A Wedding and a Birthday

Adam Gibson and Nicole Donohoe got married at the Wallace Bowl in Wilmette. The site reminded me of Greek ampitheater. The wedding was beautiful. Japanese lanterns decorated a lawn where the ceremony took place and the guests sat in a raked semi-circular seating area made of stone with wooden benches. Fig provided microphones and speakers for sound reinforcement. I was really disappointed with how the space sounded. Looking back, I would give myself more time to try a range of possibilities with speaker placement to get the best sound, as well as prep all the participants to have the microphone close to their mouths when they are speaking.

We also dj'd the reception at the nearby Michigan Shores Club. Walking around in this building's Old English style is like being in a castle. We played world music during the cocktail hour and broadened it up during dinner with classical during the entree and moving into soul, R&B, and some vocal jazz as the dinner wound to an end. Dancing was a ton of fun. The bride and groom kicked it off with their first dance and after a couple minutes, they broke off to find their parents and brought them out. After another couple minutes, everybody split up to grab somebody else to bring out. This continued a few more times until the dancefloor was packed. And it stayed packed for most of the night. The music ranged from vocal jazz, to motown, to oldies, to disco and funk, to 80's, to top 40. My favorite combination of songs during the night was "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" into "Funkytown" into "Sexy Back" into "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley.

Little did everybody know, that at midnight I was turning 28! I had so much fun celebrating my birthday with these people. I love it when I'm playing music that I like and dancing and interacting with everybody and laughing and smiling!

--Jonathan (Lead DJ)

Tobey Geise (Assistant DJ) - Helped during the ceremony and transition into dinner.
Karen Aronoff (Assistant DJ) - Helped during the transition into dinner and through the rest of the night.