What To Do When Noise Tops the Bride?
Kemesia and Patrick Ward wound up with a “can you top this?” wedding story. The sorry details of their private-turned-public reception landed in this spring’s Daily Business Review. Just hours before the party, Miami’s iconic Deauville Beach Resort let couple know that the booked ballroom had been shuttered nine days prior due to safety violations. The hotel moved the 200-guest event to its lobby. Cue chatty tourists in bathing suits who of course crisscrossed the space. Needless to say, the visuals and background noise were not the stuff of bridal dreams.
A public park is its own story: Curious onlookers are built into the equation from the get-go. Knowing that in advance, what’s not to love about strangers cheering the big kiss? And some fully public venues, such as the Adamson House in California’s Malibu Lagoon State Park, create privacy by cordoning off celebration areas. Adamson House wedding planners also anticipate beach crowds and advise couples on best choice of day and time.
But what about those semi-private venues that cuddle up to public areas? We’ve seen our share of pretty weddings momentarily hijacked. An afternoon reception at a riverbank mansion got interrupted multiple times by floating tubers a few beers in. An early evening ceremony on a top-dollar hotel’s lawn included Speedo-clad middle-aged men, who waved drinks from the upper pool deck, shouting, “Don’t do it, honey!”
Riverbank crowd waved to the tubers, working it all into the festive atmosphere. Lawn crowd resolutely ignored the hecklers. But how to stave off nasty noise (never mind protect a live-audio recording)?
The lawn wedding might have posted signs and security at the deck railing, or closed the pool deck for the half-hour ceremony. The riverside reception could have erected half-screens, preserving the view yet blocking the tubers below. Miami resort – well, we can all dream up a few choice suggestions. In any case, that staff fell down on the job, leaving the Wards in a litigious mood.
What inventive solutions have you seen?
