Wedding Music Tip #15

Ah...Long Island. Home of the Devils, celebrity summer haunts and a plethora of wedding venues.

Ten Strings is no stranger to Long Island weddings, be it the Woodbury Country Club or the beach at Montauk. In June, I was asked to join an ensemble performing for a wedding near Farmington. A wedding on a Friday afternoon in June. I feel it's necessary, in view of the following disastrous happenings, to stress this important detail.

The leader of the ensemble rented a zip car and suggested we leave Manhattan around 3 p.m. for the five o'clock ceremony. This gave us an hour and a half to arrive and set up, ample enough time given that mapquest estimated our travel time to be forty-five minutes. As the saying goes, "The best laid plans of mice and men...." Once we were on the road, the female voice eerily speaking through the GPS recalculated our travel time by a few hours. Three to be exact. As our fearless leader fielded frantic calls from the bride and searched blackberry travel apps for a shorter route, I had the sinking feeling we weren't going to make it in time to play the prelude music. Traffic was hell and the GPS lady kept cheerfully adding hours to our travel time.

The ensemble tried to stay positive, asserting that most of the wedding guests were almost surely stuck in the same hell-binding traffic, but we knew we were in for it when the bride called to say they were going ahead with the ceremony--they could wait for the musicians no longer. We were still--thanks to the helpful information provided by our friend stuck in the GPS system--thirty minutes away. We arrived in time to play the cocktail hour.

Wedding Tip #15: Never underestimate traffic on the L.I.E. during the summer, especially Friday afternoons. Vendors should allow two--if not three--times as much travel time as normal to avoid missing the show! After all, a wedding ceremony isn't a dress rehearsal.

Until the next wedding,

Alice Hamlet, Director
www.tenstringsmusicstudio.com