On 1^st June 2018, Aylsa and Billy Muir renewed their vows and invited XO Party Band to help them celebrate at The Mill House Hotel, Swallowfield.

The Venue

The Mill House Hotel is a Georgian building set amongst the stunning Berkshire countryside, overlooking the River Loddon, near the village of Swallowfield. The venue has different options for events; the use of the building or the use of a large marquee within the beautiful gardens. Aylsa and Billy’s celebrations were held in the marquee, which is a great space for a party. Marquees are a great option, as they offer a large space to hold all the guests for wedding breakfasts, entertainment and any other suppliers, without splitting up the party – this is usually the perfect recipe for a great evening. The marquee at The Mill House Hotel was no exception. With plenty of space, it can hold 120 for a seated reception and 200 for an evening party, and has lovely garden views. It is also a brilliant blank canvas to add your own personality and style to your event – The Muir’s used bunting and colourful flowers to decorate the space.

The Set Up

We arrived at the venue at 4:30, and as it was a beautiful day, we were able to construct our lighting towers and begin setting up the drums outside. It happens regularly that the evening performance will take place in the same area as the guests enjoy their meal, so ideally we need space to set up some equipment during this time. We’re very aware that people like the evening to begin as soon as possible, so we try to cut down on set up time.

Once the sit down meal had been enjoyed, and the speeches performed, the guests began to move outside to enjoy the weather. As soon as we could, we began to shift our gear into the marquee and set up by the dance floor. With a few things already prepared, we managed a quick set up and were ready for our sound check. The sound is usually brilliant in marquees, as the large open space lends itself perfectly to a band. Once we’d got everything just right, it was time for the party to begin!

The First Dance

You’re Still The One – Shania Twain

As we were helping Aylsa and Billy celebrate them renewing their vows, it was only natural for them to relive their original first dance, and we performed ‘You’re Still The One’ by Shania Twain. The song is a 90’s classic and we were excited to We’ve never got to play the song before and it was a lot of fun. It was a lovely moment to be a part of, and to see the couple transported back to their wedding day. The guests all watched on from beside the dance floor, and even joined in later on in the song. The perfect first (or second) dance!

Live Party Band

The original plan for the evening was for us to play two sets of live music – we were aware that the venue had a 9:00pm curfew for live music and we had times worked out perfectly. Unfortunately, as regularly happens at weddings and parties, things ran slightly over the time plan. To make sure we could play as much music as physically possible, we decided to play one long set up until 9:00pm. This meant Aylsa and Billy would hardly lose any live music at all, we would just lose our break – hard-core, but worth it!

After the brilliant first dance, we got stuck in with Jackie Wilson’s ‘Higher and Higher’. The crowd were singing along from the start and gave us a great insight to how the rest of our set would be! We continued the classics with Dolly Partons’s ‘9 To 5’ and kicked off our Disco Medley, including ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours’, ‘Disco Inferno’ and ‘Blame It On The Boogie’, amongst other great floor fillers. The guests kept the dance floor full with ‘Dance With Me Tonight’ by Olly Murs, and they love ‘Raise Your Glass’ by Pink, which was a lot of fun!

Some more favourite songs from the night include ‘She’s So Lovely’ by Scouting For Girls, as we got all the guests to sing it to Aylsa, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’, which really kept the crowd singing, and ‘Summer Of 69’ – a sing-along classic. A real highlight of the evening for me was Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’, as Aylsa and all her bridesmaids dominated the dance floor, showing everyone their best Tina Turner moves! ‘Love Shack’ was another hit with the guests, and our Party Medley continued to help deliver the best dance moves on the floor – we loved Beyoncé’s ‘Crazy In Love’ and ‘Moves Like Jagger’ by Maroon Five.

The time passed so quickly, and it was almost 9:00pm(!), but we managed to slip in a few more tunes. The crowd showed off their vocal skills again when we played ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ by The Proclaimers, and we sent them off in a conga line to collect any stragglers from around the marquee and outside. With everybody on the dance floor, we brought the set to a close with ‘Mr Brightside’, ‘Sex On Fire’ and our favourite, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen. The in house DJ took over from us, and the party continued into the night.

The guests were so much fun and we had an amazing time performing at Mr and Mrs Muir’s vow renewal party. We’d like to thank Aylsa and Billy for having us and being so accommodating!
Congratulations (again!), and we hope you had an incredible evening.