The Music

There was so much more to the music than I thought. (Oh boy, big surprise!) Actually, plans weren't even concrete until about two months before the wedding. The main thing to know is that you need music for the Recption and the Ceremony. (Which is something I worked on late in my planning.) For the reception, I knew I wanted a DJ as opposed to a band. (Sorry, but I not a fan of wedding singers or bands that do a bunch of lame covers.) Besides, I definitely wanted dance music. Not just jazz or rock but something with a dancey beat! And for the ceremony, read on.

The Successes...

The Ceremony Music
I was too busy thinking about hiring a DJ for the reception, that it wasn't until the one I decided on, asked if I needed him for the ceremony, that it dawned on me... I needed ceremony music! I knew that I wanted my friend Carol to sing a beautiful song she wrote, but I hadn't asked her! It was always in the back of my head, but I'd never mentioned it. Luckily, she didn't mind the last-minute request and agreed to sing. Originally, she thought she could get back up and harmony from my brother Rommel. (Who helped her record her CD) but alas, he went back to his home and family in the Philippines. Instead, we asked my other brother, Ron to accompany her. It's a good thing we have such a talented family!  :)

Favors
Music has always been a part of my family. All of us can either sing, dance, or play an instument, so as favors, I thought to give out personalized CD's with romantic music and even a little message that Doyle and I recorded. This was done with the help of my sister, Rhoda. Doyle and I chose 5 songs that meant something to us and Rhoda "burned" each song on a CD for us. She burned 75 CD's for me! This was a great favor and a great favor that Rhoda did for us. (get it? it was a play on the word "favor" as in a little gift and something nice to do... never mind, I think you get it. :)  Anyway, I took the same frog/flower picture that was on our invitation and used that as the front cover for the CD. Inside, I had linar notes with the titles of the songs, and a little sentence describing what that song meant to us. On the back was a picture of Doyle and me, with a Thank you note. The cd favor was a hit. I was also thinking of using them as place cards, but at the VERY last minute, I decided not to have a seating chart. I just ran out of time trying to figure that out.

Reception Tunes
I knew from the beginning that were were going to hire a DJ and the hardest part about that is trying to find one that you'll like. I've heard a lot of stories about DJ's playing music you didn't want to hear, DJ's who talked too much, DJ's who didn't notice that no-one was out on the dance floor and DJ's who only played "house" music regardless that the a whole section of people were waiting for something to their taste. To make life a lot easier on me, I talked to a friend that recently had a wedding and asked about their DJ. Apparently, they got a recommendation that they had heard at a relatives's wedding, and they got them from another friend or relative's wedding... basically, they've done a lot of weddings and everyone was pleased. To make sure that I liked their music, I asked to borrow their wedding video! They loaned me a copy, I watched the reception and hired their DJ, Cheray Entertainment. They were great and they forgave me for giving them the wrong directions.

The Glitch...

Ceremony
Other than my last minute request, the only other glitch about the ceremony music was that I also wanted some traditional music for the prelude (while everyone is being seated) and recessional (something to go down the aisle with, after the "man and wife" proclamation. I figured that I would simply solve that by using a wedding cd full of music choices and using a portable cd player. That wasn't the dilema though. I didn't figure out until the rehearsal dinner that someone had to press the "on" button! Luckily, my brother who was singing was available to do that for me. It was funny, because when I asked him to do it, he ask quizzically, "What do you mean you need me to press 'on'?" If was an odd request, but someone had to do it! It also helped that we had a programmable cd player, so we didn't have to fuss with the music selections too much.


Reception
Although we were very casual about our DJ, we should've gone over a few things with him. He had a great form to fill out listing "special announcements", such as birthdays and anniversaries, "special dances" and "special requests" (which was important, because Doyle did not want to 'Chicken Dance' or 'Hokey Pokey'. For the birthday announcement, he had the birthday girl/guy stand up and we all sang happy birthday. There was also a special dance for Doyle's mom & dad since it was their anniversary. But he'd announced someone's birthday that couldn't attend. Whoops, a bit of an awkward moment.

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