80’s club and 00’s indie wedding, Brazilian Room, Tilden Park, Berkeley, CA. Photo: Olivia Smartt Photography
“Jamie was playing the night that me and my husband-to-be met, and I knew I had to have him DJ for my engagement party. Jamie and Rocky got the whole party dancing while still incorporting our eclectic and esoteric tastes. We can’t wait for them to DJ our wedding!” - Xander Piper
“My husband and I knew we wanted to get Ceremony DJs for our wedding because they were behind the decks when my husband and I first met. But, that alone wasn’t why we loved having them play at our wedding. For our initial consultation, Jamie and Rocky has us sit down with them and discuss the music that is special to us, our friends, and family. Jamie was impressed with how broad our family’s taste was, and was up to the task of making it all fit together! We wanted something special and that represented our tastes, and not just a generic playlist or top 40 pop songs. They went above and beyond when it came to a special request we had. When discussing the plan for the reception and the first dance, we mentioned that we needed a singer for the Magnetic Fields song my husband’s best man was going to perform. As luck would have it, Rocky used to sing in a Magnetic Fields cover band and so was happy to also step into the role of singer again for our first dance! When it was time to plan the setup during the site visit, their experience and familiarity with the venue really showed as they had a plan in mind that allowed us to move seamlessly from an amplified ceremony to music through the reception and dancing that followed. On the day of, they got us through one scheduling hiccup flawlessly. The rest of the night was full of joy thanks to their selections that filled the dance floor, and we had guests asking for a set list right afterwards because they loved the music so much! We really could not have been happier with choosing Ceremony DJs for our wedding.” - Andy Scudder
A Tropical Indie LGBT Wedding at The Brazilian Room
Andy and Xander are close friends of ours at this point. After years and years of club events and now their wedding, I think it’s safe to say we couldn’t have done any of this without them. When we were moshing to Nirvana records and singing Bikini Kill at the club, Andy and Xander believed in us when everyone else thought we were crazy. When we switched to playing 2000’s retro, they were there with amazing ideas and suggestions. When we tried to take our party to twice a month, once in San Francisco and once in Oakland, they were practically the only ones there.
Needless to say, we owe a lot to these dudes. You kind of can’t do something cool and risky and inspiring without someone there to catch you in that trust fall. And these dudes were always there. Sometimes literally, considering we threw a party for 5 years that consisted of 300 people in a 100 person room jumping up and down to 90’s rock records and stage diving off the speakers. We often literally needed them to catch us, if not someone else.
A Couple We Know Really Well
In any case, when it came time to marry these dudes, I think it was pretty obvious to everyone that we needed to be a part of it. Part of the fun thing about doing club events for almost two decades and now wedding events, is that we’ve gotten to play a part in so many peoples stories. I’m not sure if I’ve drunkenly said this to Andy and Xander’s face or not, but if the one thing I’ve accomplished in life is helping these two dudes meet and get married, that’s enough for me. On my death bed, I will be thinking, at least I brought joy to Andy and Xander.
An Iconic East Bay Parks Venue
Their wedding was at the Brazilian Room, part of the East Bay Parks and Recreation system which is home to many, many illustrious and historic venues. But more importantly, it’s a place we’ve played many times before, so there weren’t any surprises to be worked out logistically and we could really just focus on the creative part to maximum effect.
We’ve done a few gay weddings before, but for these guys we really wanted it to be modern. There’s always an element of sudden overwhelming awe at the historical moment you are witnessing with these ceremonies. It really is powerful both in terms of the personal story and the historical context. But for Andy and Xander we wanted to take the story of LGBT rights and marriage equality all the way from its roots in the 70’s counterculture to the modern day, while also maintaining a lot of personal touches that we knew we could get away with since we know these guys so well.
A Subtly LGBT Ceremony
For the ceremony we focused on classic queer icons, a little subtle Elton John here, a little gender bending David Bowie there (He slept with Mick Jagger, right?) but with an eye towards setting up kind of a chill, classic undertone that would ground the modern indie dance music later in the set. For the cocktail hour we livened it up with a few Balearic ones that also had a tropical element. I think we did Grace Jones “La Vie En Rose”, Donna Summer “State of Independence” and Carly Simon “Why” as examples.
A 2000’s Indie Dinner Party
For the dinner we went deep on 2000’s indie ones, but with an emphasis on ones that sounded chill or downtempo like The Knife “Heartbeats” or Washed Out “Feel It All Around” but then mixed that with enough slow mo 80’s ones that influenced that style like T-Pau “Heart and Soul” to keep the family engaged. I remember one of the highlights of the whole thing was a request from them for a new one from Boy George off the Mark Ronson album called “Somebody to Love Me.” Oh man, if you see the video for that it’ll make you cry.
A Chill 80’s Dance Party
Anyway, the trick here is mixing 2000’s indie stuff their friends like with the 80’s stuff their family would get. So for the dancing we flipped the formula from peppering the 80’s ones into the 00’s ones, to the other way around, focusing on the 80’s ones and peppering in the modern ones. I think we opened hard with a double long version of New Order’s “The Beach” into New Order’s “Blue Monday” which really kind of sets things off and also gives people time to congregate. We did some things like the club version of Prince “Controversy” and George Kranz “Din Daa Daa” but also Hot Chip “Ready for the Floor” and Annie “Heartbeats”. I think we also did some really deep crate remixes of the 2000’s ones like this Gorillaz “Feel Good Inc.” Stanton Warriors remix.
A Magnetic Fields First Dance
I nearly forgot to mention, we also did a special performance for the ceremony where Rocky learned to sing Magnetic Field’s “You and Me and the Moon” and performed it with Xander’s brother on ukulele. Rocky was the singer in a notable local indiepop band in Miami in the late 90’s, so this is a thing she can do with a little bit of practice and effort.
Pretty amazing!
All and all an event of historic, civil rights proportions.
Big Ups & Shout Outs
Special shout out to Brazilian Room for having us so many times. Please put us on your preferred vendor list!
Special shout out to Two Sky Floral design for being super nice and having a great story. I definitely want to work together again and always think of you when people need a florist!
And of course, special shout out to Andy and Xander for being great friends. I Hope you all dug it!
Ceremony Songs
Prelude:
Sufjan Stevens “Visions of Gideon”
Processional:
Talking Heads “This Must Be the Place (Stop Making Sense Version)”
Recessional:
Carly Rae Jepsen “Run Away With Me”
First Dance:
The Magnetic Fields “You and Me and the Moon”
Parent Dance:
The Beach Boys “God Only Knows”
Requests:
Yacht “Psychic City”
Mark Ronson feat. Boy George “Somebody to Love Me”
Hercules and Love Affair “Blind”
Erasure “A Little Respect”
CHVRCHES “Clearest Blue (Gryffin Remix)
Toro y Moi “Say That”
Blood Orange “Best to You”
Cut Copy “Hearts on Fire”
Empire of the Sun “Walking on a Dream”
Black Kids “I’m Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You”
Chromeo “Fancy Footwork”
LCD Soundsytem “All My Friends”
Venue: Brazilan Room / Photographer: Olivia Smartt Photography / Catering: Checkers Catering / DJ: Ceremony DJs / Florist: Two Sky Floral Design
