It goes without saying that with the Coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 the world has changed. It has changed in drastic and fundamental ways, but one very important way it hasn’t changed at all is the love of two people bringing friends and family together to celebrate a marriage. Like everyone else, we’ve been in quarantine for the past three months and have not been able to do what we love, but that finally changed this weekend.
Dozens of events have been cancelled or postponed in that time (most notably our entire prom season), but we haven’t spent the time watching Netflix. Instead we’ve been quietly working behind the scenes with our incredible clients to make sure that when things opened back up, we’d not only be healthy and ready for them, but there to provide the fun music and much-needed release they are their guests so desperately need right now.
Elkhart couple Sara and Jared had been planning their wedding since last Fall and had every contingency covered. At the beginning of March we started looking at options for alternative dates and even had one picked out in August, but we were thrilled when Sara announced that they were going forward with the event on it’s original date with whatever modifications necessary to meet state safety guidelines. Our incredible partners at Bread & Chocolate Events and Catering were on board too, and it was all systems go!
During this phase of the State of Indiana’s “Back on Track Plan”, public gatherings were limited to 100 people, so Sara had the tough task of culling the 180-person guestlist to under 100. Nonetheless, the couple’s ceremony was outside at Wellfield Botanic Gardens in Elkhart and Mother Nature participated perfectly, serving up an incredible summer afternoon with not a cloud in the sky and 80-degree temps. From Wellfield, guests made their way to The Old Bag Factory for cocktails, dinner and dancing.
In all about 85 guests attended, and Bread and Chocolate provided a room layout that allowed for adequate social distancing of not only every table, but chairs around the tables. We also set up our system and dancefloor in a separate room adjacent to the ballroom to allow for a large dance area and guests to separate themselves. All of the speeches, cake-cutting and formal dances still took place in the main ballroom however, so we provided a remote speaker in that space so all the guests could easily hear crystal clear sound.
To further keep everyone safe, we provide a separate microphone on a stand for all the speeches which allowed hands-free use of the microphone with separate sanitized windscreens on the mic for different members of the bridal party. Safety of our staff and clients is always our primary consideration, and we were happy to make these unusual accommodations.
The buffet dinner was served “cafeteria style” to once again facilitate sanitation and social distance, and after dinner and the cake was cut, guests were in for a treat with a special surprise from Jared to Sara!
Originally the couple had picked the song “On My Way to You” by Cody Johnson for their first dance, but secretly Jared had worked with us to change that to a Brett Eldridge song. Why? Well, because Jared planned to actually sing the Cody Johnson song to Sara just before their first dance. At the proper moment, we started the special instrumental music and Jared took it from there, even calling Sara out to the floor with him during the bridge of the song. It was the exact type of unique experience that we live for every weekend, and it was so awesome to see and to be “back” in the moment, knowing that people could still create and enjoy these intimate memories in spite of Coronavirus.
Later in the evening guests migrated to the other room for dancing, and we quickly determined that 90’s hip-hop was going to rule the night. The small crowd did NOT have a small-crowd attitude and kept the dance floor “packed” (in a socially-distant way of course) the rest of the night singing along to Snoop Dogg, Biggie, Jagged Edge, and Too Short favorites in until the last song.
What an awesome night! We have three more weddings this month and can’t understate how good it is to be back to celebrating in-person again! No matter how large the group size, and what the circumstances are, we will find a way to make it happen, and it’s amazing people like Sara and Jared that make it all worth it!
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Sara 5-Stars
We had a great experience with Music Place for our wedding. Before the event, communication was great, process was easy for sharing our event information and music preferences, and Blake was easy going and professional even amid all the COVID-induced changes and uncertainty. The day of the event went smoothly and the music was great.
Reception song selections:
Grand Entrance: Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag – James Brown
Cake Cutting: Sweet Pea – Amos Lee
First Dance: Mean To Me – Brett Eldridge
Father-Daughter Dance: How Sweet It Is – James Taylor
Mother-Son Dance: My – Wish Rascal Flatts
Anniversary Dance: Can’t Help Falling In Love - Elvis
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