Clifton Park Elks Lodge Wedding ~ Great for 80-120 people
Clifton Park Elks Lodge # 2466 – Wedding Venue Review
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of being the DJ once again at The Clifton Park Elks Lodge. Aside from some really good home-made cooking and tasty food, the people are very easy to work with at the lodge. They offer a decent nice venue at very reasonable pricing. They also really allow a lot of freedom to the bride and groom in the outline of the night’s events.
The Lodge’s facilities at the Clifton Park Elks are a great place to have the wedding of your dreams or enjoy a great barbecue. Guests can choose from their indoor facilities with 2 connecting rooms, dance floor and complete bar, or their out-door pavilion with a large grill and on-site sporting games. The Elks Lodge can also custom create a combination package of both.
The food really is great considering they cook all their own food without a cateror. It has a more homey-like feel to it, rather than the mass-produced feel that some of the bigger venues have, and I think that the guests appreciate that.
They do serve their guests the buffet food portions which slows down their buffet line to some degree. However, the hand-carved prime rib was high quality and great for a smaller-to-medium sized venue. The sides were really good, as well, and they even featured their own home-made sauces, like a great bistro horse-radish for the beef.
If I could change one thing, I would probably open the buffet line up to both sides of the table to speed up the serving, and set up a separate station for the hand-carving roasts. However, because it is a smaller venue, maybe 80-120 guests in full capacity for the dinning room, it is possible that space is an issue.
There is a nice little bar in a separate room for the drinking enthusists, as well as a small bar in dining room.
One more thing I really like is that they are super easy to work with. For example, the lodge doesn’t force the cake, or toast on you. In a lot of cases, wedding halls and catering venues really push to have the cake cutting activity very soon after the dinner. This helps them organize the employees’ duties in the back and an early cake activity can actually maximize employee potential and save the hall money. However, an early cake is not always in the best interest of the party, as many people leave right after the cake, and the activity can really slow down the fun. At the lodge, they are really cool with letting it happen later. I also don’t think they try and soak the bride and groom with a cutting fee.
The lodge is conveniently located at 695 Macelroy Road in Ballston Lake NY. This location is right on the border of Clifton Park and is an easy place to get to. It is still far enough away from the commericialism right off of the 87 exit.
If you are interested in booking your small to medium sized wedding there, the phone number is (518) 877-5200.
The whole idea of having a wedding cake tradition with music and couple feeding really has been around forever, though it has transformed more into what we know it as today in recent times.
During the ancient Roman Empire, the groom would cbreak up a bread-like cake and sprinkle the crumbs all over his bride’s head. In the 17th century, a large decorated wedding pie was uhe dessert of choice, with one main ingredient: a glass ring hidden inside to symbolize that the finder was the next to be married. After the 19th century came about, we really started to see the big frosting giants with multi-layering.
No matter which way you cut it, everyone tends to agree that music makes things better, so somewhere along the line music was added to the mix.
Having a mood-setting wedding cake theme song is a great way to put the people into the mindset of the bride and groom. However, how do you pick the right song?
The best thing to think about when choosing your wedding cake theme song is to think about what kind of atmosphere you would like to set during the actual cake cutting activity. If you want “fun,” I wouldn’t go with classical music or jazz. If you want classy, I also wouldn’t pick Def Leppard. Happy, party, fun, serious, nostalgic, classy, and romantic are a bunch of moods that you could set. Remember to always pick a suitable song that goes along with the feeling you would like to convey.
Partially from an earlier blog, here is a good updated list of songs that you may want to use for your wedding reception cake cutting activity:
wedding cake song list
Ain’t That a Kick in the Head – Dean Martin
All My Life – KC & JoJo
Better Be Good To Me – Tina Turner
Better Together – Jack Johnson
Cut the Cake – Average White Band
Cuts Like A Knife – Bryan Adams
Eat It – Weird Al Yankovic
Happy Together – The Turtles
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
How Sweet It Is – James Taylor
I Do – Colbie Calliet
I Got You Babe – Sonny Bono & Cher
I Wanna Grow Old With You – Adam Sandler
Ice Cream – Sarah McLachlan
If I had A Million Dollars – Bare Naked ladies
It Had to be You – Harry Connick Jr.
It’s your Love – Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
Love and Marriage – Frank Sinatra
Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin
Marry Me – Train
Pour Some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
Recipe for Love – Harry Connick Jr
So This Is Love – Cinderella Theme
Sugar, Sugar – The Archies
That’s Amore – Dean Martin
Theme From ‘Jaws’ – Jaws Soundtrack
This Could Be The Start of Something Big – Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme
This Guy’s In Love With You – Herb Albert
When I’m 64 – Beatles
Lady Gaga Song Sounds Like...Lady Gaga’s new song sounds just like… Just like…. Hmmm.
In case Lady Gaga’s new track “You and I” seems to sound familiar or like something else to you, you are probably right for two reasons. The music sounds like one song, and the singing sound like another. It is almost as if Lady Gaga has created her own funky fresh mashup for the little monsters on this one. Can somebody say, “remix?”
So after hours of racking my brain, I think that the pop-guitar music sounds like Shania Twain “Man, I Feel Like a Woman,” and the way she sings it really, REALLY lyrics sound like Anna Nalick’s “Breath (2am).”
PRODUCTION/MUSIC – For one, the song was produced by Robert “Mutt” Lange, the producer of Shania Twain’s Come on Over (as well as countless other rock/pop blockbusters). “You and I,” the radio release, which is actually a remix from the original studio trac, is now sort of country/pop and resembles Shania’s choppy guitar riff from “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”
LYRICAL ARRANGEMENT – Okay little monsters. Here is the big one. Just like “Born This Way” sounded like Madonna’s “Express Yourself,” listen to Anna Nalick’s “Breath (2am)” and tell me there isn’t some similarity.
INDIVIDUAL LINE SIMILARITY – There is also to line “It’s been a long time…” that bothers me. I feel like that is somewhere else, sung identically, but It is not in Nalick’s song. If anyone recognizes it, please let me know. First, I thought maybe I heard it in “What’s Up” by The 4 Non-Blondes, but that wasn’t it, though that track , too, does sound a little like Lady Gaga’s “You and I.” Your thoughts? Drop me a line if you can think of it.
LADY GAGA’s “You And I” – So here it is… Leave a comment below and tell me what you think. You can also email me at ken@theDJservice.com.
