Erin & Alex’s wedding at Strong Mansion
I initially met Erin and Alex via Skype as they live in Berkely California and were remotely planning for their wedding at Strong Mansion in Maryland. We had a nice virtual meeting and talked through their wedding needs and I got a good feeling for their likes and dislikes, which set the foundation for a great event. Skype turned out to be a great tool and gave us a chance to actually meet face to face even though we were on opposite sides of the country.
Right in the middle of a week of heavy rain in the DC metro area, Erin & Alex’s June 8th wedding reception in Dickerson, Maryland was blessed with what could be described as picture perfect wedding weather for an outdoor summer event.
When I met with Erin and Alex, we decided to keep things super classy and greet their family and guests with a selection of swing jazz and crooners for their cocktail hour. I started things of with some of my favorite classic swing songs from the likes of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. After their guests had a chance to settle in on this lovely day, I announced Erin and Alex into the reception to gracious applause.
We wasted no time and went right into their first dance. They danced to “A Thousand Years” by The Piano Guys and it was pretty obvious that they had practiced and had some great moves on lock. After the parent dances, I moved into some nice background music selections of Motown love songs, acoustic and great vibe music. I played songs like “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison and “Big Parade” by The Lumineers to keep the mood right as dinner was served.
Soon after dinner, we had a series of toasts. Earlier while I was setting up the sound system for the wedding, I noticed a buggy car on display within Strong Mansion. I was wondering the significance. The toasts set this straight as I learned Erin and Alex met while racing a downhill, buggy cart. It was a great story and so cool to hear of some of the events that led to their wedding day.
Shortly after toasts and speeches, we moved into the cake cutting, bouquet toss and garter toss back to back. There was a really great energy in the air with all of the guests engaged in the prior events, so I invited everyone to join in on the dance floor with a slow dance. All of the couples came out and started the dance section right. I moved right into some dance floor friendly classics like “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles and “Signed Sealed Delivered” by Stevie Wonder. I quickly knew this was going to be a good dance party! I kept the energy going and moved through some of the tunes I talked about playing when we met like “We Found Love” by Rhianna.
After playing some of the up-tempo club tunes on their list peppered with some of my favorites, I dropped things down into some hip-hop hits like “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore. At the end of the night, I dropped their personalized last song selection “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” from the Blues Brothers movie. It created a great vibe and most of the guests knew all the words and had a good old fashioned sing it out session to end what turned out to be a great wedding reception.