Friday night saw me at Lanwades Hall in Suffolk to help celebrate the wedding of Kimberley and Jason.
The venue
What can I say?
What a lovely venue! It was my first time here, and after visiting with Kimberley and her mum a couple of weeks before the wedding, I was looking forward to this one.
The venue is a Tudor style Manor House just outside the racing capital of Newmarket. It has a marriage license, so you can hold your entire wedding there right from the ceremony to the evening reception.
The reception
I arrived shortly after 6pm to setup and prepare for the evening’s entertainment. The plan was for a quick “Shoe Game” featuring Kimberley and Jason, before moving on to the cake cutting and the first dance. I’ll add now that the photographs the official photographer took of the cake with the hearts on the floor were a LOT better than my efforts!
What’s the Shoe Game?
It’s a form of wedding entertainment which is rapidly travelling across to the UK from the United States. In a nutshell, the Bride and Groom are sat back to back and have either a blue and a pink “paddle”, or one of each other’s shoes (hence the name Shoe Game). They’re then asked a series of questions about their relationship and give their answer by raising the pink paddle/brides shoe if they think the answer relates to the bride, or the blue paddle/groom’s show if the answer relates to the groom.
Still confused? Here’s a short video clip of the start of the game (which actually lasted for 35 questions)
The cake cutting was down to a countdown from 5-1 (obviously the guests are encouraged to join in with this), and then onto the First Dance which in this case was Van Morrison’s “Someone Like You”.
We actually had the choice of three different First Dance tracks because Kimberley and Jason couldn’t decide which one they’d like on the day. This really isn’t a problem so long as I’m aware before the day so that I can make sure I have them to hand.
The guests were invited to join Kimberley and Jason on the dance floor once the photographer had captured the moment, and literally stayed there for the duration of the evening!
The music was wide and varied….everything from the 60s to Motown, classic 70s disco, a little 80s, some Rock and of course current chart hits. Everything was well received, with even the teenagers dancing along to the 70s disco hits! Plenty of requests from the guests made sure I wasn’t short of ideas, and as promised in our pre-wedding meeting….no cheese was played!
Midnight and time for carriages came around far too quickly, and it was soon time to end the night (the evening always seems to pass really quickly from my side of the booth when the floor is full for the night!).
The music?
I’m often asked by prospective wedding couples for examples of playlists I’ve used at previous weddings. This is always difficult because I don’t actually HAVE set playlists, preferring instead to play music which the guests on the night are dancing to, and responding to guest requests. I don’t turn up and press play on a “standard” wedding playlist because it really doesn’t work!
So, last night’s playlist was:
20:08 : Van Morrison – Someone Like You
20:12 : Van Morrison – Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
20:16 : Bruno Mars – Marry You
20:20 : Justin Timberlake – CAN’T STOP THE FEELING!
20:23 : Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk (Radio Edit)
20:27 : Bruno Mars – 24K Magic (Promo Only Intro Edit 1)
20:31 : Earth Wind And Fire – September
20:34 : Billy Joel – Uptown Girl
20:37 : Roy Orbison – Oh Pretty Woman
20:40 : The Beatles – Twist and Shout
20:43 : The Contours – Do You Love Me (Single Version / Mono)
20:46 : Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl
20:48 : Wilson Pickett – Mustang Sally
20:51 : The B-52’s – Love Shack
20:54 : Kenny Loggins – Footloose
21:00 : The Supremes – You Can’t Hurry Love
21:03 : R. Dean Taylor – There’s A Ghost In My House
21:05 : Jackson 5 – ABC (Album Version)
21:08 : Chris Montez – Let’s Dance
21:10 : Los Lobos – La bamba
21:13 : Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee f./Justin Bieber – Despacito (Remix)
21:16 : Enrique Iglesias f./Sean Paul – Subeme La Radio (Promo Only Intro Edit – Remix)
21:20 : Olly Murs – Dance with Me Tonight
21:24 : Pharrell Williams – Happy (from Despicable Me 2)
21:27 : Taylor Swift – Shake it off
21:31 : Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
21:34 : Amy Winehouse; Mark Ronson – Valerie
21:38 : Take That – Giants
21:41 : Robbie Williams – Rock DJ
21:45 : Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
21:48 : Tiffany – I Think We’re Alone Now
21:52 : Bryan Adams – Summer Of ’69
21:56 : Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer
21:59 : Kiss – Crazy Crazy Nights
22:03 : The Killers – Mr Brightside
22:06 : The Fratellis – Chelsea Dagger (Radio Edit)
22:10 : Kings Of Leon – Sex on Fire
22:13 : Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now
22:16 : Queen – We Will Rock You
22:18 : R Kelly – Ignition (Remix)
22:21 : Flo Rida – Low
22:25 : Clean Bandit f./Sean Paul & Anne-Marie – Rockabye (Original)
22:29 : Sean Paul – Get Busy
22:32 : Usher ft Ludacris and Lil Jon – Yeah!
22:36 : Kanye West – Stronger (Album Version (Edited))
22:42 : Shania Twain – Man! I Feel Like a Woman!
22:45 : Shania Twain – That Don’t Impress Me Much
22:49 : Peter Kay/Tony Christie – (Is This the Way To) Amarillo {From Comic Relief 2005}
22:52 : Earth Wind And Fire – Boogie Wonderland
22:57 : The Trammps – Disco Inferno
23:00 : Barry Blue – Dancing on a Saturday Night
23:03 : Donna Summer – Hot Stuff (Single Version)
23:06 : Bee Gees – You Should Be Dancing (2007 Remastered)
23:10 : Chaka Khan – I’m Every Woman
23:14 : Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Remastered)
23:19 : The Foundations – Build Me Up Buttercup
23:22 : Blue Suede – Hooked on a Feeling
23:25 : The Script – Rain (Clean Version)
23:28 : Adele – Make You Feel My Love
23:31 : The Rolling Stones – Angie (Remastered)
23:36 : Bruno Mars – Thats What I Like (Original)
23:39 : Jay-Z & Mr Hudson – Young Forever
23:43 : Beyonce feat. Jay-Z – Crazy in love
23:47 : Jess Glynne – Hold My Hand
23:51 : Katy Perry – Firework
23:54 : Walk the Moon – Shut Up and Dance
23:58 : Bonnie Tyler – Holding out for a Hero
