It’s always great to return to Wroxall Abbey – amongst the finest of West Midlands wedding venues. It’s one of the only UK wedding venues to have everything from the Church to the reception venue and rooms all on the one site: and they sure know how to run a wedding!
Working With Old Friends
We were pleasantly surprised when organising this wedding to learn than an old friend of ours was DJing alongside the band. Dan Tovey, one of the infamous Tovey brothers (at least, they were infamous on the Birmingham music scene back in the days we were gigging the pubs and music venues) was taking care of the evening’s recorded tracks. It’s great working alongside a DJ – while we’re happy to provide background music between the sets, it’s nice to have that extra duty taken from our hands and the extra they’re able to put in can really make a difference.
A Family Connection For First Dance
The first dance was performed by the Bride and Groom’s Godson, Ollie. He gave lovely renditions of True Companion by Marc Cohn and Have I Told You Lately, originally by Van Morrison but covered by nearly everyone – us included! It’s always great to have that family connection during the day, and I think it really meant a lot to the couple to have him perform a few songs before the band began.
A swift transition later, we were up and going. As is often the way on Sundays, the evening was quieter than the earlier parts of the day, but as you can see in the video and photos below, those who stuck it out had a great night! Looking forward to our next return to Wroxall Abbey!
[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/ai9Y1pjR4vY?rel=0&showinfo=0″ width=”100%”]
[pwaplusphp album=”WroxallAbbeyMarch2014″]
It’s always great to return to Wroxall Abbey – amongst the finest of West Midlands wedding venues. It’s one of the only UK wedding venues to have everything from the Church to the reception venue and rooms all on the one site: and they sure know how to run a […]
Read More
Stratford-upon-Avon’s Ettington Park Hotel remains one of our favourite Warwickshire wedding venues. Built deliberately in an older style than it appears, the Jacobean architecture gives the building a real feeling of history beautifully preserved. Every night we make the trip it’s great fun!
A Rocking Line-Up
Tonight’s line-up was fronted by James, who not only serves a mean vocal, but plays a tasty guitar too giving the whole band a real rock vibe. The set list, as selected by the bride and groom played directly into this – Sweet Home Alabama had the boys trading solos, and Dancing In The Dark made a relatively rare appearance with it’s guitar driven themes. Suffice to say, the singing along, which started before the band even struck a note, continued long into the night!
A Nod To The Wedding Planner
Jane of Planned For Perfection was the planner this evening. Over the last few years we’ve developed a great working relationship with Jane, and played at venues across the country. With any luck, she’ll ship us out on one of her Australian events! Always a pleasure to work with, tonight was no exception, and timings ran fantastically. If you’re after someone to plan your wedding, you couldn’t do much better than giving Jane a call!
A Long End To The Night…
… and happily ever after. The couple had chosen a number of ‘end of night tracks’ which gave the end of the set a real anthemic feel – from Viva La Vida to Yellow to Don’t Look Back In Anger, even Chasing Cars and Angels made an appearance! A really epic handover then to the DJ who took the guys on to 2am… by which point we were long gone! Another marvellous wedding at Ettington Park.
[pwaplusphp album=”EttingtonParkMarch2014″]
Stratford-upon-Avon’s Ettington Park Hotel remains one of our favourite Warwickshire wedding venues. Built deliberately in an older style than it appears, the Jacobean architecture gives the building a real feeling of history beautifully preserved. Every night we make the trip it’s great fun! A Rocking Line-Up Tonight’s line-up was fronted by […]
Read More
Well – we didn’t quite go that far on our trip to Oxfordshire, but it was great to be able to play and support such a great charity. You can find out all about the endeavours of Give a Kidney at their website. For the band it was a great chance to play at another charity do – they’re great fun, and spirits run high as everyone gets into the giving mood… I don’t think any actual kidneys were pledged, but we heard a great amount of money was raised!
Left To Our Own Devices
On performances like this, we’re usually left very much to our own devices as far as the set list is concerned. A hint about the demographic was handy, and we set about putting together a great set list from our favourite tracks. The early evening started with a few golden oldies, Stuck In The Middle and Sweet Home Alabama getting the dance floor going. From there it was on to some of our more recent tracks – Drive By and Viva La Vida making appearances during the second set.
All in all, it was a great night, working for a great charity. If you can’t bear to part with kidney, why not just hop on their site and help raise awareness of the opportunity for others to donate and change a life!
[pwaplusphp album=”BicesterGolfandSpaHotelGiveAKidney”]
Well – we didn’t quite go that far on our trip to Oxfordshire, but it was great to be able to play and support such a great charity. You can find out all about the endeavours of Give a Kidney at their website. For the band it was a great […]
Read More
A quick trip down the M5 took us down memory lane, and hundred pounds Justin to south wales. Being St David’s Day it seemed rude not to turn up to a wedding in south wales without a bunch of daffodils, so quick trip to the florists was added to the packing schedule and off we set! There’s always a marked difference in the scenery when you cross the border into Wales and the setting for this wedding was nothing short of idyllic.
A Fine Display Of Welsh Patriotism
As we entered the room to get setup whichever glance at the table plan. All the table name is made reference to Welsh traditions or landmarks citing me really good call with the daffodils! We haven’t been asked to play any Stereophonics or Manic Street Preachers, but we had some to hand just in case. Today’s first dance was Rule The World by Take That – a beautiful choice for a first dance.
A Bustling Dancefloor Through The Night
We were working alongside a DJ, which is a great option, especially when you’re looking to have the event run long into the night. As such, we were introduced to the DJ, and handed back seamlessly to him for our break. The break was shorter than expected after slight late running to the earlier parts of the day, but this just helped maintain momentum and we were soon into a blasting second set!
The poppy opening section of set two quickly filled the dance floor, and we were off! A rarity to the set, Love Machine (originally Girls Aloud, but our version nods to the Arctic Monkeys’ live lounge performance) really got the crowd going. It felt it went out of favour a year or two back, but perhaps it’s time to bring it back for a few shows and see how it goes.
Photos And Videos
We met the lovely photographer, Clare from LoveSeen, and with any luck she’ll let us use some of her photos here, but for now, here are our shots of the night!
[pwaplusphp album=”StPierreChepstowMarch2014″]
A quick trip down the M5 took us down memory lane, and hundred pounds Justin to south wales. Being St David’s Day it seemed rude not to turn up to a wedding in south wales without a bunch of daffodils, so quick trip to the florists was added to the […]
Read More
