Wedding Music Tip #10

Outdoor Weddings

...Outdoor Weddings and Wind.

Okay. So wind should be less fearsome than rain, but you'd be surprised.

I know I was.

My string quartet played a wedding last spring at the Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows. I don't know if you've ever been to Terrace on the Park? It's near the big globe erected for the 1939 New York World's Fair which took place in Queens (of all places). If you've seen the movie 'Men in Black' you'll know what I'm talking about. The ceremony was held outdoors on a rooftop patio, which I believe they termed an "outdoor reception chapel area in a garden setting", but where I come from that's called a patio.

The views were pretty spectacular and it was a bright sunny day. The only teensy problem was that it was chilly and very, very windy. They call Chicago the Windy City, but I'm telling you: New York can compete. The quartet set up and, knowing we were playing outdoors, brought clothespins to attach our music to the stand. Unless you want sheet music swirling around like wedding confetti, you have to pin your music to the stand when you're playing outside.

Fair enough.

It was so windy that it quickly became apparent that we needn't worry so much about the music flying off as the actual music stands taking flight. It was practically a scene out of Mary Poppins. We continued with the prelude music but grabbed the legs of our stands with our feet and tried to hold them in place in a bi-ped sort of way. I was at a disadvantage performing this maneuver with my legs already wrapped around a cello. To make things even more amusing, the temperature seemed to be dropping by the minute. I found myself trying to time the chattering of my teeth to the movement of music at hand.

One thing I feel I should mention, and quite frankly, should probably be taken into consideration before booking an outdoor wedding at this particular site: it is VERY CLOSE to LaGuardia airport. So, not only were we hypothermic and fighting to keep our stands from flying off the deck like kites, but we also had to compete with the noise of jets roaring by left, right and center. They come very close and they are very loud. There were times when I couldn't hear the other string players and had to just assume we were all still on the same measure.

Finally, when it was time to begin the ceremony, the bridesmaids appeared in short, strapless gowns. I felt for them--they must have been absolutely freezing. The ceremony lasted all of ten minutes. I am not kidding. It was the shortest wedding ceremony I have ever witnessed. Not sure whether they planned that or decided to abbreviate things due to the wind and the temperature. The bridesmaids were starting to look a little like human ice cubes and the lips of our second violinist were turning a bluish tint, so I was thankful the ceremony was succinct.


Wedding Tip #10: Wind, as well as rain, can be an issue with outdoor weddings. Make sure your musicians plan to bring accessories to hold their music in place (ie clothespins).


Until the next wedding,

Alice Hamlet, Director
www.tenstringsmusicstudio.com