Kristen M. asks: I know a sound system is included with my reservation – can you tell me about the sound system and what I need to plan for when using it?
MaryAnn says: “For your ceremony music, our included sound system has the ability to play CDs and from an MP3 player – whether that be a phone, iPod, tablet, etc. All of our CD players have the ability to hold more than one CD so if your songs happen to be on different CDs, that’s not a problem! We provide microphones as well. We offer one lapel microphone for your officiant and one handheld microphone for readings or vows so that your guests can hear you! We take care of the volume of the microphones and the fading out/changing of songs.
“When it comes to videography, you will want to make sure your videographer provides their own recording devices and equipment as they cannot hook into our system to record sound. Our systems are built into the Castle and wired throughout, with inputs limited to our music devices and microphones. If you are having a live ceremony musician, they will also want to provide their own amp or speaker system to hook into.
“For your reception, we do not recommend that our sound system become a replacement for a DJ or Band entertainment. The systems do not have the controls to easily adjust levels song-to-song, and their locations do not make it convenient to easily switch playlists or songs throughout the reception. They can be used for cocktail hour or dinner music quite easily, where one continuous playlist of similar music will play for an extended time. If you do choose to hook into our system for the reception in place of a DJ or Band, you will want to designate someone in your party to act as Emcee to make announcements as to what events are coming up next (toasts, cake cutting, etc) and to control the music playlists if songs need to be switched at any point.”