Yet another no-gig for me
The venue didn't open, the guests didn't arrive, nobody danced, the bridesmaids didn't get pie-eyed on cheap Prosecco (well they might have done elsewhere), and they didn't all have a brilliant night :(. My controller is actually starting to grow weeds between the sliders :o
Hey ho - it's been rescheduled to next year (fingers crossed, the wedding will happen eventually).
More of the same next week (well, two no-weddings actually)
Is it just me or is it criminal to be sitting at home drinking wine on a Saturday night? :daft:
Changeable Marquees, county boundaries, and Mammaries skyward!!
My, but yesterday was " interesting". ;) Couple getting married in a " Marquee", in a Pub paddock in an area I'd worked in more than once, not too far away. I called round on Friday for a meet with the couple, and a look at the huge marquee.
Huge may be a slight exaggeration. It was a sort of Tipi style one that would have been a good size for the fifty odd guests and me, but got a bit cramped when they added the catering facilities. Come Saturday, it was even more cramped when I found the biggest Love Letters I've ever seen impinging on my space.
I'd promised the Rustic Booth, and I'd rather have had the Micron, but no matter, I made it fit. Just. I'd already changed the lighting rig over to the All White one, rather than Scanners and Hadrons. It worked very well for this purpose. I was all set up early, and the Groom was impressed when he walked in. Guests arrived, and sat on the pub patio, listening to me. I had a small playlist to work from, with " anything upbeat " as a catch all. By the time they sat down for the meal, had it served, and done the two very short speeches, time was getting on. While daylight was bright, I couldn't get many people inside, but with the last hour of the gig looming, and darkness falling, I had more people inside.
For safety reasons, I had a spare phone for text requests, and that was taken up well, and not just with requests. One question of when the dessert was coming ( it wasn't ) and apparently one picture of a Lady's* new superstructure. ( Brand new in January, seemingly). :eek::eek: I couldn't open the attachment, despite being urged to do so, but I was informed it was impressive.
As gigs go, it was another excellent way of easing back into harness, not too stressful, definitely a learning experience, and despite being close to home, because of County Boundaries following curious lines, one hundred yards into Nottinghamshire!
* Lady. As much of a Lady as the tent was a Marquee, cough, cough. ;):)
Dance floors are back baby - YEAH!
Oh my GOD that was both emotional and BRILLIANT at the same time - my first wedding with a prescribed dance floor in 511 days!
Yes, I've done restricted weddings where jiggling around in a rhythmic fashion has happened around tables and in spare areas of marquees not occupied by other stuff. But tonight, a 12ft x 12ft square of parquet effect flooring was laid out in front of me....for people to partake in group dancing!
Let's rewind....'twas the third attempt for this wedding and I've managed to be available for all dates. A marquee in the grounds of a stately home type of place overlooking a river, and no neighbours for absolutely miles.....my idea of heaven!
The couple (as with the other recent ones, I'd only conversed over the telephone and not met them) were lovely and had been singing my praises at being so helpful and understanding before I even arrived (we're onto a winner here then). 18 months ago though, I'd made the mistake of hiring them my Maui5Go with a radio mic for the afternoon and they were going to collect in a mutually agreeable location. Well obviously things haven't quite worked out that way so I ended up arriving at 4pm, handing over the PA and disappearing off down the road to enjoy a "meal" from a place run by a clown that likes Golden Arches until it was time to return and set up.
Here's where the only problem came in. The marquee company had been a right pain in the gentlemen vegetables with setting everything up, putting it on a slope, providing the wrong chairs....and putting the edge of the dance floor 2 feet from the edge of said tent (no way in the world was the Rustic setup going to be off the floor!)...Ho hum! I squeezed the PA and lighting to the edge of the floor but for the sake of safety - the booth had to go onto the floor space.
As for the music - I was told they'd been compiling a playlist of sorts. What I wasn't expecting was 17 hours and 26 minutes worth of music ;). We'd agreed no requests as such and I could pick and choose as necessary to keep things busy...more on this in a moment.
First dance dispatched and into some floor fillers until the assembled crowd decided they'd rather be outside drinking free booze and chatting. No problem...it's going to be a slow burner. I'd also noticed that a lot of them still seemed to be reluctant to be too close to each other - I suppose the ingrained mantras of not making close contact are going to take a while to disappear.
And then, as the evening got chillier and darker, my patience was well and truly rewarded. A WELL AND TRULY RAMMED DANCE FLOOR :party2:
OH how I've missed this. The feeding off of the energy, the noticing of that one female guest making the cut-throat gesture, the well and truly drunken friend who one moment calls you a :Censored: DJ because you're not playing his song and then at the end of the night calls you an absolute hero as he falls over on the floor :daft:
Although I've done several others recently under restrictions, tonight was complete freedom and complete normality other than pulling up a mask when people came to talk to me.
It's sooooo good to be back!
And back to the playlist I'd been provided. It was wide and varied from 90s Indie rock to hen-night cheddar and pretty much everything in between. The groom had thought that every track on the list was a "banger" before the night and at the end came up and said he suddenly appreciated how hard our job can be. The songs he'd got down as guaranteed floor fillers failed, whilst the stuff he thought would bomb packed the floor when played in the right order (he even mis-judged the order I'd play things in). Just goes to show we still have our uses eh :)
Right - time for a quick swig of Sanatogen Tonic Wine before some well earned shut eye and the reality of a long Sunday shift at the supermarket
