Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Another Wedding

This past Saturday I played another wedding. This one was quite different from the last. For starters, it was indoors at a church. The bride originally hired us as a duo - violin and cello, but when we got into her musical preferences, I knew we were going to have to get creative. She wanted all of her ceremony music to be from the movie "Love Actually." Now, I never saw that movie but I was pretty sure she wasn't going to achieve her desired effect with a violin and cello!(It is kind of amazing to me how many people hear strings in music and think that one or two instruments can somehow sound like the full orchestra version...) We had several discussions about how to choose appropriate music that was still meaningful to her and also unique. Thankfully our cellist is also a pianist, so we were able to play a prelude of cello/violin duos and then Kelly moved to the piano to facilitate the movie scores! We covered "Love Actually," "The Sound of Music," "Quest for Camelot" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Quite a range there, and although it wouldn't be my style for a wedding ceremony, I think it turned out quite nicely.
We only had a couple of minor incidents this weekend.
1. Even though we talked very specifically with the Aunt who was directing, she still sent the mothers down on the wrong song...in fact I really don't know how she got so confused. She was supposed to give us a wave and then wait for us to get to the piano. We were still playing prelude music (violin/cello) which we had to wrap up mid-song and scramble to the piano so at least 1 of the 4 mothers could walk in to the song the bride had chosen.
2. During the sand ceremony/communion we played a song that also included the groom's step-sister on the flute. She was really pretty accomplished but she was extremely nervous and thus she played it very differently than she had in our practice sessions beforehand. Unfortunately for me, my A string went flat and I didn't realize it until the song had begun. Imagine putting your finger down to play a note and having the note not be the one you were expecting. It was challenging, to say the least, for me to try to play in tune. It was such an odd feeling only to be partially "in control" of the music I was producing.

5 comments:

The Budget Mommy: said...

How many weddings do you play on average?

Anonymous said...

We saw Love Actually, and I don't think we cared for it that much. It was one of those ensemble casts that usually falls much lower than expectations.

Ldani said...

Not to be too dense, but what is a sand ceremony?

Also to offer another opinion, we saw Love Actually and loved it. It weaves all the individual stories together really well. It is a little graphic though; I wouldn't watch it with a young person.

j.j. said...

A sand or salt ceremony takes the place of the unity candle and its supposed symbolism. The bride and groom each pour some sand from separate bottles into one container. I think it is supposed to symbolize how your lives are now one and cannot be separated - just like it would be impossible to separate grains of sand or salt...

j.j. said...

Weddings...it is hard to say how many "on average." Spring and summer are usually busiest - this past July I had 5 in 4 weekends. Then some months there will be only one, or maybe none.