Tiffany Holmes & Travis Boespflug

When: Saturday, September 26th, 2009
Where: Ralph Englestad Arena, Thief River Falls, MN
1st Dance Song: "True Companion" by Marc Cohn

For this Ralph, guests entered on the main arena entance, then took the stairs or elevator down to the dressing room level where a kitchen and ballroom for up to 350 guests wait. I got to drive down to unload my gear, which was pretty sweet.

Something I've brought up but never done before.... we saved the cake until 30 minutes into the dance. The cake cutting was immediately followed by the dollar dance, which also gave guests a chance to serve themselves. I'm a fan because it means waiting to enjoy your dessert instead of while you're full.

The picture of me with all the purses... well, when the wedding party arrives, we introduce them into the room. This means someone has to get all the stuff they're carrying in so they don't have to during their grand entrance. That's five purses and a breast pump and it all weighed a ton.

Also on the list of duties, shortening their special dances. They wanted three: a first dance, her dance with her dad, and Travis' dance with his mom. Rather than that totaling 12 minutes of music, I digitally shortened each to about two minutes each. Those who have stood out there for a dance, just the two of you, understand that two minutes is long enough. The songs were intact, each got their moment, and we kept things moving as best we could.


Another new one, I inserted Travis and Tiffany's heads (a photo from the reception) into a disco dancing video, played it at the end of the garter giveaway. No one expected it. It wasn't planned. I figured out I could do it during the dinner thanks to the magic of WiFi and the internet. The site is called JibJab.com and while you can make some of the videos free, to actually download or post them to YouTube, you have to pay.

Kiley English & Jason Cossette

When: Saturday, September 19th, 2009
Where: Avalon Events Center, Fargo, ND
1st Dance Song: "I Don't Know Much" by Aaron Neville & Linda Ronstadt

I got to put their slide show together and its was my favorite in years (see video below). As soon as I saw the pictures Kiley sent me I knew exactly what to do. The final result is to the right and, at only 3 minutes, it clips along nicely and even includes Kiley singing when she was, at most, two years old.

Kiley's dad put together a fun little quiz for the guests in lieu of a speech (How many times has Kiley seen New Kids on the Block Live? Three.). Both our Best Man Jon and Maid of Honor Hillary did very nice speeches, but Jason's was excellent. His was a great example to other grooms.

Apparently "for the night" means something different to the photographer, when asked how late he'd be here. If you're gonna pack up after the first dance, just say so. Otherwise I'm be looking all over trying to find you so you can get pics of the bride's brother performing his guitar live. At least I got the video and recorded the audio straight off the mixer (to download his song, right click this link and 'save link as' or 'save target as'). I also got CD recordings of her brother and dad in a band covering "One" by U2.