Celebrating a celebrity wedding with all-white AV systems

Spotlight Sound is no stranger to providing sound and lighting for high-profile events. The diversity of our work takes us from stage set-ups in fields to the prestigious London Football Awards at the mid-century Camden Roundhouse. However, to get the call from Olly Murs’ wedding planners, Alice Wilkes Design, to partner with them for Essex’s wedding of the year to celebrate the marriage of Olly Murs and his partner Amelia Tank. The team agreed it was a particular highlight.

The venue was Osea Island, a 380-acre Island situated off the Essex coast and owned by music mogul Nigel Frieda. It has been the location for numerous films including The Woman in Black and HBO’s The Third Day, starring Jude Law. It also hosts numerous corporate weekends and is a short break destination.

Spotlight Sound was in charge of the sound and lighting for the wedding weekend, which included a welcome BBQ, the wedding ceremony, the drinks reception and band, the glass marquee wedding breakfast and speeches, the evening disco, and the late-night party at the ‘Bomb Factory’ which was DJ’d by Heart FM’s Toby Anstis and had an all-black theme. The company also produced the Sunday festival stage with Olly Murs’ band, DJ Pandora and surprise guest Craig David all playing sets. 

We worked on the lighting design with the wedding planners, closely tailoring it to their mainly all-white theme and mood. This meant that we sourced and used all white equipment including D&B Audiotechnik speakers, and Sennheiser wireless microphone systems. We chose these particular brands because we knew that they would fit perfectly with the design of the glass marquee which housed a white stage, white flower wall, and white DJ booth as well as producing the best quality audio reproduction. We also had to take into consideration the ambient and accent lighting needed for the wedding weekend. For the drinks reception and the late-night party, Spotlight used KV2 sound systems. The colour palette was integrated into the Robe lighting which was used throughout the weekend for state-of-the-art lighting effects. In particular, this gave the proceedings an almost stadium-like effect at times…

We have worked on Osea Island as the chosen production partner for many years and we know the island and its buildings inside out. Taking into consideration the layout and location of the different parts of the wedding weekend we knew instinctively what sound and lighting equipment would creatively work and what site limitations there would be.

There were certainly challenges. The first was access to the island. It can only be accessed by a one-mile causeway from the mainland for four hours once every 12 hours. However, when the tide comes in the causeway is underwater and, therefore, not usable. Then, the only way to access the island is by boat.

We worked with other suppliers to ensure that our equipment all made it onto the island to ensure we could all meet the build time. An island can be a windy place and Osea Island is no exception. The Saturday of the wedding weekend was possibly the windiest day of the year and this did cause issues for the build. We had to ensure the safety of all the people working on the island as well as the guests. It meant that the wedding party was delayed going into the glass marquee due to the high winds. It also meant that no one could work on the festival stage until the winds had died down. This put a delay on the build but everyone worked through it with professionalism and dedication and it did not negatively impact the wedding or wedding party. 

Spotlight Sound is proud to have helped to design and produce the lighting and sound for the spectacular nuptials of one of the nation’s sweethearts and his new wife. 

Sam Dimond is founder of Spotlight Sound.