I made it to the end of the three day Labor Day weekend in one piece. This weekend took a little more prep than my normal weekend would have. I was privileged to help out my friend Rick and his fiance Kelly with their wedding and reception. I knew there would be things that would aggravate my back but that would be ok because it was for a very worthy cause.
I’ve known Rick White since high school. Rick was a few years behind me. My first funny memory of him is during Jazz Rock when he performed Janet Jackson’s “Pleasure Principle” Dance, including the chair. (See it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-gu1KETjVY). Rick and his best friend Rob started dj’ing while in high school. They used a simple boom box and the school’s PA gear at the start. I handled the school’s audio gear the whole time I was in school. Little did I know that relationship would continue until this very day.
Through the years Rick put together various levels of dj gear and began going by R n R Rock n Roll Express. He and Rob had quite an arsenal of music starting with records and cassette tapes through CD’s. Their collection has grown into multiple large road cases of CD’s. I couldn’t even estimate the number CDs R n R has. I CAN tell you how heavy the cases are. LOL. R n R has become well known for doing wedding’s and special events. I play the tech guy. I used to help them setup a lot. My back has taken a bad turn so I can’t lift like I used to. I still go out for special circumstances to tune the system or diagnose a problem Rick may be having. More on that in a bit…
Rick carries in the image of his dad, Gaylord. Gay was a janitor at the school. He was probably the most known person in the area. Gay would do just about anything for anyone. Rick is very much the same. Every year, for the last 10+ years, Rick has gone out and organized a 4th of July party. The Party on the White House Lawn has gone from a few friends to practically the whole town and then some. Rick, too, has become a town fixture. Over the last 4 or 5 years, Rick has had a new side kick… Kelly. I haven’t known Kelly near as long as Rick but she is a great lady. I’m sure she and Rick will be together a long time. I wasn’t surprised when I heard Rick and Kelly were engaged.
Rick has a little personality trait that I knew would surface for the wedding. Face it.. We all have little quirks that show up from time to time. Rick likes to plan things out and its not really such a bad thing. He puts a lot of effort into every project he does, whether its DJing someone else’s wedding or the 4th of July Party. If it is to be done, It is to be done the best Rick can do it. He and Kelly’s wedding day would be no different. Over the time since their engagement, Rick has been working out the details in his usual way. Along the way, the decision was made that he would DJ his own wedding. I tried to talk him out of it a couple times, but I knew he had set his mind to it. It really wasn’t a bad idea. It saved them a ton of money and he would know how reliable the DJ was.
As time counted down to Rick and Kelly’s big day, Rick and I talked about how things would go. He was going to record all the announcements and introductions for the reception in his own voice. He did the same thing for Rob’s wedding and I ran the system that day with some help. Those were the day’s of changing CDs for every song. I asked if there was anything Rick wanted me to do for the wedding. He hadn’t officially asked me to DJ or to help, but I knew he would feel more comfortable if I was involved. I haven’t been helping he and Rob DJ much lately because lifting bothers my back. Rick was concerned about my back being aggravated. I told him I wasn’t worried about it and would do whatever I could. The first item would be to make sure the music they needed at the church could be played through the church’s sound system. It was left at that until this past week.
I asked if there was anything else he wanted me to do. I offered to hook up to the trailer and take care of getting the DJ gear packed up after the reception. We talked about having the bridal party help load the gear. I didn’t like that idea. In my opinion, this was a special time that Rick and Kelly needed to share with each other and with the special folks they selected for the bridal party. I made up my mind I would find someone to help me so that Rick and Kelly didn’t have to worry about anything. I chose to call my friend Dave without Rick’s knowledge. Dave is a music buff and I know he would take the same kind of care Rick and I would with the DJ gear. He confirmed he would help. I let Rick know that he was to spend the evening with Kelly and the bridal party was also not to worry about the DJ stuff.
Thursday arrived. Rick text-ed me that he couldn’t get his iPod to play through the church’s sound system. I gave a few suggestions over text but it still wouldn’t work. The last suggestion was to hook up to a different input on the board (I recognized the board model from the pict he sent me). He would go get the needed connectors and call me when he got back to the church. He didn’t call. I figured I would just stop down after work. Sure enough, the new setup worked. We discussed when things would need to be played and that they really could use another lavaliere microphone for the second pastor. I called a friend at another church to see if I could borrow one of their extra mics. I got the go ahead.
On Friday, I picked up the extra mic on the way home and then headed to the church for Kelly and Rick’s rehearsal. There were several items that needed done at the church for the wedding. Things would also need moved to Rick’s mom’s house after the wedding. I volunteered to take care of those things. A few more things Rick could cross off his list of things to be nervous about. This is the place where I say… “Yes… List” As I noted earlier, Rick likes to plan things out. I knew he would have an itinerary all laid out. I wasn’t surprised, on Thursday night, when he pulled out a notebook and several copies of the timed itinerary, emergency contacts and names of the bridal party spelled out phonetically.
After the Rehearsal Dinner, someone got a hold of Rick’s list. He took quite a bit of razzing from that point on. Understand, this wasn’t some chicken scratch on a paper, this was a timed to the minute ITINERARY. I’m sure he had even driven the route from the church to the park where they took pictures to the hall just to make sure everything worked out. You may think this as a bit over-the-top. I don’t. I did another wedding 3 weeks ago that had no itinerary. The bride arrived less than 20 minutes before she was to walk down the isle (over an hour late from when she was to arrive). Trust me. Kelly and Rick’s wedding went much better than that one.
I took care of the things between the wedding and the reception. I got to the hall about an hour before needed so that I could review the music and announcements Rick recorded. I kind of made a decision in my own mind that I would use the announcements/introductions that were prerecorded with music mixed and the one with the bridal party intros on it. The other couple were ones that could be delayed by the time it took for people to get in place. I would do those couple things myself. The first item of business was toasts. No announcement for that one. I just had to get the mic to the maid of honor and best men and get back to run the volume. The second item of business was the cake cutting. I used Rick’s announcement for this. The guests got a HUGE chuckle as Rick’s voice made the announcement while I was retrieving the mic.
When all was said and done, Dave and I loaded the trailer. We took it back to the house and unloaded it. I could have left stuff in the trailer, but I know Rick prefers it unloaded so that’s what we did without question. I went to the West Middlesex Diner after unhooking the trailer. My back and legs were aching and tired. I was shaking. I’m not sure whether it was my sugar being low or I was just THAT tired. I spent the rest of the weekend recovering.
I wish Kelly and Rick a long and Happy Marriage. I’m glad I was able to be part of their special day. They are enjoying their Honeymoon at Disney World. I am going back to work in the morning. They’ll have much more fun. HAHA!
That’s all for tonight (as if that isn’t enough!)…
~Cappy