1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge Wedding
Brooklyn, NY for Emily & Andrew
By DJ Ben Boylan
I didn't meet Emily and Andrew until their wedding because they have been living in London so we had a few great phone calls to plan everything. Planning with them was easy and fun which made DJing their ceremony and reception a real pleasure. Read on to get all the details of this amazing 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge Wedding.
Venue
1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is a gorgeous hotel at Pier 1 on Brooklyn Bridge Park, just south of the iconic bridge in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood and minutes from downtown Manhattan.
There are 2 wedding venues at the hotel, and we were in the "Blue Aster," which has 1 to 3 spaces open to balconies with beautiful Manhattan views. With luxury styling and a focus on sustainability, 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is an amazing place to get married.
Ceremony
Emily and Andrew had a traditional ceremony framed with flowers and 100 of their closest friends and family. I thought the deacon who officiated was really great and several guests mentioned it too.
The bride entered the ceremony with her mom to "The Theory of Everything" by Jóhann Jóhannsson, a really cool song I hadn't heard before. They exited to Tez Cadey's "Seve" while their guests went crazy.
Cocktail Hour and Intros
After the ceremony, guests were led into an adjoining room for cocktail hour. Everyone enjoyed drinks and snacks while I played a custom playlist provided by the couple. Soon it was over and guests headed into the reception room for dinner.
I introduced Emily and Andrew over the start of their first dance song, "Real Love Baby" by Father John Misty. This has been a pretty popular pick in the last two years. I was impressed by their dancing. Either they dance regularly or they practiced a lot.
Early Dance Sets and Speeches
Next we had a dance set and I started off this 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge wedding with classic rock and Motown. Guests quickly filled the dance floor and danced for about 15 minutes until the first course was served.
During the first course we did a first round of toasts and parent dances. I provided a great wireless mic to those who spoke and they stood in the middle of the dance floor. Next, Emily danced with her mom to Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere," a personal favorite of mine. That was followed by Andrew's dance with his mom.
They had asked me to play two songs for the mother son dance. First, I played about a minute of Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" and then started "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by Whitney Houston and asked their guests to join Andrew and his mom on the dance floor over the intro.
Of course they all did and that started off the second dance set. After Whitney, I moved into some more current pop hits and a little indie dance. Guests packed the dance floor for about 30 minutes before the main course.
Main Dance Set
Finally we had one more speech from one of Andrew's friends David (who was hilarious) and the couple gave a nice speech too. Then the main dance set started. Emily and Andrew had asked for pop, rock, hip-hop throwbacks and also the Motown and classic rock I played earlier. I mixed it all up and everyone danced all night.
By the end of the night I don't think there was one person sitting. Everyone was going crazy. The couple had asked to end the night with Elton John's "Rocket Man." I played it and everyone put their arms around the shoulders of the person next to them while Emily and Andrew danced in the middle.
After the song was done I turned the music off and started disconnecting the speakers. But they weren't done. They all started humming the "Dun dun dun dun dunnn, dun" from "Seven Nation Army." So what could I do? I hooked the speakers back up and played the song. They went crazy and lifted Andrew up on their shoulders. It was a really fun way to end the night.
From our first email engagement to the delivery of our recordings/music after the wedding, Ben was easily the most professional vendor we worked with during our event (and we worked with some excellent teams). He's responsive, easy-going, helpful, and clear, and it was so appreciated in the madness of wedding planning. Ben is super knowledgable and has great taste. Guest commented on how excellent the music was for weeks after our wedding. Ben, we cannot thank you enough for delivering such an incredible event. Thank you so much for all of your hard work in making our wedding day go off without a hitch! - Emily
Thank you Andrew and Emily for letting me be a part of your
1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge wedding!
I had the pleasure of working with the following vendors:
Deacon Jack McKenna
Kate Federlin of 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge
Aaron & Whitney of Aaron & Whitney Photography
All photos by Aaron & Whitney Photography
