The first (and due to Covid….last) wedding of the 2020 season, and oh boy was it an evening to remember!
Laura & Haydn had booked me to provide their wedding entertainment at the fabulous Anstey Hall in Cambridge way back in May 2019, and I’d been looking forward to this one….A LOT!
I love wedding receptions at Anstey Hall. It’s only a small room for the evening’s dancing by comparison to a lot of venues I work in, but that’s more than made up with by the surroundings.
Being a smaller room, it also means a more discrete setup can make a BIG impression as far as sound and lighting is concerned.
Laura had asked for a white setup for her reception and if I’m honest, it’s probably the style of setup I’d choose myself if I was getting married there.
This was always going to be a very relaxed evening reception.
I’d not had the opportunity to meet or talk to Laura & Haydn before the big day, with everything being done via email and via my online planning forms.
One comment from when Laura first booked me springs to mind though:
I’d mentioned that despite the reception hall in Anstey Hall having a stone floor, it’s known to bounce when the party gets going (really….it does bounce quite a bit!)
Laura’s reply? “Challenge accepted!”
Having seen the playlist for the evening (it was comprised of selections from both Laura & Haydn, and their guests via their RSVP’s), it was always going to be a brilliant party.
I actually had around 7 1/2 hours of music lined up for the evening, with only 4 hours to play it after the first dance. Plenty of scope for creating party memories and a lot of different avenues I could take the evening into….I like that sort of situation 🙂
So, first dance done and dusted (Peter Gabriel’s Book of Love) and it’s time to get the dance floor full.
The dance floor never actually emptied!
Even as some of the guests with longer journeys or younger children left, I was blessed with feeling the legendary “bounce” for the entire evening!
Everything from cheesy pop, girl bands, boy bands, 90s classics and modern Indie worked and at times actually created cheers of joy as the music started!
These guests are probably some of the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
So....some photos
The reception hall in Anstey Hall is fairly small so it’s hard to get photos from too many different angles. Most of these are as the dance floor looked from where I stand behind the booth
And the playlist that caused this much dancing?
For the first time in a very long time, I didn’t pick a single track last night. The entire playlist was made up of Laura & Haydn’s requests before the day, guest requests via their RSVP’s and requests on the night.
Every single track caused a positive reaction and a LOT of dancing
- Peter Gabriel – Book of Love (First Dance)
- Bruno Mars – Marry You
- LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem
- Pitbull feat. Ke$ha – Timber
- PSY – Gangnam Style
- Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe
- Nicki Minaj – Starships
- Icona Pop Feat Charli XCX – I Love It
- Calvin Harris – One Kiss
- The B-52’s – Love Shack
- Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta – The Grease MegaMix
- Abba – Waterloo
- Abba – Mamma Mia
- LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It
- Vengaboys – We Like To Party (The Vengabus)
- Chesney Hawkes – The One And Only
- Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
- The Rembrandts – I’ll Be There For You
- Backstreet Boys – Everybody
- No Doubt – Just A Girl
- Amy Winehouse; Mark Ronson – Valerie
- Blondie – One Way Or Another (2001 Remaster)
- Blondie – Maria
- Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
- Billy Joel – Uptown Girl
- Dexys Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
- Kenny loggins – Footloose
- The Contours – Do You Love Me
- Chubby Checker – Let’s Twist Again
- James Brown – I Got You
- The Commitments – Mustang Sally
- Tones and I – Dance Monkey
- Robbie Williams – Rock DJ
- Bryan Adams – Summer of ´69
- Bon Jovi – Livin’ On a Prayer
- The Fratellis – Chelsea Dagger
- Chumbawamba – Tubthumping
- Queen – Don’t Stop me Now
- Guns N Roses – Sweet Child O Mine
- Mark Ronson Feat.
- Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
- Bruno Mars – 24K Magic
- Rihanna – Don’t Stop The Music
- Flo Rida Feat T-Pain – Low
- Camila Cabello – Havana
- Luise Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber – Despacito
- Shakira feat. Wyclyff Jean – Hips don’t lie
- Flo-Rida feat Kesha – Right Round
- Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer – Give Me Everything
- Lady GaGa – Born This Way
- The Communards – Don’t Leave Me This Way
- Shania Twain – Man! I Feel Like A Woman
- Erasure – A Little Respect
- PULP – Common People
- Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag
- Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name
- Blink-182 – All The Small Things
- Arctic Monkeys- I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
- The Strokes – Last Nite
- Feeder – Buck Rogers
- Sum 41 – In Too Deep
- The Killers – Human
- Reef – Place Your Hands
- Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire
- The Killers – Mr Brightside
- Blur – Song 2
- Oasis – Don’t Look Back In Anger
- Razorlight – Golden Touch
- Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict A Riot
- Neil Diamond – Sweet Caroline (last song of the night as requested by Laura & Haydn)
All in all, a REALLY good night with a full dance floor for the duration and a lot of happy guests (and I’m sure, lots of hangovers the next morning 😉 ).
