Sarah & Josh's Wedding | Metro DC DJs & Entertainment

June 24, 2015 In Event Recap , Wedding DJ / No Comments

A beautiful hillside wedding, a little bit of rain, a power outage, and a long family history provided the basis for a very memorable wedding and reception at a beautiful facility in Virginia’s wine country.

Oh, where do we start? Turn back the clock 10 years when Eric Hardman asked DJ Jarrod to announce volleyball at James Madison High School in Vienna, Va. Jarrod was an immediate hit with the players and families, though some of the visiting teams didn’t see it that way. But Jarrod was known for his musical timing and announcing abilities.

The maid of honor, Caroline, with her sister bride, Sarah. Photo from Karen Dawn.

When the older sister of one of the players got married five years ago at The Waterford in Fair Oaks, Va., they held their reception at the same time DJ Jarrod was entertaining the Koenigers and their guests. A couple of players even recognized Jarrod while setting up, one of those was Caroline Mihm.

Fast forward a few years and Caroline’s sister, Sarah, is engaged to be married. Her and Josh would have a simple ceremony before he was deployed to Afghanistan in April of 2013 to serve in the Air Force, and she embarked on a teaching career. The dreams of the big wedding were put on hold, until June 2015.

As they start planning and getting vendors on board, it took a trip back to the Mihm’s old high school for them to think about us.

Back in November, while Madison’s volleyball team was having an historic run that would end with an epic 25-23 loss in the fifth set of the state championship match, Sarah’s mother Karen heard us at a playoff match and decided to send an e-mail asking about DJing for Sarah’s wedding.

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Josh and Sarah finally get introduced as husband and wife, and boy were they excited. Photo from Rachael Mayhew.

The couple, living in Newport News, Virginia, were planning their wedding from afar at Bluemont Vineyard, while Karen did a lot of work at home.

We went over the details via e-mail before sitting down in March for the first meeting. It was here we went through all the details of the day and arranged some of the finer details of the wedding day which would include both the ceremony and reception.

As the big day came closer, the music was getting planned but some of the other details wouldn’t be nailed down until a week before. During that final meeting, you could see just how excited Sarah was.

“How would you two like to be announced,” was the first question.

Sarah squealed with glee, waved her arms and you could tell if we were outside she would have jumped over the house.

After all the details were finalized, we planned on heading out to the venue for the rehearsal to do a sound check with Shannon Oliver, one of the bridesmaids, who was to sing a song during the ceremony. It allowed us to get volume settings ahead of time, before guests would be there and we’re glad we did.

Sweet Yonder performed and really set a beautiful theme for the entire day. Website

Once the wedding day came, it was time to bring everything together, however Mother Nature had some other plans. Threatening rain all day for the 5 p.m. ceremony, the guests were treated to Sweet Yonder playing a variety of bluegrass tunes to entertain the guests who were waiting both inside and outside. Guests were invited to take their seats at 4:55 p.m. with a little bit of a humid feel in the air, but a somewhat clear view of the hills off in the distance.

As the ceremony began, guests were instructed how to participate by Reverend Laura. During the ceremony, Shannon took the microphone and sang Songbird by Eva Cassidy much to the delight of the couple and the guests.

Shortly after Shannon sang, communion was offered and then you could see the rain in the distance starting to close in. As communion ended, the rain began to fall and everyone was transferred inside, including Sweet Yonder, who had to bring in their entire

Shannon singing for the bride and groom.

set-up. As the bride and groom were rushed inside and set-up in front of the DJ table, Sweet Yonder was setting up nearby while Reverend Laura finished the ceremony. The Wedding Recessional played and all guests cheered, knowing the happiness between these two even made Mother Nature cry.

Following the recessional, Eddie Rabbit’s “I Love A Rainy Night” and Milli Vanilli’s “Blame It On The Rain” were played while Sweet Yonder finalized their new set-up. Yes, intentionally!

With all guests already inside, this gave everyone an opportunity to catch their breath, socialize and enjoy some hors d’oeuvres. As Sweet Yonder played their cocktail hour set, the bridal party was able to unwind and get ready for introductions while the happy couple took a few last-minute pictures following their first look earlier in the day.

The bridal party getting ready to be introduced. It’s hard to see, but it was raining pretty hard in the background. Love this patio and how wide it is.

A little rain wouldn’t dampen anyone’s spirits and they were ready to have fun celebrating Sarah & Josh. Following the introductions, which included the bridal party entering to Carl Douglas’ 70’s hit, “Kung Fu Fighting”, it was time to welcome the happy couple to their reception.

After sharing their first dance, Sarah’s father Chris welcomed everybody to the reception, Reverend Laura performed the blessing and dinner was served.

Almost as soon as the servers were able to deliver salad to all of the tables, the power went out, and with it came a loud cheer from the guests. With enough light from outside and supplemented by emergency lights inside, all were ok and waited patiently until the lights came back on, which they did for a couple of seconds then went back out. After a few more moments, the lights came back on.

The first song after the lights came back was “Lights” by Journey. With the first line of “When the lights go down in the city…” the guests let out a loud roar and a couple of tables even gave DJ Jarrod a standing ovation.

Now that power was back on and the guests were able to enjoy their family-style meal, the music went to a mix of love songs from the last several decades.

One the dance floor gates were open, the floor was more flooded than the gutters after the rainfall.

The toasts were delivered by Sarah’s father Chris, the best man and Josh’s father figure Jeff, and Sarah’s sister and maid of honor Caroline. Such heartfelt comments consisted of many laughs, and a few “awww” moments. After the hugs, the kisses, the tears and pictures, it was time for Sarah to dance with Chris to Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight”, followed by Josh dancing with his mother, Laura, to Randy Travis’ “Angels”. After the special dances, the dance floor opened and it stayed packed all night!

When couples were eliminated from the anniversary dance, which was “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri, they remained on the outer edge of the dance floor and cheered at all the remaining couples on the floor. At one point, there was over 600 years of marriage on the dance floor before it was whittled down to Sarah’s grandparents Janet & Joseph who recently celebrated 57 years together.

Sarah being serenaded by her sorority sisters.

The cake cutting went without a hitch, but it was the bouquet toss that caught some off guard. Sarah was supposed to not throw the bouquet the first time we counted to three, but it slipped and was sent flying into the kitchen with amazing speed. It made for another fun moment.

One of the other highlights of the night was Sarah’s sorority sisters from Phi Mu at Christopher Newport University, singing a special song just for her.

As the guests danced the night away, they prepared for the closing sparkler exit. Sarah & Josh, who were married for over two years, finally got the send they’ve been waiting for!

It is always great getting to DJ for those who are familiar with us and being the wedding DJ for a great couple makes creating wedding day dreams and memories much easier.