It was a beautiful day for Alida and Paul as they celebrated their marriage at the beautiful Fontainebleau Inn in Alpine, NY. They had a lakeside ceremony followed by reception and the weather, although a bit humid, was rainfree and that alone was a major accomplishment given the weather we’ve been experiencing this summer in Central New York.
This was the first time I have worked with the caterers that Alida and Paul had selected. The caterers where none other than the world famous Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. Oh my, what a wonderful treat it was to have such a fun caterer… pulled pork, bar-b-q chicken, salt potatoes, salad, baked beans, cornbread and the oh-so-famous Dinosaur sauce. It was awesome and judging by all the comments I heard, everyone agreed.

The Maid of Honor, Annalee Murphy and Best Man, James Cook gave the toasts while Tom Lucie gave the blessing before the meal.

Alida and Paul’s first dance was “Something” by the Beatles. The Father/Daughter dance was “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” by Israel K. and the Mother/Groom dance was “My Wish” by Rascal Flatts.

It was a crazy night on the dancefloor punctuated by a surprise slide show that the bridesmaids put together for the Bride and Groom. The slide show had an added benefit of giving everyone about 15 minutes of rest. LOL. In spite of the heat and humidity everyone danced like there was no tomorrow.

One of the hottest songs of the night was the Chris Brown song “Forever”. C’mon… you’ve seen the YouTube video right? Just to clairfy, this video is not from Alida and Paul’s wedding but a recent “hot” video on YouTube featuring the song…

Thank you Paul and Alida for having me be your DJ and MC. It was a real pleasure for me and I wish you both all my best wishes for a long and happy marriage.

A few more photos…

I have to say that in spite of all the rain this summer, the weddings I’ve done, for the most part, have escaped major disruptions from rain. Today was a similar pattern as in the past few weeks… the day started out looking quite ominous and even rained a bit before the reception began, but ultimately it turned out to be beautiful with a striking sunset to top off the day. The setting was at the always picturesque Ginny Lee Cafe on Seneca Lake.

Angeline and Patrick had endured some tremendous heartache leading up to their wedding. I won’t go in to details except to say that I was not sure what the tone of the reception might be considering what had happened to this family in the weeks prior to the wedding. But God was indeed smiling over this group and it was such a joyous celebration.

Angeline had a few surprises up her sleeve and during the meal, she took over the microphone and sang a song that she had been inspired to write to Patrick. It was quite a moment. A beautiful voice and touching lyrics set to an amazing melody.

After formal introductions, toasts were given by the Best Man, Joe Miller and the Maid of Honor Felicia Duane. The Bride and Groom really wowed the guests with their absolutely smokin’ First Dance done to “In The Mood” by Glenn Miller. The other formal dances took place after the meal and kicked off the open dancing. Patrick danced with his Mother to the song, “Edelweiss” which was from the Sound of Music while Angeline danced with her Brother T.J. to the song “Dancing with the Angels”.


Open dancing was just awesome with the guests having a great time on the dance floor all evening long right up to the last song at 11:00pm.

It was a real blessing to meet Angeline and Patrick and to be able to share such a special day with them and their family. Thank you both and enjoy the rest of the photos.

It’s been a crazy spring and now summer of 2009. Cooler than normal temperatures and more rain than I can remember. This wedding day got off to a real shaky start because the weather in the morning was pretty good but the forecast was for severe thunderstorms with high winds and hail. All that goodness was supposed to start around 3pm as a massive cold front moved across Central New York. Well that’s not good news for any couple to hear on their wedding day and as I was driving to Ithaca, I ran right into the storm and drove through hard rain most of the way to Cornell University.

The most amazing thing was that as I approached Ithaca, the sky in the west was actually mostly clear and literally as I turned onto the campus, the rain stopped. I could not believe it. And as the reception began, at the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room, the skies continued to clear and a nice breeze kicked up. The cocktail hour on the deck was in beautiful sunny weather instead of vicious thunderstorms. Now that’s a blessing!

Alex and Devin made their entrance and had their first dance to a Van Morrison tune, “Someone Like You”. Two great toasts were made by the Best Man, Thom Hook and the Maid of Honor and Sister of the Bride, Samantha Carlin.

After the toasts, a great buffet was available to the guests and it was catered by Word of Mouth Catering. Always wonderful food and excellent service by all their staff.

To begin dancing we started with the Father/Daughter Dance (Paul Anka-Times of Your Life) and Mother/Groom Dance (I’ll Have to Say I Love You-Jim Croce).

I’ve got to be honest and say that just abut nothing makes a DJ’s day better than to have a real dancing crowd on hand. This crowd definitely made my day and gave the dancefloor an incredible workout. They were dancing up a storm (no pun intended) all night long. And yes, the rain did return later in the evening as the skies turned dark, lightning and thunder resumed and the skies opened up. But that too subsided after a short time and all in all it just worked out to be a great day for Devin and Alex.

The Memorial Room is not air-conditioned so to move the air around there are 4 or 5 really large, floor-standing fans. One of the fans was near the cake table and when the time came for the Bride and Groom to cut the cake, the photographer, Kira Luxon, got a little too close to the fan near the table. The fan was actually pulling her hair into the blades of the fan. That was a scary moment for sure. But seriously Kira, you look very nice with short hair too! Glad no harm was done and also glad that the cake didn’t blow over because of the velocity of air from the fan.

Thanks to you both and also to your guests who showered (again, no pun intended) me with compliments and were so friendly and energetic on the dancefloor. Enjoy the rest of the photos…