60’s rock and classic country wedding, Harley Farm, Pescadero, CA. Photo: The Shalom Imaginative
"After a year of planning, searching for the perfect vendors, location, the perfect suit and perfect dress, the perfect food getting ready for the perfect night... after everything was said and done, two things are said to us about our wedding. People say it was an amazing party,and that we had the best DJ. I'm not making this shit up. Not just our friends either, my Mom. My mom, who listens to Pitbull (Im not kidding) loved the music. Here's what makes Jamie the best DJ ever. He cares. He simply cares about you, your big day, the job he's doing, everything. It was important to my wife and I that we found someone who got us, our style, our music, etc. Jamie was the perfect guy for the job and we wouldn't have had it any other way. Besides, he's cool as all hell and a pleasure to work with. Also, he has impeccable taste and has a crazy vinyl collection to back it up. YAY for Jamie, the best DJ a couple could ask for. Just reach out to him, meet up with him, talk music, you won't regret it." - Scott Smith
“The only enjoyable part of wedding planning for me was finding Jamie and talking music. My husband and I were thrilled to find a vinyl DJ who understood us and our style of music. Jamie was pleasure to work with and cool guy to get to know. Our guests LOVED the music and complemented us on his skills. I highly recommend Jamie's services and wish we could do it all over again!" - Sandy Knoblach
A Super Hip, Rustic, Country Rock Wedding in a Barn
Scott and Sandy are more folks that we have everything in common with that probably should’ve known already. For their wedding at Harley Farms in Pescadero, they wanted to accent the rustic setting with a classic folk, rock and soul set.
We get a lot of folk weddings, country weddings and soul weddings, but this was a great opportunity for us to integrate all the ideas into kind of a bay area 60’s counter culture aesthetic. We had already had one wedding where the brides family had grown up on a commune in northern California, and another one where the brides family had been deeply involved in the Bay Area music scene of the 60’s with the famed Bill Graham Presents, and yet another wedding where we learned the history of motown, girl groups and northern soul.
So for these guys we rolled it all together and tied it up with a bow.
A Classic Country Rock Style
They wanted to riff on The Byrds classic album Sweetheart of the Rodeo and do something that was both country, but also punk rock. We also talked a lot about how Neil Young lives in the area and wanted to pick up some of that vibe considering their first dance was going to be Neil Young “Harvest Moon” the video for which I’m pretty sure was filmed at The Mountain House bar in Woodside, CA. So this was our first attempt at doing a 60’s country rock wedding, which we later expanded still further to a full Gram Parsons theme wedding for yet another couple further down the road.
A 60’s Folk Ceremony
For the ceremony and cocktail, Benny B Music crushed it with some folky renditions of 60’s classics. We wanted to pick up the baton for the dinner by deepening the groove and bringing in some drums. We did a lot of stuff like The Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Crosby, Stills and Nash but also Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. There was The Beatles and The Beach Boys but also Donovan, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin.
A Garage Rock Dinner Party
I think we went kind of deep into the counterculture stuff from the east coast too with things like Nico and The Velvet Underground. We also did a lot of Nuggets type stuff with 60’s garage rock one hit wonders and uptempo rock ones like Them “Baby Please Don’t Go.” We also beat juggled in there some Cat Stevens, The Faces, Van Morrison type things to give it a little Wes Anderson type spin. I think we even did The Creation “Making Time” like in Rushmore.
A Surf Oldies Dance Party
For the dancing, we turned the rock stuff up one more notch with way faster, surf ones at first like Dick Dale ”Miserlou” and Sam the Sham and The Pharos “Wooly Bully”. Then we cranked it all the way up to Arthur Connely “Soul Music” and Gloria Jones “Tainted Love” and then dropped back to a boatload of soul and girl groups standards like The Chiffons, The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas. I think we might have even done the wedding classic The Isley Brothers “Shout.”
A Classic Punk After Party
By the end I think we took one more crack at punking it up and did a few 60’s proto-punk garage ones like The Stooges “1969” and MC5 “Kick Out the Jams”. We pretty much raged it all the way to the end. There were ties on heads and some bordeline mosh dance moves for the faster stuff. It was pretty intense! When everyone was tuckered out, we had a campfire out front with the guests, the folks from the venue and the other vendors.
Good times!
Big Ups & Shout Outs
Special shout out to Harley Farms for having a great venue and pretty much running the show front to back. If you need a one stop shop for getting married, these guys raise the goats, make the cheese, cook the dinner, manage the bar, run the event and pretty much handle the whole thing for you. I definitely want to be Harley Farms when I grow up.
Special shout out to Benny B Music. They really nailed the ceremony and cocktail hour and it’s cool to see you can stick with being a musician and still pick up checks decades into your career. More inspirational vendors for the long term.
Special shout out to The Shalom Imaginative! Really enjoyed the engagement photos you did for these guys and the photos from the event are great too.
Hope to work with you all again soon.
Ceremony Songs
Seating:
George Harrison “If Not for You”
Prelude:
Processional:
Recessional:
The Beatles “Here Comes the Sun”
First Dance:
Venue: Harley Farms / Photographer: The Shalom Imaginative / Ceremony: Benny B Music / DJ: Ceremony DJs
