Here’s the thing I remember most about this wedding:  Staci and Paul hired us to provide the music for their ceremony.  Their wedding reception was at Branches in Long Branch and Branches has a great deal for couples like this who want a beach ceremony.  They have a perfect spot right by Seven Presidents Park (which is mere miles from Branches).  And even though there is no electric at the location we can provide music (and a microphone for the officiant) because we have this super strength battery that will power our ceremony system for up to two hours.  And no ceremony has ever lasted that long.

But this one came close . . .

So we set our main equipment up at Branches and then headed down to the beach to set up for ceremony.  As always we were there crazy early so once we set up and sound checked I shut the whole system down (including the battery – no need to waste the juice).  When the first guests started to arrive (about 20 minutes before ceremony was scheduled to start) we turned everything back on and started playing prelude music.  That’s when the delay began.  It turned out that some of the guests had missed the shuttle from the hotel to the beach and so they were sending it back for one more run.  And Staci, understandably, wanted to wait till they arrived.  So we waited.  And waited.  All the while I’m looking at this battery we have thinking, you better hold out.  You better hold out.  So finally the ceremony gets started and their officiant is awesome.  But long winded.  And he’s going on and on about Staci and Paul and what an awesome couple they are and all I’m doing is looking at the battery thinking, you better hold out.  You better hold out.  Staci and Paul had selected U2’s “Beautiful Day” as their recessional song and I didn’t want to lose power before their ceremony ended and they got to hear it.  So I let out a huge sigh of relief when the ceremony ended and the battery (which had been running for about an hour and forty-five minutes at this point) carried us through the recessional song.  I’ll never know how close I was to draining it completely but I’m glad I didn’t find out.

As far as the rest of the day, Staci and Paul and their family and friends were amazing to celebrate with.  Other than dinner, there wasn’t a time when the dance floor wasn’t jam packed.  I had the pleasure of working with Keith and Fawn from CLB Photo.  Suzanne from CLB sent me these amazing pictures to add to this blog:

Staci and Paul during their first dance
Staci Celebrating!

 

Paul had a great time too!

 

What a party!

A few weeks after her wedding Staci gave me this amazing review on Wedding Wire:

Congratulations to Staci and Paul and best of luck in your new life together as husband and wife.