Best Wedding of the YEAR! Ok, first wedding of the year… but really, playing the wedding of Beth Makarevich & Michael Van Gelder is going to be a tough act to follow. Beth & Mike live in Washington DC, and have spent a great deal of time traveling the world, but chose to have their wedding here to be close to family and friends.
The wedding reception was held at the Twelve Oaks Mansion in Mars, PA. This is a relatively new wedding venue in Western Pennsylvania, but the event staff and coordinator, Bethany Santa, did an amazing job making a perfect evening for everyone. Beth & Mike took advantage of the photo montage service I offer, and the video was able to play beautifully on the 3 large LCD monitors that the venue offered in the cocktail area.
Beth and Michael have a great passion for music and seemed to really enjoy customizing the music for every aspect of the reception. This makes it fun for everyone, including me. Their cocktail hour contained a unique mix of French styled music and dinner music included requests that guests were able to suggest when completing their RSVP cards (such a clever idea!)
A big trend lately is for people to come up with special names for the guests tables. Beth & Mike’s take on this trend was to have each table feature a unique name that was part of a special story about the themselves. One side featured the “title” of the place or event. The reverse side told the story. This really gave each table a unique tale about the couple that they may have never heard before (yet another clever idea!).
One of the biggest challenges for newlyweds is making time at the reception to visit with friends and family, but to also have time to get the dance floor to enjoy themselves and celebrate. Beth & Mike might have danced more than any couple I’ve seen in a long time. It was great to see how much they enjoyed dancing to the songs they had chosen. They clearly knew what their friends would enjoy hearing… the night ended much too soon!
The New Mr & Mrs Van Gelder are off to celebrate their union in France… after so much dancing and celebration I’m sure their going need the R&R. I was thrilled to play a part of such a extraordinary reception.
