arkitrave :: log

My wife and I played for a wedding yesterday (violin and piano, see twistduo.com); it was outdoors, in front of the famous Kleinhans Music Hall of Eero and Eliel Saarinen. We have a track record of no rain in over four years of playing for weddings. Yesterday threatened to break our streak of good fortune. It was overcast for most of the day. Not just overcast; that thick, heavy feeling of overcast where a downpour could happen any second. But the rain held off through the afternoon.

The wedding was at 6:00. We set up the keyboard across the reflecting pool (anyone who thinks Modern architecture was all cold and heartless should read Saarinen’s waxing eloquent about the reflecting pool) from the wedding itself, and hoped (there was no cover for the instruments if rain happened). We played the prelude, the wind giving us some problems keeping the music open and on the stands. The wedding got started a few minutes late, as the judge was delayed. We finally got the thumbs up about eight after the hour, and played the processional music for the bridesmaids. Still no rain. The bridesmaids got to the front, and we switched music for the bride’s procession, for which she had requested “Here Comes the Sun.”

[Sidebar: one bridesmaid didn’t know that The Beatles was the processional music - I think she was expecting “Here Comes the Bride,” or something more, well, nuptual…so, for the first half of the song, she was motioning to me across the water, making horrified faces, and mouthing “BRIDE!” repeatedly, to which I simply nodded my head in understanding, smiled, and continued to play. It took her way too long to figure out that everything was under control and the musicians hadn’t simply run amok.]

So, we played “Here Comes the Sun,” the bride processed, and, just seconds later, a huge cloudbreak happened, and the sun streamed down for the duration of the ceremony (it was a 5-minute “do you? yes. do you? yes. great.” ceremony). It was gorgeous—the wedding party was beautifully reflected in the pool, the dresses sparkled, the judge even looked good.

As soon as the wedding party recessed, the clouds returned.

All in a day’s work.