Upgraded Ceremony Sound System at Sky Retreat
When it comes to finding the most stunning backdrop for a wedding ceremony imaginable, look no further than Sky Retreat. Nestled in the Appalachian mountains just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, and just outside of Boone, this wildly popular western North Carolina venue has it all. Sky Retreat’s massive reception hall and covered outdoor area could easily host a wedding of 150 guests or more. When the weather is nice, the hillside overlooking the mountains below is normally used for paragliding, but on wedding days, the grassy bald is host to unimaginably picturesque ceremonies. There is one issue for us DJs though.
The ceremony location at Sky Retreat is far from any outlets. In theory, you could use extension cables to reach the area from the reception hall. This is not ideal though, because this can cause problems when dealing with audio equipment. Instead of worrying with a long extension cable run and all the issues it entails, we have started servicing all outdoor ceremonies wirelessly using battery packs. With this, we can now set up our speaker and console anywhere without any restrictions. Photographers (and the couples for that matter) prefer not to have audio equipment show up in their wedding photos. With the flexibility of the battery-powered equipment, we can now go wherever we need to be to stay out of the frame. We can also be more precise with speaker placement, making for increased audio clarity and wireless microphone range.
Our microphones for this event were 2 Shure ULXS4 receivers with the standard ULX body packs on both the groom and officiant. The lavalier microphones were both Shure WL93’s. These are the omnidirectional Shure lavs that did not have any issues with feedback or wind noise.
Sky Retreat is a fantastic wedding venue for DJs, photographers, videographers and caterers alike. At AGB Productions, we don’t mind the drive from Raleigh at all, and we are looking forward to many beautiful mountain weddings to come!
Photography and videography for this wedding were by Moving Mountains Studios based out of Charlotte, North Carolina.