Wedding Ceremony Harpist, Columbus Park Refectory, Chicago

Set up and ready to play at the Columbus Park Refectory.

I loved, loved, loved this venue. It is sort of a covered portico area off the back of a classic Chicago Park District building (rental info here).  It is brick with huge archways and a lovely view to a pond off in one direction. Additionally, there are bathrooms and some other rooms for the bridal party to use attached, and they all seemed to be in good shape. I was able to nestle myself in towards the back of the area where I had a good view of the processional, and even had a wind block to keep my music from blowing around. 

The view from the front!

The ceremony included some ideas I had not seen before, too. The biggest one, for me, was the use of the mothers of the bride and groom as flower girls!!!!  Yep.  Genius, right?  I always try and get an idea of who is in the processional, but I also allow for the fact that it is changeable, because, well, experience. I saw some little flower petal baskets and I had no knowledge of there being flower girls, so I asked. The baskets were for the moms! It was one of those ideas that was appealing in practice, too. Many times the mothers look a little ill at ease at a wedding, and who can blame them? Their duties are usually broad, difficult, and frequently hard to define. These moms looked relaxed and seemed really into it as they threw down some petals.  Go moms!

My accompaniment for the recessional (well, one of them)!!

For the recessional, I was to play the Iz version of Over The Rainbow. Sometimes this can be a hard choice to make work for recessional, due mostly to the fact that the harp is imitating the ukulele, not known as a powerhouse of sound.  Turned out not to be a problem here. The bridal couple had the most adorable little angel ceramic bells that they had given as favors to their guests, and everyone chimed in with their bells as I played the recessional. I wish I had a recording; it was a really charming, festive sound.

Need some support for your special ideas? Email me at reneewilsonharp@gmail.com!