My latest wedding brought me back to the historic Marriott Syracuse Downtown -- still known to many by its original name, Hotel Syracuse. Out of the hotel's three ballrooms, Erin and Tim booked the Persian Terrace for their wedding ceremony and reception. It was a memorable, fun-filled evening -- check out the photos, video and more in today's blog post!
Erin and Tim's wedding timeline was similar to my first Persian Terrace wedding in 2017: the lower portion of the ballroom was initially set-up with seats in chapel-style rows for the ceremony. After the ceremony, guests took a short walk to a special roped-off section of the hotel's massive lobby for cocktail hour, featuring a live pianist.
During cocktail hour, hotel staff moved all the chairs to the dinner tables in the upper portion of the ballroom, leaving the lower area wide open for dancing. Dessert stations and a bar were moved into place, along with the gift table, place cards and a few other items.
This time around, I had the speakers down on the floor, rather than next to me on the stage. Being on the "same side" of the speakers as the guests made it easier for me to monitor the levels, as opposed to having the speakers next to and in front of me.
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Erin and Tim's Key Song Choices
Ceremony
- Processional: Piano Guys / Beethoven's 5 Secrets
- Grand Entrance: Piano Guys / A Thousand Years (cover of Christina Perri)
- Recessional: Zac Brown Band / Loving You Easy
Reception
- Wedding party intros: Various song clips for each group of attendants being announced - check out the video below!
- Newlyweds' intros: Greatest Showman Soundtrack / Greatest Show
- First Dance: Ed Sheeran / Tenerife Sea
- Groom / Mother Dance: James Taylor / How Sweet It Is
- Bride / Stepfather Dance: Brad Paisley / He Didn't Have to Be
- Bride / Father Dance: Steven Curtis Chapman / Cinderella
- Cake Cutting: Average White Band / Cut the Cake
- Last Dance of the Night: Taylor Swift / Lover
Erin and Tim left it up to me to select the songs for the wedding party intros (aside from their own entrance) as well as the cake cutting and the last dance of the night. Here's a video of the wedding party intros:
Originally, I had planned to end the night on a different song, but heard from a former radio colleague (thank you, Maria!) that Taylor Swift just dropped "Lover" and sounded like a huge wedding hit. I gave it a listen and agreed! So, just one day after release, Erin and Tim have the honor of being one of the very first couples to have this song played at their wedding reception!!
Photo Album Highlights
Among the highlights, Tim secretly arranged with me to have a karaoke version of Van Morrison's classic hit "Brown Eyed Girl" available so he could serenade his new bride on the dance floor. That was followed-up by a family wedding tradition of having all the guys sing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers. Needless to say, Erin loved it.
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The dance floor was hopping all night! I took a ton of photos and had a hard time narrowing it down to a reasonable number to post online. As always, this is just a select handful of my photos -- I have even more photos on my Facebook page! Scroll down for a direct link to the album.
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UPDATE 11/19/19: Here's the 5-star review Tim posted:
Peter was just the best from our initial meeting through our wedding day. Any questions we had were answered in a prompt manner in a very thorough way. His system for organizing all of the music throughout the day is so nice and it allows you to be as specific or as broad as you want, which is a great thing to have. I especially liked the ability to have a Do Not Play list, to keep the songs we didn't like away from our reception! I even planned a secret serenade for my bride and Peter helped keep this a secret and was ready to go when it was time to execute the plan!
We had an amazing experience with Peter as our DJ and everyone at our wedding raved about the music for dancing, which we left up to Peter completely. The sound system was great and all of the uplighting made our venue even more beautiful.
Thanks again to Erin and Tim for choosing me as your wedding DJ! And thanks also to Julie and Brandon -- one of my couples from 2017 -- for recommending me! It was great to see you again! This was a really fun wedding and I hope to get back to the Marriott Syracuse Downtown again soon.
