Harris/Hensel at Pierre's

In Berwyn there is a place called Pierre’s Banquet Hall. This is where Alicia Harris and Keith Hensel had their wedding reception. Owen and I dj’d. We had a little trouble setting up. We ran into a problem with Pierre’s when tried to position a speaker on the other side of the room. We weren’t allowed to run a speaker cable where people would be walking. We tape down our cords to prevent anyone from tripping over it and I typically never run into this problem. (Now I know to talk with venues when I do my site visit to see if they have any concerns about where I’m running my cords) We came up with a compromise where we moved the switched the sweet table with the dj table. It worked out even better than our original location. We had great sound throughout the room and were in prime location for the dance floor.

Owen was great to work with. He handled all the requests and was really friendly with everyone there. I was battling a nasty cold that night and he took a lot of weight off my shoulders. There were several guests who had gotten pretty drunk and were difficult to talk to and work with. Owen stepped right in and handled it with ease. It’s cool to be able to just focus on the music and reading the crowd.

Alicia and Keith’s first dance was to Ben Harper’s “Sexual Healing.” They’re a really cute couple. A lot of fun to be around. As we’re approaching the end of the night, I’m trying to decide which song to play as the last. I decided to close with Ben Harper’s “Forever” and bring the party full circle. Turned out to be the best choice I could have made. As soon as the bride heard it, she grabbed Keith and headed out to the dance floor. Afterwards, Alicia came up to me and thanked me for playing that song. She hadn’t cried all day, and this was the song that made that happen.

--Jonathan Hood, resident dj