Wedding at the Mansion at Ridley Creek

This past Friday, Ambient DJ Service had the honor of providing music and entertainment at Nicole and Fred's wedding reception at the Mansion at Ridley Creek in Newtown Square, PA.

The Mansion is located deep inside a state park.  As a result, the event needed to be concluded by 9 PM,  resulting in an early start time of 3:30 PM for the ceremony.  Load-ins at mansions are typically harder than at banquet halls, and this event was no exception.  For the ceremony, the bride fell in love with the sounds of the Vitamin String Quartet (performs classical cover versions of popular songs).  The bridal party entered to VSQ's version of "Can't Help Falling in Love" while the bride and her dad processed to the VSQ's version of the Arcade Fire song "Neighborhood No. 1 (Tunnels)".

After enjoying a beautiful outdoors ceremony in pleasant July weather with the ambient sounds of the woods, the action moved indoors.  Reflecting the couple's Indie rock tastes, the mix was stacked with artists such as Mumford and Sons, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Adele, Wilco, Radiohead and The National.

Guests enjoyed an evening of fine dining, cocktails and dancefloor fun. The 80s were particularly popular with the ladies!  Congratulations Nicole and Fred!

The beautiful bride is walked down the aisle by her Dad

Onsite Ceremony at the Mansion at Ridley Creek

Exchanging Vows

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Fred Clothier IV!

Feeling the Beats of Ambient DJ Service

DJ Command Center

We placed an LED par can to uplight the cake table

Key Tracks:
Desire - Ryan Adams (ceremony)
Paparazzi - Cover Version by Vitamin String Quartet (ceremony)
Born This Way (dance remix) - Lady Gaga (grand entrance of bridal party)
That Time - Regina Spektor (grand entrance of bride and groom)
My Favourite Book - Stars (First Dance)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper (open dancing)
Material Girl - Madonna (open dancing)
Home - Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros (ceremony recessional and open dancing)
Young Blood - The Naked and Famous (cocktail hour)
All I Want is You - Barry Louis Polisar (cakecutting)
Nobody Does it Better - Carly Simon (slow dance)
Harvest Moon - Neil Young (slow dance)

Special thanks to the other fine professionals working at this event:  Dan from Christina's Catering, Amy and Mert from Amy Tucker Photography, and "go-getter" Len from La Penna's Envisioned Video.

4th of July Weekend Wedding - Christopher & Pauline

On Saturday July 2nd, I performed at the wedding reception of Christopher and Pauline at the NorthamptonValley Country Club in Richboro, PA.  Pauline learned about Ambient DJ while attending a wedding that I performed at several years ago at the Nassau Inn in Princeton.

Chris and Pauline reside in Georgia, and all of the preparations were done via e-mail and phone.  It was nice to finally meet the happy couple in-person!  Bucks County, PA is beautiful country, and the venue club had a relaxed country ambience on this beautiful warm, sunny day.

Unique touches for the couple's celebration included:

* a comedic video slideshow re-creating the couple's courtship and engagement, played just before their grand entrance;

* dramatic grand entrance of bride and groom to Sirius (use for Chicago Bulls), with basketball jargon such as "man in the middle" and "power forward" used;

* Moving speeches by the fathers of the groom and bride, with family members translating from Korean and Chinese into English, respectively. A special moment came when the groom's father was having trouble reading his speech, and the groom joined him, with cellphone flashlight in one hand, and the other hand draped over his dad's shoulder;

* A freshly-picked peaches station for party favors;
* A dinner station that included an eclectic choice of leg of lamb!;
* A sparkler send-off - what a great touch for 4th of July!

The dancefloor kicked in hard at the appropriate time, with the bride and groom in the center of the action.

The happy couple celebrating with family and friends

Cute Cake Topper

Party Favors - Freshly Picked Peaches Station!

Sparkler Send-Off!

Ambient DJs' Radiance Package

Key tracks:
* Sirius - Alan Parsons Project (grand entrance)
* Lucky - Jason Mraz with Colbie Callait (first dance)
* Jai Ho! - A.H. Rahman (party starter)
* Cupid Shuffle - Cupid (line dance)
* Firework - Katy Perry (seasonal selection)
* Tearin' Up My Heart (Boy Band throwback)
* What is Love - Haddaway (90s throwback)
* Another Night - Real McCoy (90s throwback)

Special shout-out to photographer Erika Manzano from Captured by Erika who was a pleasure to work with.  You can check out her website and awesome blog here