Cara & Tyler’s EDM Dance Party Wedding

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While we usually know how a wedding will begin, we’re not always sure where it will end. The ceremony starts with a level of formality (even when it’s full of joy and laughter). Then there’s cocktail hour and dinner…and sometime around dessert, we start to get a sense for how the rest of the night will go. 

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Will it be an epic bacchanal?

A family-friendly hoedown?

More of a dinner party and less of a dance party?

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Cara and Tyler’s wedding was a bit different. Richmond wedding DJ Mike “Q” found out before dinner even started what kind of night this would be! 

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But we get ahead of ourselves. 

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Cara and Tyler’s October wedding took place at Upper Shirley Vineyards in Charles City, Virginia. This lovely site is a working vineyard perched alongside a tributary of the James River. Just across from the Presquile National Wildlife Refuge, the venue is surrounded by natural beauty. 

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Cara and Tyler took advantage of the scenery with a ceremony on the waterfront lawn. This open expanse of green is bordered by towering trees that turned golden in the late afternoon sun. Photographer Maggie Morris made sure to take advantage of that perfect light! 

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For their processional, the couple chose Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran. Cara looked gorgeous in her lacy gown, and Tyler was quite dapper in his Army mess uniform! 

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After cocktail hour on the patio, the party moved into the reception room, softly lit by green uplighting (courtesy of Maryland’s DJ) to reflect the natural beauty outside. 

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For their first dance, the couple chose 6’s to 9’s by Big Wild feat. Rationale. We loved this choice! It’s a bit poppy, a bit funky, a bit dreamy—totally different from what we often hear for first dances. 

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After the first dance, Cara and her father danced to I Loved Her First by Heartland. Then Tyler and his mom danced to Humble & Kind by Tim McGraw.

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It was around this point that Richmond wedding DJ Mike “Q” got his first inkling of the kind of reception he was looking at. Cara and Tyler had provided a playlist as a jumping-off point for music selections. What DJ Mike “Q”  found was a blend of 80s, 90s, and 2000s dance hits, a few showtunes, and lots of EDM. The message was clear—this playlist was meant for dancing. So DJ Mike “Q”  knew what to do. 

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Once he cued up the dance tracks, it was on. “This was an EDM wedding,” he said. “It was the first wedding I’ve ever done where people started partying before dinner and some didn't even get a chance to eat because they were having such a great time.”

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While the party was distracted, Cara and Tyler snuck away for an outfit change! Tyler swapped out his dress uniform for a chic navy blue suit, while Cara traded in her lacy gown for a fantastic white bodycon dress with a midriff cutout and thigh slit. Paired with sparkly silvery booties, this look slayed.

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By the end of the night, the dance floor was practically on fire! 

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It was such a joy to bring Cara and Tyler’s EDM dream to life. And we’d love to do the same for you. Fill out our short online form to check our schedule and start planning!  

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All photos by Maggie Morris

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