A Gorgeous Wedding at Raleigh Country Club!

Carrie and Brandon had a wonderful wedding celebration at Raleigh Country Club on Saturday September 20, 2008 at 6:30 PM. What a great place for a wedding and reception and the weather was perfect--a bit overcast and low humidity! I brought my Fender sound system, Shure receiver, Countryman wireless theater mike, and battery pack and Marty and I set it up about 45 minutes before the wedding and did a sound check. Their wedding ceremony took place out behind the clubhouse on the green with a lovely floral backdrop designed by Kate Foster who also directed and coordinated the wedding with the help of her assistant, Lilly. Thanks, Kate and Lilly. It is such a pleasure to just wait with the groom and groomsmen and be told when to walk down the aisle instead of having to be in charge of the wedding. Carrie and Brandon had eight attendants each so it was quite a processional for their 200 guests!

I did a wedding back in about 2002 at Raleigh Country Club. At that time it was floundering on the brink of bankruptcy and had become somewhat unkempt. I was delighted to find that since then it has been purchased by a private individual who also owns Treyburn Country Club in Durham and Cardinal Club in downtown Raleigh, two elegant venues where I also do weddings. The Raleigh Country Club has been beautifully transformed and is pristine in its buildings, decor, and landscape--a real makeover--and it is thriving. I hope to do many more weddings there in the future.

Carrie and Brandon went all out for their wedding and hired terrific vendors to make their wedding first class. Carrie told me that the minute she had her date set and venue booked, she hired the Crush band. She had enjoyed them for 10 years and always envisioned Crush playing at her wedding reception. And, she fulfilled that wish! Crush is a very popular dance band around the Triangle--even I had heard of them and how good they were. She also had Donna Ford of Sweet Memories create a beautiful wedding cake with blue trim that matched the color of her bridesmaids dresses and the color scheme of the wedding. F8 Photo Studio photographers Jonathan and Cara covered the wedding and her musicians were the Stalberg String Trio put together by Mary Greiner of Musicians' Booking Agency. The wedding I did last weekend had the Stalberg String Quartet also put together by MBA. Beautiful music for weddings! Wayne Young of Cinema One Studio did the videography and Lyn Graves of Fresh Affairs did the floral arrangements for the reception and the bouquets for the bride and attendants. The Country Club catered the event and the food looked scrumptious although I did not stay for the reception to taste it.

Carrie's father escorted her in and transferred her hand into Brandon's. Carrie is a beautiful bride and had on a gorgeous wedding gown. Brandon is a really handsome guy too! I gave the guests a warm welcome and told them how important they were to Carrie and Brandon. We had an opening prayer and remembered the loved ones who could not be with us. Words on love and marriage followed which flowed into the blessing of the hands ceremony which flowed into the vows. Then they exchanged rings and I made the happy pronouncement of marriage and invited them to share their first kiss as husband and wife. We closed with a blessing for their new life together and I introduced the newlyweds to their guests. And, out we went to take photos while the guests retired to the bar area for cocktails prior to the reception. The sun was setting and it was a beautiful sky over the green lawns. Crush was striking up the band for the reception as Marty and I packed up my sound system and went home--rather weary after 4 weddings that day.

You had a great wedding, Carrie and Brandon! Congratulations to you both!