Wedding Ceremony and Reception Harpist at Home in Glencoe; Also, Two Brides!!!

The beautiful Glencoe backyard setting

Okay, just fair warning, I was so excited about this wedding.  Granted, I am a huge wedding geek and get excited about all of them, but this one really was amazing.  For those of you who keep track of such things, marriage equality just arrived in Illinois this Spring, so that alone had me pretty excited.  I have been playing commitment ceremonies and domestic partnership ceremonies before now, but I do enjoy having an easy-to-use, one size fits all sort of arrangement.  Additionally, it has been super fun working with long time couples who didn't necessarily think a proper wedding was in their immediate future, but here we all are!  So now to the details of this particular wedding....

The brides chose mostly classical music for their service, with one very cool exception.  One of the brides recorded herself singing "Can't Help Falling in Love With You" a cappella (or without accompaniment). When it was time for the bridal couple to come down the aisle, they paused on the back porch of the home, and the recording was played as a surprise for the other bride.  I joined in and provided harp accompaniment for the last verse, and then transitioned into just a snippet of "Here Comes the Bride", before playing Canon in D.  After the ceremony, I stayed and played love songs while everyone had a glass of champagne before heading out for dinner.  It was truly a lovely celebration! 

Visit my website (www.ChicagoWeddingHarpist.com) for music ideas, or call me to see if we can work out something really special for your ceremony!

My New Toy

Waiting around for the official May start of the Chicago wedding season is always a little difficult.  I know I could make a great case for how lovely and magical a January ceremony would be but, unfortunately for me, not many of my clients would agree.  Well, this year I have a great toy to help me while away the days waiting for wedding season...... my new field recorder!  In the past, I have been recording directly into my computer which was located in a small office in our house.  The room was merely 10' by 10', and with all hard surfaces my big harp very easily overwhelmed the equipment.  I found myself having to play very softly, and I never felt that the recordings represented my real sound very well. No more.  My field recorder (pictured above) has moved me all the way into the living room!  Okay, granted, it isn't a very exotic location, but it is bigger, and the sound doesn't bounce around so much as to be a problem.  I am able to play out at my normal volume, and I think you will be able to get a better idea of what I really sound like.  I have been adding several recordings a week, and hope to continue the process through June when the kids get out of school and the house gets noisy. If there is something you think you'd like to hear, drop me an email and let me know!


Here are links to the 3 pages that I have been adding recordings to:
Processionals
Interludes
Recessionals