainer.

• Love for my health.

• Love for my family.

It’s all love 💜

Kim + Anthonie’s all-outdoor wedding at Still Water Hollow was pretty special.

Check out the way we gracefully navigated their reception layout - and how their tight-knit group celebrated their unique love story.

Link to the blog post in my bio!

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Sometimes at an Idaho wedding you have to breakdance in your cowboy boots! 🤷‍♂️👌
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Matt, Sloan and their party showed UP back in July!

What. A. Night. 🔥💜

📸: PNW Elopement Photographer

One of the best parts about being in the wedding industry is getting to work with new and unique people at each event.

On Sunday, I got to work with a planner that I’ve worked with on several occasions.

Kayla with Brigade Events always does a fantastic job and it’s comforting knowing things are well taken care of when she’s there.

I also got to work with a photographer I had never met before.

Julia with Julia Crawford Photography did an awesome job and was so fun to be around.

I love that we can all have these independent roles, but come together as a team to create a successful event.

Cheers to these two ladies and all of the other great wedding professionals I get to team up with throughout the year! 🥂

Today, I get help the Thronton’s celebrate their 10 year wedding anniversary at Juniper in downtown Boise.

Then, it’s off to Underhill Garden on both Saturday and Sunday for Lindsey + Cory and Hana + Derek’s weddings.

It’s going to be a beautiful weekend!

I care, and hopefully it shows.

Erika + Jacob’s Wedding | July 9, 2021 | Shore Lodge in McCall, Idaho

📸: Denise and Bryan Photography 💯

August 21, 2021 was a special day.

It was Megan + Devan’s day.

And I had the honor and privilege of sharing their love story.

You see, they each sent me their version of their story, then I combined those two individual stories into one and shared it with them and their guests for the first time at their reception right before their First Dance.

It was a special moment and certainly one of the highlights of the night.

Without their story told, most of their guests wouldn’t have known about how a chance, and somewhat awkward, encounter with a mutual friend in downtown Boise led to them eventually dating…

Or how a broken binocular case zipper nearly spoiled the perfect opportunity for Devan to propose to Megan!

Or how within the first few weeks of dating they each knew that they had found their person. Wow!

It’s a beautiful story and it’s one that is unique to them.

Congratulations and and thank you for allowing me to be a part of it 🙂
Huge shout out to .photography for these gorgeous photos! You alway do an amazing job capturing the essence of who the couples are!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

My kids are getting excited to play with sparklers tonight.

It made me realize that I take for granted how often I’m around sparklers and beautiful moments like this one with Alli and Rylan.

Enjoy your day and be safe! 🇺🇸💥

📸: Susanna Grant Photography

I had the opportunity to share Alli & Rylan’s love story at their wedding reception back in June at Ste. Chapelle Winery.

It’s a beautiful story and I couldn’t have been more honored to do that.

How it worked is a few weeks before their wedding, Alli and Rylan individually shared their versions of their Love Story with me.

I took those individual stories and combined them into one.

Then, I shared it with Alli, Rylan and their guests for the first time at their reception.

This led into their First Dance and the rest is history!

It was a fun addition to their reception and it let their loved ones know more about how they got to this point in their relationship.

It was such an amazing day and I can’t wait to share the dance party pics soon!

Susanna Grant Photography - You did a stellar job as always! 🙂

Finding that perfect next song…

Jake Owen “Made For You”

It’s near the top of Country music charts right now, but I’ve yet to see it requested as a First Dance song.

I’m sure I will this summer though.

Check it out 👌🏼

Bringing style to every event that I’m a part of.

“Eric took all of our quirky requests and made our dream wedding a reality.

The dance floor was going all night and our grand entrance was so much fun!

Eric was essential to our big day and I would recommend him to anyone looking to have a great party.” - Liz & Drew

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Liz & Drew had some fun ideas about how they wanted to make their reception unique to them.

They’re both volleyball coaches and highly competitive.

One of their ideas was to have a good ol’ fashioned head-to-head battle of “Flip Cup” - Drew and his boys vs. Liz and her girls.

It sounded fun and I was ready to help!

The problem was they weren’t really sure when or where to play it.

Should it happen after dinner? How about at some point during dancing?

Would it happen on the dance floor or some other part of the room?

Doing it at the right time was key to making it a highlight of their wedding.

They also wanted a big Grand Entrance to show off their friends, and to give a quick speech to thank all of their guests for coming.

After some brainstorming, I suggested we combine all three of these things into one section of the night.

Here’s what we came up with:

First, Drew was adamant about playing AC/DC “Thunderstruck” at some point - even joking about playing it while walking down the aisle.

Well, we decided that they and their entire wedding party would walk into “Thunderstruck” for their Grand Entrance right after the cocktail hour.

The Flip Cup table would be placed on the dance floor ready to go.

After I introduced each couple, they would line up at their positions at the table.

After Liz and Drew were announced, I’d explain the rules of the game then at the sound of the bell they would start.

Then the winner, either Liz or Drew, would get the mic, which would be resting on their head table and ready to go.

That person could take a moment to talk a little trash, then move onto their thank you speech and into one of the Dad’s welcome toast.

I even attended the rehearsal to talk through all of the details with the wedding party, in order to prevent any confusion or awkward moments.

I have to say it went off flawlessly!

The Grand Entrance was hype.

The Flip Cup game was a blast.

And Liz and her girls won, so she got to talk a little trash to her new hubby (poor Drew).

It was a great time and so rewarding to help make their fun and quirky vision come to life. 🙂
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Still Water Open House this Sunday, April 11 from 12pm-3pm!

Tour the venue, meet your future wedding vendors and try some drink and food samples.

See you there!

Last photo credit:

It was a beautiful day on Saturday to celebrate Chris and JS’s wedding at Underhill Garden.

It was my second wedding of the year and it felt so good to be back!

I had the privilege and honor of doing many different things for their wedding day like:

• Providing wireless mics and music for their ceremony.

• Curating custom playlists for cocktail hour, dinner and dancing.

• Sharing Chris and JS’s Love Story with their guests (They have such a unique and entertaining story about how they met, what their first kiss was like and how the proposal went down. So good! Their crowd loved it.)

• Finding the longest married couple among the crowd - 53 years!

• Keeping guests dancing until the tail end of the reception.

Yes. More of this please 🙏🏼

After four long months, I was FINALLY back at it!

I had the pleasure of helping Clancy and Stephanie celebrate their marriage and all I can say is their night was a blast!

It also felt SO GOOD to be back doing what I love.

did a stellar job capturing the essence of their day and I greatly appreciate her letting me share these images with you.

Be sure to check her out! 🙂

“I wish that we had another wedding to plan just so that we could hire Eric again!”

What a huge compliment!

Thank you Chambray and Scott for trusting me with your big day.

You were so much fun to work with and I would LOVE to relive that dance party again.

Your friends and family were so great too. All around just an amazing day.

Thank you again! 🙂🙏🏼
And a big shout out to for allowing me to share these stellar images!

I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce myself.

I’m Eric Rhodes, owner of Rhodes Entertainment.

I am a husband, father, DJ, public speaker, business owner, fitness enthusiast, golfer, traveler, and many other things…

For the purpose of this page, I’m a full-time DJ who gets to help cool people throw some amazing weddings and parties.

Here’s a little bit about me and how I got into this business:

I started DJing in 2000 in college. I picked up some turntables and vinyl records with leftover student loan money and never looked back.

I had fun playing house parties and clubs in college (University of Idaho). I also had my own radio show for 5 years.

In 2005, I moved to Boise with my now-wife and started mixing at lounges and clubs on the side.

I became pretty popular and people naturally started asking me to DJ their birthdays, weddings, corporate events, etc., so that’s how I got into this industry.

In 2007, I started my career in TV News as a photojournalist and news producer.

I was pretty good at it, but it was obvious to me that I wouldn’t be happy doing it for the rest of my life.

In 2011, I took the leap and started my own DJ business with the goal of eventually going full-time.

In 2015, that dream became a reality!

Now, I get to do what I love for a living and it hardly feels like work.

I’m truly sharing my gift with others and there’s nothing more rewarding than that. 🙂

As I think about my own wedding, I can't help but think of the disaster that turned into a blessing nearly 13 years ago.

Like many women, my wife had been dreaming of her wedding day for a long time and she wanted it to be perfect.

Well, on September 20, 2008, mother nature had a different plans.

We were slated to get married at the Julia Davis Park Rose Garden and it was supposed to be sunny!

Just hours before the ceremony was to start, massive dark clouds, swirling winds and heavy rain started to creep into the beautiful, lush garden.

My groomsman and I were taking photos when I got the phone call.

It was my wife-to-be.

She was FREAKING OUT.

After a few minutes of talking her off the ledge, she decided to go ahead with the ceremony at the park.

Our family bought umbrellas for the bridal party and we packed everyone into the gazebo.

The reason I'm telling you this story is because we had two options that day; Get upset, feel sorry for ourselves and let the situation ruin us OR go with the flow and simply look at the bright side.

We chose the latter and we benefited from that in three different ways.

First, we got some really cool pictures. There are shots of me and my groomsman in our black suits with black umbrellas.

There's also a unique photo of Joely walking down the aisle with her father holding a red umbrella.

None of these images would've been possible without the rain.

Second, our ceremony became more intimate and memorable.

A lot of these people didn’t know each other, but were forced to stand in a tight group as if they were best friends.

They joked and laughed about the situation, making it an experience they’d never forget.

Third, our honeymoon to sunny Mexico became that much sweeter. That sun and sand never felt better.

So, no matter how devastating your situation appears, there is always a positive way to look at it.

I’m so glad we chose that route, because it made our day that much more beautiful and memorable.

Did you know I offer a photo booth as well?!

I got the booth last year and every event that added it since then has been that much more fun!

You can choose Photo, Video, GIF or Boomerang options, then get them sent directly to your phone to post on social media.

You’ll also get the entire gallery emailed to you at the end of your event, so you can see what type of shenanigans your guests were up to at your party. 😁

Message me to learn more.

“We have no idea how to pick the songs for walking down the aisle. Do you have any suggestions?”

I hear this quite a bit from couples I work with and it makes sense.

Finding the perfect Processional songs for you and your wedding party can be a daunting task and there’s no easy guide to help you.

Here are some things to think about and a couple ideas to help you get started:

• Think about the style of music you like - Are classic piano and violin more your style? Do you love acoustic guitar, pop music or classic rock? Consider the kind of feel and vibe you’re going for.

• Are you more concerned about the vocal message of a song, or is it more about the instrumentation and how it makes people feel? Some people connect deeply with lyrics while others simply love how a song makes them feel.

• One of my favorite resources for finding music is Spotify. Search for playlists about classic love songs, or classic rock love songs or romantic guitar instrumentals. Take some time to listen to them to see if they connect with you. Even search for Processional Songs and you’ll find popular song ideas.

• I love when the bride’s song has a dramatic introduction or pause before she appears. Something like a 10-20 second instrumental before the lyrics start. Keeping your guests waiting in anticipation for your arrival down the aisle can make for a really cool moment.

• Covers of classic hits are huge thing right now and for good reason. They have the same feel as the original, but with a modern twist. Using one of those songs can make your ceremony processional more unique for sure.

These are just a few tips and ideas to think about as you choose your processional music. I hope you find them useful.

I also have a great resource I can send you to get started on your journey. It’s not original to me, but send me a DM and I’ll share the link with you. 🙂
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Are you newly engaged?

Congratulations!

I have a quick tip for you... well, more like a recommendation.

My recommendation is to lock in the following three vendors before anything else.

Why?

Because they not only have a HUGE impact on the success of your wedding day, but they’re limited in supply.

Once they’re booked for your date, they’re gone.

• Venue: Decide on the type of atmosphere you’re going for, then lock in your location right away.

• Photographer(s): A great photographer should fit your style, feel like a friend and know how to stick to a schedule.

• Entertainment: Whether it’s a band or a DJ, booking them should be one of your top priorities. Your guests will be spending a lot of time, money and effort to celebrate with you. Show them an AMAZING time!

Now, I should mention that not everyone wants a wedding planner, but for those who do (and I recommend it)... they should be at the top of your list as well.

A top-notch wedding planner will make things easy for you and can design your day beyond what you could ever imagine (among other things).

Also, with all of the postponements of 2020, wedding vendors are booking up faster than ever.

Get started now! 🙂