Posts By "nstare10_wp"

With the arrival of 2015 and the record breaking snow totals that we’re getting here in Massachusetts, comes the arrival of new weddings! I’m looking forward to working with all of you who have chosen me to be a part of your special day. If you’re still wondering what will be the perfect song to dance to, here are some newer songs that may just work for you.

Ed Sheeran – Thinking out loud

Ingrid Michaelson – It Was Always You

Brett Eldredge – Mean to Me

Damien Rice

Bill Griese – From Nashville with a James Taylor sound and feel. He has a great Bride & Groom song and also a Father/Daughter song
I Will, I Do – bride & groom

This Dance – father/daughter

check out his website – www.billgriese.com. I liked Taylor Swift’s Ex. 🙂

This one would be great for wedding party introductions:

Matchbox Twenty – Our Song

This one would be fun for cutting the cake:

Sara Watkins – You & Me

This song has been reinvented so many times and I’ve played it at weddings often. I like Sam Beam’s (of Iron & Wine) spin on it here:

Rhiannon Giddens & Sam Beam

‘Home Again’ by Michael Kiwanuka

This one could make a could last dance song:

Here, Now by Andrew Simple

I’ll be posting more throughout the year – so check back!!

Greg

White Cliffs Country Club is my favorite local wedding reception venue. So it makes me happy to post about the upcoming Stevens-Stevens reception that will take place there. You read it right, both the bride & groom grew up with the name Stevens. How convenient is that? Elizabeth isn’t going to have to change any of the things that many brides have to change, i.e. bank accounts, drivers licenses, caller id, etc.

If you’re new to my blog, “The Perfect Wedding Music” lists other couple’s wedding songs in hopes that the information may inspire musically. Maybe you’ll find one song or many that you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. As a dj, I do my best to try to pass along as much information I can to couples planning weddings. 

Cake Cutting: “Long Skirt, Short Jacket” by Cake – The groom like the idea of a cake cutting song by a group with the name Cake. 

First Dance: “Have I Told You Lately” by Van Morrison or “At Last” by Beyonce’

Bride & Father: “The Way You Look Tonight” by Frank Sinatra

Groom & Mother: “Forever Young” by Rod Stewart

The Gilded Harps will be providing ceremony & cocktail reception music. 

If you want to read other posts from the “Perfect Wedding Music” series, check out the Barn at Gibbet Hill or the Larz Anderson Museum. Both are recent weddings.

The Barn at Gibbet Hill seems to be are home away from home!! It seems like I just wrote about a wedding at the Barn at Gibbet Hill.  The wedding I’m writing about will be on Sunday (Dave was just there yesterday).

So Mike and Serena have made some great choices – some that I’ve never used before.

Introduction music for the wedding party: “Burnin’ for You” by Blue Oyster Cult.

Introduction music for the bride & groom: “Just Marries” from the move Up soundtrack.

Bride & Groom first dance: “Lay, Lady Lay” by Bob Dylan

Cake Cutting: “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” by Franki Valli & the Four Seasons

Combined Groom/Mother & Bride/Father-in-law dance: “Here Comes The Sun ” by the Beatles

Last Dance: “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King

For this wedding we’ll be offering sound support for the wedding ceremony (microphones & PA), music for the cocktail reception and dj services for dinner & dancing. Please look for weddings from this past weekend that will be appearing soon. We provided dj services at: Popponesset Inn, The Verve at the Crowne Plaza in Natick, & the Barn at Gibbet Hill in Groton. We also provided lighting for two weddings at the Canoe Club Ballroom and one at the Crane Estate at Castle Hill. 

This week we have weddings to dj at the Lyman Estate, Ocean’s Edge, Exchange Conference Center, Fruitlands and the Barn at Gibbet Hill. We will also be providing lighting for weddings at the Boston Museum of Science and the Canoe Club Ballroom. I love it when it’s busy!! 

The Larz Anderson Auto Museum is a fantastic event space for weddings. If you haven’t been, the museum has America’s oldest car collection on display within its event space. I’m so excited to be the dj there tomorrow as I have a first on the agenda. The Bride & Groom will be driven into the space at introductions in a beautiful 1937 Packard Limousine. It’s the only venue I’ve ever know to ok something as crazy as this. It’s only fitting since the groom is an auto mechanic by trade.

They have submitted their final list of formal songs:

• Intros: Let it Rock by Kevin Rudolf & Kickstart my Heart by Motley Crue (when the bride & groom enter).
• First Dance: “To Make You Feel My Love” by Adele (after much debate)
• Bride & Father: “I Loved her First” by Heartland
• Groom & Mother: “Anyway” Martina McBride
• Cake Cutting: “Start the Commotion” by the Wiseguys
• Last Dance: “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by Elvis Presley

The cake cutting song is one I have never used before. It should get us some good energy. If you haven’t read any of the other “Best Wedding Music” posts, check out: Gibbet Hill, MIT Faculty Club, and deCordova Sculpture Park

I’ve been waiting for tonight’s MIT Faculty Club wedding with great anticipation. I actually wrote about it a few weeks ago under my best wedding music column. I knew after meeting with Andrew & Rona and then seeing their playlist that something special was going to happen. It did – the wedding was amazing.

I don’t even know where to begin. The night started out with a fantastically choreographed first dance. Andrew & Rona took my advice to take a few dance lessons from my friend Michele Cloutier of Dance in Boston. They did and it paid dividends. It was so much fun to see these two dancing together. 

They also had the most unique sign in board I’ve ever seen. Each table had a puzzle piece and some marking pencils. The guests were encouraged to make a note on their tables puzzle piece. The pieces will later  fit together to form a giant puzzle guest book.

The MIT Faculty Club served up one of the best wedding meals I had ever eaten. Each of the vendors had their choice of Salmon, Char (I had never heard of this) or filet mignon. I’m not a fish eater so I went with the filet and it was delicious. Seriously one of the best wedding meals -ever. [ continue reading ]

Tonight, as the sun went down, downtown Boston went Purple to create awareness for former Celtic Chris Herren’s anti-drug project called Project Purple. 5 Star Events did it’s share uplighting Boston by shining the lights on UMass Boston. At the time, we had no idea that the Prudential Tower, the gas tanks, the State House and the whole downtown went purple. We just thought we were part of a small UMass demonstration. We are now seeing references to our work all over including  Boston Herald, Yahoo! News, CBS Channel 5 .

There are two comments I hear most often about the Barn at Gibbet Hill. First, “The food is amazing!!”. It clearly is outstanding. I’m by no means a food critic, but I have eaten a lot of wedding meals in my day. If you are looking for a fantastic meal, you won’t go wrong with either the Barn at Gibbet Hill or the Gibbet Hill Grill. The second comment is “How do you pronounce Gibbet?” I wasn’t sure because I’ve heard it pronounced so often two different ways. I’ve worked there quite a few times over the years so I thought I should know. At the end of the night I asked Dierdre the event coordinator. The correct pronunciation is in fact with a soft “g” like “gypsy”.

With that settled I’m going to get to what I intended on writing about and that’s the music highlights.

The intros set it apart for me. Matt & Allyson chose great songs from the late 80’s & early 90’s. We kicked off with “Got My Mind Set on You” by George Harrison for the parents. The song had great energy and got the crowd going right away. Interestingly, that song was the last number one hit by any of the ex-Beatles. You can find more about it here. We followed with Heavy D’s “Now that we found Love” for the Bride and Grooms attendants. Like in the movie “Stitch” the couples each had a great dance that worked with their entrance. Lastly the B & G entered to “What I Like About You” by the Romantics. This was a huge song for me for many years that I had all but forgotten. It was so great that I brought it back as an encore just prior to the last dance. [ continue reading ]

MIT Faculty Club is the venue of choice for my April 28th reception.  This post is the 2nd of my “The Best Wedding Music” series which will highlight song choices from upcoming weddings. My hope is that the series will be interesting to other couples planning receptions. I hope you can use it as source for musical inspiration.

Venue: MIT Faculty Club

Date: April 28th, 2012

Introduction Music: “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson

First Dance: “Crazy Love” by Van Morrison

Cake Cutting: “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley

Father/Daughter Dance: “In my Father’s Eyes” by Martina McBride

Last Dance: “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” by Michael Jackson

This wedding will be starting and ending with MJ. What could be better??? I love the story behind “Three Little Birds” for the cake. Before he proposed Andrew recorded that song into a teddy bear alarm clock for Rona. I wish I was that creative. Wait for the pictures. The MIT Faculty Club will be rocking in a couple of weeks!!

I was preparing for my April 14th deCordova Scuplture Park wedding when an idea hit me. I think it would be helpful for couples planning weddings to see what other couples pick for their wedding songs, especially if those songs are unique, fun or interesting. I’m going to start listing them here in a very brief format. If it sees any traffic, I’ll convert it to an easier to display format possibly in list form.

Venue: deCordova Sculpture Park

Date: April 14th, 2012

Processional: “Red Barchetta” by Vitamin String Quartet

Bride’s Processional: “Closer to the Heart” by Vitamin String Quartet

Recessional: “Heavy Metal Wedding March”

Bride & Groom’s introduction music: “Love you Madly” by Cake

First Dance: “Closer to the Heart” by Rush

Cake Cutting: “21 Questions” by 50 Cent

Father/Daughter Dance: “In My Life” by the Beatles

Groom/Mother Dance: “Simple Man” by Lynyrd  Skynard

Last Dance: “Always Look on the Bright Side” from Monty Python

I am so excited about this wedding!! The deCordova Sculpture Park is an amazing space. I love the rock/alternative feel to the music. My clients are amazing.  I can’t wait. 

Pine Hills Golf Club – Revisited

If you’re planning a Pine Hills Golf Club wedding, please read this review.

It’s almost April and peak wedding season is almost upon us. I usually find myself traveling to Boston for weddings. I’m fine with that but it does make me appreciate some of the fantastic wedding venues in my area. Pine Hills Golf Club, a country club in my home town of Plymouth is one of those places. In that spirit, here is a reposting of a page I wrote about my experiences as a dj at Pine Hills. [ continue reading ]