moonbaby

OK, so I'm doing live sound production at the local Ritz-Carlton ( Amelia Island, Florida ) when they have these "Ritzy" (pun intended) wedding bashes that have to be seen to be believed. It's basically an all-weekend gig where the families swoop down from up North. They fly down from New York, New Jersey, Boston, etc., party their collective butts off all weekend, then go back home. These bashes typically take up 3 ballrooms- 1 for the pre-wedding parties, 1 for the actual wedding (complete with an outdoor gazebo overlooking the Atlantic ), and then another for the reception.
I provide the sound for all 3 of them. The one I did earllier this month was a Jewish wedding between 2 Wall Street execs, with about 300 attending, at a cost of about $250K (Daddy ain't good lookin' but he is rich!). The party room gets a PAS S-o-S/w. subs rig for a 7-piece dance band and a DJ. The wedding ceremony gets a discrete JBL Eon rig, with a couple of NT-5's over a string quartet, a wireless Fender electric violin ( the violinist follows the couple up to the rabbi in the gazebo while 2 little girls throw rose petals along the way). The rabbi gets a Sennheiser wireless lav, and I've flown a Shure KSM27 over the archway on the gazebo to pick up the couple's vows.
So far, so good. The party on Friday night is a hoot, the band is hot, and the DJ isn't too obnoxious. The wedding goes great, the quartet plays a medley of Beatles' hits, and everyone can hear the rabbi and the vows without feedback.
Then comes the reception. The entertainment consists of a Sinatra wannabe, a Latino big band
( 13 pieces, plus 3 singers), the previous evening's dance party band, and another DJ/emcee.
The rig for this gig was my trusty Radian topboxes over Meyer subs, with 2 A&H 2400 desks.
All those horn players, plus a trio of percussionists, all sound great through this rig in the room.
As an added bonus, the entertainment consisted of 5 go-go dancers atop cylindrical risers up front, choreographed to the big band. These dancers are ex-Miami Dolphins' cheerleaders and they are all drop-dead gorgeous. They will open the show, with a lit dancefloor in front of them.
A dance floor that's just been mopped.Rehearsal time, the band's rockin', the girls are groovin', and the wedding music director motions for me to come up to the stage. So I scurry across the (still wet) dance floor. Halfway across the floor, my feet slide out from under me and I land smack dab on my back, right where mu Leatherman and MiniMag are on my belt. Everything goes Purple, then black. The band stops and when I open my eyse, there all 5 of the dancers bent over me their long lovely hair hanging down in my face. One of them asks,"Are you OK, sweetie?"
OMG, I thought that I'd died and gone to heaven! Nothing broken, just the wind knocked outta me. Then 4 plainclothes security grunts with Bluetooths swooped down to ensure that I was OK (and wouldn't sue the crap out of the hotel!). The girls were back onstage, the band re-started, and the MD got what he wanted ( an extra mic on the cuica player). And I had a bigass bruise on my right hip...what a way to make a living, eh?