Once upon a time, a young bride decided she would only walk down the aisle to Pachebel’s Canon in D played by a string quartet. Twas I, in my youth and naivete. Once we had our venue and caterer nailed down, I started to look at knocking out some other big vendors. I realized that our wedding “budget” was increasing substanially (probs because budgeting to spend as little as possible leaves lots of room for error), but two things we would need were music and lighting.
The Botanical Garden and our day of coordinator recommended Five Star Entertainment. Our caterer and photographer also approved of our choice. They’re a one-stop shop for wedding vendors: they offer DJ services, karaoke, photo booths, lighting, photography (contracted), and videography (contracted). We’re using them for DJ-ing and lighting. We aren’t doing karaoke because my BFF / BM Antlers would jeopardize it the whole night. We’re also passing on the photo booth. It’s a bit too overdone for my tastes.
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| Overdramatic karaoke kitteh Courtesy of www.icanhascheezburger.com |
I met with Mark, the grand poobah of Five Star. We talked about the needs of the location and what we wanted. We decided on a stereo-esque set-up for the ceremony: they’ll set up speakers, something to DJ (I honestly don’t know at this moment), and a mic for the vows and music. Inside, they’ll have a full soundboard for the reception. Five Star DJs also act as emcees for their events. Mark sells it as keeping the momentum flowing and judging the crowd to better entertain us. They have a rather extensive worksheet to ensure that all songs are identified and that a general timeline for the event is created.
The Orangery has a ring of lamps in the outer part of the space. These aren’t very bright, and the majority of the lighting is natural. Obviously, an evening reception would require some additional lighting. Five Star offers a template for the Botanical Garden Orangery. It can be tailored, lights added or removed, and custom color schemes and lighting themes decided. Five Star generally lights the outer arches with can lights and places bar lighting on the inner arches. We’re going with their generic scheme but deleting extra lights on parts of the room we won’t use. The space is so large that we can not light areas without creating dark spots. Below is our venue with full lighting. We’re using a rose petal pattern for the ceiling, and natural lighting in the outer ring (not green as shown).
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| Courtesy of Five Star Entertainemnt |
