Prelude to the Kiss!

The closer we get to the wedding the more I’m starting to stress about the budget. I know my dad has finally figured out how he’s paying for all this, so I don’t want to start tacking on dollar signs here and there. The problem is that now is when little things are starting to pop up, like the fact that we don’t have music for our ceremony.

The actual ceremony should be fairly short, but that doesn’t mean our people (aka guests) should have to sit in silence while they way for the whole shebang to start.

But the thought of hiring a string quartet for around an hour, just doesn’t seem cost effective. As it turns out, finding good musicians costs a pretty penny. I’ve been trying not to think about the music situation and just hope that it’ll work itself out…

Well low and behold, the other day when Kenny and I were cleaning house, he broke the silence by turning on some music. But not just any music; he put this particular song on:

After a few measures into the song, I dropped the pots and pans in the sink and ran into the living room. “Is this the Beatles?” I asked him, already knowing the answer. We weren’t even halfway through “Come Together” when I realized it was the perfect answer to the music problem.

My decision was even more solidified when I heard the next song. There’s a scene in Love Actually at the end of the first wedding when they walk down the aisle to their friends playing the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” on different instruments. As awesome as I think that would be, I don’t know that many friends who play different instruments, but now that I have this song, I think it may just do the trick.

Just listening to those songs again makes me giddy! My idea is to either buy some songs and make my own mix to play while the guests are finding their seats. Hopefully people will be able to tell what some of the songs are—and hopefully the sound system in our little chapel doesn’t suck!

It turns out that Vitamin Records produces the Vitamin String Quartet—a quartet that remakes songs into modern quartet versions. They have more than 180 albums out of remixes from bands like AC/DC, Maroon Five, Death Cab for Cutie, Tool, Incubus, No Doubt, and the list goes on and on and on…Genius! (They even have four wedding collections: The Gay Wedding Collection, The Gothic Wedding Collection, The Modern Wedding Collection, and The Rock ‘n Roll Wedding Collection).

Along with the songs below, I’ll probably include the following VSQ songs on our mix, and when I have time to go through the rest of the 3,476 songs I found on iTunes, I’m sure this list will grow.
“I’m Yours” Jason Mraz
“Brown Eyed Girl” Van Morrison
“God Only Knows” Beach Boys
“Maybe I’m Amazed” Paul McCartney

I’m going to test out the acoustics in the chapel in February, and hopefully if they’re not all that great my brother can rig something to make it sound better. What do you think of this faux string quartet idea?