Sandy Toes, Salty Kisses And A Beach Wedding

Every body loves a destination wedding more so if it a beach wedding. Chris and Helen choose Leopard Beach Hotel in Diani as the venue for the reception and evening party while the church service was at the nearby St Joseph Catholic Church. Diani Beach was voted in 2014 as the leading beach destination in Africa.

We travelled from Nairobi on Friday with our equipment, a day before the wedding, leaving Nairobi at 4am making it to Ukunda by late afternoon. We found the bridal team rehearsing at the church. We then proceeded to do a site visit at the beach hotel. The wedding was an afternoon wedding with the church service starting at 2pm.

The flower girls and the bridesmaids entered to Kambua’s hit Usiku na Mchana. Ideally this would be considered to be a fast tempo song for this moment but as we always advice couples, there are no rules to your wedding. The song is about giving thanks to God to what he has done and the tempo made them do some funky dance steps.

In our experience, Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years is a popular song in weddings and the bride choose the Piano Guys cover version of it to walk down the aisle. This is a beautiful piano and cello combo cover of the song which elevates the gracefulness of the song.

The church choir sang during the signing of certificates.

The bridal party danced to Size 8 and Willy Paul’s collabo Tam Tam as the recession song. It is a song about finding the one.

The guests after church were received at a holding area, on a cliff with a beautiful ocean view, which served as a cocktail session. The hotel provided background music for this session as the guests caught up.

The guests walked into the reception as from 4 pm. The reception set up was beautifully done by Sunflower Tents and Decor, and the Leopard Beach Hotel. This combined with the beach view created a heavenly atmosphere and you could feel love in the air.

The emcee for the event was Sir James who had travelled from Nairobi as well. We gelled seamlessly as much as it was our first time working together. Lunch was served as we played cool music interchanging with Marimba, a local band every three or so songs.

The flip from the Dj to the band and back again each time was flawless. A lot of couples always ask how a band and Dj will work together? Will they clash? Is it too much? Our answer is if you have a budget for both and you get two competent teams they should be able to work out a modality that is perfect.

The couple came in from the photo shoot to be welcomed by women singing as is tradition. Marimba band then took over with the popular Kikuyu tune Werocome after which the Dj and the emcee took over for a twenty-minute hype session. The music cruised from popular Kikuyu tunes, as the couple was Kikuyu, to Taarab as the groom’s family has lived in coast for a while before getting to modern contemporary music for the younger people. The highlight of this session was Aloe Blanc’s The Man that had the bridal party surrounding the groom before switching up the tempo to Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk and all of them getting down the best way they could.

The speeches and presentations followed up. We filled all gaps with appropriate music trying the best to cover all the audience needs, as the crowd was very diversified. There was more dancing before cake cutting with the bridal party doing a routine to Eddy Kenzo’s Sitya Loss and Sauti Sol’s Sura yako (this song never gets old in such a setting). This session was finished by a lovely performance by the groom’s cousin, Naomi Wamboe doing her new jam Addicted (Nyama Choma).

Immediately after the final prayers slightly past 8pm, the ocean became rough and the breeze became wild. The guests had to leave the reception area in a rush and we had a challenge setting down, as the wind was too strong. All the same we thanked God for having kept the strong winds at bay for a beautiful ceremony.

We moved the equipment to the evening party venue that was a bar next to the pool with a view of the ocean. Guests started streaming in at 10 pm with the couple coming in 11pm. The couple had an interesting first dance choice – Juma Tutu’s Sukari, which I think, is the first time we had ever played the song. We loved how they stepped to it. They followed it up with Tiwa Savage’s My Darling unto which the guests joined them.

This was one awesome party with the guests jamming on the dance floor right from the moment they got in until the party ended at 5am. This is despite that majority of them had travelled from Nairobi and were travelling back the next day. This audience was a Dj’s favourite playground as they jammed from local, old school, lost school, new school, Afro beats, dancehall, EDM and so much more. They had requests that would push the Dj to dig in to albums away from the popular hits. Daylight breaking at 5am is what made the party end.

Sample a live hip hop set from the night by one of our djs, Dj Dizzo.

Testimonial from the client

The Public Address system provided by Discmen was loud and clear with no hitches and the Djs rocked the party from the afternoon to dawn giving a good kick to the conclusion of our wedding.

*** Chris & Helen ***

Other wedding suppliers were:

Venue: Leopard Beach Resort

Photography: Photo Diaries Kenya

Decor: Sunflower Tents and Decor

Other entertainers: Marimba Band and Naomi Wamboe

Emcee: Sir James

We would like to thank Chris & Hellen for an opportunity to work with us and wish them all the best in their marriage. God bless you.

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