This weekend, Atlanta Wedding Band had the distinct pleasure of performing our first traditional Jewish wedding for the fantastic Jared and Nicole Smith!  The reception took place inside the gorgeous Waterside Restaurant at Cuscowilla Golf Club on picturesque Lake Oconee.  For the ceremony, Jared and Nicole selected “Marry Me” by Train for the bridal party and parents’ entrance, “When the Stars Go blue” by Ryan Adams for Nicole’s entrance, and “Marry You” by Bruno Mars for their exit.  Atlanta Wedding Band’s own Ken Lambert played a gorgeous violin, accompanied by AWB’s Stefan Cashwell on classical acoustic guitar.

During dinner, guests honored the Hebrew tradition of breaking the bread and blessing the wine while AWB’s John Thrasher and Nate Sexton performed solo acoustic, playing numbers from the likes of Ryan Adams, Dave Matthews and an array of 90’s hits.
After dinner, Jared and Nicole moved inside for their first dances; “Bless the Broken Road” – Rascal Flatts (Jared and Nicole), sung by the amazing tenor of Nate Sexton, “Come to Me” – Celine Dion (Nicole and her father, Larry Dushman) sung by AWB’s newest addition, the elegant soprano of Nadia Vaeh, and “My Wish” – Rascal Flatts, sung by the sultry baritone of Stefan Cashwell.
The reception started and the dance floor was flooded from the first chord struck on “Wagon Wheel” – Old Crow Medicine Show, to our final swan song of the evening, “Don’t Stop Believin” – Journey.  Other highlights of the night included “Hava Nagila”, the traditional, rhythmically escalating Jewish wedding tune, where Jared was hoisted on a chair and escorted around the dance floor by his groomsmen.  Jared’s brother also approached me before we took the stage to request “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and The News.  This came as a surprise but we knew it was important to Jared and his brother, being that their favorite childhood movie growing up was “Back to the Future”, in which the song first charted back in 1985.  We handed off to one of our monster frontmen, Nate Sexton, and he nailed it!
Atlanta Wedding Band would like to thank, first of all, Jared and Nicole Smith who were dream clients from our very first phone call.  Also we’d like to thank their parents, Linda and Larry Dushman, and Laurie and Howard Smith for having us!  I will share the emails/reviews from Jared Smith and Nicole’s parents, Linda and Larry Dushman.  We’d also like to thank, This Is You Photography for their awesome photography work, and Kelly Somogy, the incredibly helpful and organized wedding planner for the Waterside Restaurant at Cuscowilla.
Until next time!
John
Jared Smith –

John,

On behalf of our parents, thank YOU so much for making our day so awesome! You seriously blew our already-high expectations for you guys
way out of the water. I was impressed as soon as I could hear the ceremony music and it only got better from there. I know everyone loved the dinner acoustic, and we started to hear compliments from friends and family right away. Even though we saw you and various forms of the AWB play around town the past year, that and the videos online did you guys no justice; it could not have gone better.

We absolutely loved our first dances and the other songs we requested. I was blown away at your learning of my brother’s request, Power of Love, within an hour! Your version of Hava Nagila for the Hora was incredible, and was probably the best version of the dance I’ve ever participated in. I hope you guys play many more Jewish weddings and can use ours as a selling point going forward. And even as cliche as Journey songs can be :-), Don’t Stop Believing turned out to be the perfect way to end the night. Nicole and I later said we felt like we were in a movie scene. We can’t wait to see some of the video you guys got so we can relive it.

We really enjoyed working with you as well, especially as well we were able to communicate. We’ll definitely continue to come see you and your guys around town and will strongly recommend you to our friends who will soon be getting married. Please be sure to pass along to the rest of the band.

Linda Dushman –

Dear John and the Atlanta Wedding Band,
Wow!!!! Although Nicole & Jared thanked you on behalf of the parents, we still want to personally thank you!
As a parent, to be able to try to give children their “dream” wedding, is indeed the parent’s dream as well. In planning a wedding, you can only hope the professionals hired to help make this dream come true, come through! 
The Atlanta Wedding band not only came through, but exceeded every expectation!  We agree, you blew it out of the water!!!!!!!
You helped to make our children’s dream wedding become a reality, and we will be forever grateful to you for that!!!!!!
Every single person absolutely loved you and we could not have made a better choice for a band at Nicole & Jared’s wedding!!!!!!
We cannot thank you enough,  Linda & Larry