Edmonton Faculty Club Wedding
Edmonton Wedding DJ for Glenda & Wayne
Saturday, November 20th, 2010
Tonight, I was DJ’ing a wedding for Glenda and Wayne at the Edmonton Faculty Club, which is located on the University of Alberta Campus. I have been in this location numerous times in the past, but today was the first time I was on the main floor of this venue. The venue is located on Saskatchewan Drive at approximately a hundred and fifteenth street which is easy to locate, parking is very affordable and often free, and is very accessible from all points of view.
The bride and groom, on this day, asked me also to provide ceremony music, which is becoming more and more of a norm where people have their ceremony and reception in the same location and also sometimes in the same room. On this day, both the ceremony and the reception were held in the same room, which made my job slightly easier not having to set up sound equipment in two different rooms.
Upon arrival to the location, the faculty club, for the most part, is one of the harder venues to get equipment into and out of, especially if you are in the upstairs room. Lucky enough, I was in the downstairs room, which simply required me to roll my equipment down the hallway and into the room. The faculty club is well- known in Edmonton for its fine dining, and in my mind, is in the top five venues in Edmonton to eat at, but I will get to that in a little while.
While arriving to the faculty, the general manager was on staff, greeted me in a very friendly manner and welcomed me back, obviously recognizing me from the times I have been there in the past. It is always great to be treated as a guest when one arrives to a facility even though I am a contractor.
The ceremony started at 5.30, with a marriage commissioner and a friend of the family officiated the ceremony. I found this to be very dynamic for the person who was a friend of the bride and groom provided a level of intimacy that you just do not get from a marriage commissioner.
I never met the bride and groom prior to this day, and they straight away impressed me when they greeted me immediately when they came to the room. They also made sure that I was looked after from every respect as to where I was placed in the room to set up, as well including me for dinner, which often, as DJs, we are overlooked.
The ceremony went off without a hitch, and for me, the interesting part of the ceremony is when they had three friends singing and playing guitars for parts of the ceremony and as well, a niece of the bride, was playing piano prior to the actual ceremony starting with background music. I always find live music to add such vibrancy to almost any function, especially a ceremony.
After the ceremony, the reception began immediately, and the staff at the faculty club proceeded to flip the room from a theatre setting to tables and chairs in the area used for the ceremony.
Dinner then began about seven o’ clock, it was a three course plated service, and the meal was exceptional. In fact, the dessert was probably the best dessert I have ever had and I have probably eaten out over 600 times in this business of being an Edmonton DJ. I give thanks to the chefs and the people who planned that meal, as it was truly magnificent.
On that note, of the meal, the one thing that is disappointing in a plated service is sometimes, the staff doesn’t know or was not trained with the proper etiquette of service, and the only thing I noticed is that the staff served the men or women in whatever fashion they want. As to my understanding, proper etiquette, especially for a higher end facility like this, would be that the women at each table are served first, and the men served last.
Throughout dinner, the speeches were given between each course, and I have to say that these are some of the finest speeches I have ever heard. The mother of the bride truly stole the show with a poem that she did. Actually, it turned out that she rapped the song, the poem out, and everybody was snapping their fingers along with her to create a groove and rhythm. It was by far one of the most entertaining things I have ever seen or been a part of. The laughter, at times, was so loud that she had to stop and wait for them to stop laughing so she could continue with her poem.
The bride and groom had one thing in mind as they planned their wedding – for their guests to have an enjoyable evening. That was clear from every aspect of whatever they may did and the dance was a big portion of that night and it placed a great value on that, and we worked hard to provide a level of music that everyone would enjoy.
As the bride and groom were having their second marriage, and they are close to 50 in age, it was clear that the older staff would work and did work most of the night. Anytime I tried to play a request that was newer, it unfortunately did not work.
The dance floor had people on it the whole night through and everyone in attendance had a great time. I special thanks go out to the staff that the Faculty Club as they made sure I got back my battery and charger for my camera that I had accidentally left behind.
