Natalie & Ryan 6/8/13 - Inn On Peaks, Peaks Island, ME

Early Saturday morning, I made my way into Portland to pick up my lovely assistant for the day, Becky!  We got in line quite early for the 10:45 ferry over to the island.  I have to say, the most nerve-wracking thing about doing a wedding reception on Peaks Island is not being in control of the transportation. I'll admit we were probably much earlier than necessary, but for my first wedding out there, I wasn't going to risk it.

We arrived at the Inn just after 11 and waited for a while until the call was made whether the ceremony would be outside by the gazebo or inside on the dance floor.  Jayson and Amanda made the call around noon to do it outside.  Despite an 80% chance of rain in the forecast, the sky seemed to be lightening up, with no rain falling.  The sun was doing all it could to break out that day.  Natalie claimed to have done an anti-rain dance.  It worked!

The setup at the Inn can be a little tough.  Local ordinance forbids speakers outside the walls of the Inn, so you must throw your sound through the tent, over to the lawn.  I'll be honest, it was tough making it through the ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner.  It's so weird not being in the same room as your audience.  It's tough to judge volume, quality of the music you're playing, whether the crowd is getting anxious, etc.  It was great having Becky with me to help run the ceremony and keep me company during the down time.

Once we got things moved inside after dinner, the party picked up big time.  We ran the gambit on music, feeling out the crowd and getting an idea for what they wanted.  It seemed like early on, the crowd was demanding funk, oldies and disco.  I hit them with a good dose of that and as they grew fatigued, the younger crowd started making their presence known.  Next thing you know, we're time traveling through the 80s, 90s, 00s and beyond.  We ended up in an outright top 40 dance party and that crowd was relentless.  They would have had my head if I tried to slow them down.  They had more energy than I could ever imagine.

The night came to a close at 10:30 (by ordinance, not by choice!).  The crowd moved toward the dock and back to the mainland to continue the celebration at Bull Feeney's.  Becky and I packed up the gear, got the car in line for the last ferry and took in a movie on the iPad.

Overall, it was a great day.  A long, exhausting day, but a great day.  We had one of the best dance crowds I've seen and a very happy couple, family and friends.  I may end up back at the Inn sometime after all, something I never would have thought I'd be saying a week ago.  Congratulations again to Natalie and Ryan as they move on to the next exciting phase of their life together!

It's hard to photograph dancing wedding guests when they're moving so fast and you're using a phone camera, but here are some shots from Saturday night!