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Wedding Music at Ston Easton Park, Somerset
Congratulations to Jenny and Tim!
It’s always great when we meet a couple beforehand. It gives us a feel for the kind of day a couple are aiming for, what kind of music they like, and more importantly what thye don’t like. It also gives us a feel for what kind of personalities they have, and Jenny and Tim took advantage of our music consultation about 6 weeks before their wedding. This allowed them to tailor their music perfectly to the day they wanted, we knew exactly what kind of music their guests would respond to, and it meant the groom had four friendly faces at the front of the ceremony with him whilst he waited for his Bride to arrive!
The sun was shining, and Jenny looked fantastic as she walked in to Pachelbel’s Canon in D. They were unsure what to pick for the registers at first, but luckily at their music consultation we were able to play them lots of samples of music, which led them to the gentle but warm sound of Elgar for this point in their day. The couple then chose the chorus from ‘We are the Champions’ by Queen to exit – an unusual choice, but it suited them down to the ground! We then hot-footed it outside, and entertained the guests with 80s and 90s classics (and a few recent chart hits) with the ocassional boogie-ing guest in the corner!
Wedding at Coombe Lodge, Blagdon
Congratulations to Elena and Simon, who were married in this stunning venue. Despite the rather blustery conditions the weather was good enough for the ceremony to be held outdoors. Elena had commissioned us to arrange the theme tune from East of Eden for her entrance, and we played GreenDay’s ‘Time of your Life’ for the signing of the registers. Guests loved our mixture of jazz and pop songs during the drinks reception, and many were seen tapping their toes and dancing when they thought we weren’t looking!
Spring has sprung!
The sun was shining as we arrived at Hatton Court for the wedding of Ciara and Christopher on 12th March. They had planned a mixture of classical and modern for their day, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves – some were definitely seen singing along to our pop requests!
1st April found us at St Marys Church in Thornbury for the beautiful spring-themed wedding of Lucy and Neil. Lucy walked down the aisle to the ever-popular Pachelbel’s Canon, which suited the long church aisle very well. After the classical grandeur of the ceremony we made our way to Kingscote Barn where we played our jazz repertoire for the champagne reception.
The following day – 2nd April – we headed to The Vale Hotel near Cardiff for the wedding of Danny and Lesley-Ann. They chose a traditional selection including the Bridal March for the ceremony, and had requested music which is ‘light-hearted and toe-tapping’ for the drinks reception, so we performed lots of our favourite jazz and pop arrangements which seemed to go down very well!
9th April and another local wedding for us, this time onboard the SS Great Britain in Bristol Harbour for the wedding of Joanna and Gareth. The couple had taken advantage of a music consultation so we had met them a few weeks earlier to help plan the music for the day. Following the ceremony we sat outside in glorious sunshine on the upper deck, entertaining guests with light jazz as the happy couple had their photos taken.
“Dear Sarah and the team, Thank you so much for helping make our wedding day so special. Your music really helped make the perfect setting. Thank you!”
Congratulations to Sara and Richard who got married on St Georges Day in Almondsbury. We were booked to provide an evening chill-out zone of soft classical and jazz music in the marquee as an alternative to the disco inside. We must congratulate the younger guests Phoebe, Lily and Lara, who danced almost continuously to our music!
February weddings
February 12th – Congratulations to Megan and James, whose wedding was at one of our favourite places – Cripps Barn. We performed for the ceremony, and then moved to a corner of the barn to play during the drinks reception.
“We just wanted to say a huge thank you for doing such a fantastic job at our wedding at Cripps Barn. We had so many compliments about the music from our guests – many of them were especially impressed by your modern repertoire, they hadn’t heard that kind of music played by a string quartet before! It was fabulous, and set the tone perfectly for the ceremony and reception. Thanks again, Megan and James”
The following day we returned to Clearwell Castle – one of our most popular locations, for the wedding of Lisa and Clinton. Following the marriage in the ballroom, we quickly relocated to the hall to entertain guests for the drinks reception.
26th February – congratulations to Katie and Iain, who married at Cwrt Bleddyn Hotel in Usk. Clearly the bride was extremely excited to be getting married – she arrived really early for the ceremony and took us a little by surprise!
Belated Happy New Year to our January couples
Still rather full of turkey and Christmas cheer, we had two lovely weddings to play for in January. Firstly on 8th we played for Husseyin and Emma’s wedding ceremony at Dormy House Hotel in Broadway. The bride had chosen a classical theme for the wedding, and decided to have Pachelbel’s Canon for her entrance and exit, so that she could hear the whole piece!
“Dear Sarah and the rest of the Quartet, Thank you so much for playing at our wedding. The music was lovely and all our guests commented on how much they enjoyed it. Many thanks again, Emma and Husseyin”
On 22nd we went to another new wedding venue for us – the stunning Brymton d’Evercy Manor – for the wedding of Emma and Jason. They had tailored the ceremony to include music from Black Beauty, and left the ceremony to the uplifting sounds of Radetsky March. Then, against an atmospheric backdrop of candlelight, we played a mixture of styles for the drinks reception and wedding breakfast.
“Dear Sarah, we just wanted to drop a note to say a huge thankyou for all your hard work on our wedding day. Everyone raved about how good you all were! Thank you, with love from Jason and Emma”
Christmas is (was!) coming…..
We’ve noticed an increasing number of winter wedding bookings over the last few years and 2010/2011 was no different. There’s something so cosy and appealing about crackling open fires, mulled wine…..not to mention all that snow!
We battled valiantly through unprecedented weather and traffic conditions to a few of our winter bookings this year, and although we twice appeared as a Trio rather than a Quartet, we did our very best to try and fulfill every booking. So here’s some belated congratulations to our winter-wedding couples:
18th December – Carly and Lee held their wedding at the Cheltenham Park Hotel, where we entertained guests with classical and Christmassy music for the ceremony and drinks. The drive home afterwards through the icy streets of Cheltenham was definitely NOT as much fun!
19th December – Rebecca and John had chosen the beautiful setting of Coombe Lodge for their wedding, and we performed for the ceremony and drinks reception.
22nd December – the first time we’ve performed as a Duo. Susie and Chris held their intimate wedding at Homewood Park in Bath. They absolutely loved our pop song arrangements – must be because the groom used to be a music journalist!
29th December – Congratulations to Victoria and Christopher. We played classical music requests for their drinks reception at Bradley House near Warminster.
30th December – we returned to one of our favourite haunts for the drinks reception of Adam and Alex at Orchardleigh House. We gave guests our first performance of Mr Blue Sky, Sweet Child of Mine and Your Song, as the groom had asked for lots of up-beat modern music.
Autumn weddings….
….are always lovely. There’s still a hint of summery weather, everyone is happy, and for us it’s still a busy time of year. So, here are some (very) long-overdue congratulations to our couples!
Amy and Sam – 18th September. Married in the beautiful church of Stalbridge in Dorset, surrounded by their friends in lovely sunshine!
Simon and Sarah – 18th September. A busy day for us! We then hot-footed it from Dorset to Lodge Park in Cirencester to play for Simon and Sarah’s evening reception in the intimate setting of Lodge Park.
Rubina and Barry – 24th September. A return to the picturesque lakeside setting of Canada Lodge to play for Rubina and Barry’s ceremony and drinks reception.
16th October – Congratulations to Grace and Jalam, married in the stunning grandeur of Walton Hall in Warwickshire.
29th October – A local wedding this weekend, Dean and Charlene (in an amazing red dress!) married in St Anne’s Church, Bristol and we then entertained their guests during drinks at the Royal Marriott Hotel.
30th October – Congratulations to Catherine and Anthony, who held their wedding in the magnificent Berkeley Castle.
5th November – Gemma and Stephen had booked us for their wedding breakfast at the Grange in Bristol. Their guests loved choosing lots of cheerful tunes from our Jukebox cards to keep everyone entertained!
20th November – Congratulations to Rebecca and Nick, married in St Julians Church, Wellow, and held their reception at a new venue for us – the Wick Farm Barn.
27th November – Francis Close Chapel in Cheltenham was a stunning setting for the marriage of Sarah and Travis – we loved the vicar’s quotes from ‘Love Actually’ during the sermon!
4th December – Lots of pop music requests from Rebecca and James, who booked us for their ceremony and drinks reception at one of our favourite local venues – Eastwood Park.
Very big apology!
Ooops…..looks like we may have been rather slack about updating this blog lately. We’re not lazy – honest! It’s just that we’re lucky to be an extremely busy Quartet, and sometimes the weeks just seem to fly by without us getting round to it! We promise, PROMISE to be better as the wedding season gets in to full swing this spring and summer.
Coming up…..a quick round-up (if a bit late) of our last few months.