Visit parties where the Smokin' Section has performed:
An unseasonably warm but completely comfortable, sunny & clear late October day provided the backdrop for Lee and Kristin’s wedding reception at one of North NJ’s premier banquet facilities/reception sites, The Park Savoy in Florham Park. It was a pleasure for us to be back at the Savoy, working together with one of the nicest and most efficient maitre’d’s in the business, Bill.
After Lee and Kristin’s guests entered, they enjoyed the Park Savoy cocktail hour food offerings in the bar area, while our pianist Ted tickled the ivories on the grand piano. When cocktail hour concluded, the guests adjourned to the main room for reception and the bridal party was ushered into the room for introductions to our rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Bitch” (originally recorded on their classic album, “Sticky Fingers”). While it might not seem like an obvious choice, this special request item from the bride and groom really got everybody’s energy pumped up right away. Immediately after that, both sets of parents gave a traditional Ukrainian/Polish blessing and toast to the bride and groom over bread and wine, while Kristin’s aunt Lydia ably explained the significance of the blessing to the audience over our microphone.
The bride and groom are big fans of classic Soul music, and they selected Otis Redding’s “That’s How Strong My Love Is” as their first dance. Our singer Tommie Knight handled the lead vocal duties in an inspired fashion on this number, which the couple danced to alone throughout. Afterwards, Kristin danced with her father to “Daddy’s Little Girl” and Lee escorted his mom onto the dance floor to our vocalist Rhonda Bennett’s version of Faith Hill’s “There You’ll Be”.
During our first dance set, “My Girl” immediately packed the floor and things built from there with selections including “Rock This Town”, “Fire”, “Gonna Wait Till the Midnight Hour” and others. After the guests had a chance to savor the dependably superb Park Savoy cuisine for their main course, they were in for a treat: Lee had prepared a video especially for the occasion.
After the video, the party’s energy built progressively through Classic Rock, Funk and Disco selections from the Smokin’ Section. The crowd ate up 2 special requests from the bride and groom: our version of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “Keep It Comin’ Love” (featuring Tommie) and a full rendition of “Bitch” (sung by our guitarist Mike Del). The party was drawing to a close and it didn’t seem as if a mellow tune would satisfy the wild crowd, so we ending things with a high energy version of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”, leaving the guests screaming into the night!
