Another great weekend … on Saturday October 24, 2009, Midnight Hour was honored to perform at Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club for the wedding reception of Ryan and Deborah Montgomery. There’s so much to share about this fantastic evening …
This was our first performance at Fiddler’s Elbow – the largest corporate membership country club in the world. Founded in 1965, the club is well known for its extravagant wedding receptions and corporate golf outings. Fiddler’s Elbow is frequented by many famous people, including Steven Van Zandt (of The Sopranos, The E Street Band) and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. Former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have also visited the club on many occasions. The Somerset Ballroom was absolutely beautiful, with many connecting rooms offering a wonderful setting for guests to mingle and enjoy the evening. The staff and services at Fiddler’s Elbow were second to none. As you can imagine, we loved playing there and we look forward to returning to their beautiful club in the near future.
Back to our clients, Ryan and Deborah, who were the perfect wedding clients – they put a lot of thought into their reception in advance, and helped the band to put together a great plan. The bridal party walked into the room to the sounds of The Black Eyed Peas, and then the bride and groom entered to U2’s “Beautiful Day”. For their first dance, Ryan and Deborah chose “When You Say Nothing At All” by Ronan Keating, and the band played it beautifully. Later in the evening, we had a lot of fun playing some specific requests for the happy couple – “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi, “Hungry like the Wolf” by Duran Duran, and “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. For “Eye of the Tiger”, the bride and groom joined us on stage, along with the best man and maid of honor, and the entire crowd pressed up against the stage with fists pumping in the air – it was a full blown 80’s concert moment. We closed the night with another special request, “Take Me Home Country Road” by John Denver, and the crowd sang the last choruses at the top of their voices, arm in arm on the dance floor, without any help from the band.
We worked with a wonderful wedding planner, Nicole Spagnoli of The Finishing Touch Wedding and Event Planning. Nicole was terrific, and we worked together for weeks in advance of the reception to make sure the timeline for the reception was accurate and included all of the key moments we wanted to build into the plan.
We also loved working with Alicia Nathanson of Blossom Productions, a top notch videographer. I can’t wait to see what Alicia and her team captured – they seemed to have that special knack that the best videographers have for being in the just right place in the room at the right time, and we loved working with them.
It was a great night for the Montgomery and Yu families, and we were so happy to have played a part in their celebration.
