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Something A Little Different

The bride wanted to try something different – and I like different. I think it helps make your wedding YOUR wedding. Instead of doing the traditional wedding party dance, she asked, could I make one of those mash-up tracks containing bits of different songs and get to her a couple of weeks before the wedding? The plan was to get all of the bridesmaids together and choreograph a routine to the mix, but then they would let the groomsmen know – at the wedding rehearsal the night before the big day – that the bridesmaids were challenging them to a dance off the following day to help kick off their celebration.

Easy enough, I could do that. The mix was put together and delivered on time as promised. Two weeks later and after the rehearsal was completed the ladies threw down their challenge. The bride then called me and told me that the contest was on, and that the guys had a song in mind for their part.

Not a problem. It was a song I had in my library.

However a couple of hours later, sometime after 10 pm, I went to shut down my computer for the night and noticed I had received an email from the bride just an hour earlier.

“I know this may be too late,” she explained, “but the guys want to know if you could put a mix together for them for tomorrow’s  dance off.”

Say what?

She listed the songs that they wanted and I had them all. I began assembling the mix immediately and worked until the midnight hour until it was complete.

The next day at the reception things moved along just as planned, and when we got to the wedding party dance I explained to the guests that a challenge had been made. First I brought out the bridesmaids and they had their routine down. Even the little flower girls were involved. It was evident this was well-rehearsed.

Then we called the guys out. Their mix started with a slow instrumental. I believe I recall it being the theme from Chariots of Fire. The guys paraded out single file onto the dance floor, wearing sunglasses and waving ribbons they had attached to a stick. Then there was a record scratch, followed by bits from Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy …. Gangnam Style…. Cotton Eyed Joe – and the guys had it down!! It brought down the house.

To this day I don’t know how they pulled it off without any time to practice.

This was unique. This was entertaining. This was a moment.

Again, these are the moments you that make a wedding day. I’ll be honest. Not many of your guests will remember your invitations, the color of your flowers or even a lot of the songs I play but the moments – like this one – will be remembered.

I can help create those moments – and I can help enhance them with music.

What do you want your moments to be?

“My Luke Skywalker Moment”

It was one of the most delightful weddings I ever had the pleasure of being part of. The story was that Kristian was from the Big City up north; the bride, Leah, a small-town girl from Iowa. They ended up at the same college together – but it was not there where they actually met. It was instead on a study abroad trip in England where they first crossed paths, and sparks flew immediately.

And now it was the wedding day. The toasts after dinner were heartwarming. The father of the groom explained how HE was smitten with Leah after he had first met her. “But it took HIM (the groom) five years to get around to proposing!” he said. “I was thinking, C’mon man, what are you waiting for??”

The toasts concluded when Kristian got up to say a few word of thanks to everyone for coming.

He began by saying “Anyone here who knows me knows I’m a Star Wars fan,” which brought some chuckles to the room, “and Luke Skywalker once said” … and I wish I could remember the quote that he used, but he concluded by saying, “Well this is MY Luke Skywalker moment.”

It was so profound. It stuck to us like a Velcro ball on wool.

Kristian then went on to talk of Leah’s father, who unfortunately had passed away just some months before the wedding. He told funny stories – and some quirky rules – that his would-be father-in-law had (“Seven minutes in the shower!”), and he concluded by again thanking everyone for being there and he hoped to see everyone on the dance floor, and he returned to his seat.

With that I let the guests know that the dessert bar was now open … and I launched into the theme from Star Wars to enhance the moment!

These are the moments  that make a wedding day,  the moments that will be remembered.

I can help create those moments – and I can help enhance them with music. What do you want your moments to be?

The Anniversary Dance

One of the wedding traditions we typically do is called the anniversary dance, and if you have never seen it before it works like this: All of the married couples in the room are invited out to the dance floor to join the bride and groom – and I have to give my good friend Bob credit for this line: He tells the couples this is the Celebration of Marriage Dance, and for every couple out on the dance floor with the newest member of the “marriage club” that will add one year of good luck to their marriage. Sometimes, if the guests are a little less than willing to participate, we have to sham them a bit into joining us on the dance floor by telling them that if they are married and still sitting in their chair it’s like wishing the bride and groom bad luck on their wedding day (while you’re drinking their free beer). This guilt’s them into participating.

We then play a song for all of the married couples but about half way through we start eliminating couples by saying anyone who has not yet been married five years can return to their seat. Then it’s 10 … 15 … 20 … and continues until we have one couple – the longest-married couple – left on the dance floor.

We then invite the two couples – the bride and groom and the longest married couple – to join together for a photo op.

Now here is where it sometimes differs. Some couples have a gift for the longest married couple, sometimes the bride will give her bouquet to them in lieu of tossing it to the single girls, but I like to take the microphone to the couple and ask for their names, how long they’ve been married and what advice they would give to the newlyweds to achieve that plateau. The advice is sometimes comical, sometimes heartfelt.

My most memorable one though happened years ago in Platteville, WI.

I first asked the wife of the senior married couple what advice she would give the bride and groom, and it was something pretty typical, like always listen to one another or never go to bed mad.

But when I asked her husband for his advice he just took the microphone from me and took over the room.

“Well, when we got married we went to the Smokey Mountains for our honeymoon,” he told the guests. “We had a little cabin rented up in the mountains but you could not get there by car so we got a horse and packed our belongings on it for the trip up the mountain.”

About halfway up, he told his captivated audience, the horse fell down, so he had to unpack everything, let the horse stand back up and re-pack everything, but then he said, “I told the horse that’s once.”

“We went a little farther and the horse fell again, so again I had to unpack everything, get the horse up and pack things again, and I said to the horse ‘That’s two!’”

“We didn’t go much further and that horse fell again and I said ‘that’s three!’ and I shot that horse!”

The guests gasped – but then he delivered his punchline.

“So we had to carry all of our stuff the rest of the way up the mountain to the cabin by ourselves,” he continued, “but Marilyn was saying ‘Oh what did you do that for? That was not the horse’s fault. I can’t believe you shot that horse!’ And I turned and said ‘Marilyn – that’s one!’

“And I have never have had a problem since!”

The guests roared!! No one realized it was a joke until the punchline. I was laughing too hard to take the microphone back. But you want to talk about energizing the room! And I went back to my set up I knew at some point that night. I had to play Rocky Top by The Osborne Brothers

These are the moments that make a wedding day, the moments that will create the memories.

I can help create those moments – and I can help enhance them with music.
What do you want your moments to be?

Trent and Amy: The Toast

Somewhere in my file cabinet I still have the invite to this wedding, but I would have to dig deep to find it again. It was unique because the groom was a pilot and the invite was designed to look like a classic airline ticket.

It was a winter wedding in historic Galena and it was scheduled to go until 1:30 AM. Kind of unheard of in our area and I doubted that the guests would actually last that long, but since this was a destination wedding with lodging on site some of those events can keep everyone close by.

Things started out traditionally with the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner. Then after dinner it was time for some toasts. I cannot say I remember the first few but the final one has stuck with me for 15-20 years now. It was from the brother of the groom and the Best Man. He told some stories about the groom which added a bit of humor but then he told the story of a former war pilot (someone later told me that story came from an astronauts autobiography but I cannot confirm or dispute that).

The story told was of a pilot out flying a mission in the dark of the night during war time. Because of this, they had turned off their radar. On the flight back the aircraft’s instrument panel had gone out – and the radio signal had been scrambled so as to not be detected by the enemy. The pilot found himself flying aimlessly in the dark, which the Best Man described was like “trying to fly in the middle of a bowling ball.” Without knowing exactly where he was and with no communication the pilot, he said, was considering ejecting and taking his chances in the open sea, but just then he saw below him what appeared to be a neon streak of green – “and anyone that has maritime experience knows that green algae is left in the wake of a ship – or an aircraft carrier.” he said. The pilot, he explained, followed that green light on the ocean floor which led him right back to the safety of his aircraft. But then the brother/Best Man gave his conclusion. “So the moral of the story,” he told his brother and new bride, “is that when dark days come – and you know they will come – don’t give up, don’t despair. Keep looking, keep searching for the light that will take you right back here to where your journey began.”

 Wow! Talk about a pin drop moment!

The wedding was great-and they did make it to the bottom of the one o’clock hour. Yes there was great music, and dancing, and flowers, a white dress and a great meal, but it was that moment that has stuck with me for all of these years.

Moments: sometimes they’re spontaneous, sometimes, like this one, they are well thought out and planned.
What moments do you have planned for your wedding day?

A Night at the Museum

This wedding was so much fun. The clouds parted by late morning and gave way to a sunny, crisp autumn day. The couple said their ‘I Dos’ in the historic Train Depot at the National Mississippi River Museum before the guests moved to the open aquarium for appetizers and drinks. When it was time to introduce the wedding party the staff provided all of the guests with a glass of champagne.

The wedding party then made their entrance from the second floor, down the grand staircase. The intros concluded with something a little different though: The newlyweds stopped on the staircase landing where the groom thanked everyone for their presence and then all had a champagne toast.

From there it was back up the staircase where dinner and dancing took place on the second floor mezzerine overlooking the main floor exhibits of the museum. Then we partied until the lights went off (Literally! The museum lights are pre-programmed to turn off at 11 pm).

I want to thank Amber and Joe for having me be a part of this memorable celebration – and kudos to museum events coordinator for being so accommodating to something so unique.

Weddings are like ice cream: there are so many flavors. What’s yours?

The Silver Lining

At the end of this month I will be emceeing and entertaining a wedding reception, which will be the fourth one that has spawned from a previous one that I had done some time back. That is not all that unusual but the circumstances of the original wedding were . . .

It started out like any other wedding day. I set up earlier in the day, arrived back thirty minutes before my scheduled time and ran through my checklist. As the guests started to arrive I began to play some of that toe tapping background music. About thirty minutes into the reception someone popped in to tell me that the wedding party had arrived so I put on a nice long song, announced to the guests that the wedding party had arrived, and went out to meet with them and get prepped for introductions. Once out in the hallway I encountered a couple of wedding party members, but no bride and groom. I was told they were checking into their hotel room and would be arriving shortly, but after several minutes I stepped back in to the banquet room to discover several guests with cameras ready, eagerly awaiting their arrival. I announced that “Tanya and Wayne’ were still taking care of some business and would be joining us shortly.  A few more trips to the hall in the following moments revealed still no bride and groom. By this time the guests had returned to their seats. Finally, I peeked down the hall further and noticed a commotion by the men’s restroom. I made my way there to see what was going on and discovered a memorable sight. A few of the groomsmen, the bride and her mother were all gathered in the men’s restroom with the groom sprawled out on the floor. He had just gotten sick on himself and was way intoxicated. I returned to the banquet room and let the guests know that the groom was feeling ill and we were getting him some attention, by this time though word was spreading through the reception. The minister who had performed ceremony came and spoke with me and assured me that there was no alcohol on anyone’s breath during the ceremony. Moments later the groom’s uncle, a paramedic, was summoned for help.

“Get this guy to a hospital,” I was told he said. “He has alcohol poisoning.” It seems in their quest to celebrate the moment, the wedding party bar hopped from the ceremony to the reception and the groomsmen kept buying the groom shots – and the groom was no drinker. One of the last times we saw Wayne on his wedding day he was being carted out on a stretcher.

But this is where the story actually gets interesting. The families decided to go ahead with dinner and I think we all anticipated that the reception would come to a quiet close after that. But I continued my usual routine and began ramping up the music a bit at the conclusion of dessert. To my surprise, two young ladies came to the floor and began to dance. A song or two later several others joined them. I took a moment to approach my first two dancers and quizzed them on what I thought would work here. They revealed to me that Tanya and a large group of her friends went country line dancing every Wednesday night (funny that never came up at the consultation) so I had something to start with. In just a song or two the dance floor was packed! Then someone received a phone call: the bride was on her way back. When she arrived we were ready for her. As she came through the door I announced “Ladies and gentleman the bride is in the house” and went right into “I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll” and my two lovely assistants grabbed her, pulled her onto the dance floor and the party was on.

We did the father/daughter dance and the dollar dance. At one point a pair of her bridesmaids pulled her to the floor, forced her into a chair, ripped off her garter and threw it. We followed that with the bouquet toss. With only an hour or so left in the reception the groom appeared, came just inside the door, and waved to everyone, just to let them know that he was okay. He disappeared down the hall and the bride followed him. Things began to wind down after that but the minister and several others approached me to tell me what an unbelievable job I had done and could not believe how things had turned out.

But I knew it was not only me. I searched out my two early dancers and asked them to step out into the hallway.

“You two,” I told them, “are as responsible as anyone to turn what could have been a tragic day into a terrific one. Go to sleep tonight knowing you are good people!”

With tears in their eyes they said they had to do it for Tanya. Within days the phone started ringing from others at that wedding telling me that they were planning an event and would like to meet with me.

There were a few lessons that I learned or were reinforce from this celebration. One was that Yogi Beara must have been right, it ain’t over til it’s over. Keep looking for that spark that will ignite a fire. The other is that we can all fail miserably on our own, but success always comes with the help of others. Don’t be afraid to depend on that.

And I guess there is a third, and that is I guess it’s true, a wedding day is the brides day. Who needs a groom?

True Story: “Can you play a song
everyone will dance to?”

This wedding was at a very upscale place with a beautiful ballroom and deck overlooking the city. The number of guests was at capacity for the room so in order to have a little more space the bar was set up just outside of the main entrance in what they call their ‘pre-function area.’ The couple also had a photo booth and decided to have that placed not far from the bar as well.

We followed a traditional wedding order – cocktails were in the pre-function area before everyone was escorted into the dining room. That was followed with wedding party introductions, dinner, toasts, and concluded with those special moment dances – and then we were ready to celebrate. Or so I thought. Instead, everyone left …

I should not say they left the reception, but rather the room where dinner and dancing were to occur. They instead set sail for the bar where they enjoyed drinks, social time, and the photo booth.

In the room where I was set up and playing music, it was just myself and a handful of hyperactive children who were running and sliding across the dance floor and asking me to play those songs that you would expect from pre-teen children.

After somewhere close to an hour of this scenario one of the bridesmaids came into the room, looked around the near-empty room, then approached me with a question.

“Do you think you could play a song that will get everybody out here dancing?” she asked.

And I had to be honest with her.

“No, I can’t,” I told her. “I wish I could but that song hasn’t been made yet. But …. If you could get the bride out here to dance, I can almost guarantee a bunch of her guests will follow.” I said.

So that is exactly what this bridesmaid did. She coerced the bride, a couple of other bridesmaids, and a couple of friends to go dance. Within a couple of songs, more people had come back into the dinner/dancing space to join them. A couple of songs later the dance floor was jammed and the party was revived.

It wasn’t long before the photo booth operator, who now found himself in the same situation I was in just a couple of hours earlier, came to me and asked, “Can you tell them this is the last call for the photo booth?”

I shook my head in agreement but as he walked away I shook my head no. Now that I had them there was no way I was going to let ‘em go.

It turned out to be a fantastic party and the couple even asked me to stay for an extra hour. But here is the moral of the story: There are several factors to creating a great celebration, completed with dancing: The lighting, the layout of the room, even the time of the day will make a difference. But nothing is more powerful than having the bride and groom out on the dance floor. That just pulls others there as well.
More than music, it’s the secret ingredient that inspires people to dance.