Mill City Museum

Overview:

From DJ Mike H:

Mill City is a pretty cool wedding venue, but it can be a little difficult to manage, especially if there is a ceremony included. There's a couple key things you'll have to know regarding the way the venue is set up for their DJs.

The load-in is pretty painless. You'll park right outside of the museum and you can turn on your flashers and bring your gear inside. Once inside, it's a decent walk to get to your table and a very good walk to get to the ceremony location, make sure you ask them if you can use a cart and if they don't have one, ask me for one. It's a necessity for this venue. If the museum is open while you load-in, they may want you to load in from a different location, be sure to get load-in information in the venue call. 

(Ceremony Only: The ceremony will be taking place outside on the bottom floor on the backside of the museum. This part of the museum was destroyed by a fire a long, long time ago and now it looks pretty cool and allows for a view of the river and Stone Arch bridge. See below for a picture. You'll have to take your gear from your cart downstairs in an elevator, then set up a speaker, mini system (ask me for the mini system) and wireless microphone which sits on top of the speaker. After you get all that set up for the ceremony, set the coffin, serato controller set up on your table and set up a speaker in the dinner area as close to your table as possible.)

The dinner/cocktail and dance occur in two different locations which are right by each other. Your table will be located in the dance area, but you'll obviously need to get music for the cocktail hour and dinner. To do this, set up a speaker at the dinner area as close to your table as possible. Then take an XLR extension to plug the speaker for dinner into your coffin. Ask if the venue has a house microphone to be used for speeches. If they don't, you'll have to set your wireless microphone receiver on top of the speaker and plug it directly into the speaker. 

Once dinner/cocktail ends, move the speaker from the dinner area to your dance area. You should already have a speaker set up on one side of your table, so put the dinner speaker on the other side and you're ready for the dance. 

It's not as complicated as it sounds. Basically, you'll have to have a speaker set up where dinner is but you'll be where the dance is. You then plug two XLR cords together to make one long XLR cord where your coffin (which on your table where the dance will be) will connect with the speaker that's in the dinner location.

Call if you need help or have any questions.

Load-In:

You'll have to ask the venue about this because it depends on whether or not the museum is open or not when you're loading in. 

Challenges:

As you can see from above there are plenty of challenges. 

You'll be set up in the dance location during dinner. Meaning you'll have to extend an XLR cord all the way from your coffin to the speaker in the dinner location. 

A venue house microphone will be helpful. I can't remember off the top of my head if they have one or not. Ask them. 

Extra Venue Call Questions:

Where do you want me to load in from?

Will the museum be open while I'm loading in?

Do you have a cart I can use?

Do you have a house microphone that can be used for speeches?

Website:

http://www.millcitymuseum.org/rental-space-events

The Knot:

https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/mill-city-museum-minneapolis-mn-850012