Met with a wonderful couple, Nicole and Michael, this week. They are getting married at the end of February so this was our Pre-Event Consultation to talk about their music, go over their introductions, and finalize any other details.

We offer an online planner which Nicole and Michael had utilized. As I always do, I reviewed their information before we even sat down.  Their Wedding Song  is “Here There and Everywhere” by The Beatles.  They also want some Doors and Pink Floyd too.  Classic rock fans.  I love it!

As we got going we started discussing some of the blanks on their planner. They hadn’t selected music for their introductions and so we started there.  For the parents they wanted a Frank Sinatra song.  My first suggestion was “Come Fly With Me” and they loved it.  Then Nicole suggested “Whole Lotta Love” by Led  Zeppelin for the Bridal Party. I didn’t say No (of course) but I let her know that song has a lot of tempo changes that might make it tough to maintain the energy.  I played “Rock and Roll” for them as an alternative.  Nicole’s eyes lit up. She loved it.  Now the question became,  How do we raise the energy even higher to bring the Bride and Groom in?  Nicole asked if Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” could work.  I’ve never used that song in this way before (actually when I think of that song and weddings I think of a great wedding video I saw once) so we listened to it.  The song had potential – great energy once it kicks in and a great message – but the a cappella introduction goes on a bit too long.  I asked if they’d give me a day to make an edit so it could fit perfectly.

So the next day I chopped the song up a little, shortening the intro so as I say their names Freddie Mercury will be belting out “Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time . . .” and sent it off to them.  Nicole responded enthusiastically:

Hi Mike!

We love the edit of Don’t Stop Me Now…we can def imagine making our grand entrance to it.

And the reason I’m writing all this isn’t to pat myself of the back and say “Look what I did.”  It’s because the planning process is so much more than me (or any Elite Entertainer) simply extracting information from our clients.  It’s about allowing us to help you craft your vision. Some clients have every detail of their weddings planned down to the last song of the night.  And that’s cool with us.  But so many of our clients look to us to make suggestions, offer opinions about some of their selections and, in many cases to work with their tastes but make them better.  And that’s what we are here for.  That’s why you hire us.  And that’s why, by the time we get to your reception, so much of the “work” that we do together is already done.  And so much of the fun we are going to have together, has only just begun . . .