Right off the bat, Andrea and Cody were a fantastic couple to work with. After watching Leah and the St. Royals band perform at a free live showcase, they connected with me to set up a meeting. They knew exactly what vibe and tone they wanted for their wedding reception: fun and lively, and lots of dancing. The more we talked the more I saw what avid music fans they were, and what avid fans of the St. Royal Family they were becoming! Not only did they love our large ensemble band, but they were also big fans of our individual musicians and their personal musical projects. They had been to concerts and events to see our members perform their own original creative work, and this made it even more exciting for us to perform at their wedding!

"Cody had one last big request: he wanted to perform with the band."

Cody and Andrea were having their wedding at Toronto’s classic and beautiful One King West Hotel, but the venue presented some interesting challenges for our production team. The ceremony space had a mezzanine where some of the guests were going to be seated during the ceremony. The couple had decided on a musical duo for their ceremony and they wanted to ensure that everyone would be able to hear the beautiful words and music regardless of where they were seated. To ensure their guest experience was exactly what they wanted, we sent our head of production, Mike Walther to complete a production assessment at the venue. After assessing the space, Mike created the sound and lighting plan that ensured the ceremony would be flawless and professional.

Much like with the ceremony space, the couple and their family also wanted to create a perfect setting for their reception. There initially were concerns about having enough space to accommodate a sizeable dance floor in addition to a full stage riser for the band, but once again Mike was fantastic about examining the room first hand and designing the floor plan solution to make both possible, which included St. Royal Production providing a custom stage for the ballroom.

"There were some tricky other challenges we were aware of in the final preparation for this event: the Toronto marathon was going to close all access to the venue day-of"

As the wedding day neared, Andrea, Cody, Mike and I met to finalize details and go over the itinerary for the big day. Cody had one last big request: he asked if it was possible for him to perform with the band during one of their sets. We love incorporating personal touches at our events and I recommended to Cody that if he was interested in playing with the St. Royals that he had to attend to one of our rehearsals before the wedding so everything would be tight. Cody, a talented musician, was up for the task!

There were some tricky other challenges we were aware of in the final preparation for this event: the Toronto marathon was going to close all access to the venue day-of west and south of Yonge which would also cripple downtown traffic, and the old elevators found in 1 King West meant that we were going to need to prepare custom 4’x4′ staging decks to build the stage (instead of the standard 4’x8′ deck pieces). Because of this we decided to keep an extra setup tech on standby in case there were any issues or further delays. That was a good decision, as we ended up sending him on the day to ensure we’d have everything setup and complete well in advance.

"This is going down in our history as one of the most epic Horas we have ever seen!"

On Cody and Andrea’s big day, the beautiful bride walked down the aisle to Pink Moon by Nick Drake and the happy couple danced their way out of the ceremony with Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed Delivered!

We can say with confidence that Cody and Andrea’s wedding had one of the most enthusiastic and party-loving audience the St. Royals bands have ever played for. Not only were they loving the style and vibe of our music but they were warm and engaging as a crowd. This was a group of people that loved live music, and came to party! From their entrance, first dance, and Hora through to the end of the last set, we had a completely packed dance floor! This is going down in our history as one of the most epic Horas we have ever seen – complete with ladder climb and jump off, and the groom “losing” his shirt!

The highlight of the night, however, was certainly when Cody walked onstage with the St. Royals and NAILED his performance. His version of Rock with You by Michael Jackson was spot on and had the whole room buzzing. We absolutely love performing for music lovers like Andrea and Cody, and their families and guests were an absolute pleasure to perform for!

DJ Royale took the party well into the night after the band’s live sets were complete and the rest is history..