Today saw me at Rosewood Pavilion for the wedding of Jasmine & Jai.
The day started very early….I was on-site at 10am (this was a midday wedding). It was hot, it was sticky, it was humid!
But….it was also the perfect day for a wedding. It coincided with another fairly important wedding (although not important to me…the only wedding I was at on the day was that of Jasmine & Jai!), and the weather was absolutely beautiful!
So…back to the plot!
I was hired for my part-day service (the wedding breakfast and evening reception) with Jasmine and Jai taking care of the ceremony side of things along with the venue. I was set up in plenty of time for the guests to arrive into the marquee after the ceremony for the wedding breakfast (a very tasty barbecue provided by Cantab Catering).
The afternoon reception was to be very informal with none of the official announcements, introductions or other formalities, and sometimes this is the best way to host a wedding….the guests are more relaxed and things run smoothly.
Other than the occasional announcement for the wedding breakfast being ready and the introduction of the speeches, my main duties for the afternoon were to provide up-beat background music and to host an hour’s worth of kid’s party for the dozen or so youngsters in attendance.
I used to specialise in kids parties several years ago (I don’t do too many of them now), so this part of the afternoon was a refreshing break from the “norm” with silly action dances, limbo dances and various other games! All of the kids won medals of course 😉
On to the evening reception and the first dance was Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”. BUT….there was a difference!
I’d been asked by the mother of the groom to “mess up” the first dance with the wrong song (in this case, the Duck Song which actually meant something to the bride and groom and it’s not something I do without permission). After around 15 seconds, I admitted my “mistake” and ran into the proper first dance song, followed by a very emotional father/daughter track of They Long To Be (Close To You) by The Carpenters….not a dry eye in the house!
Following on from that it was time to party. There were no musical preferences from Jasmine & Jai other than to play what the guests wanted to hear, and 80s club music took centre stage for the evening (sometimes that’s the way things go…I respond to what guests want to hear on the night).
All in all, a VERY long day, and a lot of fun with plenty of dancing despite the sweltering heat of the evening.
So, congratulations Jasmine and Jai – may I wish you a long and happy future together as Mr & Mrs Shinn!
