Congratulations Jason and Steph!

This Thursday, we headed to Lake Okoboji to help celebrate the wedding of Jason and Stephanie. We were doing the music for their ceremony and reception, as well as created a slideshow for them. Thursday was the rehersal dinner, which they kindly invited us to stay for. We stayed in Estherville on Thursday night and set up the reception hall Friday afternoon. We were keeping our fingers crossed that the weather would cooperate- it had been raining on and off for most of the week and the ceremony was planned to take place outside by the lake. As we set up around 4pm, the sky was getting cloudy and it was quite windy. We very nervously set up our equipment as the weather turned more threatening. A few sprinkles turned into a few more and then it started raining in earnest. All the guests ran for cover on nearby patios, and we stood outside trying to cover everything with garbage bags and keep things from getting too wet. After about 10 minutes of rain (felt like much much longer) The very kind staff at The Inn at Okoboji found us a canopy and we could finally relax with out equipment protected. We waited out the storm as there were blue skies behind it and started a little bit later than the planned 5pm start time. The ceremony was beautiful and went off without a hitch.

We moved inside for the reception which was equally lovely and we had a great time entertaining everyone. We stayed an extra hour because the reception got started quite late. We made the 2 hour drive home and arrived in Sioux Falls very early Saturday morning. All to get up and do it again on Saturday!

It really was a great experience for us- the couple's family was very kind to us and we felt very involved in their special day. They went oput of their way to tell us how much they appreciated us being there and what a wonderful day it was. The feeling was more than mutual. The staff at the resort was wonderful, all in all, it was a great few days and we enjoyed ourselves immensly.

We captured some really great photos- visit their gallery here

Congratulations Zach and Susie!

We headed up to the Arrowwood Resort at Lake Okoboji, Iowa this weekend for one of our largest and most fun weddings ever! There were many moments where things could have gone wrong, but everything went smoothly and it turned into a very special occasion. We were crammed into a little corner during dinner, so once they cleared the dance floor, we moved the lights onto the floor (which was very precarious, I hope we never have to do that again!). One of the best moments was during the father daughter dance- the brides brother sang and played guitar live, and it was a song he had written. It was really beautiful and I am glad it turned out the way it did; he had tried to send us a mp3 of the song, but his computer crashed and playing live was the only option. There aren't too many moments like that!
The reception was so much fun! The couple's friends and family were there to have a great time and it was wonderful to play for a crowd that was enjoying themselves so much. The dance floor was crowded all night and we got lots of compliments throughout. We ended up playing 30 minutes longer than our contract, but probably could have played all night! We had several requests for 'Piano Man' by Billy Joel and the groom asked that we play it at the end of the night. Little did we know that this song held special meaning for most of them. They all gathered in an circle at the center of the dance floor and dropped their pants! I have never seen anything like it! We were told later that this is something done every night at the bar they used to frequent in college.
We had so much fun and took lots of pictures. The groom's father said they have 3 more kids, so we hope they ask us back, its definitely a crowd we would love to entertain again! See the entire photo gallery here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kristen.cline/ZachAndSusieLewis