LCQ Musician Blog

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: 
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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

We had the opportunity to attend the fall open house at the Bali Hai restaurant on Shelter Island, and meet with clients and other wedding professionals who are regulars at ceremonies here. First off, the weather couldn't have been better - scattered clouds with clear skies, a fantastic view of downtown, and a magical sunset.

I had the opportunity to take a site tour of the newly renovated Kona Kai resort, located on Shelter Island in San Diego. The place is breathtaking, inside and out. It reminded me of a Greek village overlooking the water, and the views were stunning. Keep in mind, I'm a musician, not a professional photographer, but hopefully you can get the gist of the place and see what a special feeling it has.

It was a hot day up in Vista at Shadowridge Golf Club, but that didn't stop the guests and the wedding party from dressing to the 10's! Everyone looked fabulous, and the surroundings were beautiful. Shadowridge has an excellent staff of friendly people who know what they are doing when it comes to coordinating weddings, coupled with a secluded private ceremony location and onsite clubhouse, it is a great all-encompassing location for weddings in North County San Diego.

Our group had an opportunity to play for Kareem & Paige's wedding ceremony at Milagro Winery, our first time at this gorgeous Ramona venue. The rolling hills, oak trees, and vineyards really bring out a Central Coast vibe, just going to show that you really can find any style of wedding venue or location right here in San Diego County.

San Diego and Southern California provides such a wonderful and diverse amount of different locations and feels for wedding ceremonies and celebrations. From the beaches and luxury high rise hotels of the city, a short drive up to Temecula provides beautiful wine country rustic wedding ceremony venues, like Ponte Winery where we played earlier this month.

Our string & harp trio headed to Mission Bay to play for a beautiful outdoor wedding at the Paradise Point Resort yesterday. The weather was perfect, overcast but still bright out, not hot but not cold, and all of the guests were happy to be there (so were we!)

Our day started off checking out the reception site where we played after the ceremony, and setting up our string trio for the processional. The clients requested a harp/violin/cello trio, which is a beautiful option and provides many options for wedding ceremony music.

This past weekend was beautiful for outdoor occasions, with cool breezes, mild coastal weather, and clear blue ocean water. The Martin Johnson House, part of UCSD and Scripps Institute of Oceanography, sits atop the beautiful cliffs of La Jolla and looks south toward the Cove and La Jolla Village. The views are perfect for San Diego outdoor weddings, and the grounds are reminiscent of a small cabin in the woods, with really endless possibilities of decorating. 

Our couple hired our string duet, which is a great ensemble for this intimate location. The strings are easily heard over a gathering of 50 family and friends, and provided pre-ceremony and processional & recessional music for the bride and her new groom.

The San Diego Botanic Gardens are an oasis in the middle of Encinitas, a cute coastal town about 15 minutes north of San Diego. The gardens have a rich history, having been developed since the early 1900s on land overlooking the Pacific Ocean and incorporating a wide variety of different spaces. While you could consider this a museum for plant species, the gardens have evolved and become a spectacular event space, perfect for weddings, parties, engagements, photo shoots, and other happenings.

Many people might not know about the hidden gem in Del Mar called the Fairmont Grand. It's somewhat secluded, not on any major roadway, but the resort is an absolutely spectacular site, perfect for weddings, holiday parties, and other events.

Our wind trio has had the opportunity to perform here a few times for different events, and we were just honored to play for a company holiday party in their Elizabeth Capella, a wood adorned chapel with amazing acoustics.

With the recent announcement of the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, we thought it would be fun to focus on tips for making your wedding royal-inspired! British royal weddings have always caused quite a stir with brides from all over the world looking for inspiration on how they can bring a bit of the custom and class into their own ceremonies.

Balboa Park is the heart of this city. The sprawling gardens and parkscapes surrounded by urban San Diego provide some incredibly scenic and unique backdrops for weddings and other fun events. The shear size of the park itself has so many different interesting spaces, buildings, and gardens that anyone can easily find their perfect wedding spot, on any budget, with any dream in mind.

Here are a few location ideas in the park, but of course we aren't covering everything. If you have questions about San Diego wedding venues or just want some general tips, we are happy to provide our expertise! 

Located in the heart of Balboa Park, the classy and upscale Prado restaurant hosts many weddings and events every month. They have many options for both ceremony and receptions sites, including their grand ballroom, a gorgeous outdoor enclosed patio, garden spaces, and pictured above the patio fountain. Having an all-inclusive upscale Balboa Park wedding ceremony here would be easy, leaving all of the details to the superb event staff and being able to keep guests in one central location.

The Left Coast Quintet has had the privilege of bringing music to a number of different events at the Prado. For more info, check out: Balboa Park - Prado Weddings & Events

We had the opportunity to tour the historic Lafayette Hotel in University Heights recently, and were incredibly impressed by the style, class, and ambiance the hotel offers. Having a wedding at the Lafayette means stepping back in time to the roaring swing era of classic Hollywood, when big bands took the stage and movie stars mingled with the locals.