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Wedding DJ/MC Pianist Historic Queen Mary

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Katie and Cameron’s Beautiful Wedding @ The Queen Mary

Katie is a nurse.

Cameron is an athlete and “Cage Fighter” by profession; the nicest guy in the world.

Cameron joked, “I bust guys up and Katie puts them back together again.”

Katie and Cameron introduced me to the Virginia Reel. The Virginia Reel is a folk dance that originated in the 17th century and has roots in multiple other dances: Irish: The dance may have originated from the Irish peasant dance "Rinnce Fadha" Scottish: “Scottish Country Dance” and the “Highland Reel" English: It evolved into the English country dance "Sir Roger de Coverly", which was published in 1685 by Sir Roger de Coverly. 

 Early colonists brought the dance from England to Virginia, where American colonists named the dance after the state of Virginia in the 18th century.   Literature Film and Television The Virginia Reel has been featured in many works of literature, Film and Television including: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol The Virginia Reel has been used to promote good humor at balls and send guests home in good spirits. 

It was very evident Katie and Cameron thoroughly enjoyed planning their wedding together. It was also very evident that their guests were very happy for them.

All their creativity and planning came together beautifully allowing special moments to naturally occur.

Father Daughter Dance

 

Katie and Cameron are very creative people and had great ideas for their wedding. There were a lot of activities planned…

I performed Solo Piano (in the Ship Model Room) for their cocktail hour. Then, I  conducted the festivities of their wedding reception as their DJ and Master of Ceremonies in the Queen’s Salon.

Music starts a wedding and continues throughout the celebration. I am very interested in establishing an itinerary SKETCH early in the planning process as an aid to defining scope of service.

To help organize all this information we did an itinerary sketch together.

Please see: The Itinerary SKETCH by Elegant Music

 

Mother Son Dance

In addition to their grand entrance, triumphant first dance and meaningful toasts, this is the first wedding as DJ and Master of Ceremonies where I helped conduct a “foot washing” ceremony; very moving!

 

Wedding Reception Idea – Caricature Artists

Weddng Reception Idea - Caricature Artists

Choices

In addition to their choosing the Queen Mary as their wedding reception location Katie and Cameron put together a great team of vendors. Each vendor took ownership of their part of the event and demonstrated care in serving their couple.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with their wedding planner and coordinator Jennifer Seo of Jennuine Events.

Please see: Relationship Between Master of Ceremonies and Wedding Coordinator

 

Everyone Danced!

Queen's Salon Ballroom Queen Mary Dancers DJ / Master of Ceremonies Eric Zimmermann Elegant Music 323-270-3650

Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley

Wannabe, Spice Girls

Rock Around The Clock, Bill Haley

Got To Give It Up, Marvin Gaye

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, ABBA

Macarena, 2 Locos In a Room

Queen Mary Wedding Dancers

Fireball (feat. John Ryan), Pitbull

You Belong With Me, Taylor Swift

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Wham!

Rock This Town, Stray Cats

Into the Groove, Madonna

Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, Shania Twain

Cupid Shuffle, Cupid

I Like It, I Love It, Tim McGraw

Virginia Reel, Wongawilli

I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me), Whitney Houston

Low (feat. T-Pain), Flo Rida

Hey Ya!, Outkast

Shake It Off, Taylor Swift

I’m a Believer, Smash Mouth

Accidentally In Love, Counting Crows

Shut Up and Dance, WALK THE MOON

Stand By Me, Ben E. King

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours), Stevie Wonder

Can’t Help Falling In Love, Elvis

Always and Forever, Heatwave

Love Shack, The B-52’s

Danza Kuduro, Don Omar & Lucenzo

Boogie Wonderland, Earth, Wind & Fire & The Emotions

You’re the First, the Last, My Everything, Barry White

I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), Four Tops

Don’t Stop Believin’, Journey

 

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Daddy Dance With Me

Baby Your Baby, George Strait

Marie’s Wedding, Van Morrison & The Chieftains

Perfect, Ed Sheeran

Put Your Head On My Shoulder, Paul Anka

We Belong, Pat Benatar

Love Story, Taylor Swift

 

The Virginia Reel

Katie and Cameron introduced me to the Virginia Reel.
The Virginia Reel is a folk dance that originated in the 17th century and has roots in multiple other dances:

Irish: The dance may have originated from the Irish peasant dance “Rinnce Fadha”
Scottish: “Scottish Country Dance” and the “Highland Reel”
English: It evolved into the English country dance “Sir Roger de Coverly”, which was published in 1685 by Sir Roger de Coverly.

Early colonists brought the dance from England to Virginia, where the American colonists named the dance after the state of Virginia in the 18th century.

Literature, Film and Television

The Virginia Reel has been featured in many works of literature, Film and Television including: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Throughout the years this iconic composition has been used to promote good humor at balls and performed at the end of the evening to send guests home in good spirits :-)

Congratulations Cameron and Katie!

Thank you for bringing us all together.

Sincerely, Eric Zimmermann

Elegant Music 323-270-3650

WM Contact Form

Titanic Music Performed on the Queen Mary

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Queen MaryWe had fun performing at the Queen Mary Bridal Show

Hello, my name is Eric Zimmermann. I am a DJ and Master of Ceremonies, Pianist and Band Leader. Sheila and I had a lot of fun performing at the Queen Mary Bridal Show on Sunday January 6, 2013. Elegant Music provides Live Music, DJ Dance Music and Professional Announcing.

In addition to having an extensive Video Index available on the Elegant Music Website we usually perform live right in our bridal show booth.

TitanicMotion Picture Music.

The first piece I chose for our Quartet to play was a motion picture medley I arranged featuring:

Out Of Africa, Main Theme by John Barry

Thorn Birds, Main Theme by Henry Mancini

Hymn To The Sea, from Titanic by James Horner

Southampton, from Titanic by James Horner

My Heart Will Go On, from Titanic by James Horner.

You can see excerpts of this medley being performed on the Elegant Music 10th Anniversary Concert Video

“Hymn To The Sea”

While we were playing “Hymn To The Sea” from Titanic I looked around and realized we were in the hold of the Queen Mary. I got an eerie feeling; to me everyone seemed to be moving in time to the music…

string-quartet-with-flute-&-piano 2…Just then my Cellist Cathy Biagini whispered, “Wow this “song” is sure appropriate to where we are.” She must have sensed what I was feeling. Possibly on some level this was also being experienced by the other exhibiters sharing the space with us. The atmosphere was significant. The music from Titanic is indeed moving so I can’t dismiss the possibility that we were all somehow “in the moment” experiencing something extraordinary together.

Now some will say that the Queen Mary is haunted and I suppose that could happen but what struck me were the timeless images of James Cameron’s “Titanic” come to life on the Queen Mary. See: Comparison of the Titanic and Queen Mary.

Victoria Style Clothing

Victorian Style Clothing“Titanic…”

…accurately if not dramatically, depicted many things including the grandeur of 1912; the beginning of a new century and the end of “The Victorian Era.” Fast forward 101 years from 1912 to 2013 and we are beginning a new century… yet today’s design of wedding gowns, tuxedos and bow ties harken back to the Victorian Era. For formal occasions it seems we are drawn to the past through art and design. Examining these it is easy to rediscover that which is timeless…  See: “What Is A Classic”

Photography by Jennifer O'Sullivan
Photography by Jennifer O’Sullivan

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something… Aquamarine?

…In tradition, a bride will process down the aisle at her wedding ceremony to Classical, Romantic or perhaps Motion Picture music (very fitting for her somewhat “Victorian Style” wedding gown). Firmly in present time though the very same bride at her wedding reception may request “Gangnam Style” and dance to the latest hit by the artist affectionately known as “Pitbull.”

Whether you are “Thinking inside the box” or “…outside the box” there are several parts to a wedding and each can have its own music, its own atmosphere, its own time.

There are beautiful scores written for brilliant motion pictures; even themes from “Game Music” can be arranged to be played for a wedding. There is religious music and new music that defies category and yes there is dance music…

Four Seasons Westlake MC Eric Zimmermann & HarpWith centuries of music and design to choose from a wedding is an opportunity to really create “the moment.”

Sounds exciting? It is!

I look forward to your ideas.

Sincerely, Eric Zimmermann

Elegant Music 323-270-3650

WM Contact Form

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