Sutton/Craig wedding at The Umstead on November 2nd, 2013

Blair and Ryan chose the beautiful Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary NC for their ceremony and reception.  This is one of my favorite venues to play and an extra treat to work with some of my favorite vendors in Kevin and Lindsey from Heart Stone Films and photographers Jenn Aan and Diane McKinney. Blair is a designer and she had the room looking beautiful with floral arrangements by The Watered Garden.  They had brought 6 real trees into the room and the centerpieces were leafy branches with lots of white roses on the table.  It was beautiful, classy and very unique.

Both the ceremony and cocktail music were provided by Arioso Strings.  It’s always a pleasure to hear them play.  After some pictures were taken during the cocktail hour, guests were invited into the ballroom for dinner and dancing.  I introduced the wedding party to “Forever” by Chris Brown and each couple had a unique dance into the room.  Blair and Ryan came into the room and right to the dance floor for their first dance, “Time Of My Life” by David Cook.  The wedding party found their seats and Blair’s Father welcomed everyone for coming.  He is a riot and had me laughing everytime I looked at him.  After his welcome and a blessing he escorted Blair to the floor for their Father/Daughter dance to “My Girl” and Ryan escorted his Mother to the floor to dance to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”.  The 3 course dinner came out and I played a mix of standards, classic soul and some rock.

As dinner wound down the staff poured the champagne and we had the toasts by Ryan’s Father and Blair’s Matron Of Honor, her Brother and her Father. We went right into the Sweet Memories cake cutting to Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is” and I opened the dance floor. I opened the floor with some beach music and the floor filled within minutes.  People were even dancing on the carpet outside of the dance floor.  After a few Motown songs I went into “Blurred Lines” and is was havoc!  Arms were in the air and I heard a lot of “Woot Woot’s”. lol.  It was great to see their family and friends all having so much fun together.

After a couple hours of a packed floor it was time to say goodbye for the bubble exit.  For the last couple songs I played “Sweet Caroline” and ended with “Wagon Wheel”.  I was so happy to play for this group and I think everyone had a blast!