July 17, 2010 The Betty Ford Alpine Gardens

If the weather cooperates, this is one of my favorite wedding venues. Even though we have to park up top and haul all of our equipment, the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens are always absolutely breathtaking. The mountain backdrop against all of the flowers and gurgling fountains and light breezes add a magical quality to everything - especially a wedding.

Todays weather was perfect, and the wedding we played for was beautiful.

Here's a view from the top of the rock steps directly above the wedding area in the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens.

We started out our prelude with Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" and "Arioso", and then went to "Andante" and "Allegro" from Handel's Water Music, followed Mozart's "Menuetto" from the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Handel's "Largo" from Xerxes.

Just prior to the ceremony, we performed an Elvis cover tune of "Can't Help Falling in Love with You", and the processional began.

As the family members and wedding party entered, we played Handel's "Air" from the Water Music, and then the bride'smaids entered to Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", followed by the bride to Pachebel's "Canon".

We played Schubert's "Ave Maria" for the unity candle, and "Con te Partiro" (Time to Say Goodbye) for the recessional. As a request from the bride, we ended with "Just Like Heaven" by the Cure.

October 10, 2009

Today marked our last summer wedding of the 2009 season. Our mountains are capped with snow, the golden leaves of the aspens are preparing to float away in the wind, and the air carries the definite nip of oncoming winter. Although it was beautiful outside today, we were grateful to be inside the Vail Interfaith Chapel and not battling the elements.(10/10/09 3:20 pm)

While we often play for destination weddings, today we played for a local couple's wedding. One of the exciting aspects of a local wedding lies in the knowledge that we may actually bump into our clients at some future point here in the valley.

We enjoyed this couple's musical selections as they not only chose their ceremony and processional music, but also their prelude and postlude pieces as well.

All of today's pieces were strictly classical and we began our prelude with Bach's Air, Handel's Air and Andante from Water Music, Corelli's Pastorale, Bach's Ave Verum Corpus, and Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze.

The wedding party entered to Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and the bride entered to Handel's Largo - a gorgeous and not so commonly used processional piece.

The ceremony ended with a recessional from Handel's Allegro from The Water Music, and the wedding party and guests exited to Vivaldi's Spring from the Four Seasons, and Handel's La Rejouissance and Hornpipe.

We were honored to play for this beautiful local's wedding as well as each wedding and event we've played for this summer.

Thank you to all of our clients - we've enjoyed working with each and every one of you, and are looking forward to the 2010 summer wedding season!