Gail & Patrick (Wedding and After Party!) - Doing the "Wobble" dance at The Morton Arboretum and bringing the party back home (Lisle, Illinois)

Posted Sunday, June 26, 2011 8:38 PM

I performed at a great wedding last week (6/17/11) at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL.  The Arboretum is a great venue for weddings, with more than a thousand acres, it's a beautiful natural setting in which to get married.  The ceremony was held on an outdoor patio adjacent to a hall where the reception was held.  I provided the music for both the ceremony and the reception.  The Bride and Groom (Gail and Patrick) decided that the wedding party would march into BeBe and CeCe Winan's "Close to You".  I provided some instrumental jazz music while guests were being seated awaiting the bride.  The ceremony included a soloist who she sang a beautiful custom song for the Gail & Patrick that I played from CD.  After the ceremony was over the couple recessed to the reception hall to Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Seal, Delivered (I'm Yours)".

At this point in the evening, I moved my equipment and speakers from the rear of the reception hall and got situated near the dance floor.  I provided some smooth R&B and Reggae from artists like Musiq Soulchild and Beres Hammond for cocktails and dinner.  After the couple reentered and cut the cake (the groom is a Marine so the cake was cut with a sword) the couple had their first dance to Jaheim's "In My Hands".  After that they danced with their parents and many other couples joined in to Etta James' "At Last".  After that, many toasts were made by guests from around the world (Gail is Jamaican and lived in London so there were many guests who came over from those countries as well as Barbados).  Then the real dancing commenced... 

The party music varied from soul and R&B from artists like R. Kelly and James Brown to Dancehall Reggae from Beenie Man and Lady Saw.  Everyone packed the dancefloor and could not get enough of the "Wobble" song by V.I.C.  This song and dance is becoming a huge craze in Chicago (even more popular than the Cupid Shuffle or Cha Cha Slide). 

Everyone had so much fun that Gail and Patrick wanted to throw an after party for their guests the next day in their building in Aurora, IL.  I had a great time rocking out the entire weekend with them and can't wait to do it again!