Beach weddings | wedding Djs |Scotland.

Last Friday I was the wedding Dj at my first beach wedding in Scotland in Cullen in Aberdeenshire. 

I’d been speaking to Gemma the bride for the last year about her dream wedding on a beach in Cullen and we made plans for me to provide my mobile disco on the beach. It’s something I’d never really thought about doing until she asked me. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed doing something unusual like a beach wedding.

In order to do the beach wedding for Gemma I had to buy what is termed as a suitcase generator. This is a very small and very quiet generator that has a pure sine wave inverter in it so delicate computer equipment can be used safely and disco equipment.

I bought the generator specifically for Gemma’s wedding in Cullen but I’ve now used it three times already at other events prior to Gemma’s beach wedding.

Its rated at 2.2Kw which is quite low but my sound system is very modern and my Yamaha DSR 115 speakers only draw 100 watts of power each. The generator never came out of “whisper mode” where the load is so small it just ticks over and no more.

I also bought a headset microphone for Gemma’s beach wedding so the celebrant could use both hands while she was doing the service. The celebrant was great and easy to deal with and I showed her how to use the headset microphone and everything was set.

The celebrant was really good and delivered a very personal service for Gemma and Dennis with lots of humour and made it very personal for my bride and groom.

One of my other jobs at Gemma and Dennis’s beach wedding was to provide two more microphones for two singers and their guitarist. They performed 4 songs during the service.

My job as the wedding Dj was to play a playlist as the guests arrived and then to play some more after the service and to generally assist the band, celebrant and others to make the beach part of the day run smoothly which it did.

I have to say that Gemma and Dennis were truly blessed with the very best of Scottish weather. It was a little windy when I arrived but at the time of the service the wind lulled and the sun shone brightly! With blue skies and the waves crashing gently on the beach it really was a picture postcard scene.

After the ceremony was finished the bride and groom went and had photos taken and the photographer also took lots of group shots of all the guests on the beach.

At 4.30pm it was time for everyone to leave the beach and head up to Cullen Tennis and Bowling Club for the evening reception and for me this meant packing up quickly and setting up in the Tennis and Bowling Club.

At 10am earlier that day I had set up my disco at Cullen Tennis and Bowling Club so that I would be ready very quickly after the beach part of the wedding day. I only took one speaker to the beach plus a big mixing desk,  four microphones plus my little generator and an iPad to play the music from.

Taking my equipment onto the beach was challenging as walking on soft sand carrying heavy equipment is doubly hard. Luckily I didn’t have too far to go. I put the generator 50 metres away and ran a long extension so it couldn’t be heard and I didn’t hear it once during the whole beach wedding.

I announced that the bus had arrived and it was time for all the guests to leave the beach and then I packed up quickly and headed up to Cullen Tennis and Bowling Club.

I was very surprised to see this lovely bus as the mode of transport to the club.

I quickly packed up and drove up to the club and added my speaker to the disco I had set up earlier and played another playlist as the guests arrived.

Cullen Tennis and Bowling Club looked amazing! Gemma had arranged Chinese lanterns to be hung from the roof and it looked great.

Judging by the amount of tables I knew it was going to be a busy evening reception.

My gut instinct was telling me I was in for a great night, sometimes you just know it even before you’ve started and I was in a great mood after enjoying the beach ceremony so much.

A buffet meal was arranged for around 5pm and once everyone had arrived we all had dinner. The food was great, the sun still shone brightly and everyone was in a great mood. It’s these things that really contribute to a great wedding. The venue looked amazing and everyone was commenting on what a perfect day it had been.

Gemma had asked me to play the ice cream game and she had explained it by email but I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant so I asked her to clarify and then I got it.

So after the main course I announced that everyone was to return to their tables as something was going to happen.

I got everyone to stand up at their tables and they were to pick a leader. Their job was to go under the table where a tray and a bag had been placed earlier. In the bag was an apron and a plastic ice cream. We then played pass the parcel with the fake ice cream and when the music stopped whoever was holding the ice cream had to put on the apron and became the waiter for their table. They had to take ice cream orders from their fellow guests at their table and go to the ice cream cart in the lobby.

To add a little bit of showbiz to that I asked all the waiters in their bright yellow aprons to come up for a group photo. The photographer snapped away and the fun began as they raced back to their tables to take orders and then ran to the ice cream cart in the lobby.

I did a running commentary during this phase of the evening to add a bit of fun to proceedings.

After dinner it was time to do the official part of the evening and Gemma and Dennis’s first dances. This all went well and we also did a father daughter dance with Gemma and her dad John who made a great speech during dinner.

Immediately after the first dances I put on Erasure a little respect as it’s a great tune and I was sure everyone would dance from the first song. I’m very pleased to say that the dance floor was packed from the off and I knew my gut instinct earlier was correct.

I played a huge variety of songs from requests, Gemma and Dennis’s playlist and tracks I knew would work well with them.

It was the beginnings of an epic night!

At just after 9pm Gemma asked if I’d play the rag bag game, another first for me!

This involved several bags of clothes, wigs etc being put in the middle of the room and I invited all the wedding guests to form a circle.

We then gave out three pass the parcel props and played pass the parcel. When the music stopped if you were holding a parcel you were given an item of fancy dress to wear by the bridal party. This went on until all the clothes from the bags had been used and then Gemma signalled it was conga time. I asked all the guests to turn to their right and do the conga.

My job was to pick a male and female winner and best child winner. It was hilarious fun and  I picked the three winners who all got prizes.

After the Rag Bag game it was buffet time and even more food! The caterers never stopped all night with stacks of great food.

The bar was kept very busy all night too and then it was back to more dancing.

I was a bit worried that due to the heat and the length of the day that the guests would all dance to the end of the night. Gemma came up to me and said exactly what I was thinking but I’m pleased to say that her guests all danced right up to the last song and we had a sensational night!

For me personally it was a very long day as Cullen was a 3 hour drive from Perth where I’d stayed the night before and I worked a very long day in the heat. I got into my hotel room at 1.15am and left it at 4am as I had an early morning start on the Saturday.

All in all I had a great time doing the job I love so much. It was nice to do a beach wedding and to come out of my comfort zone as a Dj and push my boundaries even further.

Gemma and Dennis’s beach wedding has certainly been a highlight in my very long career as a wedding Dj and I wonder what surprise is round the corner from another bride and groom.

In 2018 I think I’ve had more fun and unusual experiences as a wedding Dj than ever before!

So if your planning an unusual wedding I’d love to hear from you!

To contact me please use my website contact form: https://platinum-discos.co.uk/contact/