They'll Make Great Music Together

It's always interesting when a couple of musicians get married, because music will work its way into the ceremony in ways that it probably wouldn't do for mere listeners. A few years ago, I attended a jazz-dominated wedding where a live combo replaced the organ and choir for the ceremony and played at the reception as well. Last night, I attended a wedding of one of my former combo students/occasional bandmates and a vocalist/choir director, and, once again, music ruled the day in a unique way:

• Once again, no organ was involved. The entire ceremony featured a capella choral music, mostly done in jazz harmony. The performers were a group of students from our collective alma mater (meaning the bride and groom, as well as myself), and a group that was a hodgepodge of the bride's colleagues and former students. The vocals sounded beautiful in the big sanctuary where the wedding was held.


• In the Oddball Trivia Department, the bride in the '05 wedding linked above was the matron of honor for today's ceremony, and I sat right next to today's wedding couple at the '05 event.


• At the reception, during the traditional dance between bride and father, the song was something that the bride herself had sung and recorded especially for the occasion. (When recounting this story for someone at lunch today, they were under the misconception that the bride had sung the song live while dancing! Now that would've been a trick...)


• This was the first time I had ever seen a party DJ armed with just a MacBook, a microphone and a speaker system...but evidently, all the cool kids are doing that now. There's even some software that allows cross-fading. It went off without a hitch, and I'm sure it was a lot easier to carry the equipment around this way.


• I didn't get to catch the garter this time. The groom gave it a bit of an early release, and it flew under everyone's outstretched hands and under one of the tables, where it was retrieved by a middle-school-aged kid. (This was just as well, I suppose, because the bridal bouquet was caught by a girl who couldn't be much older than four.


• I have to give out props to the kid (who had to be about 12) who went around asking a lot of the older women to dance with him...and generally succeeding. I wish I'd had that much courage in that area when I was his age. (He may have been the garter-catcher as well.)

All the best goes out to Andrew and his new bride, the blogger-on-hiatus who's now the former Ms. Worley.

And speaking of marriages: Happy 12th anniversary to my sister and brother-in-law, Kristen and Justin. According to this site, the traditional material for the 12th is silk, and some others add linen. (As I was telling a few folks last night, their wedding day in '96 was a very busy day for me too, as I was both a groomsman and the bandleader, but it was an experience I'll never forget.)

All caught up: Despite the relaxed college schedule, I got behind in posting again. Please catch the now-finished posts from the last three days:

• THURSDAY: Another school outlaws touching among its students.


• FRIDAY: Is $4 gas really a bargain?


• SATURDAY: Your humble host finds multiple saxblogging over at Althouse. Plus, some Animal Stories.

I'll try to be more on top of things this week.