Dear Future Bride and Groom,

I would first like to congratulate you both on your announcement to exchange your wedding vows. Whether your wedding date is six months away or longer, you will soon be faced with many decisions in your plans for the perfect day. Well, at Supreme Sounds, we would honor the opportunity to help you make a wise choice for your source of entertainment.

To get the planning started we have included below a condensed version of what goes on at a wedding reception. We are by no means limited to this format. We work quite a bit with caterers, photographers, and many other professionals, like the ones that you may have hired for your reception, to be sure everything runs smoothly. We will also base what we do on how your guests are responding to what is happening.

Cocktail Music

While the guests arrive, we are playing either a light, popular jazz, classical, or a light, rock-soul and oldies mix. Because your guests are spending this time conversing with friends and relatives that they may have not seen in a while, we try to keep the music low-key and our volumes unobtrusive.

Bride and Groom Arrive

Usually the photographer will take the bridal party for pictures after the ceremony. After the photographer has completed his photo session with the bride and groom at the reception hall, your entertainer will line the bridal party up for proper introduction.

Bridal Party Introductions

Sometime prior to the day of your reception, you will have had the opportunity to meet with your entertainer to discuss the proper name pronunciation of your bridal party attendants, and the proper placement of these attendants within the order of introduction. Once at the function hall, your entertainer will line your attendants according to what had been discussed prior to the wedding day. As your attendants make their way into the function room, it may have been decided that they form a receiving line or go to the head table.

Receiving Line

This can be done in conjunction with the introductions or alone. The bride, groom, and parents will line up and greet the guests as they go through the line. This is a great time to say "thank you" to all of your guests for attending your special day.

Blessing

Once your bridal party attendants are at the head table, your entertainer will ask a guest (someone selected prior to reception - parent, friend, grandparent, uncle, priest, etc.) by name to say the blessing. Once the blessing is complete, your entertainer will now draw the attention to the person who is proposing the toast.

Toast

This is usually done by the best man. We will announce the toast several minutes before it happens to insure that all of the guests have a full glass.

Cake Cutting

This takes place after dinner just prior to the bride and groom's first dance. Your music selections for the cake cutting can either be background music or traditional (bride cuts the cake). We will coordinate with your photographer when is the proper time to begin the music for this traditional moment. Some entertainer's will ask your guests to gather around for pictures at this time. At Supreme Sounds, we have learned that this is not the best way to approach family/friends photo opportunities. It will interfere with your photographer's performance, and he/she may lose those perfect shots that he/she was paid to get.

First Dance The bride and groom select this song prior to their wedding date. This song should be well thought out, and define something special about the two of you. This dance can take place either after the cake cutting, or it may have taken place when the bride and groom were introduced.

Parents Dances After the bride and groom have danced their first dance as husband and wife, they may want to dance with their parents. If these dances are occurring, the bride will first dance with her father, and then the groom will follow by escorting his mother to the dance floor for their special dance together. At times there have been instances where someone else has danced in the place of either parent.

Wedding Party Dance Once the parent's dance has been completed, the bride and groom may want to have the entire wedding party come to the dance floor for the wedding party dance. This dance can also take place during the bride and groom's first dance, where the bride and groom's first dance will begin for the first half and the wedding party will then be asked to join the bride and groom on the dance floor.

Let's Dance

After the formal dances have been completed, we will invite everyone to join in on the dance floor. In the beginning of the reception, we usually play a lot of popular music to get everyone involved in dancing, usually a mix of oldies works best, but we are always open to requests and suggestions. A list of your ideas and suggestions usually works best, as we are not only interested in what you would like to have played, we are also interested in the songs that you do not want to hear, but please take into consideration the music preferences of your guests when eliminating song titles.

Anniversary Dance

This is a special dance that has been done in many ways. The way we like to do this is we invite the bride and groom to the dance floor, and in doing so we also invite all of the married couples in attendance to join the bride and groom on the dance floor. Once every married couple is dancing to a slow song we ask for anyone who has been married for one day or less (usually it's the bride and groom, unless one of your guests got married that day & we didn’t know about it!!) to please make their way to the side of the dance floor, so that we may form a circle around the dance floor with other guests who will soon be eliminated. Other guest's will be eliminated by five year intervals, until we end up with the couple that has been married the longest, and then we ask the bride and groom to join this couple. A nice touch to this dance that we have seen is the bride and groom presenting this couple with either roses or champagne (the bride and groom may know who this couple will be through their invitations).

Bouquet and Garter Toss

At this moment your entertainer will ask the bride and groom to make their way to the dance floor for the Garter & Bouquet ceremony. Your photographer will probably pose you prior to the music beginning for this ceremony. Once the groom has removed the garter, your entertainer will ask for all single ladies to please make their way to the dance floor, so that our bride may toss her bouquet. Once we have a recipient of the bouquet, it is time for the groom to toss the garter. Once we have the recipient's of the garter & bouquet, it is time for us to have a little fun!!! Don’t worry - it will be done tastefully, and we will use the best discretion, especially if a younger guest catches either the garter or bouquet. If a young guest is found to be the recipient, your entertainer may just ask for the recipients to pose with the bride and groom. We are also always open for other suggestions and ideas.

Back to Dancing

Toward the end of the reception, we often start playing newer music that will appeal toward the bride and groom's friends. However, we still mix in a few popular oldies to keep everyone involved.

Bride and Groom Farewell Dance

Prior to this dance, your entertainer will ask all guests to form a circle around the dance floor for which our bride and groom can dance within. We can close this dance by forming a tunnel of guests for the bride and groom to exit the reception from, or we can close the circle, and have the guests give the bride and groom a great big hug from all of their friends and family.

CREATIVE IDEAS

• Bridal Bouquet Forever - When the wedding is over, take your bridal bouquet to a flower drying specialist who can professionally dry and exquisitely frame your bouquet forever!
  
  
• Guests Autograph the Wedding Couple - Have your engagement photo or other professional shot blown up and framed with matting around the picture. Place this at the door of the reception Place this at the door of the reception hall in place of, or in addition to, the guest book and have your family and friends sign it.
  
  
• Clowns and Magicians - Children at wedding receptions need some entertainment, too! Give all the moms and dads a chance to enjoy the celebration.
  
  
• Candid Shots - Purchase disposable cameras, one for every table at the reception, and include instructions requesting your guests to take candid photos. Have the cameras collected at the end of the reception, and have the film developed.
  
  
• How About Some Trivia? - This is a great idea for something during dinner or prior to, or whenever!! The bride and groom will need to think of some trivia questions (usually five) that would pertain to them. Anything ranging from where they met to what color there pet's eyes are!! These trivia questions are usually open to everyone except the immediate family. The winners usually get scratch tickets or something to that level. The prizes would be provided by the bride and groom. Your entertainer(s) will ask the questions, and it is a really fun way just to see how well your guests know the two of you!!!