The month of July has been a busy one for me! The first of three wedding weekends in a row brought me to Justin's Tuscan Grill in East Syracuse. Julie and Brandon's reception was an absolute blast. Photos, music selections, a video and more within this post.
Located minutes from Carrier Circle, this venue is of special importance to me -- it's where my wife and I hosted our own wedding in 2011. Although we've been back for dinner (on anniversaries and otherwise) several times since, Julie and Brandon's wedding was my first here since my own! The venue and it's food were excellent back then, and that remains true today.
The evening started with cocktail hour on the patio. There was no rain in the forecast, but that didn't matter. At some point in the last couple years, Justin's installed a permanent party tent in the patio area, ensuring the area's usefulness rain or shine. Julie and Brandon kept patio bar open for the entire reception for guests who preferred to socialize whilst enjoying the summer evening breeze.
Several French doors between the ballroom and patio aren't made available for guests (some don't even open). But one did open, allowing me to run a speaker cable from my ballroom DJ table to the patio. I was able to provide music indoors and outdoors with a single sound system. After announcing the end of cocktail hour and directing guests to move inside, I moved the patio speaker inside as well. This provided more volume on the dance floor for toasts, dinner, and dancing. Speaking of dancing, here are Julie and Brandon's picks for their reception's key moments:
Key Wedding Song Selections
- Wedding Party Intros: Different clips for each couple. (Hear them all in the video below!)
- Bride and Groom Entrance: Luke Bryan / Country Girl (Shake It For Me)
- First Dance: Brad Paisley / Today (Album Version)
- Cake Cutting: Blake Shelton / Honey Bee
- Groom / Mother Dance: LeeAnn Womack / I Hope You Dance
- Bride / Father Dance: Chuck Wicks / Stealing Cinderella, then changed to Katrina & The Waves / Walking on Sunshine
- Bouquet Toss: Cyndi Lauper / Girls Just Want to Have Fun
- Garter Toss: Queen / Another One Bites the Dust
- Toss Winners: Marvin Gaye / Let’s Get it On
- Last Dance of the Night for Everyone: Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes / I’ve Had the Time of My Life
Photo Gallery
No typos -- there's a reason the "parent dances" were out of the traditional order. Not only did the bride/father dance come after the groom/mother dance, but there were two songs. Julie had asked me in advance to switch from "Stealing Cinderella" to "Walking on Sunshine" at a certain point.
What I didn't know about until it happened, is that Julie and her father used the segue as their cue to whip out sunglasses and switch from slow dancing to faster dancing. I love it when my clients include little surprises like that! It was a great way to pump-up the crowd, just before I was set to make the announcement inviting everyone to join Julie and her dad on the dance floor. You can see some shots in the photos below.
Scroll down and click the blue button at the bottom to see the full album (and like/tag/share) on Facebook!
Click any photo below for a larger version.
Thanks again to Julie and Brandon for selecting me as their wedding DJ! (And double thanks to Julie, for having me DJ her workplace's holiday party this past December!) They're a wonderful couple, the guests were awesome and it was nice to see another wedding at the place where I had my own wedding. Hopefully it won't be another six years before my next wedding at Justin's Tuscan Grill!
