(special thanks to Krista for not looking at my blog and realizing that I have posted pictures from her wedding without permission and not getting mad at me)
…At weddings at least!
The past weekend Vero and I attended two weddings…Saturday and Sunday. Bless the Maker that there was a Monday to recuperate!
First up was Ben and Krista’s wedding which was being held at our favourite wedding venue in Ottawa…the Courtyard restaurant! Down in the Byward Market, this little gem sits off the main streets so there’s a little quiet spot to enjoy a drink on the front deck. Eduardo wasn’t serving at the main event, but we chatted him up down in the front area and he was great as always.
It was a great ceremony. I handled the music duties like a pro. Couldn’t hear all that much going on since I was pretty far in the back, but I’m assuming it went something like this:
“Wanna get married?”
“Sure.”
*smooch*
After the ceremony there were photos outside taken by the always great Mike G and his smoking hot assistant Mel. I managed to snag some water for them as it was hot out and they were going to be working solid for the next hour or so. After a group shot, I wandered inside to the cocktail reception where I managed to gorge myself of great appetizers and a few drinks. So much so that I didn’t even bother with the main buffet course as I was too full! But I enjoyed the setup where it was appetizers, main buffet and then some poutine at the end of the night. I wasn’t forced to eat if I didn’t want to.
We met some great people at the reception. It’s always great to chat it up with family of the bride and groom as there aren’t many times where I see them in another setting. I met one of Krista’s cousin’s who is a filmmaker and I proceeded to mention how I hadn’t seen his latest film Suck but I had downloaded it and then I realized what a dumb-ass thing that was to say to a filmmaker. His date had a good laugh at that!
Unfortunately for the speeches, the wireless microphone gave out on them two minutes into it. I was quite frustrated considering a) this happened at the previous wedding we were at in the Courtyard and b) I mentioned this ten minutes BEFORE to the wedding organizer and she said it wouldn’t be a problem this time around. She ate crow after I hightailed it to my car in the parking lot down the street to get a 9 volt battery since they didn’t have any spares in the house. Unfortunately for me they didn’t bother with the microphone after that point! I felt like I ran a marathon down that street! Ha ha. The speeches I did hear were heartfelt and had some good stories about Ben and Krista. I also thought their friend Steve did a great job as MC for the evening.
Mike and I hauled our music equipment up the stairs and set it up for the masses to be entertained. We were quite excited for what we had cooked up…a little medley of tunes we thought the people would enjoy. Everything was working up until we were ready to get up and go. My new wireless pedal decided not to interact with my ipad and the pages of the song where NOT flipping! I start flipping out. The weird thing is that we had the exact same problem the night before and it was solved by actually plugging the thing in instead of relying on the batteries. After ten agonizing minutes of debugging this problem, Mike suggested I unplug it and sure enough it worked! I couldn’t believe our lucky stars! I felt like a heel having everyone wait for ten minutes. I can’t give my highest recommendation for the AirTurn Bluetooth pedal at this point, but I did contact the company and they offered some suggestions that I’m going to try out.
The medley had the desired effect we wanted and people were loving it! We were giving it our all…good tunes, Mike singing solo on Spice Girls, a kazoo…heck, even some bras were thrown our way! What more can two guys with acoustic guitars ask for over a twenty minute song?! Thankfully we have it recorded for archival sake and it’s pretty darn good…a few mixups here and there and a triple tempo increase on one of the songs, but when you’re in the heat of the moment, there’s no other way around it! Vero got this amazing video of the crowd rocking out to our song which is cool to see as we’re so focused on the moment that we don’t get time to take it all in. We did provide an encore of a song that was originally played at my own wedding called “Things you don’t say to your wife”. Mike and Marc-Andre originally found it online somewhere by a comedian.
After the set, the Gods above gave us a thumbs up and rewarded us with open bar. Here’s a little tip for you up and coming artists…don’t get tanked before going on stage! No one wants that at their wedding! So we stayed in control until afterwards and then let loose. The night became a swirl of dancing, challenging Krista’s parents to a euchre tournament and laughing at the people who fell flat on their ass while dancing on a carpet floor! Let us not forget the poutine bar at the end of the night! It was deeelicious and just what the doctor ordered.
As like every wedding, the hardcore partiers closed down the place. It ended off with shots for everyone at the bar and with that, we closed it down. It was a fantastic wedding and I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time.
Congrats to Krista and Ben!
Setlist:
Krista and Ben’s Wedding Medley consisting of (Tainted Love, Beat It, Tubthumping, I’ll Be There For You, Go your own way, I knew you were trouble, Semi-charmed life, How bizarre, Wannabe, Eye of the Tiger)
Things You Don’t Say to your wife [Tim Hawkins]