Posted by:
enoughenoch19
(
)
Date: December 08, 2013 04:13AM
I am in the wedding industry. I attend 50+ weddings per year at least. Each wedding is different, but some things they all have in common.
I am not in Utah either, I want to say that. In my experience, there have been about 7 weddings where there was NO alcohol at all out of the past 14 years of my being in this industry. One of these are due to the fact that the groom was a recovering alcoholic and did not want to be placed in a position where it might be difficult to turn it down. Most weddings have some booze involved in the reception/dinner etc. after the ceremony. Some have mimosas BEFORE the ceremony for daytime weddings. For those of you who are Mo influenced, a mimosa is champagne with orange juice mixed in, about half and half. It is a great brunch drink. I'm not saying that people are falling down drunk (although sometimes they are), but people drink at weddings usually.
Depending on if the wedding is inside or outside, there are notable differences. Inside weddings are most often in some kind of religious building, a church or a synagogue, a few in a Buddhist Temple. The inside of a religious building weddings tend to be more formal overall than the outside weddings. This is speaking generally. We have had some quite formal outside weddings.
Most inside weddings have buffet dinners or full service sit-down dinners and most inside weddings are in the evening or in the morning. Outside weddings are 90% sometime in the afternoon.
Nearly all weddings we do have a religious officiate; a priest, rabbi, minister, pastor, etc. I would guess that 80% have a religious officiate. The other 20% have civil servants or friends perform the ceremony, two had the governor as the officiate. I am in Colorado where anyone can perform a ceremony as long as the couple as witnesses. Having said that though, most people have more of an official person doing the ceremony.
For the religious weddings (which can be inside or outside), the couple gets to have a lot in input most of the time. There are certain portions that must be said/included in the ceremony (depending on the religion) but the couples choose much of what goes on. For example, the couples choose the scriptures that are read (and usually who reads them) if scriptures are being said at all. For Catholic weddings, the priest has certain prayers and rituals associated with the ceremony and especially with the communion which are always done. But even within that more rigid structure, the couple gets some leeway. The couple gets to choose the music though (within reason) for the communion. Often it is up to the priest how strict they are about the music. We have played Guns N Roses in churches (not for communion of course) but for the recessional.
Depending on the budget, couples have from 4 (normal number) to 8 attendants each; 4 to 8 bridesmaids and 4 to 8 groomsmen. Usually there are flower girls and ring bearers. Sometimes for outside weddings dogs are involved and act as ring bearers and in one case as flower girl. One service dog for one bride was the maid of honor. It was a cool wedding.
One wedding at a fabcy resort at Aspen allowed the dog attendants into the main dining room. I'm sure thay paid dearly for that privilege.
Against everything Lay Leno holds dear, we have seen many breeds of dogs in tuxedos and fancy dresses. One of my personal favorite things to see in the entire world are young children in tuxedos and formal dresses. There is really nothing cuter, one of the true joys of being in this business.
Again depending on the budget, there are usually at least one still photographer and one videographer but usually two of each. Now that film is not involved, there are way more pictures taken.
Generally speaking for the food, roast beef (prime rib is possible) is served along with chicken or salmon. Other side dishes are tossed salad, fruit salad, some kind of potatoes of pasta and cake. Cupcakes are taking the place of regular wedding cake at many weddings because you can get many flavors (somthing for everyone). For vegetarian weddings, usually some dish with lentils is served and some dish with tofu (don't laugh until you've tried it). Some caterers are great at preparing tofu. I love it.
The weddings we played for today served prime rib, chicken marsala, and salmon along with some kind of pasta, a tossed salad and cake. There was wine and coffee/tea to drink for free. If you wanted to pay, you could get stronger liquor like vodka for example.
Most of the outside weddings here in Colorado are in the mountains and often on the very peak of the mountain. We have ofen been placed where we are looking down on ski lifts. It isn't always the best choice especially if the couple has guests coming from sea level somewhere. Suddenly we are all at 11,000 feet and some people literally have to get oxygen to remain at the wedding. These mountain peak weddings are costly because all guests/food etc have to be moved up on the gondolas. Yet we still have 5-6 of these per year for Vail and Aspen mountains.
Weddings in general are most expensive over that last several years. Might just be inflation in general. Brides have become quite picky. I am not saying this is a bad trait, but I do think that if the shade of pink is just a hair off, don't let it ruin your entire wedding. Be reasonable and try to put the entire picture together.
We furnish the music for the weddings (LIVE MUSIC). We want the couple to have music which has meaning for them. So we have a huge repertoire: I mentioned Gun N Roses. We also have Mozart, Pachelbel Canon, Led Zeppelin etc.
I think weddings are more personalized and that is good.
I was also in the wedding indistry in Utah and it was SO DIFFERENT. We only played for receptions and sometimes dinners, not ceremonies because we could not have music in the Temple. I actually asked a bride in Utah once (who was getting married in the temple) and for whose reception we were playing for why they could not get a string quartet WHO DID HAVE TEMPEL RECOMMENDS to play their music in their ceremony and she said that they don't have music in the ceremony and looked at me weird. I found our later why and it sickens me. I think music makes the ceremony perfect. I am biased being the music provided but music is important for a wedding.
We often do the music for the dances. We generally have one for the couple of course. Then we have one for the bride and her dad often one of those tearjerkers like "I Loved Her First," or "Butterfly Kisses." For one recent wedding the bride asked for "Amarillo By Morning" by George Strait for us to play for her and her dad's dance. I arranged it for the quartet. VERY COUNTRY. We weren't sure we could do such country fiddle. When her dad turned around in his cowboy hat when he heard the first notes of it, he looked at us and then grabbed his daughter and danced like nobody was watching. It was pure joy. After he said that it was a complete surprise to him, that he was raised in Armarillo and that he did not expect a string quartet to play it so he was very touched by that dance. I was too. It's the moments like that that make weddings worth the special music and the extra work. We also usually play a piece for the groom to dance to with his mom. Those are usually real emotional too. We played one which was a lullaby to her SOLDIER SON. There was not a dry eye in the house and certainly not in the string quartet.
I just wanted to mention one more thing about tonight's wedding. We had a couple of mixed religion (both Christian but different denominations.) Their relatives and friends included Jewish. Because Christmas is close, the bride had us play Hava Nagila for the Jewish people to dance to (but everyone else did too) and lots of Christmas music during the dinner. We ended up taking requests of Christmas music. It was super fun!!
I hope I have contributed to this posting. Whoever it is, have a great wedding.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2013 04:42AM by enoughenoch19.