In January we braved the icy, snowy roads to head all the way down to the Royal Marine’s Museum in Southsea (as we’re all Southsea gals it wasn’t too far too go, which was a good thing in that weather!) to play at the Whiting’s Wedding.
We have played at the Marine’s Museum in Southsea several times before, and always enjoy it for its sense of history and occasion there. It is also right around the corner from our houses so we love the fact that we can be there in 5 minutes door to door :-0
We were booked to play for the ceremony itself, and also the drink reception afterwards. When we arrived, we were taken upstairs by the staff at the Marine’s Museum in Southsea, where they informed us that the ceremony was to take place in the space upstairs. The Whitings had rather a lot of guests, so there was little space for us to sit. Therefore, we set ourselves up on the staircase at the Museum! Fortunately for us, it is one of those double staircases which splits into two directions in the middle, so we commandeered one half of the staircase and the guests and bridal party could use the other half. We normally sit down when we are playing, but we decided it was only practical to stand on the stair case. We thought we looked quite dramatic spread out up the staircase!
We played Adele’s Make You Feel My Love for the entrance of the bride, which is a lovely arrangement by Anna that we always enjoy playing. If you listen to Adele’s version it has a lot of strings accompanying it naturally so it sounds great in a quartet arrangement.
After the Whitings had said their vows, they progressed back down the stairs for the photos and were joined by their guests for photos. We then entertained during the drinks reception and enjoyed playing some of the requests from the Bride and Groom, who had requested some of our newer repertoire (Amy Winehouse’s Rehab, and Bruno Mars’ Marry Me.)
The Father of the Bride was very chatty and seemed to be enjoying our music so much, he even requested that we played Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Now, we love playing this piece, but we are sometimes unsure whether we should ever play it at a wedding, unless it is requested of course! We were happy to oblige.
The photographers for this wedding were Steve Goodall who kindly shared some of the photos he’d taken of the quartet with us. Steve offers very competitively priced photography for weddings, so check him out!
We played for a short amount of time in the dinner, but then our time was up and we began to pack up. As we were leaving the Father of The Bride asked us if we could stay for a little longer during the dinner, as the guests had been enjoying our music. We negotiated a price for this, and we were happy to stay for a little while longer! When booking us, think carefully about how long you might need us for, and what music will replace us when we leave. However, if you decide on the day you might like us for a longer, have a chat with us on the day. We will obviously have to charge a fee to stay a little longer, but if we have no commitments afterwards then we are usually happy to stay! 🙂