Where: Hilton Inn, Grand Forks, ND 1st Dance Song: "Something" by Beatles
A few years in the making, apparently. They've been dating five years (or was itseven?). They have a wonderful daughter, Bailee, who is shy to start, but warms up quickly. She was supposed to give the blessing, but froze up. 30 minutes later you had to take the microphone from her, she was so enthusiastic (and apparently knows the alphabet backwards, already).
The picture (sadly, one of the few before my camera failed) is of Greta's speech. She wrote her notes on the back of a Target receipt. Which is still better preparation than most speeches.
Where: Bestwestern Doublewood Inn, Fargo, ND 1st Dance Song: "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flats
Apparently Cody had some trouble at the ceremony. Halfway through he turned white as a sheet and almost passed out. They sat him down, but he was a trooper and finished strong. He's much better now, thank you.
Turns out Bon Jovi is a big jerk. He was rude enough to schedule a concert at the Fargo Dome this same night which caused traffic headaches for guests trying to get from the church to the Doublwood.
Trisha made a video slide show. Rather than stopping everything to have guests watch, we put it on repeat in the corner. Guests could watch anytime they liked.
When it came time for the garter removal, Cody came prepared with head lamp flashlight. Pull the dress over his head and it all lights up like a lampshade. Very cool. Very funny.
Where: Eagles Club, Valley City, ND 1st Dance Song: "Faithfully" by Journey
I'll be honest and say I don't really like working at the Eagles. Its my third or fourth time there and the dance floor area where I setup is about 50 yards from the start of the dinner area where guests are seated. I ran all my speaker cords so I could have two speakers in the other room for speeches and background music. It also means a very long walk to make simple adjustsments to the volume during speeches.
Jill and her mom put together a very cool guest book. A large photo album scrap book using pics of Jill and Ryan with space for guests to write. Votive candles on all the tables had Jill and Ryan's name and wedding date on them. Beer can cozys for the favors. A candy table setup for guests until dinner.
Dinner was delayed about 40 minutes when the party bus carrying our wedding party was delayed. The Eagles had four buffet lines so once we did start, all the guests were through quickly.
Its always fun to learn things about people... like Ryan recently hosting an impromptu 80's party at 2 in the morning. His passion for 80's music led me to play Huey Lewis' 'Power of Love' which I've certainly never done before... The best man, Cory, kept trying to panic the maid of honor about her speech. Repeating 'crickets', as in, that will be the only sound when its over, it will be so bad. On the contrary, hers was excellent and her delivery was almost relaxed (though I doubt she'd say that).
Where: American Legion, Park River, ND 1st Dance Song: "She's Everything" by Brad Paisley
Hi Robert, Thank you so much---you did a great job, we had many compliments about the job you did!!! Thanks" - Shannon and Dee Jay Johnson
I had an assistant with me, James. This leaves me hands free for a few more things I like to do during a reception and not have to worry about starting the next song.
To the left, pictures of Shannon and DeeJay in a wedding when they were young.
No dollar dance, again, tonight. Bouquet toss and a garter raffle. For the raffle, the groomsmen sold decks of cards (tear them in half and you have tickets). They sold through three decks in only about 20 minutes. Easily the fastest I've ever seen. This setup a little game to give away the garter instead of drawing only one winner.
For the second week in a row we did a quick compatibility quiz for the bride and groom. See the video for what I'm talking about.
The cake was a barn with animals in between the tiers. They didn't cut it up, but served cheesecake in the buffet instead. Her son, Tucker, tried to feed frosting to one of the cows and you could see the kids' finger pokes in the frosting after about 10 minutes at the hall.
One of the groomsmen, Kelly, filled their car with shredded paper, covered their windows with spray snow. Apparently as revenge for DeeJay filling his car's heater unit with flour (when you turn the car on it *poof* sprays all over). Kelly's only mistake was admitting all this on camera. Woops.
Dance was fairly typical except that DeeJay wanted to add two extra hours and go until 1am. When your day starts at 1pm (or for the bride, 6am) that is one long day. But its not up to me and they were having fun. We also had some singing. First was Shannon's daughter, Jaylie. Then DeeJay sang two John Michael Montgomery songs (about an hour apart).
Where: A Touch of Magic, EGF, MN 1st Dance Song: "Only You Can Love Me This Way" by Keith Urban
Lindsay & Justin were actually married on January 11th, in Jamaica. Today was a reception only, but they dressed up. Bad weather was a concern, but they still had most of their guests arrive on time.
I'll admit, though, I wasn't happy with myself. There wasn't much dancing at all. I know the guests were still enjoying themselves but I always feel I can do better if there isn't a packed floor (and I mean packed). In this case we weren't even close. I also had a container with some party and emergency supplies go missing. Nothing too vital (backup toss bouquet, garter, etc), but it meant our plans to embarras the groomsmen weren't gonna happen. We did manage an air guitar contest, though.
Fun for me were two past clients, Katie & Ryer Stark (August 1st, 2009) and Greta & Tom Beard (November 21, 2009).
We skipped several traditions... no speeches, no dollar dance, no bouquet. They hired me to put together a short video, combining pictures and video from the wedding ceremony. We also raffled the garter off.
Where: Valley Clubhouse, EGF, MN 1st Dance Song: "The Nearness of You" by Norah Jones
The life threatening cold temperatures are gone, and replaced with rain that will surely freeze and create streets of ice tonight, when I'm trying to drive the 30 miles home. More importantly, this limited guests who were largely from MacIntosh and so that an already relatively small reception (125) shrank down to almost half size. Fortunately, weather isn't enough to stop a good time.
The ceremony was earlier, 1pm, to allow pictures and a field trip afterwards. Bizzy and Tyler met when they both worked at Sam's Club so long ago and made a stop there today. The first song Bizzy and Tyler ever danced to was Taylor Swift's "Love Story," which is unfortunate (it references Romeo & Juliet, which, I'd point out, is a tragedy, not a love song). Bizzy chose Norah Jones because, well, it wasn't Ella Fitzgerald. See, she was at a wedding a year ago with that song by Ella. She loved the song but didn't want to copy the other couple. Subtle. The guest book was a custom book of photos from Shutterfly.com. Favors were cute little buttons with their name and date on them. Cake was a single top tier with cupcakes for the rest. Wine and champagne was made available for everyone.
Where: Ramada Inn, Grand Forks, ND 1st Dance Song: "First Day of My Life" by Bright Eyes
Another freezing day in North Dakota. The evening high was -18F. Ugh. This is cold enough to take hot or boiling water, throw it in the air, and it instantly turns to snow. Go ahead, google it. It's pretty cool. Fortunately, I had another great couple to celebrate with, my friends, the photographers Shawna Noel and Kory Wallen. Even my mom, Kathy Benda, provided the chair covers. Decorations (table runners, candles, and flowers) by Just Add Water (Miss Brooke Roche). Katelyn wanted them introduced into the room to Hall and Oates' "Make My Dreams Come True." You might recognize it if you ever watched the movie "The Weddingsinger."
Another good set of speeches. Best of all was the grooms. As a surprise, his band, Yellow Stripe, played the music for the slide show. We kept this from everyone until we brought out the instruments. Not bad considering we had no time for a proper sound check or even a proper setup for live music on my part. I had to rent a mixer to handle all the instruments and extra microphones.
We tossed the bouquet and garter at the same time, and then segued into a dance for the groom. Once, many years ago, he did the dance for NSYNC's "Bye, Bye, Bye" on a bus trip to Washington, D.C. Katelyn has never forgotten it and had me play it for him again. Enjoy.
When: Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 Where: Ralph Englestad Arena, Thief River Falls, MN 1st Dance Song: "Making Memories of Us" by Keith Urban
"Justin and I wanted to send a big thank you for going above and beyond for us on our wedding day. You did a wonderful job and we could not have asked for a better reception. We have heard countless times from our guests about how great of a job you did and how your work and personality made the evening so enjoyable. Also thank you for making all of our requests happen! No chicken dance!! ;) We are VERY pleased with how it all turned out! Thanks again!" -Justin and Kristen Carlson
First off, it was -33F at the start of this day. The good news, it didn't seem to affect the Carlsons or their guests because we hit 95% of the guest count for the reception. That excellent photo to the right is courtesy photographer Megan Sugden, http://www.meganphoto.com/.
The introductions into the room were simple. Kristen and Justin first, then he called out each group (guys and ladies) to their themes (Who Let the Dogs Out, and Single Ladies by Beyonce, respectively).
We drew numbers for which table went up to the buffet. That was fine. The real issue was only two lines for 400 people. It took about 70 minutes to serve everyone. Not the worst, but folks were getting cranky after a bit. Remember kids, 1 buffet line per 100 people or so keeps things moving along. One table offered me $5 to pick them next. Hmmm.... nope.
Their cake had charms baked in. The bridesmaids each pulled one out via its ribbon, each charm representing something in their future.
Very different was the beginning of the dance and video. I'm a big proponent of 'your video is too long.' Kristen solved that by combining the first three dances with the video. She and her uncle danced while her pictures appeared behind them, then Justin and his mom during his pics, finally Justin and Kristen during their couple pics. It worked perfectly.
For the garter, we sold raffle tickets. The drawing brought up a couple of guys who then competed. I called out something, they went out into the room and brought it back.
Lots of requests, but one stuck out. Johnny Prine's "In Spite of Ourselves." No, I didn't know it either. All the groomsmen do. They sing it when out hunting (which seems like it would scare away the deer, but what do I know).
When: Thursday, December 31st, 2009 Where: Alerus Center, Grand Forks, ND 1st Dance Song: "Then" by Brad Paisley
Happy New Years! Whoot!
Tonight was noticeably different from normal, at least for me. I was roommates with the groom back in college. Or, rather, back when I was supposed to be in college (sorry, mom). I knew all kinds of fun info on Tonka (Greg's nickname). More fun was what I learned. Like their first date was at Sam's Club. Hmm. I couldn't resist (see the video). I also got to be at the ceremony and brought my gal with.
Scored some Bavarian Almonds from concessions. They were open because First Night had events down the hall. Sweet.
To the left, our best man had his Halloween costume along (from the movie Dumb & Dumber). Sadly (or wisely) he did not wear it over to the church. Greg, meanwhile, is on his second tuxedo here. His first, from the rental company, was completely the wrong size... way too big in the coat and the pants were three inches too short.
Most importantly, we got to do the new year countdown before we wrapped it up. Always nice with 200 friends and family (nice for them, though I was with my gal).
When: Saturday, December 19th, 2009 Where: Marriot Hotel, Moorhead, MN 1st Dance Song: "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star
Matt met Lisa when she was a foreign exchange student nine years ago. The couple was married a five months ago in Sweden, Lisa's home country. No wedding ceremony today. And, yes, I managed to avoid bad jokes invoking Volvo, IKEA, or certain beloved muppet chef.
Six people got up to toast the new couple, including Matt, his dad, Lisa's dad, two friends, and Matt's sister. All were excellent and well prepared. One included chopping a tie off Matt's dad.
Pictures from the ceremony displayed on a screen during the social and dinner. No dollar dance, bouquet toss, or garter.
One nice aside. Matt hates Peter Cetera (of Chicago). Specifically his faux falcetto singing (I agree). Several people know this, so he chose Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" for the parent dance as a joke, then sang a bit for us. Thank you, Matt.
Fun, off-the-beaten-path songs I got to play: "Obsession" by Animotion; "The Look" by Roxette; "Blister in the Sun" by Violent Femmes; and Matt's favorite, "Massive Nights" by the Hold Steady.
