Mary Nisi

Host/CEO/DJ/Beekeeper/Mom

Fed up with the cheesy antics and shameless self-promotion of typical wedding disc jockeys, Mary Nisi founded Toast and Jam in 2005 based on the idea that her clients and guests should be entertained, not overshadowed. Music-obsessed since childhood, Mary got her start in community radio and began DJing events when a listener called the request line and asked if she would DJ their wedding. Since then, the company has provided the soundtrack to thousands of weddings and events in Chicago and beyond, most notably for Barack & Michelle Obama, Valerie and Laura Jarrett, Vince Vaughn, and this one afterparty for every important NASCAR driver who were all very amused by the fact that she knew not one of them by name, amongst many, many others. She is a founding member of the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) and the CHIRP Record Fair & Other Delights and currently hosts "The Noonday Underground" on Mondays from noon to 3pm on CHIRPradio.org. She’s DJed at numerous spots around Chicago including The Whistler, Cole’s Danny's (RIP!), Schuba's, The Burlington, Delilah's and Smashing Time, the legendary Saturday night dance party at The Hideout, as well as abroad at All Tomorrow's Parties, the celebrated music festival in Camber Sands, England. A graduate of DePaul University and a native of Omaha, Nebraska, Mary has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, Chicago Public Radio, CS Brides, The Knot, Wedding Wire, The Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, Brides Chicago, Martha Stewart Weddings and TimeOut Chicago. In 2017 Mary bought the old Pitchfork Media building in Logan Square to house the T&J offices and decided to convert the rest of the space in Ampersand Cowork, a very baller shared work and event space that routinely came in second place as the Best Coworking Space in the city, according to the Chicago Reader. At the end of 2021, she sold the building, closed Ampersand and started the podcast All Up In My Lady Business. When she’s not tending to one of her businesses, you may find Mary hosting a function on the building’s 2,000 square-foot rooftop deck. She co- founded one such event, a recurring pop-up called Ladies of Logan, to showcase the neighborhood’s outstanding crop of female entrepreneurs. Mary fills the rest of her time with beekeeping in her Logan Square backyard, sewing in the basement, downhill skiing, watching Jeopardy!, and bicycling around the neighborhood with her husband, John, and son Sebastian.