The Tony Schwartz Weddings Blog

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Ah, December, one of the most fesitive months of the year.  And if you are going to have a winter wedding – December is just the month to have one!  And for Adam and Michelle Goddard, they had an amazing crowd that was ready to party!

Due to time constraints with Kensington Gardens, I worked with Michelle and Adam to plan a wedding reception that would maximize the amount of open dancing possible – we only had four hours to do a ceremony, room flip, and reception with a sit-down dinner.  Thus, we had to prioritze what was most important in their wedding reception entertainment and then build an itinerary that not only encompassed those priorities – but felt natural as well.  The simplified itinerary below doesn’t do justice – the formal dances were done during dinner, and my narration of the Love Story was performed as the final tables were being served their dinners and was a perfect segue into the toast.

I must give compliements to the guests of the Goddard wedding reception – they were awesome!  After a very cheerful reception of the Wedding Party’s Grand Entrance – I immediately transitioned into “That’s Amore” – and they sang along!  I knew I had a great crowd on hand – and they only proved it after I narrated Adam & Michelle’s “Love Story”.  For the first time ever, my clients got a standing ovation for their love story – and they completely deserved it!

And of course, when we opened the dance floor with “Blame It on the Boogie” – they didn’t stop dancing and singing until the final song of the night.  It was a great mix of funk, pop, and 80s dance – and I wish we had more time to dance the cold night away!

Simplified Itinerary

Ceremony
Cocktail Hour Outside
Grand Entrance
Dinner
First Dance
Father/Bride Dance
Mother/Son Dance
Love Story
Toasts
Cake Cutting
Bouquet & Garter Tosses
Open Dancing
Last Song of the Night
Farewell Tunnel Into the Limo

Sorry, no pictures.

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On Friday night, I was the MC & DJ for the wedding reception of Kyle & Danielle Hart – a fun, lovely young couple that had met at WSU in Pullman.  The venue was the Pioneer Pavilion in Puyallup – an acoustically tough building for DJs -  but I thought the Bose L1 System handled it just fine

Danielle is an asipring wedding planner and I hope she continues to chase that dream – she was a joy to work with.  Kyle was a great guy – a lot of fun and I know he will be an amazing husband to Danielle!

So with Friday weddings, I really like to be as interactive and fun as possible – I think the MC role is more critical than the DJ role.  With Friday weddings, it’s typically been a warm sunny day, the end of a long work week – people typically want to sit back and relax – but if you strike the right chords, they will have a lot of fun and get down to party!

So for this reception, I wrote and narrated their Love Story – and I did it a bit different than normal due to the video of their engagement being featured in our slide show.  I also did 30 Second Wedding Bios for their wedding party members – a lot of laughs all the way around!  And with a last name of Hart, First Baby Name Suggestions from their guests was a must – Achy Breaky was one of my favorite suggestions!

All in all – a great Friday evening wedding!

Simplified Itinerary

Cocktail Hour
Opening Announcements
30 Second Wedding Bios
Love Story
Grand Entrance
First Dance
Dinner Buffet
Words of Wisdom Cards
Slideshow
First Baby Name Cards
Toasts
Cake Cutting
Father/Bride Dance
Mother/Son Dance
Longest Married Couple
Bouquet  & Garter Toss
Wedding Party Dance
Open Dancing
Last Dance

Pictures!

As always, I only take photos before the event as I find it tacky and rude to take pictures while performing.

This is the head table - do you notice the red light on the brick wall behind the table? I know it was still light out, but the "uplighting" is there...

Red Uplights - I used red to tie into the theme colors of red, white, and black. These were placed at certain points around the room - it's all about atmosphere!

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I just love winter weddings – it’s just a nice contrast from summer weddings – especially when it comes to colors and decorations!  And Samantha picked out a beautiful dark blue linen as one of her wedding colors.  I decided to help out and add two blue uplights that added a touch of class and elegance.  The two blue uplights were right behind their head table – a beautiful background behind a beautiful couple!

Oh, and while the decor of the wedding had a winter theme – at the end, as Matt and Sam took off for Key West, FL – it started to snow!  A beautiful way to end their winter wedding!

The Hollywood School House has a unique upstairs area that served as a cocktail session in between the ceremony and the reception.  If you get a chance, check it out – words cannot even describe the uniqueness of this area.  I setup a JBL Eon and made a jazz playlist on an iPod to serve as background music.

For Matt and Sam’s wedding, I took a few signature style events and tweaked them a bit.  First, I rewrote their Love Story the night before, and I was much happier with the outcome.  I also took the Bride and Groom Trivia Table Release and did a Bride and Groom Trivia Contest before the toasts.  It got loud and crazy as tables tried to win the coveted bottle of champagne!

Matt and Sam were a great couple to work for and I wish them the best of luck!  Congratulations you two!

Simplified Itinerary

Ceremony
Cocktail Period
Grand Entrance
Thank You to Guests
Dinner
Bride and Groom Trivia
Toast
Cake Cutting
First Dance
Father/Bride Dance
Mother/Son Dance
Open Dance Floor
Bouquet Toss
Garter Toss
Open Dancing
Last Song

Pics!

Corner Setup

Table Decorations

Uplighting Behind the Head Table

Another Shot of the Uplighting

Note:  All photos are taken before guest arrival and are used as promotion for Tony Schwartz Weddings only.  Photos are taken via the BlackBerry Curve for blog use only.  Any photos showed during the reception are courtesy of the wedding party and it’s guests.  Tony Schwartz will never take photos during any wedding reception he is performing at, as his focus is on the client.

Uncategorized hollywood school house, love story, matt and samantha walker, seattle dj, uplighting, Wedding DJ, winter wedding, Woodinville wedding dj