Dilhani & Johnathan
The final countdown to 2013 started with a festive cracker at Eastwell Manor this Saturday at Dilhani & Johnathans wedding …and what an eventful day it proved to be. We were down at Eastwell Manor near Ashford to set up the equipment at what seemed like the crack of dawn, although it was about 10am thats pretty early for us DJs. The receptions at Eastwell Manor generally take place in The Pavillion which detached from the main hotel building. I have worked at this venue a number of times and it never disappoints, the layout of the room is perfect for a reception and a massive contributing factor in ensuring a great atmosphere. I hadnt been there throughout 2012 so it was nice to get back to one of my favourite venues in anticipation of another great night, I’d spoken to Dilhani on Thursday and she sounded nervously excited in anticipation of the big day and she had some specific requests for the evening incorporating a “no play policy” on Christmas songs and songs with hand movements (phew lol) … When I walked into the function room the first thing that struck me was how much bigger it looked, since my last visit they had removed the old carpet and it was now a wooden floor throughout which I thought looked great and provided a huge dancing area throughout the room. If you were considering putting a dancefloor in there it would also look great, I think you would probably get away quite easily with a 20×20, a white starlit one would be great. Set up was complete by 11am and then we hot footed it back up the M20 to North Greenwich Tube Stn, parked the van up for the day and jumped on the Jubilee Line to London Bridge to meet a few friends at The Barrowboy before going onto watch Charlton play Millwall at The New Den (always a pleasure). After an afternoon of fairly tedious football, a sellout crowd, smoke grenades, flares, angry home supporters and a 0-0 draw it was back to Ashford for work and we arrived back around 630 with the first dance due at 730. Over a hundred partygoers arrived in The Pavillion just after 730, so slightly later than expected with the first dance starting the evening just after 8pm. Dilhani had also included a dance with her father as a second song as well as requesting the two final songs.
Dilhani during the garage set
As per the previous Saturday at The Andaz Hotel the dance floor was packed solid all night long, even when the hog roast came out just after 9 it wasn’t quite enough to prize them all away as the party continued in full swing. Dihani and Johnathan had requested quite a bit of 80s music which I had decided to generally hold back until around 10ish after the buffet had cleared …with the buffet taking place upstairs I was expecting to tone down the floor fillers for half an hour or so but it was never necessary as the rotation of guests on and off the floor remained healthy and when all the guests returned to the room the party really took off. Dilhani had also requested 15mins of commercial garage a little later on which went down a storm before we finished the evening with some guest requests which included a run of big rock songs with The Arctic Monkeys going down particularly well before the big Frank Sinatra finale and a couple of encores taking us just past midnight.
creative use of the glow sticks
We had some left over glow sticks, glasses and bracelets left over from last Wednesdays wedding at Founders Hall so we shared them out for the revellers to enjoy and left Eastwell Manor once again with happy memories. Theres something special about The Pavillion at Eastwell Manor, its quite a clubby type room, perfect for uplighting, low ceiling with its now all wooden floor, during the summer the side doors can all open onto the terrace, the access is excellent so easy to set up/pack up and my kit sounds excellent in there, even better since the carpet was removed, the bar is in the same room so everything is nice and compact, I can remember every wedding I have done at the venue – they have all been great nights …and this was as good as any other 🙂 congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Daykin, have a great honeymoon ! Article written by DJ Phil Webster Click here to see more photos from this wedding on our facebook group. Here’s the set list from Saturday starting with the first dance, if you were at the wedding how about leaving us a comment.