Yesterday, I had the wonderful privilege of playing for my first family wedding. My cousin Laura was a beautiful bride, and I was so happy to be a part of her special day. I've played for a lot of weddings, but as this was the first wedding I've ever done for family, I was surprised at how emotional I found myself over the ceremony. As I watched the sanctuary filling with family I was able to pour myself into my music as my own personal gift of love to both the bride and our extended family.
This was also the first time during a wedding ceremony that I have been asked to perform the special music all by myself. Some couples have asked for a vocalist or instrumentalist, while many others simply opt not to have special music. But Laura and Tony asked me to perform one of their favorite songs, "Your Hand in Mine" by the group Explosions in the Sky. It is written for guitar, so finding a piano transcription and then adapting it to fit within the space of ~4 minutes was interesting, but so worth it!
My musical contribution to the wedding was my gift to the bride and groom, but that didn't stop Laura's mother from writing me a lovely card and passing along an Amazon giftcard as a token of thanks. I'm going to be visiting the music section of Amazon.com later this week to purchase some more music books for myself as a special treat- I can't wait!
Have you ever played for a family wedding? Did you find yourself more involved emotionally in the ceremony?
No comments:
Post a Comment