Swing & Soul Wedding Entertainment at Sketchley Grange

I have to really like a bride to allow her to book Adam to perform on his own birthday... Rebecca Kinnersley was one such bride!

At the time of booking, Rebecca's fiance Sean was posted in Afghanistan and she was handling most of the wedding planning alone. She knew what she wanted and what she liked but was always so lovely and endearing... My favourite qualities in a bride!

The Big Day at Sketchley Grange

On their big day itself, they were both really easy going and Rebecca looked truly radiant. Every wedding is unique and, for me, the three things that stood out most with this wedding was the beautiful pink flowers on the tables (hopefully a picture will follow), the quirky barbecue (rather than a buffet) it looked scrummy ;) (the head chef at Sketchley Grange really knows what he's doing!) and Rebecca's stunning dress, of course!

The First Dance... Chasing Cars

When it came to their wedding entertainment, they had opted for Chasing Cars as their first dance followed by a very unusual choice: Kiss with a Fist by Florence and the Machine! Very different!!

Adam's live performances kicked off with a little bit of Michael Buble and swing but the second set was slightly adapted to include a few of the numbers that we've been performing in our brand new Soul show: Forget You (Cee Lo Green) and Hey Ya (Outkast)... Both were greatly received as always with lots of Polaroid picture shaking done by all ;)

The evening was over in a flash with both the bride and groom dancing for the entire night. The dance floor was overflowing all night with the wedding party boogie-ing to everything from The Specials to Rihanna, Ultra-Nate to Dirty Dancing... We really love couples with eclectic tastes and crowds that love 90's dance! (Adam used to love all that stuff you see!)

Adam thoroughly enjoyed his birthday too as they were such a wonderful audience and it really felt that we were surrounded by family and friends anyway... They even sang happy birthday to him at the end of the night! Ah bless!

Here's to Rebecca & Sean, we wish you all the happiness in the world, thank you for letting us be such a big part of your day :) x x x

The Leicester Wedding Club

Adam and I recently attended the newly formed “Leicester Wedding Club” which took place at The City Rooms in Leicester city centre; the club is the brainchild of Leah Spicer who owns a lovely stationery company called Golden Apple. Having attended various networking events, she really wanted to attend something which was specifically wedding related... when she couldn’t find anything she decided to set up her own club!

The first event was a huge success and Leah was totally bowled over by the number of us that attended! It’s certainly the first time that we’ve ever had to queue to get into The City Rooms! It was a lovely opportunity to meet up with a few people that we already knew and a great opportunity to meet with new people in the business. There were too many people to mention all in one post so, if you would like to see a full list of the attendees, visit their facebook page here: Leicester Wedding Club’s site. We do however have a couple of people to mention here and I may well do a complete write up on them in a forthcoming blog post… so watch this space.

First off is Ricky Dicky Cards: we’re a big fan of his, firstly because he is so funny (and he lets us take the mickey out of him!) but secondly because he’s a fantastic graphic designer who specialises in stationery. We think his designs are really original and love his passion and enthusiasm for what he does.

Secondly we must mention the girls from Save the Date: the magazine is a relatively new concept for Weddings and Events in the East Midlands and our meeting with Lydia and Abbi was short but very sweet. May I also just say that they’re very glamourous ladies who put all of us to shame! They were on their way to the “Rock n Roll Bride” party in London (which all you Twitterers out there will know is quite a big deal!) We hope to be able to work with lots them in the future.

Like I said, there’s far too many to mention here, but we’ll certainly be checking in with a few more in future blog posts and hopefully meeting again at the next Leicester Wedding Club event. We’re really looking forward to it Leah!

A Singing Snooker Star is Born! Introducing "The Selby Thomas Show!!"

The new Mr and Mrs Selby...

We first met Mark Selby and the then Vikki Layton after we had performed our Swing Show with our lovely dancers at a fancy corporate event at Leicester City's King Power Stadium in 2009. We immediately began talking about music, singing and even about Mark performing in our Toast & Jam project (more about that at a later date!) 

I'd heard on the grapevine that Mark was a very keen singer and anyone who has been to a karaoke bar in Leicester city centre has probably heard him singing his personal favourites: Dean Martin's "Kick In The Head," Elton John's "Your Song" and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars to name just a few!

Click here to watch the HD larger scale of the video from the Adam Thomas Channel on Vimeo.

Mr Selby to the stage please... 

Mark & Adam had chatted quite a lot before the big day and it had been decided that a duet was in order (although this remained a surprise for 198 of the 200 guests!) Three quarters of the way through his set, Adam began performing "Kick in the Head" but was rudely interrupted by another singer at the bar! ;)

As you can see from the video their duet went down a storm, as did the remainder of the set, and there was even a short encore from Mark during New York, New York!

Great feedback

The evening was a huge success and I'm sure that everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly. It was great to see the video footage of the ceremony itself played on the screens around the room (although they did make us all jealous parading around in Mexico!)

It was a great night with a fantastic crowd and we both wish Mark and Vikki all the luck in the world. We're so glad to have been a part of their day... "Thank You!" x x x

-- For those of you that are particularly nosey then you can also view Mark and Vikki's wedding slideshow taken in Mexico here.

Can-Can-ing in Cannes with Can Can Dancers!

Not many can say that they’ve done a Can-Can in Cannes… but Adam and his dancers now can!

Adam and his dancers were flown out exclusively by French production company HYPEvent to perform at their Soirée Spectaculaire on April 6th. We were told that the venue, the wonderful Plage 45, was near to the beach… it was actually on the beach!! A truly stunning venue where only the best of the best get to hang out and, naturally, we fitted right in!! (Ahem!)

The lovely Sally and Grace from Hotcow, an experimental marketing company, (yep, you heard it right!) had organised the entire event to coincide with the MIPTV - a big thing in tv land, held in Cannes every year where production companies get a chance to sell their wares, and mahoosive TV production company Endemol, our client, was doing just that, showcasing their new shows for all to see.

Adam and his stunning can-can dancers were asked to create a real buzz in the main arena with short and sharp performances throughout the evening to wow the guests - and wow them they did! The girls even had a ball presenting the ‘Million Pound Drop’ to over 700 potential clients: we think that our dancer Claire Murphy may even be the new, all improved Davina – she was awesome!!

It’s a shame that their fun had to end with two ten-minute Can-Can performances! Yep, TWO TEN MINUTE CAN-CANS! The reception from the audience was simply phenomenal and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all but four girls within the venue!! :)  Apparently the girls enjoyed it until about half way through each and then felt that their legs were about to fall off! Such light weights, they should try doing my job at some point - all this typing, I mean, it really hurts your fingers after a while!! ;)

Well done Adam and the girlies (Sarah, Sarah, Claire and Keily)

Gary @ SMD Photography Surprises Us All!

There isn’t anyone on this earth that enjoys having their photos taken and anyone that says they do is, quite simply, telling fibs!!

Gary setting up the shoot. He looks a bit lost doesn't he!?

It’s a truly painful experience for me with real moments of distress (mainly because you know that you look good, quite stunning perhaps, and yet the camera seems to see a distorted reality and makes you look nothing short of horrendous!!) Damn you cameras, lenses, tripods and other photographic tools and equipment!!


For most people this pain is (thankfully) restricted to their wedding day and the odd social gathering and, if the photo doesn’t reflect their beauty, they can simply delete it (or ask a friend to remove a tag!)

Adam appears to be measuring something? Gary finds it funny

Up until last Friday I had similar fears. As part of a new project that we’re launching (watch this space... secretive so-and-so’s aren’t we!) I was invited to join Adam, along with Tom Francis (a fellow dancer) at his latest photo shoot. I was overcome with dread. It’s OK for Adam… he has several great shoots under his belt already (check out his amazing photo shoot from last year with Michael Scorr and Martin Wright) and knowing how photogenic Adam is simply made me feel worse!


I wasn’t to know that the aforementioned fears were soon to be allayed…

Oh, very Hugo Boss

Dark and distinguised

In a disused industrial unit in the north of Leicester, as the rest of the Midlands basked in the freakish heat wave that we’ve been enjoying recently, something magical took place: Gary Summers of SMD Photography spent his Good Friday creating some of the most amazing images ever… really, WOW!

Adam Thomas Stylings!

Gary is the kind of photographer that is equally comfortable shooting a wedding as snapping live entertainment or fashion photography and he’s also our newly found best bud and a photographic genius! His honest, kind demeanour alongside his energy and passion for photography made the whole experience a real treat.

Tom never did learn how to walk properly.

The atmosphere was immediately relaxed and the three of us found our feet immediately. As well as shots of the three of us, Gary took some spectacular solo images of each of us and, keep it to yourselves but, he even made me look human! His ideas were really wacky and out of the box… luckily we are too and I think that’s why we get on! ;)

I can actually take a lovely photo, Yay!!
With such killer shots to show for the day, the next sets of images are already in the pipeline! Gary was absolutely fantastic and the pictures were so much more than we could have ever expected… thanks so much Gary, it was a real pleasure working with you, you’re the man!

Jude Law-esque??

You can follow Gary on Twitter @photographySMD, on Facebook or you can keep up to date with all his many happenings on his great blog

Ohhh!

And finally... a taste of things to come!!!!!!!! Geek chic?? Really!!

An Eric Morecombe Tribute show maybe?