In July 2013, Laura from Laura & Co. Events reached out to St. Royal by sending an inquiry to us from our website. After trading a few emails with Laura about the event it became very apparent to me that this wedding was going to be very special. Unbeknownst to me, Kelly and Tyler had joined us at our free showcase at the Drake Hotel. They had emailed Laura mid-song to say that it was going to be the St. Royals at their wedding!

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Laura and I discussed music and band details thoroughly as we wanted to make sure that the entire wedding would be covered for music. We wanted to carefully plan everything before accepting the first payment from Kelly and Tyler. This way there would be no surprise expenses in the months and weeks leading up the wedding day.

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"As each intro was made the laughter was loud and the cheers even louder ultimately hitting their pinnacle as Kelly and Tyler entered the room."

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The wedding was going to be taking place in the historic Grand Banking Hall at One King West, here in Toronto. Since One King West was an old building it was important to diagnose where the electrical power was going to be located and how it was going to hold up with the high quality PA and lighting system that we typically provide. Our head of production, Mike Walther worked with the venue to analyze all the technicalities. We arranged for the venue to provide an extra power drop at the stage area to ensure no unwanted breaks in the music.

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In the months leading up to the wedding day Kelly, Tyler, Laura and I started discussing the finer details of the event. On a convenient Sunday morning we met over coffee to go over the itinerary and carefully stitched all the music-specific elements and requests into the plan. We had a lot of fun showing off Kelly and Tylerʼs fun personalities when it came to selecting the bridal party entrance music. Ignoring any trends, Kelly and Tyler gave me explicate instructions to DJ specific WWE wrestler theme songs for each pairing in the bridal party.

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Some of these WWE wrestling themes were a bit rare, making it difficult to locate the high quality files I needed. After some YouTube diving and Google queries I was able to locate great quality versions of the requested themes which I added to their playlist that we worked on in our meeting.

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On the day of the wedding everyone involved was in sync with each other and on point. Our AV setup team had finished right on time leaving us (the musicians) with a clean and impressive looking stage. Soundcheck was quick and concise. The guests arrived to the beautifully decorated room with Frank Sinatra classics playing away in the background as they mingled excitedly. Laura, Paul (the MC) and I went over the order of personnel, songs and timing one final time before the grand entrances. As each intro was made the laughter was loud and the cheers even louder ultimately hitting their pinnacle as Kelly and Tyler entered the room.

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After dinner the DJ played Kelly and Tylerʼs first dance “Not With Haste” by Mumford and Sons. The St. Royals were on stage ready to go at this point and as the song ended the band launched into their first set and lit up the dance floor for over three hours. People were dancing, sweating, and jumping around to the live band. Even after the lights came on, the couple’s excitement persuaded the band to stay on stage and we played two more encores! Joined by the screaming chorus of all of their friends the band played the final song of the night, an emotional rendition of the Beatlesʼ “Hey Jude”.

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The very next day I received this email from Kelly and Tyler:

“‎James! Where do I start – you guys were absolutely fabulous. The night was amazing and I can’t say how many compliments we received about the band – there was sooo many! Everyone loved you guys. I don’t think the dance floor was never not full! You guys had everyone on their feet for the whole night. We couldn’t have asked for anything better. You guys were a tremendous part in the success of the night and we are so thankful. Please pass on the thanks to the rest of the band!”

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This is why we strive to be the best at what we do.