Hawes Wedding

On Saturday 10th February 2018, XO Surrey Wedding Band played as their 7-piece band with added trumpet and saxophone players at Holly and Gary’s wedding. Mr and Mrs Hawes’ wedding celebration was held at the Burford Bridge Hotel, Dorking. We had such an amazing time with Holly, Gary and all their guests – what an amazing crowd!

The Venue

The Burford Bridge Hotel is located in Dorking, Surrey and has the perfect exclusive setting for a wedding. In a separate part of the hotel is the beautiful Tithe Barn – a large barn style room which can be used for a wedding ceremony, wedding breakfast and evening reception. There is an exclusive bar and entrance too, which is used for drinks receptions and for guests to use during the room turnaround. This was the second time we’d been lucky enough tovisit Burford Bridge, and it is a pleasure. The Tithe Barn is a great room for an evening reception with a band – plenty of space for our set up, as well as a large dance floor, and tables remaining around the room. We love it when everyone can get involved, even if they’re not dancing!

The Set Up

We arrived at the venue at 4:30, as we like to leave plenty of time and make sure everything runs smoothly. The wedding party was enjoying their breakfast, so we couldn’t access the performance space. This happens regularly, but it’s great if we can load our gear into a nearby space, which saves loads of time when it comes to setting up! We met the lovely Laura from Laura Ellen Photography, who had already been working hard all day! With our gear safely stored near the barn, we headed over to the hotel bar to order some food whilst we were waiting! After a lovely meal, it was almost time to prepare for the evening – the guests had finished their meal, enjoyed the speeches and moved into the bar for tea and coffee. Once the way was clear, we moved all our equipment through to the Tithe Barn, and began our set up! We sound checked the band, to make sure everything sounded perfect, and were ready for Holly and Gary’s first dance.

The First Dance

Try A Little Tenderness – Otis Redding

The couple had chosen the classic ‘Try A Little Tenderness’, which was a joy to play and the first time we’d had it for a first dance! It was great fun, as the song starts slower and becomes more up-tempo later on, with the horns coming in! It was a perfect choice for our 7-piece band option with the horn players. Mr and Mrs Hawes enjoyed the slower start together before encouraging people to join them on the dance floor, so that’s what everyone did – the dance floor was packed for the rest of the night!

Live Party Band

Tonight we had a real show with 3 sets, and the added horn players! To make the most of them, we had quite a few classic tunes like ‘Knock On Wood’, “I Feel Good’ and ‘Soul Man’, which worked really well! Part way into the first set, we had a surprise for the guests, as Holly got on stage and made her way behind the drums! Holly is a drummer herself, and it was amazing to have her play with us for Michael Buble’s version of ‘Feeling Good’. The reaction from her friends and family was incredible, and she absolutely nailed it! After that Holly deserved to have a drink and let her hair down!

Holly & Gary by Laura Ellen Photography

For the second set, we had a few more soul numbers, with ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ and Aretha Franklin’s ‘Respect’, before jumping into a favourite combination of ours – ‘Help’ by the Beatles into ‘You’re The One That I Want’ from Grease. It never fails to get everyone on their feet! We rounded of the set with some rock n roll – ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Twist and Shout’.

We ramped it up a bit for the final set, with some more modern songs in our party medley, including ‘24K Magic’, ‘Shape Of You’ and the great sing-along ‘Shut Up and Dance’. With the dance floor full, we brought out the big guns to end the evening. ‘Mr Brightside’, ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’ and ‘Sex On Fire’ never disappoint, and we had everyone singing along, even the few people sat watching from the tables. We couldn’t leave it there, so we came back for an encore of Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ to end the evening perfectly.

Holly & Gary by Laura Ellen Photography

Thank you to everyone for being such an amazing crowd and having so much energy! A big thank you to Laura from Laura Ellen Photography for letting us use some of your amazing photographs of the day, you can find her on Facebook, Instagram and her website. A special thanks to Mr and Mrs Hawes for booking us for your wedding, it was such a pleasure to celebrate with you, and we wish you all the luck for the future!

Congratulations again to Holly and Gary.