Another Great Review! Thanks Joy and Brendan!

A few weeks after the wedding, Brendan posted this review on our WeddingWire storefront…

…Working with Yves & Amy and the Nite Time Band as our Wedding Reception Entertainment was by far the best investment and ultimate choice that took our wedding to a whole new level! I have no doubt that this amazing band was the reason for comments from our guests such as, “Your wedding was the most entertaining and fun event that I have ever attended,” and “I kept forgetting that you had a live band, it’s like the real artists were playing live for EVERY song,” and “Your band members were the best performers we’ve ever seen live…let alone at a wedding! RIDICULOUS!” I could go on and on, but words would not be enough to describe the satisfaction and thrill of the experience we had with Nite-Time.

From the very start, Yves, the band manager and drummer, was extremely professional and easy to work with. He was very accessible, responding to my numerous emails and calls with my questions and concerns no matter how small. He had a great balance of making suggestions and also allowing for our own special input and ideas. My wife and I had very specific requests, all of which Nite-Time accommodated. From a very specific song list for special events throughout the reception to even a groom’s performance with myself as the lead singer/guitar with the band! What my wife and I loved was how enthusiastic Yves and Amy were about their music as we were about our music choices and how confident they were in their own product. They openly invited us to reach out to former clients for feedback, but what sealed the deal was seeing the band perform live. They graciously pulled some strings to invite us to watch them in action at an exclusive wedding at the Yale Club in mid-town Manhattan. Another time, they even held a separate special event for potential clients at a local venue. By seeing them live, in their performing element will show anyone who knows music how professional, talented, and versatile the band can be. On top of playing amazingly seamless transitions, their repertoire was as vast as a 300 GB ipod. From Taio Cruz to James Brown, or even ZZ Top to the Temptations, the band could do it all and without any drop in performance level. The showmanship of all the band members was truly unbelievable! Amy, the band’s lead singer, carries a song and intrigues the audience with her incredible vocal range. At one point, the lead guitarist put his guitar upside down on his head while shredding out an incredible riff as the crowd went wild! Those are the types of things that make people say, “Your wedding reception was THE BEST!” and you know they really mean it.

From the bottom of our hearts, my wife and I would like to thank Yves and Amy and the wonderful Nite-Time band for making our wedding reception a once in a lifetime event filled with music, laughter and love. One that we will truly treasure and cherish forever!

-Brendan & Joy

Wedding Date: September 4, 2011
Reception: Greentree Country Club, New Rochelle, NY

Thanks so much you two! It was our pleasure.

To check out this and other reviews check out this link… http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/nite-time-new-york-citys-premier-party-band-new-york-city/de15bf2ca79ff2df.html

Joy and Brendan Dance the Night Away!

Date: September 4th

Location: Greentree Club, New Rochelle, NY

First Dance: Everything, Michael Bublé

Special Dedication: I Wanna Be There, Blessid Union of Souls (played and sung to Joy by Brendan with a little help from Nite-Time)

Joy and Brendan had a lot of fun planning their wedding, and we had a lot of fun being a part of it. Music was an incredibly important part of the day for both of them. Their bridal party entrances were a well orchestrated event in and of themselves.

Brendan got two of his cousins to do all of the announcing, which was a very nice personal touch that we’ve seen a few times in the past couple of years. (It’s a great way to include more people in your big day, especially if you have a large family, like both Brendan and Joy). They had a fairly large bridal party which included parents and sponsors, which is a tradition in Filipino culture. For their parents and sponsors they chose the song I Feel Good by James Brown, which segued into Dynamite by the Taio Cruz for the bridal party.

For their own entrance they worked with Yves to come up with an arrangement of Don’t Stop Believing by Journey into What I Like About You by The Romantics. The band played the section of Don’t Stop Believing that has that iconic guitar lick, which crescendos right into two strong accented hits by the full band, just as Joy and Brendan entered. From there we kicked right into What I Like About You and the couple danced to a verse of that. At that point, the lights shifted and Yves switched into DJ mode to play a mix that Brendan customized himself for a dance number that the bridal party joined in on. I must say, these folks brought it on the dance floor. They choreographed the whole dance themselves and put on a show for all of the guests (and the band). I was seriously impressed with all of their dancing skills. It was a great way to set the tone for a night of dancing and celebration!

After the intros, things slowed down for a heartwarming moment between Joy and Brendan, the first dance, Everything by Michael Bublé.  Half way through the song all the guests were asked to join in and everyone was ready to hit the floor!

When Brendan proposed to Joy he did so in the park with guitar in hand, serenading her with the song I Wanna Be There by Blessid Union of Souls. We weren’t there for that part obviously, but when Brendan wanted to surprise Joy with a recreation of that moment at their wedding reception we were excited to be a part of it, and Brendan was excited when he found out that I had written with Blessid Union’s producer a few years back. Nite-Time backed Brendan up as he serenaded Joy, who ended up joining in herself for some harmonies.

Another tradition we saw come back a bit this year is the money dance. I, for one, am all for it! If you’ve never seen this done it’s actually quite fun and can be pretty humorous. The couple gets out on the dance floor and the band starts up the music (we played several money themed songs). Meanwhile their guests line up on the floor with cash in hand, ready to pin it to the clothing of the happy couple. (If you try this, I would suggest doing what Joy did, tie an extra ribbon around you to pin the cash to, thus saving the dress).  This is supposed to give them a helping hand to start their life together. I wish we had done it at our wedding! It’s so simple, so fun and totally interactive…

I wasn’t kidding when I said the music was very important to Joy and Brendan, they chose I Just Called to Say I Love You for Brendan to dance to with his mom, and My Girl for Joy to dance to with her dad, during which Brendan cut in. My Girl went right into The Way You Do the Things You Do and launched another great dance set. That brought us right to the cake cutting, the bouquet and the garter. Joy and Brendan embraced all of these wedding traditions and chose a great classic for each one. The cake? Sugar Sugar by The Archies. Bouquet? Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Garter? Pretty Woman.

We had such fun with Joy and Brendan from our first meeting to the last note of the night, because they had fun and enjoyed the planning process together. We wish them all the best of everything life has to offer, and I’m sure they’ll have just the right soundtrack behind each moment!

Nite-Time Won the WeddingWire Brides Choice Awards Again for 2012!

New York, NY– {Jan. 18, 2012} - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Nite-Time - New York City’s Premier Party Band! has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Live Bands!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Nite-Time stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Nite-Time for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Nite-Time is among the very best Live Bands within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

Nite-Time Made the 2012 Momentville Wedding Professional Hot List!

We’re happy to announce that we’ve made the Momentville Hot List again for 2012! Thank You to everyone who posted such amazing reviews in 2011. Let’s make 2012 just as rockin’!!

2 Jan, 2012 - MomentVille.com one of the worlds leading wedding websites, is pleased to announced that Nite-Time has been selected for the 2012 Wedding Professional Hot List.

The annual Wedding Professional Hot List recognizes excellence within the wedding industry, as determined by reviews from tens of thousands of brides and grooms. Nite-Time was among the best reviewed vendors in the past year.

“The Wedding Professional Hot List recognizes best of class wedding professionals.” said Geoff Evason, MomentVille’s CEO. “Highlighting the success of the top wedding professionals is an exciting way to spread the word and help newly engaged couples find the right professionals for their own weddings.”

Nicole and Arnaud Weather the Storm…

Date: 8/27/11

Location: The Candlewood Inn, Brookfield, CT

First Dance: The classic jazz standard, That’s All

Number of Approaching Hurricanes: 1

Nicole found us online in the midst of the Holiday season and booked us before the new year started.

During the last week of August we were all watching Hurricane Irene as it swirled up the coast, but none so closely as Nicole and Arnaud. Their wedding was scheduled for the weekend that Irene was projected to make landfall…in the early morning hours of August 28th…in New York City… about 60 miles from their wedding venue. Yikes!

The morning of the wedding Nicole called Yves to “make sure you guys are still coming”. “Of Course” was his reply. Apparently several guests would be unable to make it to the wedding because of travel restrictions, and Nicole was worried that the band might fall into that category. Never! We knew what was coming and all planned to head out early to beat the storm to Nicole and Arnaud’s wedding. After the wedding? We would cross that bridge when we came to it.

The ceremony had been planned for outside overlooking a beautiful lake…

But, by the time the ceremony rolled around the view from inside looked like this…

No worries though, the good folks at The Candlewood Inn have seen weather before, so plan B was enacted and the ceremony was set up in the main reception room with just a little bit of adjustment. The guests would have thought that was the way it was planned. Once we were all safely inside (a few guests short) the ceremony went off with out a hitch. Nicole and Arnaud, a mixed religion couple, had both a Rabbi and a Minister present who worked extremely well together. The ceremony was touching and heartfelt with some humorous and lighthearted moments thrown in. Solo classical piano was the perfect backdrop to it all.

Solo piano continued for the cocktail hour, but switched genres to light jazz. Appetizers were passed while the room was reset from ceremony to reception seamlessly. At this point I think most of us forgot there was a storm bearing down on the east coast, nonetheless, Nicole offered to get us all hotel rooms if anyone needed to stay. It was truly gracious of her, and if she was stressed out by the storm in any way she sure didn’t show it.

As the cocktail hour ended and we transitioned to reception it was time to get the dancing started with Nicole and Arnaud’s first dance, That’s All. This beautiful jazz standard love song is a perfect choice for a first dance. Check out the lyrics, they would make great wedding vows! From That’s All we went into a hora medley to wish the bride and groom good luck.

People really got into dancing that night to all kinds of music. We went, as usual, from Van Morrison to Ke$ha and back again. All the hurdles of the storm had been overcome, the news was that it was slowing down, so most people would be able to get back home and everyone cut loose!

 

Even Yves!

We played until midnight and beat the storm back home by a few hours…

We were very lucky during Hurricane Irene. We made it home safely, we were able to be there to celebrate with Nicole and Arnaud and we didn’t suffer any losses from storm damage. That’s not true for a lot of our neighbors here in the northeast, a lot of whom are still struggling to overcome the losses they suffered and will continue to do so for quite some time. To find out how you can help the victims of Hurricane Irene go to: www.facebook.com/Support4CatskillMtns

Several weeks later, Nicole posted this review on our WeddingWire.com page…

AMAZING BAND! PROFESSIONAL. FLEXIBLE. Extensive song list. Yves worked with us during the planning stages. He is friendly, easy to communicate with and I had complete confidence in their service from the moment we first spoke. They were EVERYTHING that we could have wanted, and more! We would absolutely hire them again in the future. There is nothing that they could have done better or differently. We were extremely impressed and so were our guests. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Hillary and Brian in Twilight Park!

Date: August, 21

Location: Twilight Park, Haines Falls, NY

First Dance: God Only Knows, The Beach Boys

We met Hillary and Brian through Hillary’s parents Karen and Larry, who had seen us at the Greene County Council on the Arts annual Beaux Arts Ball at Hunter Mountain. They enjoyed getting down to Nite-Time at the event so much that they thought we would be a perfect fit for their daughter’s wedding in nearby Twilight Park.

Like many of our weddings this past summer, rain was in the forecast for the day, which threatened to put a damper (literally) on the beautiful outdoor ceremony setting. The morning started with heavy rains and cloudy skies, but the sun arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, just in time for the ceremony (the only portion of the event that was scheduled to be held outside). If I didn’t know any better, I would say we’re good luck when it comes to outdoor events, the rain holding off has been an ongoing theme of this year…

After the ceremony, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres were served on the porch of the main cabin where the reception was to take place. Hillary and Brian opted for solo piano for the hour. It was a lovely back drop to the delicious apps, signature pink lemonade cocktails and breathtaking views…

Shortly after the cocktail hour ended, the rain returned, but it didn’t matter, because we were all safely inside for the reception, dinner and dancing. We got the dancing started with Hillary and Brian’s first dance God Only Knows by the Beach Boys, a unique choice on their part, and really a lot of fun for the band to perform (the vocal breakdown section at the end was a challenge we were all psyched to meet). After that we launched into a medley of horas and then we were off and running.

Hillary and her mom Karen, did an amazing job of decking the place out for the wedding. Hillary mentioned to her mother that she would love centerpieces of snapdragons (one of my favorite flowers) and white birch. Karen got to work and made the most beautiful centerpieces that she accented with succulents that the guests were invited to take home after the event. Mine are thriving by the way, thanks guys!

All in all it was another great wedding with a wonderful couple in an amazing setting. Hillary and Brian had a great time as did their parents, family and friends. The rain held off while we were all outside and once we moved indoors there was so much dancing and revelry that I don’t think anyone noticed the occasional showers outside!

Hillary sent Yves a note of thanks a couple of weeks ago, check out A Thank You from Hillary and Brian on our review page.

A Thank You from Hillary and Brian!

Hillary and Brian, our couple from August that got married in beautiful Twilight Park sent us this note of thanks…

Thank you, Yves.  We very much enjoyed having you play!  Everyone was dancing up a storm!  Brian and I agree that our wedding day was perfect.  Please feel free to use us as a reference.

We just got the disk of pictures and there are some great pictures of you and the rest of the band in action. Would you like me to forward some along?

Hillary

When we get those pics, I’ll share…

The view from the deck at Hillary and Brian's wedding.

Thank You LUNGevity!

We just wanted to take a moment to thank Connie Ruta and Diana Fusco of the LUNGevity Foundation for allowing us to be a part of their first ever New York Hope Gala on November 3rd. We had a wonderful time and got the crowd going with some great dance music from the Motown Era to today. Everyone was in high spirits and the foundation raised awareness as well as money to help fund the research that brings us closer to finding a cure for lung cancer!

Amy, Diana and Yves at the Gala!

To learn more about LUNGevity or to donate go to: www.lungevity.org

Nite-Time to Perform at the First Annual LUNGevity Hope Gala!

When: November 3, 2011

Where: Jumeirah Essex House,  NYC

Why: To raise money and awareness to help fight lung cancer!

Yves and I and the rest of Nite-Time are excited to announce that we will be participating in the first annual Hope Gala to benefit the LUNGevity foundation. LUNGevity was “founded by seven Chicago area lung cancer survivors in November of 2000 to increase funding for lung cancer research.” Their vision is of “a world where no one dies of lung cancer” and we are thrilled to be able to do our small part to help them get one step closer to realizing that vision.

The gala will take place on November 3rd at the beautiful and iconic Essex House on Central Park South in NYC. There will be a cocktail reception at 6:30pm, followed by dinner and dancing at 7:30pm. Additional entertainment will be provided by Chrissy Bridgeman from Painted Rhythm Dance Company.

This cause is near and dear to our hearts. Both Yves and I have lost loved ones to this devastating disease, which is incredibly hard to detect in it’s early stages and therefore claims more lives in the U.S. per year than any other type of cancer. Lung cancer, contrary to popular belief, can afflict anyone regardless of gender, ethnicity or a history of smoking. For more information on lung cancer, check out LUNGevity’s page about the disease here.

For more information on the Hope Gala, to buy tickets, or to donate, go to www.lungevity.org.

We’ll have pics and a full report on the event in the coming weeks…

Amy

Janet and Josh, Dancing All Night in Camp Hill!

Date: August 13th

Location: West Shore Country Club, Camp Hill, PA

First Dance: Manhattan by Kings of Leon

 

Janet and Josh found us online back in February, they had been looking for a band to play their wedding in Camp Hill, PA, a suburb of Harrisburg, and they were psyched when they found out we were available. As was the case most of this summer, there was a bit of rain that day, but they didn’t let it get them down. Their outdoor cocktail hour went off without a hitch, after the addition of a tent to the lawn at the West Shore Country Club. Their guest enjoyed passed appetizers and cocktails along with light background piano music, which was mostly scaled down versions of classic rock tunes with a few modern twists.

After cocktails everyone moved inside for dinner, Janet and Josh’s first dance, Manhattan, was a great way to start the evening. They did an amazing job getting it going with their solo dance after which we went right into a pre-salad dance set! Both Josh and Janet wanted to get everyone up and dancing, so we made sure that’s just what happened.

After dinner, Josh danced with his mother to In My Life by The Beatles. It was a touching moment for everyone, that song is just so perfect for a mother/son dance. Next came Janet’s dance with her dad, and I love their pick! They chose to get the dancing started again by shakin’ it to Get Down Tonight by KC and the Sunshine Band. Janet asked that Yves invite everyone to join them on the floor half way through the dance, which was a great way to kick off another rockin’ set of dance music. We hit on some modern dance hits from Ke$ha and Rihanna as well as 80′s classics like Billie Jean, complete with guest vocalist (one of Janet’s work colleagues totally nailed it).

Janet and Josh were a vibrant, fun loving and gracious bride and groom, they were a lot of fun and we had a great time working with the two of them. I love it when the bride and groom dance all night, and they certainly did.

Check out our YouTube channel for a great video of their first dance, Manhattan.