Wedding Musician Blog

The Left Coast Quintet performed for a beautiful wedding ceremony at Green Gables Wedding Estate on Thursday evening. It was our first time on the property, and we were very impressed with just how gorgeous it is. Mature trees provide plenty of shade, there are beautiful green lawns, well manicured patios - really it is an oasis in North County San Diego that transports you away to a different world. 

Our couple loves all things Disney, and we did a prelude full of Disney music, including Lion King, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Pinocchio, and more. The wedding ceremony processional even included a little Star Wars - Imperial March, and for the recessional, we got this custom arrangement of Marry You by Bruno Mars which is lively and upbeat, perfect for everyone clapping for the newly married couple. 

Definitely looking forward to returning to this venue - we have another wedding there in the fall where we will perform for prelude, ceremony, and cocktail hour, so a little more time to get more pictures and videos. Until then - have a great weekend!

We had a fun time yesterday at a beautiful wedding at Cuvier Park in La Jolla, also known as The Wedding Bowl. This is such an iconic San Diego wedding spot, a sunken park right on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Just looking at the picture above gives you a hint on how amazing this spot really is. What is even more amazing is that this is available to anyone - it's a public park! All you need is a permit from the City of San Diego, and you're set. Of course, you'll need to rent chairs, bring in flowers, secure an arch, and set up any other equipment you want there. Basically, it's a blank canvas for you to set up in whatever vision you have.

That's us over in the far left, we bring our own umbrellas to outdoor events because direct sunlight can harm our instruments. 

Music, of course, is incredibly important during wedding ceremonies. You already know that, but just think about how your guests feel and how the mood changes when you hear that live music starting up. It bring amazing ambiance to the space. Our wind quintet really is perfect for The Wedding Bowl, we need no amplification to easily be heard by guests, who can still mingle and catch up while waiting for the ceremony to start. 

Our bride requested almost all Disney & movie music both for the prelude and the ceremony. We played through hits from Aladdin, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, the Lion King, and many others. The little kids were loving it, and the kids at heart (adults) were whistling and tapping their feet too. 

One of the benefits to hiring LCQ is that we bring along a fully wireless, battery powered audio system. No, we don't need it for the musicians, but in this case at the Wedding Bowl, it's perfect for the officiant and for vows. There are ZERO plugs or power available at this park, so having a battery option is required. Even with small weddings, it's a good idea to have a small sound system to help the officiant project, since you're right on the water and it can sometimes be loud there. 

Some things to think about when having a ceremony at Cuvier Park is where guests will park. There is a lot of free street parking (2 hour time limit), but especially in the summer and on weekends it can be difficult to park close by. Possibly having a bus for guests coming from a hotel would be convenient. There are also many hotels in the La Jolla area that guests can stay at if they want to ditch the car for the weekend and walk around, La Jolla has a small town feel with numerous restaurants, shops, and activities. 

Also important to keep in mind that only the wedding ceremony can occur at the Wedding Bowl. You will need to find another location for the reception afterwards, and there are plenty of places close by in La Jolla that are walking distance: La Valencia Hotel, the Cuvier Club, the La Jolla Women's Club, and many more. 

If you'd like more tips and info on outdoor weddings, beachside San Diego ceremonies, or specifically on Cuvier Park and having live music, feel free to reach out and send us email to leftcoastquintet@gmail.com - always happy to help and answer any questions.

Have you had a wedding at Cuvier Park? What tips would you provide to others thinking about this spot? Who did you use for rentals? Where did you get ready? There are always couples asking for info here, it'd be great to help them out!

The Left Coast Quintet had the honor to provide live wedding music once again in Temecula, this time at the Galway Downs. An absolutely stunning location, very typical of Temecula with beautiful lakes and water features, huge shade trees, a large barn/reception area, and just the nicest staff. 

We set up early and ran through a few new songs arranged by our hornist RB, including a beautiful rendition of Simple Gifts. Guests started trickling in and taking their seats in the ceremony spot, which overlooks a beautiful lake and is surrounded by gentle creeks and fun pedestrian bridges and walkways. We continued with prelude music for about 30 minutes while everyone was seated, and then got our cue to start the wedding ceremony. 

Yes there was a "best dog" ! After a beautiful and touching ceremony, we played "Our Love is Here to Stay" for the recessional, as the wedding party and guests started exiting the ceremony site and headed over for cocktail hour. We moved as well, over in front of a beautiful barn with a fun grass area, set up with lawn games and belly top tables. The kids and dog played around while we provided upbeat jazz, pop, and movie music, and the wedding party was off taking pictures. We ended just before the grand entrances and left everyone to a wonderful night of celebrating!

The first Wedding Open House of the Year for us! Vineyard Hacienda did not disappoint with an amazing property tour, some delicious food vendors, and good company. This was our first time checking out this wedding venue in Spring Valley, and it is a place we hope we return to often. From gorgeous lawns, a beautiful pond/fountain, historic architecture, beautiful oak trees, and a really unique hotel space, Vineyard Hacienda would make a beautiful location for a weekend retreat, wedding ceremony, or friends trip. 

The exterior of the property is surrounded by rolling hills, large trees, and is just a quiet peaceful spot. The main building was built in the 1920s, and boasts 5 guests rooms, a large dining room, an amazing pool/hot tub, a bachelors paradise game room, and a huge kitchen. There is a perfect lawn spot right in front of the pond/fountain for wedding ceremonies, and a large patio underneath huge oak trees to dance the night away and enjoy dinner and drinks. 

There is a surprise under ground, with a fully appointed and charming wine vault! A great location for a late night wine & cheese pairing, and we are looking forward to trying out a live recording down there, the acoustics seem amazing!

Overall, just a great experience all around at the wedding open house. It was great to meet the event managers and owners of the property, who are down to earth nice people and will make sure to make your event an awesome experience. Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions for a vendor perspective!

There is really no building more iconic to Southern California than the Hotel del Coronado, and it's beachside location with beautiful grounds and views makes it a dream wedding destination spot in the San Diego area. "The Del" as it's lovingly referred to is the pinnacle of luxury, beach vibes, and grandeur, it is no wonder that Hollywood royalty have visited and filmed here for over 100 years (https://hoteldel.com/press/hollywood-connection/).

Holding a wedding or special occasion at Hotel del Coronado is really the perfect way to be a part of the magic and history of the location. Just a 10 minute ride from San Diego International Airport, the hotel sits on the west edge of the City of Coronado, and guests have opportunities to walk to all of the great shops and restaurants there. The Del also has it's own private beach, with numerous beachside activities like fire pits, volleyball, and sun bathing. You get to basically have a relaxing vacation at an all inclusive resort while enjoying time with family and friends and celebrating your wedding!

There are many spots to hold these celebrations all over the Hotel del Coronado property, both indoors and outside. One of the really great amenities they have are small patios right on the sand, where you can get a traditional "beach side wedding" while still not getting sand in your shoes. You can see from the pictures above, we really appreciated the deck and chairs so that we could still play comfortably but were less than a foot from the beach sand. 

Inside the hotel are historic and gorgeous ballrooms of different sizes, so depending on how many people you're having or what type of vibe, you can certainly find it here. We are, of course, happy to assist in discussing music and what type of ensemble is right for the occasion you're planning. I think it is easy to say that incorporating live music in to your Hotel del Coronado wedding just allows you to keep that really classic feel going throughout the event. 

You know what's great about being outside in San Diego? The weather! It is perfect here almost year round - with the exception of some really hot days last month. We've taken full advantage of the beautiful night time cooler weather to do a little outdoor rehearsals in some local parks, happily going through plenty of new arrangements of music while also providing some entertainment for families who were enjoying their time. 

No, these weren't "concerts" persay, as we didn't really advertise them, and we were going over brand new arrangements mainly put together by our French hornist RB. But we still found places to safely distance and have a concert experience. Civita Park, pictured above, has a beautiful bandshell and built in amphitheater (minus the construction tape behind us blocking off some chairs), and Harry Griffin Park, pictured below, was a great secluded spot where kids and dogs could run around and enjoy the music! 

Check in on our Facebook or Instagram pages to keep up to date on when our next open rehearsal is. Bring a picnic dinner and laugh along with us as we muddle through new arrangements!

So, looks like our last blog post was in mid March, at a beautiful wedding at Fruitcraft Distillery in Hillcrest. Wow, has the world changed since then!!! Obviously there haven't been many events as of late, although we are starting to see the return of some wedding ceremonies with a socially-distanced flare. The picture above is actually from a very nice, small wedding we performed at in mid-July at St. Margarets Church in Oceanside. It was so nice to get back out there. 

Our group has still been in constant contact, because we are, of course, friends as well as fellow musicians. RB, our horn player and arranger extrodinare, has been passing time by creating some incredible new arrangements for the group, including themes from Bugs Bunny, a tune featuring many of the themes heard at Disneyland, movie music from Kung Fu Panda, a fun mix of Italian themes that we look forward to recording in Little Italy some day, and more. 

We've also done two socially-distanced community concerts at Liberty Station, just to bring some live music and cheer to people. There are a lot of videos that we took and posted up on our YouTube channel, which you can visit and subscribe to below. We'd love more likes, comments, and shares of these videos - yes they aren't the most amazing quality, but the music is fun to listen to and we enjoyed the performance. 

Most of our weddings that we had planned on for this summer have of course postponed, and we are so sorry for our couples who have done all the planning and preparing only to have to wait until next year to celebrate again. But, we totally believe #loveisnotcancelled and are here for you all and can't wait until we can be with you in person. 

Anyway, this is getting long worded and you all have other posts to check out too, but of course we'd love a "hi hello" message below just to know what you're up to, and we hope you're well! 

​Cheers! - Dan and the LCQ team

It was our first time at the event space at Fruitcraft, a fermentary, distillery, cidery and kombuchery (and many other ery's) in Hillcrest, a central business district of San Diego. Walking in off the street, you're welcomed into a large, open-concept type of event space, where you can pretty much pick your design. Of course, this is a beverage joint, so there is a large bar ready to serve guests. 

There are plants everywhere, and the light from the patio draws your attention out back, where the wedding ceremony was held. 

Our ensemble fit right in on the side of the ceremony site, and we could easily be heard by everyone. Providing live music for a Fruitcraft wedding is really a nice touch, since everything there is so intimate. Just a shout out and thank you to our couple Brendan and Michelle for having us there, and supporting live music! We can't wait to return to this venue in the future.

As a member of Weddings of Distinction, I have an awesome opportunity to travel all over San Diego and experience highlights of wedding and event venues. For our February meeting, we visited Stone Brewery in Escondido, and I was blown away by their property. I highly recommend checking this place out if you are looking for any number of the following attributes:

• Brewery wedding
• Garden wedding
• Rustic/industrial architecture
• Great food & drinks
• Awesome spaces
• Plenty of parking

It had been probably upwards of 10 years since my last visit to Stone Escondido. Having been married myself 3 years ago at Stone Liberty Station, that was the place I normally returned to, even if infrequently. I just don't like beer...and Stone has amazing beer (so I'm told) but I've never had much of a taste for alcohol. 

The Weddings of Distinction group met in their upstairs event space, which is indoors but has it's own secluded patio as well, and I believe they can seat around 80 people up there. The upstairs overlooks the gardens from the patio, and has this really cool view into the tasting room from the top of the stairs:

Since inquiring minds want to know, I've provided a short list of a timeline for hiring wedding musicians at your event. You should know, though, that a lot of time and effort has already gone into creating a perfect wedding ceremony music list for you before we've even met! Our team has spent decades rehearsing, collecting music, selecting the best instruments, & studying, all to produce the best sound.

• Way Before the Ceremony, 3+ months out:
  • We (you the couple and me the bassoonist) get together to discuss your vision! Basically, not to brag, but we know a lot about music, so we aren't going to suggest something inappropriate for the time and location! Once we get to know each other, we can come up with playlists for each part of the ceremony and figure out what you want to hear. During this time, the quintet is arranging new music and holding rehearsals on anything new in our library. 
  • Our music can be entirely customizable. Many couples stick with the classical favorites like Wagner, Pachelbel, Handel, etc, but we also have pop covers in our repertoire, or if you want to be a Double Agent or an evil Dark-Side master, we have music from the best of Hollywood that will completely make your day!
• Almost There, 3 weeks out:
  • A few weeks prior to the big day, I'm having discussions with the coordinator, venue, and anyone else on your team that needs our information. They usually ask us for our arrival times, any equipment needs like chairs or shade, our insurance papers (yes we are insured!), those types of things. I already know many coordinators in town, so the conversation is usually just of us catching up, but I promise we'll talk about you too!
• Before the Ceremony, 1 hour out:
  • LCQ sets up early to prepare for your guest arrivals, and I typically find myself having final detail meetings with your planner, officiant, and photographer to recheck timelines and figure out cues.
  • About 15-20 minutes before show time, the prelude music begins. What we see most often are our couples choosing to put together an eclectic mix of favorite songs, or songs that have special meaning to them. We can also choose the music here to fit with the setting and what we know will be enjoyed by everyone there.
• Cue the Processional, it's go time:
  • This is where you're nervously pacing in the back of the room while the cute ring bearer dog gets distracted by a squirrel in a tree (yep, that happened!), but we're out there and we have you covered. As soon as you hear that beautiful arrangement we've been discussing and working on, you'll be smiling and getting your isle walking shoes ready! But, don't walk too fast - we want to play more music!
• Music in the Middle:
  • Interlude music is perfect in the background while taking a break from the ceremony for a candle lighting, sand sculpturing, or knot tying ceremony. It's like your own personal soundtrack - haven't you always wanted a live ensemble to play while you accomplish goals?
• Get Out of There!
  • Your recessional music should be upbeat and festive! You just got married, lets party! We want to celebrate you with music, so we will probably suggest something that your guests can clap to while applauding you out!
• Cocktail Hour:
  • You might not hear us playing during cocktail hour if your photographer steals you, your immediate family, the bridal party, your great aunt once removed, Harriet from reception, and the next door neighbors gardener off to do pre-planned pictures, but your other 'non-picture important' guests will be pleased to drink, eat hors d'oeuvres, and listen to a fun live concert! And while you might not be there, we still want to fit your style, so our music selection can include classical, pop arrangements and movie themes, upbeat jazzy favorites, and other enjoyable tunes.
• Grand Entrances, First Dances, and Dinner Entertainment:
  • We can't stress enough about how important music is to celebrating happy occasions like weddings, and since we'll already be there for the ceremony, having us stick around for reception entertainment is an easy decision. Our possibilities are endless, and if you want us to bring our full sound system, we can have most of the evenings entertainment covered, including the hilarious best-man & maid-of-honor speeches!

So, sometimes we get the chance to stick around for cocktail hour, or dinner, or even first dances - we LOVE first dances! But most of the time once the processional is over, we start to pack up and depart. There is only one more thing that we ask of you on your wedding day - we'd absolutely love a picture with the happy couple! It is so cool to post pictures of our couples with the musicians, and the photographers love it too!

Finally, you'll receive an email a day or so afterwards, sometimes with a picture we snuck in during the ceremony, mainly just to say thanks again for having us and hoping that our paths cross again. I'll probably sneak in some review links too, no rush or anything, but there is nothing that promotes us more than the glowing words of our clients, and we'd love for you to share on as many platforms as possible, so that other couples will find us when searching for their musicians. 

That's it! Did I leave anything out? Anything else to discuss? Leave a comment below, I'd love to hear from you!

        ​​-Dan Weiss, LCQ Bassoonist & Artistic Director

The Left Coast Quintet held an open rehearsal, as we call it, during the wedding open house and venue grand opening of The Point in Pacific Beach / Mission Bay. This spot, completely surrounded by beautiful water, is an exceptional location to have that "San Diego" wedding feel. Imagine small sail boats floating by while saying your vows, or the feel of the ocean air cooling you off after dancing at your party!

This is mostly a picture post, we had a great time and met some great friendors, so pictures of them are included. We hope to see you at an event at The Point soon!

Our final wedding of 2019 was earlier today, and LCQ is excited to see what 2020 has in store. With so many bookings for various ensembles already, it looks like it's going to be a year filled with music!

For our Monday afternoon wedding at Cuvier Park, we were so happy that it stayed dry and had decent weather! There was concerns about thunderstorms, but in the end everything worked out, and we didn't even need a canopy! The Wedding Bowl as it's lovingly referred to is really a magical San Diego wedding spot, nestled right on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla, there are many amenities to the space. Typically parking isn't an issue, and since it's a City owned park, all you need is a permit and the space is yours. Of course it doesn't come with chairs, flowers, and all the other accessories, but those aren't difficult to come by. 

Live music at Cuvier Park is really the best option for wedding ceremonies. There is no power outlet and generators aren't allowed, so many DJ's can't work there. We do have a portable battery operated speaker for the officiant, which is perfect there and easy to set up. 

Looking ahead, 2020 is going to bring some great events. We have about 15 weddings already booked for both wind and string ensembles, as well as a few conventions, cocktail parties, and a holiday party for next December! They really are doing their pre-planning right?!? 

The quintet had the absolute pleasure to perform for a good friends wedding at El Cortez, a historic hotel turned condo complex in the heart of downtown. With beautiful skyscraper views, passing airplanes, and an absolutely gorgeous reception space, El Cortez is a perfect spot for a beautiful urban downtown wedding. The touches brought in by many of the vendors made it both regal and down-home. Check out some of the pictures below to see what I mean!

Vendor Team:
Planning & Coordination: The Love Brewery
Venue: El Cortez, Don Room & Terrace
Photography: Red Tie Photography
DJ: DJ Rude1 Productions
Catering: Continental Catering
Bar: SoleLuna Cafe
Florist: TessFresh Flowers
Desserts: San Diego's Finest Donuts & Bakery
Hair: JDM Salon
Makeup: Vanessa Garlough

Ok music lovers - what's the best Halloween music? Since we're in the season now, and having fun playing so many of these themes at various parties (and even one spooky wedding, yep!), we thought we'd put together a creepy list of Spooktacular music to get you into the season! 

Maybe we are a bit biased, but personally our favorite Halloween music comes from the great Danny Elfman, who wrote the themes to The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton. It's such a fun piece to perform, and when we start playing everyone knows exactly what it's from and gets into it!
​
But we can't just have one song on repeat, so here are some other choices from our library that get to come play during October:

• Thriller, the epic from Michael Jackson, seems to get everyone up and moving. That rockin' bass line, the soaring melodies, it's just a fun piece, and we try not to laugh when folks start doing the dance, but sometimes we can't quite help ourselves. 
• Ghostbusters, of course going back to our movie theme obsession, is a classic. 
• If you're a cult classic fan, the music from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and specifically The Time Warp, seems to come in handy this time of year, and it's a fun piece to rock out to!
• Monster Mash is just an old and funny piece, similar to Thriller, you'll see people trying to do some funny mummy dancing, and why not! 
• Get your snapping fingers out with the theme from the Addams Family!
• And there are, of course, all the movie and Broadway themes surrounding magic, witches, and the like: Harry Potter, Wicked, Game of Thrones, Wizard of Oz, Monsters Inc, the fun just doesn't end. 

Maybe we've put some earworms in your head, and we'd love to hear your favorite Halloween tunes too! 

If you've ever imagined a beautiful building on the edge of the water, with amazing indoor and outdoor spaces all focused on an incredible bayfront and skyline view, then Tom Ham's Lighthouse is probably what you were thinking of. At the end of Harbor Island rises this gorgeous site, and from both it's lower event spaces to its upper restaurant, the views of downtown San Diego and of San Diego Bay are just phenomenal. 

The Left Coast Quintet has had a number of opportunities to perform here, both for weddings and corporate conferences, and we always love coming back. Sure their location is impressive, but it's the people that work there that make Tom Ham's Lighthouse just the best place as a performer. Their staff, from management down to service workers, are incredibly nice people whose main goal is to make sure their clients are taken care of and happy. They are even so thoughtful as to continually ensure that our group has what we need, whether it is chairs or equipment, or just snacks and water. We don't see that in most places, but it is so generous and a reason we love performing here. 

Tom Ham's is perfect for those seeking a nautical themed wedding or special event. They have more boating history than some museums, with artifacts from ships, waterway maps, models, and other really fun items. You won't need much additional decoration to make guests feel like you're getting married on the open seas!

If you are searching for a beautiful, well appointed space to host your wedding, corporate event, or holiday party, be sure to check out Tom Ham's Lighthouse, and of course let us know how we can bring some excellent music to the event!

It seems like historically, couples have chosen very traditional wedding music for musicians to perform at their wedding. You know the songs I'm talking about:

• Pachelbel's Canon in D
• Wagner's Bridal March from Lohengrin
• Bach's Air on the G String

Honestly, those are beautiful and timeless pieces of music, but that's not what we are going to discuss today! Unique couples call for unique music, and we all know that cute duo out there that absolutely loves Star Wars, Game of Thrones, or Harry Potter - this information is for you!

Over the past few years, more and more of our couples have chosen to hire our group because we play music that is non-traditional. We've had grooms walk down the aisle to the Imperial March, also known as Darth Vader's theme, from the Star Wars universe. Disney has been a big hit too, and every princess wants to hear Tale as Old as Time from Beauty and the Beast as they enter their wedding ceremony. These songs bring up so many emotions that many people might not even consider, but they are so incredibly important for setting the mood of your wedding and conveying a feeling of whimsy, wonder, or comedy into what otherwise could be a very starchy and serious occasion. 

​Here are some ideas for wedding prelude, processional, and recessional music that have worked well at many weddings that we've been honored to perform at, and that might give some inspiration while working on your wedding playlist:

Disney and Pixar music are absolutely wonderful inclusions in your wedding day, and what better way to welcome guests to the ceremony while they are seated than by hearing some of their favorite tunes from these iconic movies, like:

-You've Got a Friend in Me, Toy Story
​-Can You Feel the Love Tonight, The Lion King
​-For the First Time in Forever, Frozen
-The Muppet Show, main theme

The processional is the first introduction of the wedding party, and allows for some pretty spectacular grand entrances. Whether you are thinking of heralding grandeur or beautiful melodies, movie and TV theme music is perfect for setting the scene.

Here are some of our favorite exciting and heroic theme choices for your processional:

-Indiana Jones, main theme
-Back to the Future, main theme
​-Game of Thrones, main theme
-Hook, The Flight to Neverland

...if you're a sucker for the "sweep me off my feet" romantic feel, these songs are sure to be right up your alley:
​-Tale as Old as Time, Beauty & the Beast
-Only Us, Dear Evan Hansen
-A Whole New World, Aladdin
-Part of Your World, The Little Mermaid
-Married Life, Up
-The Planetarium, La La Land

...and sometimes, you want to be that evil mastermind or cunning double agent, and these songs are perfect to set that mood:
-Imperial March, Star Wars
-James Bond, main theme
​-The Incredibles, main theme
​-Superman, main theme

The end credits to your wedding ceremony comes at the recessional, once all of the official business of vows and inside jokes have been shared, and you are ready to ride off into the sunset together! Some of the best music for this comes from movie themes like:

-Star Wars, Throne Room march
-Harry Potter, Hogwarts March
-Pirates of the Caribbean, He's a Pirate
-Jurassic Park, main theme
-How to Train Your Dragon, Flying Theme
​-Olympic Fanfare, John Williams
​

We get it, weddings can be costly! From venue rentals, decor, invitations, photography, and hiring your favorite musicians, it is understandable that trying to find places to save some money might be high on your importance list. Take our word for it though, from experience at hundreds of weddings, you want to make sure you have a wedding planner or at least a day-of coordinator.

Wedding planners are pros, and there is a reason they charge what they do. They've been in the industry, they know the "behind the scenes" scene at venues, they know which vendors are best and how to get them set up, and they know how to organize your wedding day as well as the week and month prior to it. Honestly, they know how to handle emergency situations and make them work as well - really they can be event savers in some situations.

We've been at a number of weddings without a planner/coordinator, and here are some things we've seen happen:

• At one wedding, guests arrived and didn't know where to go or where to sit. There was no organization or order to what was happening, and guests were still mingling around without direction when the processional was supposed to start.
• A wedding in Bonita, the officiant wasn't advised that the wedding processional was starting, and had to run around the outside of the seating to get to the front. In all honesty, we didn't know it was starting either, we were just playing background music when the first groomsman started walking down the isle with others following!
• At a different wedding, no one was there to tell the wedding party what order they were in or when they were supposed to walk down the isle, there was no rehearsal, so everyone was confused about what to do. At the end of the wedding, the bride was overheard exasperatedly talking to a family friend "why isn't anyone organizing anything!?!" 

Well, the answer and solution to all of these problems would have been to have a wedding planner list out all of the details, times of arrival, order of the ceremony, and everything else. Not be wedding planners ourselves, we can see the amount of work that goes into their daily schedules, it is really imperative to know in advance how your day will go.

There are of course many options to wedding planning. Most couples do some type of hybrid, a planner who will start working with them about a month before the ceremony to get all of the venue details and vendors in order, plan the day, and work the event. If you happen to be a very organized and detail oriented person who has free time, you could instead just hire a day of coordinator to run everything for your wedding day smoothly. If on the other hand you don't have time or the desire to plan anything, hiring a planner that can run things starting a year out, including venue tours and vendor contracts, might be more beneficial.

One last point to remember - venues typically provide a venue coordinator for their site, a person who is an event manager specifically for the venue. They are there to ensure the venue is open, clean, and that staff and vendors show up and set up in the right places, but typically they are not your day of coordinator. Unless you've worked something out with a venue who has onsite coordination staff to help you out, don't assume that an event manager will be there to help with your day of timing. 

If you have other questions and want to speak to us about experiences or learn about some of the amazing San Diego wedding planners we've been honored to work with, drop us a line or leave a comment below!

If you're a musician or not, there are terms specific to weddings that we event musicians are accustomed to, and we wanted to provide a glossary of terms that we use often. We might ask you about certain planning aspects related to these, so if you want to get a head start on some questions, here is some good information to review! Of course, just like us, we don't really take stuff too seriously so we threw in some fun to the dictionary!

We had the opportunity to perform at the Crossings in Carlsbad for the first time last weekend, and were blown away with the property! 

From a gorgeously manicured golf course, to buildings in the style of the Italian countryside, this place has it all. Their outdoor ceremony site, pictured above, looks over Carlsbad out to the ocean. We were there on a somewhat overcast day, but it was still really stunning. 

Found a great NYT article about wedding ceremony music trends and history. Check it out and give us your thoughts - what are you planning for your ceremony?

NYT Article

Our continuing series of music on our play lists recently that you might enjoy too!

The Canadian Brass have been around for a long time, and many of the best players in the world have performed with them or wanted to! What makes them so good? Well, they are phenomenal musicians of course. But like us, they also have an incredible library of unique arrangements of music that are engaging, fun to listen to, and help bring in new audiences.

One of the most beautiful pieces of music they've recorded (in my opinion) is Make Our Garden Grow, from Candide, written by Leonard Bernstein. On brass instruments, this piece sounds amazing, give it a listen: 
​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37d7eVlrHYY

Our string trio had the chance to perform at The Thursday Club for their wedding open house on April 10th, 2019. It was such a good time! We got to schmooze with engaged couples, catch up with some of our favorite wedding pros, and enjoy really awesome dinner and dessert samples by some of San Diego's best catering companies!

In our new segment, we are going to post about some amazing music that we love listening to and/or playing, in hopes that it brightens your day! Today, the masterful soundtrack to How To Train Your Dragon 2, by John Powell. In fact, the soundtrack to all three movies in the series is phenomenal, but we hadn't listened to the second one in a while so, here it is!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSoyuQHPuOg&list=PLtyKXtrk46WDR0wFTtNacuPii4HjO19Ov

We can spend hours just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful and exciting melodies that make up this soundtrack, and you probably guessed by now, yes we do have it in our music library to play at events! If you are like us and fall in love with this music, let us know in the comments below and feel free to suggest other movie tunes to listen in on!

Did you ever wonder how the music to your favorite movies was created? After the composer meets with the director and producers and comes up with their musical concepts, a full symphony orchestra gathers in recording studios located all over the world to fill out the magic that is movie music. From brassy chords to soaring strings, the recording studio orchestra is a fun place to be a fly on the wall, and these masterful pros bring it all together to get up on the big screen.

A little rant in this blog post - the individual musicians are some of the only people in movie credits who aren't listed! You'll see some people like drivers or caterers get credit at the end of films, but the hard working and talented musicians for some reason don't. Hoping that changes sometime- the movies absolutely wouldn't be the same without the music!

Historically, most wedding ceremonies followed the same traditional pattern. Classical background music while guests were seated, a Handel or Vivaldi piece while the bridal party entered, Wagner's wedding march for the bride, and Mendelssohn's march for the recessional. These time tested music pieces are still hits with so many couples - there is a reason they are so popular - they work well and are recognizable to almost everyone that we are having a wedding here!

More often now, we are finding younger couples that want something a little different, more styled to their tastes in music or something that brings up a happy memory for them. What is great about our ensembles is that we are able to deliver on that request, and have acquired a large list of music that will transport you to your favorite band, a special concert, or a movie that gives you all the feels!

With a pop library that spans back to the 1960s, we've included hits from some amazing musicians, like the Jackson 5, the Beatles, Elton John, Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, Queen, and so many others. Our musical abilities also include so many different movie soundtracks including Disney and Pixar favorites as well. You have a special song in mind that we don't already have in our library - no problem, we can arrange it just for you!

We checked recently, and here is a list of the top modern/pop songs requested by our brides for wedding entrances:

1: A Thousand Years, Christina Perri, as covered by the Piano Guys
2: All You Need is Love, the Beatles
3: Tale as Old as Time, Beauty & The Beast, Alan Menken
4: Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen
5: I'm Yours, Jason Mraz
6: A Whole New World, Disney's Aladdin, Alan Menken
7: Moonlight Serenade, Glenn Miller
8: Imagine, John Lennon
9: It Had to Be You, Gus Kahn
10: You've Got a Friend in Me, Toy Story, Randy Newman

Describing one of our rehearsals is like trying to describe a whirlwind of events, lets just say we sometimes spend more time catching up and telling stories than actually performing.

...scratch that - don't want to give anyone the wrong impression, we get through a ton of music, both old favorites and new tunes, but we also genuinely enjoy hanging out...and of course snack breaks!

That being said, here is a run down on the more serious side of our rehearsals, which is actually playing through music. I should start by saying that it takes time to even choose music, but maybe I'll save that for another blog post. We get our music from a variety of different arrangers all over the world, and choosing pieces to obtain for our library comes from our preferences on what we enjoy playing, as well as requests from clients, and generally what is new and available out there on the interwebs for wind quintet. See, everyone and their dog writes arrangements for ensembles like string quartets, but it takes a special arranger or composer to actually know what sounds good in a quintet, and we love when we find that person. Just so happens, our horn player RB is also an arranger, and many of our pieces come from his talented brain!

So, we've picked the music in general, then it's time to craft the rehearsal itself. We have well over 200 pieces of music in our library, and each piece is at least 3 minutes long (but many are longer), so if my calculations are correct, if I estimate about 4 minutes per song we have, that would take around 13 hours to get through. That's a lot of snack breaks!

To structure rehearsals, I try to pick about 10 pieces we can go over in our two hour slot. Those 10 might come from new music that we need to try - we don't put anything in our binders until we try and like a piece. Or it might be older music that we got as a request for an upcoming wedding or event. We never want to show up unprepared, and this is an important detail in our readiness for important celebrations, we've got to go over what we're playing and just get it fresh in our memories. 

We are all professional musicians, so sightreading (playing music for the first time without a prior rehearsal) is somewhat second nature and sometimes expected for certain gigs, but I don't expect it for our performances. I never want to be embarrassed by starting a piece that has errors, sounds bad, isn't written well, or if it has tricky passages and roadmap issues.

​Sidenote- did you know we have a roadmap in music? There are fun symbols built in to what we are reading on the page that might tell us to repeat a section, jump to a certain bar, hold out a section, or end a certain way. Isn't music fun?!? 

Once we decided what we're playing, we talk the piece through. We all want to make sure we are on the same page about repeats (as mentioned directly above this), and also about the key the music is in, the volume, who is taking lead on various sections. It's all very complicated stuff but basically, we talk through it. 

Then, the music happens. Our process for new songs is typically to play through a piece of music all the way, errors and all, and try not to stop, just so we get the hang of it. Once we finish, we'll go back and start to polish sections, work out trouble spots, and make it better, and ultimately we'll probably play through it again once more to solidify things. We might not see this particular piece of music again for a few months, so it's important to make sure we put it away with a good feeling about how it sounded. 

I try my best to mix up rehearsals with a wide variety of music. While our group mostly plays "pops" which is a pretty broad category that covers movie themes, Broadway, pop covers, and similar contemporary music not originally composed for quintet, it is also important to get back to the roots and practice quintet specific music, which is all classical. Classical can be fun too, don't get me wrong, and it is so incredibly challenging and rewarding to play, but it isn't as recognizable and, with few exceptions, it isn't picked often by our clients when choosing music for their events. So, our rehearsal might look like a few new Disney or other movie themes, a classical number, some new pop arrangement of The Jackson 5 or Jason Mraz, and then another movie tune. 

We try to get a few videos when we rehearse, but since we don't bring a professional audio and video tech with us wherever we go (we should, but we can't afford it!), we have to make do with cell phone video. I'm really picky about my videos, and I'm rarely happy enough with them to put them online - but I'm working on upgrading some recording equipment so we can showcase ourselves on YouTube. You can check out what we have done in the past on our YouTube Channel!

Post rehearsal time is spent adding new and group-approved music to the binders, and getting things set up for our next performance. And of course, writing blogs, because there is nothing more that a musician wants to do with their time than...write stuff.

I really do hope you enjoy reading a little about the inner workings of musician life - I actually do have fun writing things!
​-Dan