Mia & Brendan, Backyard Reception in Tully, 2026
Peter is great!!!! So organized and met with us multiple times. Followed all requests. Great music and so professional.
Hard to believe it has taken 16 years for me to finally DJ a wedding at Syracuse’s famous Rosamond Gifford Zoo! I’ve been the DJ/MC for a few charity events here before, but this is my first wedding at the zoo. Details on logistics, key song pics and more in this blog post!
One thing that sets the Rosamond Gifford Zoo apart from traditional wedding venues is the way vendors have to set up. Because the zoo is open to the public until 4:30pm, all set-up is limited to the event ballroom until at least 4:45. That meant I would only have 45 minutes to set-up the sound equipment needed outside for the ceremony and cocktail hour. Challenge accepted!
Because Melanie was great about making sure I knew about this in advance, I was able to plan accordingly. Wedding vendors get access to a special entrance directly into the ballroom, so I focused on setting-up my primary sound system and dance floor lights first. Anything that would need to go outside was purposely set on a separate roll-out cart, ready to go as soon as I got the green light.
Once that OK was given, I made one trip out to the Zoo’s gazebo with everything I needed — table, fitted tablecloth, secondary sound system (with laptop and microphones), wireless speakers, the whole thing. Had it all set to go with time to spare!
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A really cool part about getting married at the Zoo is that your guests can tour most of the Zoo during cocktail hour.
I’ll admit, I may have taken a few minutes for a quick lap through the indoor exhibits that were open. (I think outdoor exhibits were also open but I didn’t want to be too far from my setup for more than a few minutes.)
Although many guests enjoyed the private access to the outdoor portions of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, some preferred to stick to the indoor portion. Noticing this, I kept one speaker outside and moved one into the lobby near the bar, so everyone could enjoy the music and also hear the announcements when it was time to migrate into the ballroom.
Ceremony
Reception
Once in the ballroom, we flowed through the intros, first dance, parent dances, dinner, and toasts. Although dinner ran a bit longer than expected, we still had a solid 90 minutes of dance floor time at the end and this crowd was ready to party!
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Thanks again to Melanie and Matt for choosing me as your wedding DJ! You were great to work with, and I was happy to finally add the Rosamond Gifford Zoo to my list of venues where I have DJ’ed weddings!
For any other couples reading this, if you want “something different” for your wedding, it’s hard to beat getting married in front of the Zoo’s massive bird pond … and then allowing guests to roam the grounds for cocktail hour.
