DJ Ben Boylan
- Jun 5, 2019
- 3 min read

Green Building Wedding in Brooklyn, NY for Kelsey and Matt

Updated: Nov 18, 2019

All photos by Nelson of Nyla Gray Photography

Before moving to London, Matt and Kelsey decided to have one last bash in NYC - a wedding! I spoke to them twice before their day and communicated over many emails so everything would be just right. Judging by the marathon dance set we had I think we succeeded!

Green Building Wedding

in Brooklyn, NY for Kelsey and Matt

By DJ Ben Boylan

Venue

The Green Building is one of my favorite venues. It's a large raw space with brick walls and floor to ceilings windowed doors in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. There is a nice outdoor patio where you can have your cocktail hour and ceremony. The staff is great to work with and all the vendors I know love it. If you are looking for an NYC or Brooklyn wedding venue then look at The Green Building first (and make sure to check out it's sister venue 501 Union across the street).

Ceremony

I actually wasn't supposed to do the ceremony at this Green Building wedding. The couple had live musicians and used someone else's PA system so I wasn't due to start until after the ceremony. Well, I was there anyway, all set up for cocktail hour and hanging out inside when someone told me their mic wasn't working. It was some kind of malfunction so the officiant was just speaking, but no one behind the third row could hear her.

I had to do something to help. I set up a small speaker and wireless mic for them in a few minutes and brought the mic to their officiant. I got to be the hero for once (humble brag). I guess this is a good time to suggest everyone reads my blog on whether you need a mic at your ceremony.

Cocktail Hour

Kelsey and Matt are moving to London soon so to end their ceremony they asked their musicians to play "London Calling" by the Clash and had me start cocktail hour with the recorded version. A few people caught the reference and were smiling. They had sent me a great Spotify playlist for cocktail hour made up of mostly rock and 90's hits and guests enjoyed drinks and snacks while it played.

Intros and First Dance

Once cocktail hour finished, guests took their seats for dinner and I began intros. When I announced Kelsey and Matt their guests went crazy. For the intro song they had chosen Sinatra's "New York, New York" which I think was a reference to the location of the wedding because many guests had come from Canada. Next they did their first dance to "I Love How You Love Me" by Jeff Mangum.

We followed it up with a quick dance set of just a couple oldies that everyone loved. One of the songs was The Rascals' "Good Lovin" and all guests was singing along. When the song finished, they were seated for dinner and for six toasts. I provided a great wireless mic and a mic stand for all who spoke.

Dance Set

We started off the dance portion of this Green Building wedding with the parents dances. Kelsey danced with her dad to "Nothing Can Change this Love" by Sam Cooke and Matt danced with his mom to "Love Train" by The O'Jays. I always tell couples that if they pick an upbeat song (like Love Train) then their guests are going to expect some serious dancing. Well, Matt and his mom did great and had a lot of fun with it - and their guests loved it.

For their dance set the couple chose a mix of throwback pop and hip-hop tracks as well as a few oldies. They started dancing around 8:30 and kept going until 12:30. That impressed me! I played all different types of tracks and they loved all of it. Great dancing crowd.

We loved working with Ben and had so much fun dancing for four hours straight! Our guests are raving about the music and the dance floor was still excellent during our last song- I've never had so much fun! Ben's communication before the event was excellent, and I was confident our party would be a great one in his hands. Highly recommend! - Kelsey