Mine at Last: Notes of Rejoicing

Music is not my forte.  I love to listen and dance to it, but I've never been one to remember band names, composers, etc.  Thankfully, I was able to outsource all of the music decisions for the wedding.  You already know that the music at the reception was rocking, and when it came to the ceremony music, I punted the issue to my planner.  Ms. P found a local violinist, Lauri, for us to use as the backbone of our ceremony music.  We worked with Lauri and chose traditional pieces for the majority of the ceremony, which I'll blog about more in a future post about our programs.

Palindrome cousin, J, also plays the violin and we requested that he play a special piece for us.  He suggested Meditation from Massenet's Thais. 

J played during the seating of the grandparents and thought I couldn't see him from the back of the church, the music filled the sanctuary perfectly.

A dear friend of mine from Bucknell, E, also graciously agreed to sing with her boyfriend, S.  S is a professional opera singer, so we were really looking forward to their participation.  E offered two options for music selections.  The first was a selection that could be played as special music, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme by Bach. 

The text for the chorale is based on the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25: 1-13 and she would sing it in German. The traslated text is:

Wake, arise, the voices call us
Of watchmen from the lofty tower;
Arise, thou town Jerusalem!
Midnight's hour doth give its summons;
They call to us with ringing voices;
Where are ye prudent virgins now?
Make haste, the bridegroom comes;
Rise up and take your lamps!
Alleluia!
Prepare to join
The wedding feast,
Go forth to meet him as he comes!

The other option was for her and S to sing a duet together of The Lord Bless You and Keep You, Peter C. Lutkin. This song is the traditional blessing that the Rooke Chapel Choir sings at the end of significant services at Bucknell. The text is from Numbers 6:

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord lift His countenance upon you,
And give you peace, and give you peace;
The Lord make His face to shine upon you,
And be gracious, and be gracious;
The Lord be gracious, gracious unto you.
Amen.

I wasn't sure how I could ever choose and thankfully E suggested a third option of singing them both! Yeah, E is awesome that way.

Hearing their beautiful voices was one of my favorite parts about the ceremony. I was so happy to be marrying Mr. Palindrome and the music was like an extension of that joy.

We also had the best seats in the house as we stood on the stage since E and S sang from the balcony at the back of the church.  For the minimum amount of effort on my part, we ended up with absolutely lovely music during the ceremony thanks to Ms. P, Lauri, J, E and S. 

How is your ceremony music coming togther?  Are you being proactive, or are you taking my approach and letting others do the legwork?

*Photographs by Sam Hughes