Daniel Green is the front man for an events cover band – Me And Mr Brown. In that capacity, Dan gets to go to a hell of a lot of weddings. Every week, we’ll be bringing you a fresh piece of insight by Dan on weddings, and the wedding industry. Take it away, Dan…
Something that I observed at a wedding a couple of weeks back really struck me as being rather irritating, that being what i call the “MC show”. This is when the MC of a wedding takes it upon himself to essentially make the entire reception largely about, well, himself. I’m not saying that this is a common occurrence. I’d say its about one in 15. In my book, the role of a master of ceremonies is to welcome everyone into the reception, lay down the ground rules, set out the order of events and basically tell you where the toilets are and where you can and can’t smoke. The MC will be the guy who’s not quite high up the rankings enough to be a best man but he’s a good, solid bet and a close mate. You can go tried and tested with a reliable person in your group or you might want to push the boat out a bit and give the role to someone with a bit more punch – a bit of humour and a definite crowd pleaser. In some instances, the MC might be the brother of the groom who isn’t the best man or the brother of the bride. So, for me at least, the role is quite a simple and defined one. Lay out the rules, set the tone and introduce the big hitters. If it were only so simple in everyone’s minds…
I’ve witnessed at least three MC’s in the last month alone who’ve taken it upon themselves to literally take over the reception. Okay, I’ll accept a little speech after the bride and groom have entered but what i can’t tolerate is an MC who decides to speak, to offer anecdotes about the happy couple and about his relationship with them before introducing every speaker in the evening. I even saw one MC (unnamed) the other week whose vibe was to get the whole crowd to shout out a saying on his cue about 10 times during the night, and it TOTALLY bombed.
So, rant over. If you’re a master of ceremonies at a wedding, set the tone, lay out the ground rules and steer the folks through the evening subtly and manfully. Don’t take over the whole bloody event!
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