First Wedding of the Year!

Getting back into the swing of doing weddings can have a few rough edges.  Rachel and Tim had their wedding at the Allerton Crown Plaza downtown and it was my first time working in the space.  A few learns on this gig is to ask about a house system when I do a site visit.  The Allerton's ballroom is long and skinny that looks like a dog bone when viewed from above.  Our dj table was set at one end and the sweetheart table was at the other.  They didn't have a house system we could plug into and we should have included a smaller speaker that would have been placed on the other end of the room.  What we ended up doing was placing one speaker on either end and when we go to dancing, we turned the speaker off that was at the other side.  It worked out okay, but wasn't ideal.  The house also has a wireless microphone which the bride and groom didn't include in their package.  This would have made things a little easier, as well.  Instead, we used a long cord for our microphone which we ran down to the other end of the room so speeches could be done near the sweetheart table.  Another good thing to ask in our meetings is where the older guests would be.  They were seated on the other side of the room next to a speaker.  They didn't want the speaker on, probably because the music we were playing didn't appeal to them.  The bride and groom wanted to hear music they like and fit their personalities, which was a mix of indie and southern rock.  Those older guests ended up turning the speaker into the wall, which caused several announcements not to be heard.  We weren't aware of this until the middle of the evening when one of the guests in that room asked us to turn the music down on that side.  The guests sitting in that room where disgruntled beyond anything I had ever seen.  Emily went to turn the music down and the guests were mean to her and told her to just turn the speaker off.  I was upset because they didn't respect the bride and groom's wishes to hear the music.  The volume we ended up setting it at was barely audible.  Dancing was great!  Amazing!  We had some challenges, such as the bar being outside the room, tables taking up a lot of space with only one way to the dance floor that got clogged easily with people just wanting to watch, and tables that were set on the dance floor that couldn't be moved until dinner was complete.  That being said, we rocked!  We had a pretty good sized dance floor most of the night with only a couple lulls that we quickly corrected.  Hip-hop was big later the evening and we left the crowd wanting more.  Alas, we had to leave.  All said and done, this was a really fun event and I can't wait for my next wedding!

--Jonathan Hood (lead)

Emily Hard (assisting)