Who would have known that one day I would have to DJ a wedding and play “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and really mean it?
This past weekend, I was the DJ for a fun wedding in Poestenkill, up on the mountain. Everything was beautiful. The people came dressed nicely and were enjoying some drinks and pictures with some friends they haven’t seen in years. Yes, all was well, until, as luck would have it, a bastard-of-a-storm would start up hard, five minutes before the bride was to walk the aisle.
That first cold smack of rain was the first of a series of bands that would comrprise Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene.
The Original Ceremony Site
The wedding ceremony was to take place just outside a huge white wedding reception tent, underneath a pretty apple tree. There was an elegant white arch decorated in flowers and everything looked picturesque, that is until the sky turned dark as the bride was stepping out of her limosine.
So at preceisely 6:30, we figured we would try and wait it out. Fifteen minutes or so, we decided our efforts were to no avail. The rain only started coming down harder. As the rain really started to dump on us, I could see that the guests were upset and that something needed to be done so I acted as wedding planner and ran back to the log cabin where the bride and her mother were gathering umberellas.
“How about we just switch it to under the tent on the the reception intro entrance way?” I asked. We quickly shifted gears. A few guests helped me move a few tables and it was on. As the town justice took his place with the groomsmen, it was evident that there was no way the people were going to hear him over the hurricane raindrops pounding on the vinyl roof above. Easy fix; give the justice a microphone.
Everything came off perfectly, except for one thing just before the bride could say, “I do.” As the bride’s aunt read a prayer into the mic, water began to flood all around the electrical panel set up, right behind my DJ Booth set-up. It seemed that the tent was a little off-level and all of the tent’s rain water was irrigating and collecting finding its exit-spout right behind me. That is when the water started to short out the power surges for the bar and myself.
We lost microphone power for all of 20-30 seconds, but people just smiled. I quickly re-routed the cord to the power line that lit the tent lights and all came off without a hitch.
Just as Murphy’s law would have it, five minutes after the ceremony, the rain stopped for about an hour, but it didn’t matter. In the end, people had a great time!
