Sunday, August 29, 2010

A Diehard Wedding Ceremony

Kate and Aaron had their hearts set on a Summer beach wedding. They chose August, 2010 as the month and Orange County's Salt Creek Beach as the place to make their dreams come true. But it almost didn't turn out the way they'd imagined.



Picture this: You're at the beach setting up sound for a ceremony with 250 guests invited. The nearest power is 200 feet away and due to a snafu the Park authorities failed to unlock the door to the only outlet available.

The guests have arrived and are now sitting in the sunlight, listening to the roar of the ocean and the occasional gull flyby as they anticipate the start of the nuptials. Park Reps are unresponsive to calls- still no power.

As the minutes tick by the wedding party is assembled and is ready to walk down the aisle. Reception is scheduled to immediately follow the ceremony. It's crunch time, what's a Wedding DJ to do?

With no AC and no generator available, I remembered that I keep a power inverter in my truck for drastic emergencies. We started the engine, attached the inverter to the battery and plugged in the power.

Suddenly the music began and every guest could now hear the lapel mic we already placed on the minister. The two Yamaha 15 inch two-way speakers we had set up reached all the way to the back row. We started the processional music and the vows went off without a hitch.





That's right. We ran the entire ceremony off of a car battery!

Here's to another great beginning!

The Wedding DJ

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's why you get paid the big bucks!! _

Brendan said...

Glad to hear that you were saved by the power inverter. For beach weddings here in New England, I use a Roland BA-330 digital PA system - it runs for up to 10 hours on just 8 AA batteries, and it provides a full, crisp sound. Prior to the Roland, I used a Carvin Stagemate speaker. Both are very good choices for beach ceremonies are economical when compared to the cost of buying a generator.

Read more about my events: http://www.southcoastdj.com/blog