Wedding

Blog, Wedding crystal lake, Matt Potts, Wedding

Cool Evening, Great Wedding!

Let me start this off by congratulating Maggie and Aaron again on their beautiful wedding. Now, let’s get into some details.

To start off with, Aaron called me in the middle of September and explained his situation. Originally, him and Maggie planned on getting married later but circumstances forced them to make it happen sooner. He called hoping that Potts & Pans still had a performer available for a special treat for his soon to be wife. He explained how much she loved steelpan and he wanted to surprise her with having us play at their wedding that would take place on 10/3/15. I was happy to tell him that another performance had backed out and that I was personally available to be there! No need for any more details than that, moving on.

Fast forward to the day of the wedding. I show up to Three Oaks Recreational Center in Crystal Lake, IL (nice to have a home show!) and must say I was blown away by this place! Although I have driven by Three Oaks hundreds of times, I have never actually been there. Upon pulling in, I could not believe how beautiful it was! Crystal Lake really did a great job putting this park together, it is an absolutely gorgeous location for a wedding. Although I could go on about this place, I have digressed from what really matters: Aaron and Maggie.

Aaron and Maggie took a very low key approach to their wedding, and pulled it off perfectly! Keeping things simple with modest table dressings, guests in comfortable clothes, a pig roast for food and a canoe for a bar really made this a comfortable and friendly wedding. It didn’t matter that I had never met, or even talked with, Maggie or anybody else before. This comfortable setting and the warmth of the guests made EVERYBODY there family. This wasn’t a great wedding because of the setting though. This was a great wedding because of the people!

Aaron had told me early on that he was a fire fighter and that this would be a small wedding with guests almost completely made up of fellow fire fighters and police officers. This certainly is not my first time working with firemen and cops, but I never ceased to be amazed at how great of people they really are! There were multiple people there that couldn’t offer enough help to me throughout the evening. While tearing down the Potts & Pans tent, four guys instantly came over and started helping out and making jokes like I was just one of their long time buddies. I have done some gigs for some great people, but nobody has ever jumped up to help me like that and make me feel like such a part of the family that was there. After getting the tent down, a few other guys came over and carried all my equipment to Lolita (the van) while I carried a single stand! While I was loading things into Lolita, they continued to joke around with me while a couple of scuba divers brought gear to their car parked next to me. These guys then offered to help them! Who does that! Here are a couple of complete strangers (not even part of the wedding in anyway) and these guys immediately offer to help them out! They also offered them food from the wedding and invited them to hang out. Being a part of such incredible acts of kindness juxtaposed against all the negative media lately about cops, and fire fighters being lumped with them at times, it’s maddening to see how people take for granted these incredible individuals. Here are people that put their lives on the line to save strangers so it really should be no surprise they don’t think twice to offer their help with such a mundane task like loading equipment!

It has been said that birds of a feather flock together and it seems like Aaron and Maggie are part of one great flock. From the little bit that I worked with Aaron, I sensed what a genuinely caring person he is and I was very excited to actually meet him and his new wife. Upon meeting them both, and their friends/family, it is easy to say that these two great people seem to be set up to have a wonderful life together. I can’t thank Maggie and Aaron enough for allowing me to be a part of their special day. I can certainly tell that they both sincerely appreciated me being there. It really is a great feeling to have the bride immediately come over to me after the ceremony and just watch me for a while before exclaiming “That is so cool!” Aaron did a marvelous job pulling off the surprise steelpan music, and Maggie could not have been happier.

I wish the very best to Maggie and Aaron and truly hope to cross paths with them again. They both seem like wonderful people and I couldn’t be happier for them.PS – Check out the picture showing the pocket square with the table cloth and snack bucket to see how close we matched their colors! Color win for Matt!

Blog, Wedding Anthony Jay Houston, Duet, Matt Potts

Great December Wedding

Potts & Pans matches colors.

On 12/20/14 Potts & Pans performed for the cocktail hour of a beautiful wedding in Niles, IL. Potts & Pans sent Anthony Jay Houston and myself to perform as an acoustic duo. Although we typically do duos with the backing track system, a tight set up time frame required that we not utilize the tracks. This wasn’t a problem though since Anthony and I had been practicing this style of performance during the week prior at our booth at the Midwest Clinic. (more about that another time)

Anyway, upon special request from the bride’s father, we learned a variety of reggae songs including some classic Shaggy tunes. Anthony and I have been thinking about adding some Shaggy into our lineup for some time, so this gentle nudge was appreciated. We are now happy to say that we know “Angel,” “It Wasn’t Me” and “In The Summertime” as an acoustic duet. Although it didn’t happen for this performance, we now have plans for adding vocals to these particular songs too!

Throughout the night, we received multiple compliments from the wait staff and guests, and the bride couldn’t have been happier! One guest came up and told us that he used to play at Clemente high school and hasn’t seen a pan in person for almost twenty years! It was great to bring those memories back to that gentleman, and hopefully we did something similar to others at the reception too.

Beautiful ballroom at the Chateau Ritz in Niles, IL

The cocktail hour and reception all took place in a beautiful atmosphere at the Chateau Ritz. Not only was this a beautiful setting, but the staff was very friendly and a joy to work along side. The woman that seemed to be in charge was very friendly, and very helpful to us throughout the entire evening. While we were packing up, she offered us Avgolemono. We had no idea what this was, but figured we would try it, and I’m glad we did! This soup was great! She later explained that the cooks are Greek and that they are actually known for having some of the best avgolemono in Chicagoland!

All in all, the evening was great with lots of dancing, great food and happy people. I can’t think of a better way to start married life together than that!

Wedding

Outdoor Wedding in October!

Who would have thought that late October would allow for a beautiful outdoor wedding? Not me! However, last weekend I found myself enjoying nearly perfect weather while performing the ceremony and cocktail hour music for a wedding in Carol Stream, IL. The wedding was held at Klein Creek Golf Club, and I don’t think anybody could have predicted the great setting almost a year ago when we started working on this.

At that time, the bride said there was a chance that I would be outside and even though we worked through those details, I didn’t really think that plan would come to fruition. Upon arriving at Klein Creek, I was able to quickly unload and get set up. This allowed me plenty of time to do some sound checks with my new speaker (EV ZLX-12) and iPad setup. I happy to report that the new speaker is great and the iPad system is phenomenal! I am working with the developer of a program called Calypso Score and couldn’t be happier with it! On top of the name being a convenient coincidence, the program and programmer are great! The program has done just about everything I can think of wanting it to do and the few things that it doesn’t the programmer is working with me to implement! I have started using the iPads almost exclusively and can’t believe at how much simpler some gigs have become. Not having to carry around bulky binders filled with paper music, has allowed me to bring even more music to performances and has even opened the door to on the spot requests!

All in all, the wedding was great, the new equipment was great, and the weather was unbelievable! Thank you Dana and Tony for having me part of such a special day. It was my honor to play music for the bridal party and the bride during the ceremony (by the way, Wagner’s “Wedding March” aka “Here Comes the Bride” sounds incredible on steelpan!) and for all your guests during the cocktail hour.

Blog, Wedding Matt Potts, Wedding

Wedding at Gamba Ristorante in Merrillville, IN

Recently, I had the privilege of performing at a wedding “pre-ception” in Merrillville, Indiana. The event was for a couple that was going to get married in Punta Cana but wanted to have a reception for friends and family before they went down. It was a great event and was held at a great location. The Gamba Ristorante in Merrillville, IN was a great setting for an event like this.

Not only was the inside well decorated and sophisticated, but there was a beautiful enclosed courtyard in between the event hall and the restaurant. The day I was there, it was a little chili so people did not spend much time out in the courtyard, but I can see this being an excellent option for anybody thinking about planning an event where they would like to have two distinct areas that are connected yet still allow for separation.

This courtyard also played into how loud the music could be played during the reception. Even though there was a restaurant on the other side of the building, with the amount of space in between, I was quite impressed at the minimal sound leakage. I think DJ K Ceaser could attest to this too. Although he was not able to max out his system, he was still able to pump out a lot of sound without disturbing the restaurant side. I have not had the opportunity to work side by side with many DJs (usually we are in separate areas) but DJ K Ceaser did a great job with handling introductions and was great to work with. The two of us worked together to make sure there was always music going and that we fit in special tunes and announcements. He was great to work with and I wouldn’t mind doing more work along side him in the future. Along with having a DJ and steelpan there, the happy couple also had some a couple samba dancers from Planeta Azul. The two dancers were great and even taught the guests how to samba! You can check out their Facebook page here.

Another great person involved in this wedding was Chantal from Chantal’s Wedding Planners. Starting a few days before the event, Chantal contacted me about the details of the day. Upon arrival everything went quite smoothly and her personality made it seem like we had worked together for years.

To summarize:

Gamba Ristorante was beautiful and very friendly

DJ K Ceaser was killer and great to work with

Planeta Azul was super entertaining and even taught guests how to samba

Chantal was very personable and a joy to work with