First Wedding of 2020

The first wedding of a new season is always going to feel a little hectic. This one was certainly no exception. With the Covid-19 restrictions and shutdown orders, this off season was even longer than usual. The result of this socially distanced affair was a total success! It didn’t go off without a few tense moments though.

Makayla and I arrived at the venue, a private estate in Blowing Rock, NC about 90 minutes before the ceremony to begin the setup. Plenty of time, right? As it turned out, getting electricity to the reception tent was a bit of a struggle. We ended up running about 125 feet of extension cords from a nearby garage. This was not ideal, so I decided to ditch the EV ELX 200 18-SP subwoofer that we were planning to use for the reception. In the end, it was the right call. With less than 50 guests in attendance, and it being a more laidback wedding celebration, the two Electro-Voice EKX 12-P’s provided plenty of coverage to the tent and beyond.

Because the private estate was not purpose-built for events, parking was also a little tricky. Rolling all of the gear across 30 yards of grass slowed us down. Luckily, the setup was complete and we were “all systems go” 32 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the mountaintop ceremony.

The planner and coordinator for the day was Meris Gantt of The Whole Shebang Events. Meris has a way of staying cool and calm no matter how chaotic things get. The Whole Shebang offers event planning for Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, Boone and the entire high country of North Carolina. See more about The Whole Shebang at https://www.wholeshebangevents.com/

Photography was provided by Captured by Mari. Mari is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and also provides coverage for the high country and western NC. You can find out more about her work at https://www.capturedbymari.com/