AMS Entertainment - Santa Barbara

Our ceremony musician, Chris Judge, was amazing and completely amazed us and our guests by his beautiful music.

Omar Khan was our DJ and we couldn't have been happier with someone else. He was extremely respectful, professional, fun, engaging and made our wedding perfect! Highly recommend both!

AMS provided lighting and a ipod-pluggable speaker system for our wedding at Elings Park. They were quite easy to work with and everything they provided worked perfectly well. The string lighting was really nice looking and exactly what we were hoping for, and the speakers worked well too. Set-up and take-down required no micro-management from us.

Excellent event and very well managed by AMS. Everyone had a great time!

Great to work with the staff at AMS! Flexible and easy-going; and able to offer brides and grooms several different packages/options based on your needs!!! Familiar with pretty much every location venue in town and they know what they are doing!!!!

Everything was great - there seemed to be a lot of songs played that we didn't request - or even know - but at the end of the day, all was great! Thank you very much!!

AMS did a great job for our wedding at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum. Everyone we spoke to at AMS was very helpful and accommodating. Our DJ Chase did a great job listening to our suggestions and played almost every song that we requested.

DJ Alex was awesome! He took the time to meet with us prior to the wedding to make sure that every detail would be perfect on the wedding day. He was great to work with and our guests had a fabulous time at our wedding.

They were extremely organized and kept the day flowing smoothly. I'd recommend AMS to all my friends!

Our DJ was Umair from AMS Entertainment and he was awesome! He always had a smile on his face and his energy carried through in his DJing at our event. He played all the songs we requested and got everyone on the dance floor. This was an overall great experience working with him and we would gladly recommend him to friends and family for future events.

Hi Brides,
We got married a few weeks ago. We were in a lighting and dance floor pinch--as in the vendor we planned on using was not going to work. AMS Entertainment responded to us on a Saturday and was able to organize our lighting for the Monday coming up (Also known as 48 hours of notice). The were kind, professional, and strived to meet our budget on NO notice. We were thrilled and our wedding was perfectly lit (an outdoor venue in the evening). They transformed our out door venue into a dreamily lit fabulous venue. HIGHLY recommended.

My wife and I absolutely loved working with the guitarist/vocalist, Chris Wooley, who we hired through AMS Ent. It was one of the highlights of our wedding!

Chase and Haley were amazing! A great team that fit perfectly into our theme and really picked it up and ran with it our different ideas. It made for a wonderful and unique event that my wife and I will never forget. Can't go wrong with AMS and their knowledge on special events. Thanks again!

Simply put, superb musicians, and very accomodating. Very happy with it!!

From our first consultation with Tad Clark, to our online DJ platform tutorial with Saul, we were extremely impressed with how AMS' services were executed from day one.

The process began by use of an impressive AMS proprietary tool which served as an online music planner. We were able to organize the ceremony music, cocktail reception music, and dinner reception music onto a tabbed interface, where we could highlight "must play" songs, and where we could ban songs via a "no play" list. There was a special place to add special notes and nuances, and even a timeline organizer that allowed us to illustrate our vision of the day to our DJ. It was almost like the coming together of kindred spirits... when we met Guy McLaury on the day of our wedding. For some reason... he fit - In attire, style, and musical discretion, Guy was an important feature in the landscape of our wedding. He took time to ensure that he knew how to correctly pronounce the names of each member of our wedding party. He knew what music to play to get people to dance, and he knew what music to play to keep them dancing. When it came time to facilitate important moments such as the father/daughter dance and MOH/BM speeches, his transitions were seamless... and it made the traditional aspects of our wedding flow at just the right pace. Overall, excellent service, an attentive staff, and fist-pumping music. I highly recommend working with these folks!

We used AMS Entertainment for a DJ for our Wedding at the Santa Barbara Zoo on Aug 12th. What can I say other than WE LOVE AMS!!!! Our first interaction was with Tad the owner and he assured us that the DJ for our wedding would be not only be professional but skilled as well. Our Dj was more than that, from our first meeting until the final song on our wedding day Saul was upbeat, experienced and fully understood exactly what we were looking for on our wedding day!!! He nailed the ceremony, grand entrance, first dance, etc! His announcements we clear and informative without going over board and he kept the dance floor full the whole night long. We could not have been happier with the service and support provided by AMS and Saul. I surely hope everyone uses them for their next event!!!

We love AMS!!! They provided a wonderful Dj that made our wedding more than just fun, it made it memorable! Saul was wonderful. He was supportive from our first meeting, his announcements were very informative and he kept the dance party going until the very end! Everyone loved him!!! I highly recommend AMS Entertainment for your next celebration as well as Saul our amazing DJ. Thank you for making our wedding day unforgettable!!!

AMS was the only failure of our wedding. I found that the over promised and under delivered. We booked on Labor day a full year before our wedding.We hesitated to use a DJ because we really didn't want to hear a loud DJ talking during our wedding and we wanted to avoid overplayed songs.
Tad the owner promised a personalized and classy event. We were sold. After spending HOURS selecting songs and filling out their questionnaire, we received a call from a DJ who lived in Fresno and would be driving in for our wedding. When we asked why we were being given a out of town DJ, we were told that there other DJs were busy. When we complained they gave us a new DJ who turned out to be TERRIBLE/ He acted as an obnoxious MC (when we asked not to have one) and played songs from our Do Not Play list rather than the songs we had carefully selected.

On top of all this they booked us a latin spring trio when we SPECIFICALLY asked for roaming mariachi's.

I am a local and dreamed of a Santa Barbara wedding most of my life. All the vendors I used were amazing except AMS. Please, please don't trust this company with your special day.

AMS was amazing to work with. They took a lot of time to make sure our wedding was exactly what we wanted. We spoke to multiple people in the office and they were all helpful and wonderful to deal with. Saul was an amazing DJ and MC for our special day. The photobooth was a hit with our guests, we loved the fact we could put our custom logo on the photos.

I was AMAZED with AMS! First off they were flexible and worked with my needs. They were responsive and made trips out to my venue to assess for lighting. The DJ made the party, all night and weeks after just compliment after compliment on how beautiful the lighting was and how fun the dancing was. The DJ literally had everyone on the dance floor! He worked with what I wanted and met ALL my needs! I have been to my share of weddings, and two now, including my own where AMS provided the DJ services and it is the most fun I have had! Alex was my DJ and he is friendly, professional, and was a highlight of my wedding! If you don't have there service your wedding and experience will miss out! SO SATISFIED!!

We had our wedding at Elings Park in Santa Barbara. Because this is a public out door venue near homes there are certain sound regulations that you have to comply with. Elings park required that you comply with the rules provided by AMS. Even though we had our own DJ we still had to work with TAd from AMS- because of this we decided to have them also provide our lighting and photo booth- I wish we hadn't. Tad was late to our initial appointment and in the weeks leading up to my wedding he was MIA. I sent him multiple emails that went unanswered. I had to reach out to his assistant to get the answers to my questions. The only good part about working with them was that the photo booth attendant, Haley, was super nice and did a great job.

We had an awful experience with AMS--I'm still shocked by their lack of professionalism. Leading up to the time that we first gave AMS our deposit, we’d talked on the phone with Tad Clark, who seemed very professional and knowledgeable and eager to make us happy. However, once we’d sent in the deposit, we were informed by another employee, Saul, that our DJ would be Andrew. We looked on the AMS website to get some information, as we’d been told that each DJ was strategically selected to be the best fit for each customer’s event.

While there were a number of DJs on the site that had full bios, clearly outlining his or her experience level, capabilities and style, this is what was all that was on the site for Andrew:

Andrew's wide range of experiences and amazing service attitude make him a great fit for any party. He is flexible and creative in all areas from guest interactions to music selection.
Andrew is a recent graduate of UCSB and has worked at many service focused jobs including Fess Parker's Doubletree as a concierge. That experience helps him to easily connect with all types of people and make sure they're having a wonderful time making him a great asset to any party.

We asked Saul, who was now evidently our contact, to outline Andrew’s experience as a DJ—and why he had been picked for us specifically, given that his 'expertise' seemed to be from working at a hotel. Saul couldn’t answer that, other than to say that he knew that Andrew had graduated from college fairly recently.

I wrote a very polite email to Tad Clark, letting him know that we were concerned that Andrew’s apparent lack of expertise as an actual DJ, according to their own website, would not make him the best fit for our big day. Tad called me, and got very angry and defensive with me, saying that he ‘wouldn’t want to be Andrew, at our wedding, since we’re going into it with such a negative attitude.’ He then threatened to return our deposit ( this was now only 12 days before our wedding) and force us to find someone else at the last minute.

We were VERY upset and concerned, but decided to try to make the best of it. We asked for a meeting during the week with Andrew, somewhere between SB and Oxnard, where we live, as it would be a school night and we have a 9 year old daughter, but Andrew told us that he refused to meet us anywhere but their SB office. We decided we'd just have to settle for a phone call to discuss the important details of our wedding.


Andrew was clearly told that we were initially unhappy, and he was extremely sullen and uncommunicative with us during our the one 1.5 hour conference call with him. We both tried to be upbeat and positive, but it was a struggle to interact with him. After our call, I'd emailed him to ask if he felt we should have one more meeting before the wedding to cover all the bases, and he said that wouldn't be necessary. We'd sent him and his boss (Tad Clark) an email on 5/23, with an attachment with our complete music list, and during our call on 5/29, when I referred to the list, he said, sounding irritated, that that day was the very first time he'd seen it. I pointed out that he'd received the email with it 6 days previously, and he acknowledged that he hadn't opened the attachment.

During our discussion with him, we stressed the importance and delicacy of the introduction of our 'mothers'--as both sets of our parents are deceased, we wanted to both honor the parents who had passed on, and honor the mother figures in our lives who were present. We spent a considerable amount of time during the call making sure that Andrew understood that this was a key element of the reception, and went over the phonetic spelling and pronunciation of these people, and I told him I'd write a brief piece of copy for him to read, mourning the loss of the deceased, and introducing those mothers with us in the room.

Our plan was to invite these important women in our lives and their spouses onto the dance floor after our first dance, to join us, and have a Family Dance--and we asked Andrew to choose a Frank Sinatra song for this dance.

On our wedding day, Andrew did not have the correct timeline with him, and was unsure of the order of when our first dance was, etc., minutes before we were to be introduced! When we did have our bridal party introduced, we cringed as he mispronounced several names, despite the fact that we had gone over each one with him during our call.

We were then introduced, and were to immediately segue into our first dance, but Andrew let us stand out on the dance floor for nearly 30 seconds of dead air, which was incredibly awkward and embarrassing. When it was time to introduce our mothers, his delivery was again completely wooden and unprofessional--it was clear that he had not practiced it--it sounded like he was seeing it and reading it for the very first time, cold. Thus, what was supposed to be a significant, emotional moment of tribute sounded like we'd handed the copy to someone off the street. Here again, several more names were completely mispronounced--which gave these family members the impression that we, the couple, had not bothered to clarify something so important with our DJ beforehand. We've since apologized to those whose names were mangled, but it was a shame.

The Sinatra song he chose was nearly impossible to dance to--I was a dancer for years, and even I struggled with it--and my 77 year old stepmother and Eric's 87 year old surrogate mom had an awful time. We all just hoped it would end quickly--and another important aspect of the reception was a disappointment.

The sound quality overall was scratchy and did not sound rich and professional--and Andrew's lack of enthusiasm was clear when he made announcements during the reception.

We had two wedding coordinators--and one of them ended up having to spend the majority of the reception up in the DJ area, making sure that he followed the timeline--thus dividing the efforts of another vendor that could have been better used in managing the event on the floor.

We sent a similar synopsis as above to Tad Clark last week, ending with this:

"I am not sharing this with you because I enjoy complaining--in fact, we went into the event hoping that everything, at least the things we'd really spent time specifically with Andrew on, would go smoothly--I'm sharing them with you because as a business owner, I'd want to know how my customer's experience went, especially for something like a wedding day.

I'm happy to discuss this with you further--in fact, I'd appreciate your input on this."

However, no one from AMS Entertainment has contacted us or responded. Our feeling is that they took our money and do not care about the way our wedding went thanks to their employee. I usually feel that anyone can make a mistake, and in business, it’s not the issues themselves that leave the lasting impression, it’s how they are dealt with after the fact.

However, this was extremely stressful and disappointing, and I hope that no other bride and groom end up in the same boat with this organization.

AMS did an amazing job organizing our DJ, lighting, and photobooth needs. They are incredibly thorough, constantly available (including the owner of the company), and completely professional. They kept our guests dancing for over 5 hours! Awesome all around. A big thanks to Tad and Saul.

AMS is great at figuring out what you want. My now husband and I knew we wanted a band, had a budget, and knew what we wanted the band to play and we could not figure out how to go about making that happen. I went to AMS and they set us up right away and found the perfect band for us. They are super professional and on the day of the wedding made sure that everything went smoothly. AMS is really the place to go if you are looking for live music.

Overall my experience with AMS was mixed, but in the end would not recommend their services because I feel it is not worth it.

When we met in the office, we were convinced that AMS provided "the best" and "most professional" service, saying that the DJ is more "prepared" that other DJs. Unfortunately after our experience I would not say this is true.

I spent time organizing our wedding on the online planner, with the administrator, and with our DJ. We spoke many times through email as well. We even purchased and used our own songs to send to the DJl to further our organization with our song list. I felt that we were well prepared and proactive, I had even asked the DJl before the wedding if the songs were set and if we were ready to go. He assured me he was prepared.

AND THEN...

Four days before the wedding, he wanted to make sure we had the right set up for him, something you think would have been mentioned before. Luckily my rentals coordinator was professional and had the foresight to know that it was needed. That should have been mentioned in advance.

The night before the wedding, he called multiple times, texted, and emailed (during my rehearsal dinner) saying he did not have the right song we had requested. It was distracting. So after the dinner my fiance and I had to find a computer and email him the song. We had to then get the song to him because he could not find it on their system. It was a stress that I felt was unnecessary to be worrying about less that 24 hours before the wedding. Especially since I felt like I was very proactive in keeping in touch and making sure he had what he needed (seems a little backwards there).

Although the wedding ceremony and reception music was great and everyone was dancing (which in part is to our credit as we sent an extensive list.) I do not know if the amount that we paid and the hassles directly before the wedding was worth it. Due to that I would not recommend...

Tony with AMS was AMAZING!!!! The team at AMS is very professional and organized. Tony had the dance floor packed all night long!!! I would stronglly recommed them. They took the time to talk with us a few differnt times while we were planning our wedding to get to know us and our style. They played all of the songs we wanted and then some!!!

We also booked the Photo Booth through AMS as well. It was a hit! There was a line to get into the photo booth all night long. The props were a ton of fun!!!

Thanks AMS!!!!

Traveling from out of the area, my wife and I were extremely nervous about choosing vendors. Music is a huge priority for us and the DJ can make or break the event. Sean was the consummate professional from the day we walked into his office. He worked with our style, priorities and spent time getting to know us so that he could help create the perfect event. We loved the high-tech website where we could listen to examples online and pick our favorites on the fly. Sean and AMS have connections to other add-ons such as lighting, furniture and music for the ceremony. He was able to pull some strings and get a baby grand piano for the reception. The day of the ceremony, Sean took the reigns of the schedule and was in constant communication with my wife and I, and flexed to cover some of the inevitable snafus. I couldn't recommend Sean and his team more. "Thanks for making our reception unforgettable, Sean!"
- Joel & Erin

AMS was very professional and their worked with me over phone and email, since I was planning my wedding from out of state. AMS has an extensive online DJ planner which allowed my fiance and I to work together to select the types of music that we wanted/didn't want, what feel we wanted, how participatory the DJ should be, order of events, etc. Having done the online planner, when I was assigned a DJ and we had a phone consultation, we were able to spend most of the time going over details and vision and specifics.

The staff and our DJ gave us great recommendations and suggestions based on their experiences and we appreciated their advice. However, they also made it very clear that it was our wedding and they were here to help make our vision come into being.

Our DJ did a great job MC-ing. He kept events moving, worked with us in spur of the moment change of plans, to initiative to communicate with our other vendors, and most importantly, he took our requests for music styles and played exactly the types of music that we wanted. Everyone said the reception was a great party and I give due credit to the professionalism of our DJ.

Great...

I had ALOT of trouble getting their guitarist, Chris J., to contact me. I tried multiple times to contact him & offered many differnet contact solutions to try and get a response. It took over a month before I could get the ceremony music finalized and it was an extremely frustrating process.

Definitely an unnecessary stress before the wedding.

AMS takes the time to train all of their DJ's, they're very professional, no awkward yappage, able to respond to your needs, and most of all, the level of their interaction with your crowd is ultimately up to you. We chose Tony Park as our DJ and he fully executed our entire song list with ease! Thank you so very much Tony.

Unfortunately, we don't remember the name of our guitarist... what a great sport to be playing in the rain! It only sprinkled and he did have some shelter but it was also cold outside. His music added to the overall ambiance of our ceremony. Thank you kindly!

Sean at AMS entertainment paired my now husband and I with one of his wonderful DJ's that fit our personality and our wedding day mood. They play great songs and keep the day running smoothly. We really enjoyed having AMS Entertainment DJ our wedding day! They made it very special.

Our DJ from AMS was the weakest link in our entire wedding celebration. All in all, the DJ didn't ruin our celebration because we were caught up in the moment and enjoying our family and friends. But looking back, we could have saved a lot of $$$$ and received the same level of service by just renting a PA system and hooking our ipod up to it. Let me explain:

1. We had a sit-down meeting with him before to discuss what type of music we wanted played during dinner and for dancing (they pride themselves on providing customized, personalized service), but he didn't really listen. Luckily, my husband (then fiance) noticed this and suggested that we put together a playlist for dinner music. Our taste in music isn't that obscure, but the DJ didn't have over 3/4 of the songs on the list. So, we ended up burning a CD for him to play.
2. The DJ messed up our first song and we ended up booty-dancing to Snoop Dogg rather than to the sweet (and meaningful) San Cooke song we had chosen.
3. He gave a tacky shout-out to the caterers during the dinner. Something like "Let's hear it fir the caterers, [insert name here]." I think that if you are paying full-price for your caterers and the have their name emblazoned on the truck parked beside the outdoor venue then it's rather unnecessary to give a tacky plug in the middle of a sit-down dinner.
4. He was nowhere to be found when announcements for transportation needed to be made at the end f the evening. My husband figured out how to turn on the microphone and made the announcement himself.

AMS were amazing!! They were so professional and offered some many different options and prices. They hooked us up with the best DJ ever, Morgan. Loved her and would refer her to everyone getting married or having a party!!!

AMS was an awesome DJ and provided a really great service. They were really flexible and worked with me to get just the right music for our big day!

The DJ was absolutely fantastic! I was hesitant about using a dj in the first place but wow! He had everyone up and partying the whole night! He was so nice and fun and paid attention to exactly what we wanted. They dealt with our VERY last minute changes and late music submissions easily and with no problem. We also had a steel drum soloist and words do not describe! He was an incredible addition to our wedding and the guests were wowed!

They have a wonderful website to submit all the important information for your event. Then we met with the DJ and went over all the details. Our DJ arrived early and the other vendors spoke very highly of him. He reassured us that everyone was having a good time while we were taking photos. He kept the party flowing and working in all the important details we had requested. They also had a lot of unique ideas to offer during our initial meeting.

We are so glad we went with AMS. Our DJ was a great guy who helped us plan in advance what we wanted, from exact song choices to general "mood" of the evening as it progressed. He had everything set up exactly as we wanted and was a leading presence in the evening without putting any focus on himself. He ran things smoothly and effectively. He was able to "feel" the evening and ask us if we were ready for cake-cutting or bouquet toss, etc. He had great suggestions and just overall made us feel secure in the reception. It was exactly what we wanted. From the start AMS was very professional and lived up to it from the end. GREAT SERVICE!

Excellent DJ, worked well with live band we had. Had a great selection of music and kept the party going.

I procrastinated on everything at every level in planning this wedding because I live 4 hours away from where we tied the knot. I spoke with the DJ over the phone the night before and he still managed to get everything just right. My bridesmaids surprised me with a slideshow/video they'd made of me and my husband and it was so great I just had to play it at the wedding. AMS got me a screen and projector with less than 24 hours notice. The DJ even threw in an anniversary dance for my parents at the last minute. Tadd and Kelly were a big help in the administrative office and Anthony spun us a great party.

Overall our experience was terrific. Rachel did a fanstastic job at our reception. The only disappointment was that the microphone did not work during out ceremony and we were not given any type of discount. I would have liked to be compensated a little for not using the micrphone but paying for it. Overall it was a good experience.

Catering Connection can't say enough good thing about AMS entertainment. From Tad Clark to their team of DJs, you know you're going to have a great party, with fun entertainment.
Looking forward working with them again soon!

Tad and his team are great. They're consistent, flexible and professional. Tad really works with each bride as an individual and aims to please. The fact that they offer so many services (DJ, lighting, live musicians, photobooth, etc.) makes it a great one-stop shop. I recommend them to all of my brides.

AMS is great for any kind of event in Santa Barbara and beyond and they do an incredible job! They are all fun and easy going DJ's that are highly experienced professionals!!!

I have worked with AMS on many jobs There staff is great & very helpful for your needs I recemmend them for my brides
Tamaras Catering

AMS has been around for a long time and offer a very highly professional service and have high standards of ethical business practice.

AMS is awesome folks. They make it easy to find your perfect combination of wedding entertainment.