Simon Montgomery and his bride Melissa celebrated their wedding reception on the 12th of November 2011 at the University Club located on the grounds of the University of Western Australia from 6pm – 12am and was held in the Banquet Hall with 140 guests including family and close friends.
The music for the evening was organised through The Wedding Music Planner and included live music entertainment from the CVQ Saxophone Quartet and the Ben Hall Quintet featuring the talented Patrick van der Moezel on tenor saxophone.
Guests arrived at 6:00pm for the pre-dinner drinks and canapes in the foyer area of the UWA club. They were entertained for this half an hour by the jazzy sounds of the CVQ saxophone quartet, a young and talented group of musicians from Mater Dei Catholic College. Their repertoire, which included When the Saints Go Marching In, Wingin’ it, Tuff Enuff and Night Train, provided the ideal start to the evening and helped create an atmosphere of style, class and sophistication and gave a taste of the musical excellence that would come throughout the entire evening.
After the guests had been seated, the bridal party entered with each couple having a specific theme song prepared for them which reflected something about the personalities of the pair. All of the PA equipment for the evening as well the playing of the pre-recorded music was provided and overseen by Adam James and his production company, NADAM events, which The Wedding Music Planner continues use to use to provide PA solutions for all of their medium to large scale events throughout the Perth metropolitan area.
After announcements for the evening had occurred, the Ben Hall Quintet began their first set of the evening. Ben Hall’s smooth voice when combined with the talented saxophone solos from Patrick van der Moezel and Gavin Nicklette on piano provided great music that the guests could talk over, sit back and listen to or even dance throughout the early parts of the evening as they awaited their table’s turns to enjoy the magnificent buffet dinner offered by the UWA club.
When the main meal had been finished and cleared away the formal part of the evening continued with the speeches. Specific songs had been organised for each speaker to help introduce them including the Star Wars them for Philip Haydon, Super Man theme for Philip Montgomery, Notebook theme for Lisa Haydon and James Bond theme for Matthew Montgomery. All of the speeches were of an excellent standard and quality with them being funny and respectful in honoring the bride and groom and speaking of the love they have for each other.
The speeches were followed by the cutting of the cake and the first dance of the Simon and Melissa as husband and wife. Simon and Melissa performed their first dance to a recorded instrumental version of “Moon River†by Henry Mancini and surprised everyone by having learnt a modern waltz. The remainder of the bridal party joined Simon and Melissa for the following song, “Sway†which was performed live with the Ben Hall Quintet. The remaining guests came and joined Simon and Melissa on the dance floor at the conclusion of this song and throughout the next hour the floor was continuously full as people enjoyed classics including Night and Day, mack the Knife, All of Me, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Isn’t She Lovely from the band allowing people to Jive, Swing, Cha-Cha and Rhumba the night away.
The band finished their last set of music just before 11:00pm and with the bride and groom leaving at 11:15 there was still approximately 15 minutes of music that was needed for the evening. Simon had provided Adam with a number of different music options to cover the breaks when the band were not performing and it was decided to keep to the same theme of music that had been performed throughout the rest of the evening with songs from Buble, Ellington, Sinatra and Basie being opted for rather than try and change the ambience of the evening with pop and rock tunes that are well known at weddings.
At 11:15pm Simon and Melissa commenced their good byes to their guests, they had prepared the songs “Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World†(The Big Iz) and “Time to Say Goodbye†(Andrew Bochelli) for this time, however, the farewells took longer than this so Adam James used his experience at weddings to cover the shortfall with other well known farewell songs commonly used at wedding reception.
The evening was a large success with many the guests continuing to talk about the quality of the wedding reception, and ceremony, for many weeks to come. Thanks must go to all the performers booked through The Wedding Music Planner who created such a memorable evening for all the guests. Thanks must also go to Julie Harrison and her team at the UWA Club for all of their help and assistance in the planning, setup and service provided on the night.
