Louise & Ed at the end of the night
Client: Louise & Ed Cambray
Event: Wedding
Venue: Pembroke Lodge, Richmond Park
Date: 7th December 2012
Package: Plug & Play
Upgades:
Photos: Click here to see more photos from this event
One of the most anticipated weekends of the year started off on Friday evening with Louise & Eds wedding reception at Pembroke Lodge, a beautiful Georgian mansion in Richmond Park. We had worked at Pembroke Lodge a few months ago in the Russell Suite which is a small upstairs room, on this occasion we were in the much larger Belvedere Suite on ground level.
entrance to the belvedere suite
The Belvedere Suite is a purpose built wedding venue with a built in bar …it presents fantastic opportunities to take the decoration further with Creative Mood Lighting. The access is very straight forward via a side door which local taxi’s can drop off and collect guests from and for DJs its a very simple entrance down a couple of steps then straight into the room. The venue does boast its own in house Bose PA system and there are some lighting fixtures built in (for djs info – moonflower effects). The room can accommodate 140 seated guests for the meal and up to 200 for the evening reception with stunning views of the Thames Valley to the West. The architectural details of the room combined with disco lighting and Creative Mood Lighting provide a unique atmosphere in the Belvedere Suites very classy and quite clinically white environment. DJ’s should be aware that when you set up on the wall adjacent to the bar that there is an unusually high ceiling in this part of the room, what you will find is that the sound will gather in this area and it will be a lot louder than usual behind the speakers, it’s worth getting out to the opposite end of the room once the disco is under way to sound check as you will need to increase your levels slightly.
On Friday the wedding was co ordinated by Adrian from Pembroke Lodge, we found him to be extremely polite and helpful, he used the PA to provide background music during the meal and also he likes to announce the bride and grooms first dance and say a few words, it is possible for DJ’s to plug into the in house PA system but I chose not to do this as the speakers are positioned at quite a low level in the side walls facing towards the front of the dance floor, great for background music but not good for the general dispersion of sound around the whole of the room for the disco. One final bit of information for DJ’s, if you are arriving at Richmond Park after dark the only gate for access is most likely to be open is the Richmond Lodge Gate which is situated north of the park on a mini roundabout, security should be on the other side of the gate to let you in.
Onto the party itself, sometimes with Friday weddings guests hold back a little for the remainder of the weekend but this was certainly not one of those occasions, the dance floor was packed to the rafters with just a brief let up for the buffet, during this time we played a few 80’s soul hits which still went down very well with non eating guests. Louise, looking absolutely beautiful & Ed (not quite as beautiful but very smart) took their first dance to Maroon 5’s version of “Let’s Stay Together”, they had requested quite a lot of Rock music which is always very popular for the last hour so I held that back and filtered the remainder of the requests in throughout the evening, they were also happy for guests to make requests throughout the evening. After the initial floorfillers to get the party started, there were spells of 90’s dance, 80s, commercial hip hop and latest charts/dance before the final hour when we focused onto the rock along with a number of other requests, three particular highlights were tracks by “One Direction” and “Westlife” for Louise and an out of the blue request by one of Eds entourage for “The Mighty Quinn” which wasn’t requested originally but I managed to download on the night as I didn’t have that one with me which went down a storm, I don’t know the story behind it but it appeared to definately hold some significance amongst Ed’s circle of friends. The night ended on “Time of my Life” as requested and was the perfect start to what proved to be a fantastic weekend.
party legends
A brief footnote for performers who get hungry after they have packed up, there is a cracking Kebab shop about 10mins en route back to the m25. I had the pleasure of experiencing it on the way back from the previous Richmond Park gig so I wasn’t about to leave the area without the second installment, in fact I was so impressed I facebooked it’s photo and address …its called Kingston Kebab Centre located at 66 Surbiton Road lol, whilst we were in there one bloke staggered into the place and declared, “I’ve just walked miles to get here but I don’t care cos this is the best kebab shop around” …not sure I would of walked miles but it’s a testimony in itself even if a few pints had been consumed. Also before I wrap this one up, a big thanks to the Surrey policeman who gave me directions after pulling my van over at a petrol garage after I circled around a few times trying to find the m25.
Here’s the set list from Friday, if you were at the wedding how about leaving us a comment.
20:24 : Maroon 5 – Let’s Stay Together
20:27 : Bruno Mars – Marry You
20:31 : Olly Murs – Dance With Me Tonight
20:34 : Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)
20:37 : Peter Andre – Mysterious Girl
20:41 : Mark Morrison – Return of the Mack
20:44 : Bill Haley and his Comets – Rock Around the Clock
20:46 : Jerry Lee Lewis – Shake, rattle and roll
20:48 : Jackie Wilson – Reet Petite
20:51 : Mark Ronson – Valerie (Feat. Amy Winehouse)
20:54 : Madonna – Holiday
20:57 : Kool & the Gang – Celebration
21:01 : Michael Jackson – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
21:02 : Chic – Le Freak
21:05 : Midnight Star – Midas touch
21:11 : Luther Vandross – Never Too Much
21:12 : Evelyn “Champagne” King – Love Come Down
21:15 : Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
21:17 : Nu Shooz – I Can’t Wait
21:19 : Mac Band – Roses Are Red (feat. The McCampbell Brothers)
21:24 : Steve Arrington – Feel so Real
21:28 : Robin S. – Show Me Love
21:29 : Adventures Of Stevie V – Dirty Cash
21:31 : Rosie Gaines – Closer Than Close
21:33 : Tina Moore – Never Gonna Let You Go (Kelly G Bump-N-Go Dub)
21:36 : Gusto – Disco’s Revenge
21:42 : The Fatback Band – I Found Lovin’
21:46 : Sugar Hill Gang – Rappers Delight
21:53 : Luniz – I Got 5 On It
21:57 : Blackstreet – No Diggety
22:01 : Tupac & Dr Dre – California love
22:05 : Montell Jordan – This Is How We Do It
22:08 : Usher Feat. Lil’ Jon and Ludac – Yeah
22:12 : FatMan Scoop (Ft. Faith Evans) – Be Faithful
22:16 : Sam and the Womp – Bom Bom
22:16 : PSY – Gangnam Style
22:18 : The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling
22:23 : Fatboy Slim – Star 69
22:25 : LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It
22:29 : Labrinth – Earthquake
22:33 : Swedish House Mafia – Don’t You Worry Child (Radio Edit) [feat. John Martin]
22:34 : Chris Brown – Don’t Wake Me Up
22:35 : Calvin Harris – Sweet Nothing (feat. Florence Welch)
22:37 : Avicii – Levels (Radio Edit)
22:39 : Florence + The Machine – Spectrum (Say My Name) [Calvin Harris Remix]
22:40 : Rihanna – We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris)
22:45 : Chase & Status Feat Mali – Let You Go
22:47 : Devotion
22:50 : B52s – Love Shack
22:56 : Westlife – When You’re Looking Like That (Single Remix)
23:00 : The Rolling Stones – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Mono Version)
23:03 : Chuck Berry – Johnny B Goode
23:06 : Beatles – Twist and Shout
23:08 : Elvis Presley – The Wonder Of You
23:11 : Madness – Baggy Trousers
23:13 : Madness – One Step Beyond
23:16 : Bad Manners – Special Brew
23:20 : Chesney Hawkes – The One and Only
23:23 : The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
23:27 : Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now
23:30 : Bryan Adams – Summer of 69
23:33 : Donna Summer – I Feel Love
23:37 : Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance With Somebody (2000 Remaster)
23:42 : Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’
23:46 : Manfred Mann – The Mighty Quinn
23:49 : One Direction – What Makes You Beautiful
23:52 : The Fratellis – Chelsea Daggers
23:55 : Robbie Williams – Candy
23:58 : OutKast – Hey Ya! (Radio Edit)
00:02 : Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes – (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life
Hi Phil
Thanks for a brilliant night, so many people have commented on how the dance floor was packed all night and everyone seemed to be having such a good time! Some of Ed’s family and friends are Harlequins rugby supporters – hence the mighty quinn request!
Hi Louise, it was an absolute pleasure I really enjoyed your wedding, it was a really great start to a fab weekend. I should of guessed really about Harlequins, funnily enough the other wedding I did at Pembroke Lodge the groom and his mates were big rugby fans aswell. All the best to you both for the future and have a great first Christmas as Mr & Mrs 🙂 x
We booked Phil for our wedding reception at Pembroke Lodge, Richmond in December 2012. After lots of research I chose Phil because I was attracted by his promise of no talking on the microphone and modern non-tacky lighting. As soon as I booked Phil I was impressed by how professional he was – he was very easy to deal with and always responded to my queries very quickly. I also liked the checklist I was given before the wedding where I could let him know some song requests as well as songs to avoid! During the evening reception, I hardly left the dancefloor! The songs Phil played were brilliant and read the mood of the dancefloor perfectly – which was packed all night! I had many comments about how brilliant the music and atmosphere was and everyone seemed to have a brilliant time. I would not hesistate in recommending Phil as a wedding DJ – thanks for a fantastic party!