Salt City Sound Machine

Matt Bacoulis and Ashley Kanavy Wedding

Venue: Pearl Street Grill & Brewery – Buffalo, NY
Date: May 24, 2015

Salt City Sound Machine was back on the road on the 24^th of May in 2014, travelling West on the New York State Thruway to Buffalo, NY. Matt Bacoulis and Ashley Kanavy of South Dakota travelled back to Buffalo with their loved ones to get married on the third floor of the Pearl Street Grill & Brewery. It was a wonderful ceremony and reception taking place in one of the best venues SCSM has had the privilege of working.

The third floor of Pearl Street consisted of a main room with two adjoining rooms on either side. The main room housed the cocktail hour and was used as the area for dancing, while the adjoining room to the right was used for the ceremony and dinner, and the room to the left was used for pictures. The day began with the ceremony. The officiant, groom, and groomsmen were already lined up in front of the brick of the right adjoining room. Soon after, Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole played as Ashley’s five bridesmaids made the ceremony processional.

The song changed to the same artist’s rendition of What a Wonderful World as Ashley emerged from the doorway and down the aisle. The ceremony was short but excellent, noted by a reading of a rewritten version of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air lyrics by officiant Walter Gabriel. It was a moment that stood out amongst the common ceremony. When Matt and Ashley were finally married and the ceremony came to a close, the two chose to walk out to their recessional song, Happy by Pharrell Williams. The ceremony space was then transtitioned into the dining room while guests made their way into the main room for cocktail hour and the left adjoining room for pictures.

At the conclusion of the cocktail hour, the guests were hurried back into the room where they sat for the ceremony and the reception began. First order of business was the official introduction of the parents, wedding party, and the newly named Matt and Ashley Bacoulis. Each category of people had their own theme music starting with the parents, who were introducted to Forever by Chris Brown. They were followed by the wedding party, whose theme was Timber by Pitbull. Finally, Matt and Ashley made their triumphant introduction into their wedding reception, choosing to walk in to Poppin’ My Collar by Three 6 Mafia.

Matt and Ashley made their entrance being announced as Mr. and Mrs. Matthew and Ashley Bacoulis and quickly hit the dance floor for their first dance. The song they chose for their first dance was one that would be seen several more times in SCSM’s 2014 season, All of Me by John Legend. Matt and Ashley danced wonderfully as their family and loved ones watched on. Following the first dance were the parents dances, as Ashley took the first turn, dancing with her father to My Little Girl by Tim McGraw. Following the Father/Daughter dance was the Mother/Son dance, where Matt and his mother danced to The Perfect Fan by the Backstreet Boys. Finally, following a few speeches and toasts, it was time to enjoy a delicious buffet dinner.

When dinner concluded the dance floor was opened up for some dancing. The guests really enjoyed the extended dance time totaling in over 3 hours of dance time. They especially liked group dances, the Cupid Shuffle in particular. The guests gathered to dance and have a great time, that continued to pick up steam as the night went on. Later in the night, as party began to wind down a bit, Matt and Ashley and several guests gathered on a balcony at Pearl Street to light paper lanterns as a celebratory release to float high over the city of Buffalo. Unfortunately, there were some lighting issues with the lanterns and they didn’t get many to successfully rise, but there were a few that did make it. Despite the lanterns being a bit of a bust, there was still plenty of time to dance and have a good time.

In addition to the dancing, there were a few specific parts of the reception that still needed to happen. First was the cake cutting, occurring roughly and hour after dinner concluded. The song Matt and Ashley chose to cut the cake was I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) by The Four Tops. About 45 minutes later, they had some more fun with Generations Dances and a Bouquet and Garter Toss. The married couples in the house all gathered on the dance floor as we little-by-little found out who had been married the longest. The songs that they all danced to were At Last by Etta James and The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra. Directly following the Generations Dances, Ashley gathered all of her single friends on the dance floor as she tossed the bouquet to Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) by Beyonce and Matt gathered his single guy friends to toss as well to the song Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top.

As the night wore on, it was finally time to pack up and head out of Buffalo. For our lovely couple, they were
eventually off to their home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Matt works as the Offensive Line Coach for the
Augustana College Vikings football team. For Salt City Sound Machine, it was back to Syracuse to rest up for an even longer trip in the days ahead. However, mattbacoulis_ashleykanavy_withdj before everyone went their separate ways, it was time for the final dance of the night. Matt and Ashley opted to have the final song be DJ’s Choice, so Salt City Sound Machine chose the Justin Timberlake/Michael Jackson remake of Love Never Felt So Good, with Poppin’ My Collar mixed into the end to allow Matt, Ashley, and their friends to dance a bit more to a song they love. And that, ladies and gentleman, marked the end of the Bacoulis wedding.