Jamie+Patrick - In Action Photos

July has finally arrived with just a little less heat and humidity than June! Bethany and I played a wedding on Saturday as a cello duet, and it was the first since October 12, 2014, that we were inside! Indoor weddings are a dream for musicians. Outdoor weddings tend to produce beautiful photos, but they're typically not comfortable for anyone else [though there are rare cases of perfect weather]. Our instruments always appreciate stable environments with controlled temperatures.

On another note, we received the images from Sposa Bella Photography from Jamie+Patrick's beautiful cottage wedding at Old Edwards Inn! Lindsey and Craig, we so enjoyed working with you!

[You can read the details about their beautiful garden wedding here]

Next up will be a May recap [with some of the most exciting news to share!] and music lists for our many June weddings. Stay tuned!

Annemarie+Parker - In Action Photos+A Music List

Amy Haynes Photography

Annemarie+Parker's wedding was exquisitely beautiful. Nestled in the heart of downtown Asheville is a plantation house called Albemarle Inn. It is completely unsuspecting, but very beautiful and grand with many tall trees surrounding the small property with privacy.

Below are two photos that I took with my phone while we were getting set up.

Annemarie+Parker summed up our last wedding for May. We are grateful for such a full month of beauty and music! We are now in full swing for June with two double header wedding weekends!

Below is the processional list. We played songs by memory for the Prelude time. It's always helpful to play from memory when there's a bit of wind. Notice the close pin in the photo above?

CEREMONY SELECTIONS:

Ave Maria [Family and Bridal Party]

A Thousand Years [Bride]

La Rejoissance - [Recessional]

Thank you, Amy, for taking some photos of us! It was a pleasure working with you!

Venue | Albemarle Inn

Photography | Amy Haynes Photography

Congratulations to the new Mr.+Mrs. Reading!

Jamie+Patrick, A Cottage Wedding on the Lawn

Happy June! What a whirlwind of a month May was! I look back on the past few weeks with many smiles and memories. A month in review post will be coming soon. Until then, I wanted to write about Jamie+Patrick's beautiful wedding at Piermont Cottage at Old Edwards Inn!

Jamie contacted me in early December about their small destination wedding. With 16 people in attendance, we definitely considered it a privilege to be a part of this very intimate wedding. In one of her emails, I was thrilled to read this:

“I have been working with my parents and fiance and all agree that you guys would be PERFECT for our wedding!”

— Jamie, Bride

Jamie was so easy-going, kind, and joyful. We all so enjoyed meeting her and Patrick at the wedding. Which, by the way, was beautiful and so much fun.

We seamlessly played through our favorite selection of songs for prelude. The Officiant sat down in one of the ceremony chairs while we were playing and just sang and hummed along. It is so special when others enjoy the music in that way! While we were playing prelude, Jamie did a first look with her dad on the lawn. It was so exciting and special to watch all of that while playing music.

That's another reason why our group is special:

We play by ear. That means that we are playing from memory and from what we hear. We're not reading sheet music. This gives us so much musical freedom, the ability to enjoy the music, and the joy to see the events of the day unfold.

IN ADDITION TO WHAT WE PLAYED BY EAR, HERE IS THE COMPLETE LIST OF CEREMONY SELECTIONS:

The Cello Song [Family and Bridal Party]

Canon in D [Bride]

Best Day of My Life - [Recessional]

These selections can be found on our Music Samples page --->

Craig and Lindsey from Sposa Bella Photography were so great to work with. We will share their photos soon! I am so excited to see what they captured from the wedding - every detail was beautiful.

After the wedding, we went to a local shop and ordered burgers! Bethany was the only one who ordered a salad - it looked amazing. We laughed and enjoyed an evening all together in the beautiful Highlands country.

Congratulations to the new Mr.+Mrs. Starnes!

Kiel+Josh, A Beautiful Highlands Wedding

I am overflowing with excitement to journal about our May 9th wedding! I wanted to post here right away, but I needed to make sure I had enough time to thoughtfully write about every detail. This wedding was a favorite of mine for several reasons. Read on!

Kiel and Josh are such a precious couple. I communicated much with Kiel [pronounced like Kyle - you can imagine how many ways I came up with to say it the wrong way...] and her mom throughout the past few months. Kiel's family is from Florida, and she is living in Tennessee, so everyone traveled quite a distance for this destination wedding in Highlands, NC, at the Farm at Old Edwards Inn.

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We traveled 4hrs to reach Highlands, NC

Bethany arrived home the evening of May 8th. On the morning of May 9th, we packed the car and headed out for the wedding!

After checking into our hotel, we walked around the small town to explore before the wedding. The weather was nice, yet on the verge of a storm. Thankfully, the wedding was under a beautiful tent with chandeliers. I'm so excited to see the photos from the photographers!

I love it when a couple gives us the freedom as musicians to play from our list of Prelude selections. We played everything from memory, and enjoyed watching some of the guests sing along.

In addition to what we played by ear, here is the complete list of Ceremony selections:

Come Thou Fount [Mothers/Grandmothers]

In Christ Alone [Bridal Party]

Marry Me - Train [Bride]

Love Story - [Bridal Party Recessional]

The ceremony was so beautiful, meaningful, and sacred. I couldn't help but smile uncontrollably. Throughout the ceremony, we got to know the couple and their story through the officiant. Their story was one of waiting on the Lord to provide, and trusting His choice and timing. And then came our next favorite part:

The Vows

They were long. They were sacred. They were Biblical. They perfectly captured the heart of marriage. I looked over at Lauren behind the Keyboard during the vows, and we met eyes. Yes - we want these vows!

As we were packing up after the wedding, we were able to meet Cindy [Mother of the Bride] and the new Mr. and Mrs. Josh Hunter! It is always a joy to meet the people who we have been communicating with for so long. Sometimes a wedding is so busy and exciting that we don't get to meet the couple. We definitely were thrilled to meet and to get to know them better. Kiel and Josh even said they would send us their vows! [For those who don't know yet, a Wescottage Music wedding will be coming very soon! Hang tight for that special post!].

Cindy and the couple kindly invited us four to stay for the reception. We were honored to be included in the celebration of their union! The reception was exquisite. Everyone was so friendly, the food was amazing, and we made some precious memories.

A very packed vehicle

A view of our hotel!

Old Edwards Inn and Spa

A view of the Ceremony location! This is just taken with my phone to give you an idea of the setting.

We set up in the corner, and we had great visibility. The coordinator for the processionals was a family friend. She did a superb job with the hand signals and everything was flawless.

This is where the Bride walked out from when her processional song began.

Old Edwards Inn, The Farm

The Bride!

Reception time!

They had an artist painting during the reception. He was amazing! 

The exit view.

We also enjoyed meeting the photographers - Gry and Brian! They were so kind and took several photos of us. Their images should be ready in a couple months! We are excited to share those with you as well.

Venue: Old Edwards Inn, The Farm

Photographers: Woodward & Rick

Kiel wrote a sweet note to us all. We are so happy to have been a part of their special day!

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Josh Hunter!

Amie+Mike, In Action Photos

Happy May! We couldn't be happier for this month. Tomorrow begins a very full month of weddings! Besides the Charlotte weddings, we'll be traveling to Highlands twice and to Asheville once. We also have been learning a lot of new music. Continued learning is crucial, and we are thrilled that we've received so many requests for specific selections. It's fun to add music to our collection.

We had the pleasure of working with Amy from Sunshower Photography for Amie+Mike's wedding on April 10th! Enjoy some of her photos below. Amy - thank you, again, for capturing us in action! [For those who missed it, you can read the full wedding recap post here]

Venue: Rolling Hill Farms

The First 2015 Wedding - Complete With Details and a Ceremony Music List

April has been busy for consulting and booking, yet on the slow side for performing. Once May hits, we’ll be going full force! For wedding vendors, the winter months tend to be heavy on booking while the summer and fall months are intense performing months [since we're musicians].

However! We played our first 2015 wedding on Friday evening, April 10th, for Mike+Amie at Rolling Hill Farms! I [Jennifer] met Amie in my Monday night Bible study [Bible Study Fellowship, BSF]. We all celebrated when she announced her engagement in October. She was absent for one week of study, and then she told us that Mike took her on a surprise trip to Iceland to propose. Besides being a Principal at a school, Amie is a graphic designer and videographer – you can view her creative Iceland video HERE.

Jon, my boyfriend, filled in on viola since Bethany was traveling with the Galkin Team – she made the commitment after the wedding was booked. Turned out that Jon and Christopher were in the same Bible study small group at BSF with Mike! It was fun knowing the Bride and Groom and being a part of their special day. We’re excited for Amy Kolodziej from Sunshower Photography to post photos!

Amie and Mike invited us all to stay for the reception - it was exquisite! Everything was personalized and beautiful. They even had cartoon artists who were drawing the guests! I loved that idea.

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One of the neatest wedding programs I have ever seen! It had their entire story written out.

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The wedding favors were these personalized glasses! You could use them at the reception and enjoy bringing a drink home with you! They also had yellow and white striped paper straws in them.

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The Bride and Groom as cartoons! Photo taken on Jon's phone.

Amie preferred us to wear the wedding colors as opposed to our professional black attire. We enjoyed a change as we selected clothing that matched her color palette of yellow, navy, and gray.

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Amie and Mike selected the Prelude and Ceremony pieces. For Cocktail Hour, we played our own selections from memory. The wind made it incredibly difficult to keep sheet music and stands from flying away. One of the risks of having an outdoor wedding is - you guessed it - weather! We're so grateful it didn't storm. It was 80% chance of rain and storms the day before, but the weather miraculously cleared up by the wedding day. Although the precipitation held off, the wind made it tricky to hear each other and to keep the stands and music stabilized. Regardless, we played our best and enjoyed learning some new songs!

Here is the complete list of Ceremony selections:

I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

Pompeii - Bastille

A Sky Full of Stars - Coldplay

Wonderful Tonight - Clapton

Can't Help Falling in Love With You - Elvis

Hey Ho - Lumineers

It's Time - Imagine Dragons [Family Processions]

I Will Wait - Mumford and Sons [Bridal Party Processions]

Happy - Pharrell [Recessional]

Venue: Rolling Hill Farms | Photography: Sunshower Photography

Ceremony Musicians: Wescottage Music

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Caudle! Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your first day of marriage.

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On Another Note...

Christopher and I had the pleasure of participating in The Queen City Youth Chorus’ Spring Concert at Christ Episcopal Church. The choir sang Stabat Mater by Pergolesi – a beautiful piece of music. The sound is angelic in the acoustics of that church. We were delighted to be a part of this performance! We would love to continue performing music in Charlotte just like this. It gives such a beautiful balance to playing for weddings. Listen to the music on YouTube here to get an idea of the sound of the music [skip to 1:28].

Violin 1 – Martha Gardner | Violin 2 – Christopher | Viola – Matt Primm | Cello – Jennifer

Director - Rob Ridgell

Photography Credits: Jon Courville Photography