On Tour Event voyage en France!
As a company we are always thrilled when exciting enquiries and different event platforms come our way, it keeps us on our toes. This is a good productive way of maintaining our high standards we have worked so hard to obtain. So, as you can imagine when we were approached by an event planner whose clients wanted to have their dream wedding across the sea in France, we were absolutely delighted to oblige.
When Andrea from ‘’Weddings by Andrea’’ contacted us at On Tour Events we were in the process of wrapping up a week’s corporate function in London, held at the prestigious Hurlingham Club. We were just going into Spring looking forward to a busy period filled with outdoor parties, weddings and corporate functions just before festival season. Luckily the dates Andrea presented to us we were available, which was a good starting point.
She came to us as we had been recommend by one of her friends who we had provided our services to for their daughters 21st birthday party held in a marquee in their enormous grounds in the Surrey countryside.
Her clients were absolutely besotted with the concept of a romantic wedding in the French countryside renowned for it is incredible wine, beautiful sunshine and stunning chateau venues.
They had already decided on the wedding venue which we were shown pictures and a short brief video of, it was a tremendous 18th century chateau with a modern contemporary twist on the inside containing the original rustic charm in places. It truly was magnificent to look at, very picturesque overlooking 13 acres of land so we had lots of room to play with regarding the production side of things!
Andrea informed us the couple had hired the venue for a week and wanted to have a company come in to cover at least 3 days of celebrations offering different setups across the 3 days.
The first day would be the wedding itself, so we were to cover the in-house chapel with lighting, speakers with mic for the ceremony then provide staging for the band in the evening, sound, lighting and festoon. The following day would be for their outdoor brunch, background music and wine tasting in the evening.
Lastly on the 3rd day they wanted a more chilled relaxed environment for their outdoor cinema experience for them and their guests.
They had 50 guests for the entire 3 days and we had over 4 different areas to fill with different levels of productions for both inside and outside the chateau. Luckily they had the entire chateau for their wedding party so there was no intrusion or difficulty loading in / out equipment with other members of the public.
Once we had been given the brief and an idea on the different areas they required covering we set to work on prepping and testing everything in our warehouse ready for transportation to France. The guys started by testing the sound equipment, mixing console and mics. Then they checked over the staging packing spare legs just in case, charging the LED up lighters, testing the moving heads, LED tourcan lighting effects, festoon and finally the LED video screen. Spares were tested and packed along with ample amounts of cabling.
Not only did we want to ensure we had tried and tested everything, and packed spares we also had to make sure we were there in plenty of time before the set up so there was no rushing around. We pride ourselves on being punctual, efficient and thorough.
Set in the 13 acres of land we had no difficulty getting into the venue, there was no congestion, parking tickets, narrow corridors or red faced taxi drivers in the way which made a peaceful difference for the crew when we first arrived! It was an absolute pleasure turning up at the venue, ready to get to transforming the idyllic setting into a romantic, fun, creative atmosphere suitable for a 3-day wedding party!
We had arrived 2 days prior to the wedding which gave us enough time to set up the chapel and first room in the chateau, which they called the drawing room where the band were due to perform later on for the evening entertainment , finishing off with the outside seated patio area.
The guys set to work on getting out the sound equipment for the ceremony and heading over to the chapel which was set within the grounds of the chateau. It was charming to look at from the outside and inside was just as pleasant.
Speakers were placed at the top of the Chapel where the ceremony would be conducted which was enough sound to cover the 50 guests. The mixing console and wireless lapel mics were placed at the top of the Chapel trying to be as discreet as possible with cabling. The speakers we supplied were battery operated to ensure there was no obstruction for the registrar and wedding couple.
They requested some basic wedding lighting around the Chapel, nothing too much as the ceremony would be during the day with lots of natural sunlight. We supplied some pretty fairy lighting which ran from the entrance either side of the Chapel to the front just adding a romantic feel to the already beautiful venue.
Although it wasn’t 100s of meters we like to take our time setting up to make sure it is evenly distributed on scaffold poles which were then covered in white scrim to keep the distinguished look rather than a building site! Their florist then tied some pretty flowers around the poles which really added to the overall finished look.
Moving onto the next area for set up, was to be outside in the courtyard adjacent to the drawing room where the band were due to perform for the wedding reception. Firstly, we helped to clear the room of tables and chairs so we could easily get the equipment in without having anything blocking the way. The guys brought in the staging panels firstly and the stage platform was put together giving the band a fair 5m x 4m stage area to play with. We are lucky with these types of venues the rooms are generally large so to fill with production is a lot of fun for us because there is room to work with without it feeling overspecd.
The stage was set at 1.5ft with white draping around the bottom of the stage and a luxurious white carpet placed on top of the staging panels to keep with the romantic feel the couple thrived for.
We weren’t allowed to rig anything to the walls or ceiling of the chateau but this didn’t matter we had organized our own plan of assembly/ placement of lighting talking it through with Andrea so this wasn’t a concern at all.
At the back of the stage on lighting t bar stands we placed 8 x LED toucans, 4 on each stand. Just to give the band some atmospheric lighting behind them. We then placed 4 x moving heads on 1.5m truss plinths either side of the stage, 2 per side. The truss plinths were wrapped in white scrim to match the white staging.
12 x wireless LED up lighters were then placed around the room in thought out spots to create the best ambient lighting effect for the evening party.
The couple requested a white LED starlit dance floor for this room (Big thank you to the team over at The Sound & Light Hire Company over in Guildford for supplying the dance floor & some of the LED furniture fo us), but the venue wouldn’t allow anything to be laid onto the original flooring so we suggested this be laid just outside on the patio area, as the drawing room led out to the patio area.
They were delighted this was an option, so we put down some carpet over the patio and laid the 14ft x 14ft floor which worked well. Festoon was placed around the dance floor on poles draped from side to side, again the poles were wrapped in white. It was just a small amount of festoon but just enough to offer a pretty romantic feel for their evening.
We then placed our d&b Audiotechnik Q7 speakers, and Q subs on the stage at both ends, with 4 x d&b Audiotechnik Max 4 monitors at the front. The band requested a professional brand of speaker a Midas mixing console for their technician. We opted for our reliable Midas M32r mixing desk and Shure wired mic pack which was set up at the side of the stage ready for the bands own sound technician. I believe the band were flying in from Turkey, the groom was Turkish so I presume that is where the connection was made!
The couple did not want any other set ups created until each day had passed as they wanted it to be a surprise revealing each day to linger out their romantical theme. So, this is all we could do for the 1st day. The crew were given permission to stay onsite at one side of the chateau which was away from the wedding party and we had access to our own pool area, and kitchenette facility it was very luxurious so this went down extremely well for our team. Whilst they danced the night away and didn’t require any crew or technician, we stayed in our side of the chateau keeping out of the way but only a phone call away should they require anything.
At the request of Andrea, we were up bright and early ready to pack away from the reception and set up for day 2. The guys set to work packing the speakers from the Chapel, subs, staging, dance floor, tour cans & moving heads back into the van, but leaving out the festoon, uplighters and speakers.
The Q7 were to be used for background music during their brunch and wine tasting afternoon, and the festoon was to be left up for the evening. They still liked the idea of having the wireless up lighters out for ambient lighting so these were also kept out. They were placed on charge to boost them but taken off charge when we had finished the setup.
Whilst Andrea and the florist decorated the table outside, we added to the festoon lighting which had been used the day before but just extended the length of it and added another strip the other side of the table so they were draped in festoon lighting during their brunch.
There wasn’t much else requested for this 2nd day so again the guys headed back to their side of the chateau after Andrea confirmed she was more than happy with the reveal.
Day 3 approached, and we were up early again to pack away the wireless up lighters and set up for their cinema experience reveal displaying videos and pictures of the previous 2 days to show their guests. They liked the concept of a large but not over the top LED video screen suitable to watch outside in the day and then evening as well. This was not a problem for us as our screen is IP rated so can be used inside or outside and has a small pixel pitch allowing it to be used for exactly this purpose.
We suggested a 5m x 3m LED video screen for them which they were more than happy with. We rigged this on some staging panels 1m high and draped the front to hide the staging. This gave a seamless, discreetly finished video screen option rather than being hung on truss, which would have been too industrial looking for their romantic inspired theme.
The Q7 speakers were placed either side of the screen for the audio and the technician was ready to start when the newly weds and guests approached for 11am.
This was a great success and once the day was coming to an end Andrea and us thought it would be a nice idea to finish off with a laser display outside as we weren’t allowed to let off fireworks, for the finale. The couple’s names were displayed outside along with different words/ phrases and dates relating to their relationship to really enhance the personlisation. They were thrilled with this surprise and it went down really well with their wedding party to.
The following day we set to work on packing up the LED video wall, festoon, speakers and lasers ready for departing back to the UK.
It had been a wonderful experience to work on such a fun, different wedding party in beautiful surroundings. Andrea was a pleasure to liaise with and the couple seemed to be delighted with what we had provided so overall it was a resounding success and one On Tour Events will remember for a very long time. We would also like to say a thank you too Outdoor Stages who provided us with extra staging panels & stage legs for this event.
On Tour Events: Technical Audio Visual Event Services London
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