Name That Tune

There are websites that seem to exist purely to suggest songs that you might wish to use whilst you are cutting the cake at your wedding. I am slightly disturbed by this. The fact that I now know there are such websites also slightly disturbs me. Basically because in a harebrained moment I actually went looking for them. But they say weddings are enough to make you crazy. Don’t they?

On my little to-do list, which kind of seems like a Mary Poppins list right about now, ie. it looks perfectly reasonable until you realise just how much information and effort is required of you, it says we are to contact the DJ about 5 weeks prior to the wedding. Purely by luck, I managed to remember that I should probably start thinking about music about 5 weeks out and therefore was able to give the DJ a call. He in turn then emailed me a whole stack of paperwork which is yet more stuff that we now have to do. Included, there was a questionnaire on what type of music is to be played at the reception. Or rather, there are places where I suppose we are to write out song titles or artists depending on how open we are to the DJ’s discretion in selecting tracks. There is an area to cover the music during the canapés and dinner portion of the evening as well as the dancing end of the night where hopefully our event turns into a rocking party. Since we happen to be that way inclined. There is also that very important section where we can state what is not to be played at the reception which I have to say is a far easier part to fill out. I think my first thought off the mark was that if that pant-less pop tart Lady Gaga even makes it out of a CD case, I’m going to be pretty darned pissed. Sorry, not a fan.

Anyway, the other form we had to fill out was for the ‘occasion’ songs. The DJ wanted to know what song to use for when the bridal party enters the room, when the bride and groom enter the room, when we do the first dance, when we are joined on the dance floor by either parents or the bridal party (or both), when I am tossing the bouquet, when The Boy is tossing the garter, when we are cutting the cake, when we are saying goodbye to all our guests and when we actually depart the reception itself! I took one look at that list and my first thought was sheesh, thats a bit of overkill. There is fairly obviously a need to select the song for the bridal waltz and I can concede that there is an amusement factor in tossing the bouquet to the Weather Girls’ Its Raining Men or throwing the garter to Queen’s Another One Bites The Dust but really, I’d be hard pressed to remember what music was playing at any of my friends’ weddings for the other parts of the evening. Especially when they were cutting the cake! Cause my second thought when I looked at that part of the list was why would you even care?!?

So I decided to have a look around to see if there was some whole movement that I had so far been unaware of or whether there was a stunning song choice that would truly epitomise...well...something. And I have to say there wasn’t really. It seems that this is like the spill over section from the other musical moments at your reception such as the bridal waltz or entrance where you get to use a song that didn’t quite make the cut anywhere else. Either that or in deference to fact that your cake probably has more sugar in it than a box of Fruit Loops you can go for the Archies’ Sugar Sugar, U2’s The Sweetest Thing, the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) or for the rockers out there, Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar On Me. That is unless you want to go for the songs about ‘cutting’ and play Average White Band’s Cut The Cake (which I had never even heard of before today) or Bryan Adams’ Cuts Like A Knife. I tried to think of other cutting songs that might be applicable but all I came up with was The First Cut Is The Deepest by Cat Stevens and that was about a failed relationship so its really not appropriate for a wedding celebration at all.

There were also the suggestions that were just cute however. You know, like Thats Amore by Dean Martin or What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. Songs that have stood the test of time because they are truly great but that as a result have actually been done to death. On the whole though, there didn’t seem to be anything really fitting for either us as a couple or the purpose for which we would use it. We may as well just choose any random song we both like or leave it up to the DJ on the night. It actually crossed my mind that maybe I’d be able to find something fun out of a musical or a movie that just didn’t make it into mainstream lists but I kinda bombed out there too. I did decide that if I was going to bother being specific about what songs were playing as we first enter the room then He’s A Tramp from The Lady And The Tramp, Seasons Of Love from Rent or I Wanna Grow Old With You from The Wedding Singer should be on the list but the getting in to the reception was really about as far as I actually got. I still don’t care what song is playing when I cut the cake. I’m far more excited by the fact that we intend to cut the cake with a (small) sword!

And Another Thing...

Well you definitely get the good along with the bad in this wedding business. And sometimes even both at the same time. Saturday was spent on wedding attire and accessories and provided my first opportunity to meet Milliner Man himself. A man to whom I would be reluctant to offer my patronage were it not for the fact that he is one of the best people in country at what he does and he can provide me with what I want. It seemed the far lesser of the two evils to walk the walk and hopefully end up with something I love than to cut off my nose to spite my face as it were. I now know exactly why The Boy was irritated previously however. Subtle is not a word that is in this man’s vocabulary. Which wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that some of what comes out of his mouth I actually find somewhat rude.

As soon as I walked into Milliner Man’s salon, because really, after having met him it seems like too plebeian a concept to just call it a ‘shop’, I got the feeling that I was very quickly assessed. I’m still a little unsure though as to whether I was actually found wanting or not...I definitely wasn’t in the bottom echelon however because darling, I was able to name drop. I think the first words out of his mouth after hello were “Show me your left hand!”. Out of racing season I suppose the only people he really gets business from are brides so one could assume that this is one way of finding out whether his services might be something the prospective client might actually ‘need’ (which may be worthy of his time) or merely think were cool (which would not). So I proffered my left hand which he then proceeded to ooh and ahh over as you would expect before he asked me “so who designed that”. And I might as well have said that we inherited the ring which was a personal favourite of Lady Diana Spencer’s because immediately he was all be-still-my-beating-heart, “Class!!” as only a man who is camp as a row of tents can be. And thereby I just went up in his estimation. Now I picked the ring because I liked it, not because of who made it but whatever works. It was only then that he bothered to acknowledge The Boy.

By acknowledge however I mean “So is this the man or your little gay friend?”. An opening most definitely designed to put you in your place whether you’re homosexual or not. Milliner Man obviously does not see very many males in his premises (or does not care to) and thinks that it is equally likely that he might be in the presence of a fag hag’s friend as with the fiancé. If it is the former rather than the latter however, he makes it quite clear that there is only one Queen in this room honey and you can bet your booty that it is not you. Since he either did not remember that he’d seen The Boy before or did not care to make it known that he’d already brushed him off, I introduced my other half who then remained pretty much ignored by Milliner Man for the rest of the conversation. He did proceed to compliment me however on the gown (which The Boy chose), the jacket (the designer for which The Boy found), the wedding boots (which I actually found myself) and the roses we are contemplating having in my bouquet which is neither here nor there really.

Overall, as much as I don’t like to admit it, the vain side of me must confess that I was flattered when he seemed to like the choices that we had made so far. He seemed to have no qualms whatsoever about telling me what sort of headpiece would look good on me as opposed to just plain ridiculous or tending towards ‘costume’ so I did believe that he was relatively honest about the rest. What we were able to show him or tell him however may have given the indication that we were made of money though because the fascinator I want is damned expensive! Oh well, I suppose its marginally more useful than a veil would be because at least it could be worn to a party or to the races or some such affair later on. Much like The Boy’s suit which is far more versatile than my wedding dress (even though said dress is not traditionally ‘bridal’). And the suit is looking pretty damn fine at the moment I must say. We got to see it when we went for a fitting Saturday afternoon. Tailor Man has almost finished the suit so he needed The Boy to try it on and see what still needed tweaking. And this was a much more pleasant experience. Mostly because the Tailor Man is a dude.

Over the past couple of weekends we have been to fittings for the grooms outfit but they have been so relaxed that it almost feels like hanging out. We often end up chatting for a bit before we leave and all three of us seem to have that somewhat dry sense of humour which I love. We do also spend time discussing the suit or the fit though and its great that Tailor Man is always willing to explain what he’s doing or why he’s doing it. Cause really, I wouldn’t have a clue about mens fashion. Our tastes seem pretty much in line too so its been fantastic for The Boy and I to get his advice on adjustments or accessories and know that if we really don’t haven't the foggiest, we can pretty much assume that we would be happy just trusting his judgement. I think the shoes are going to be a case in point on that. Given that the suit is a dark brown, I think The Boy was initially going for dark brown shoes as well but has now decided to make more of a statement with some tan shoes which is far less of a ‘safe’ choice. I think they will look good though. Of course, now The Boy is worried that his outfit won’t look formal enough for a wedding but thats a hurdle for another day. I tried to tell him that he looked hot in the suit and outfitted as he was, no one was going to think he was underdressed on the day but I’m not sure he totally believed me.

With This Ring

Well here’s something that you don’t do every day. The Boy and I made our wedding rings this afternoon. Thats right. Made. As in we didn’t walk into a jewellers and go ooohh, they’re nice, I’ll just whip out my fantastic plastic so if you could just charge them to my spendings account, that would be great. No. We just started out with two short rods of precious metal and ended up with three rings. Now I know convention would tell you that there should really only be two at the most (cause what – you’re actually planning on having a third person in the marriage somewhere?) but I am apparently one of those women who doesn’t do anything by halves. I want two rings for myself. Or maybe that should be I do actually do things by halves as each ring could be considered as one half of the whole. The two bands were designed to sit either side of my engagement ring and will both be given to me during the wedding ceremony. Whichever way you look at it however, they did end up being more work for The Boy. My job was much easier. His ring wasn’t half as fiddly and I only had to do everything once.

The whole exercise was actually a lot of fun. We turned up at the jeweller’s workshop just before lunch and confirmed the styles of rings that we were making that afternoon. Of course, there were inevitably things that we realised should have been contemplated previously. We therefore had a few moments where we stared at each other blankly going do you want a comfort fit? Do I want a comfort fit?? But we sorted that out soon enough. Our Artisenne then put us to work rolling out the gold to get it to the desired width, length and thickness etc. She had one of those spiffy digital vernier things to tell how far along we were to our goal as well. It could give you measurements to a couple of decimal places which I imagine would not necessarily be extremely useful in my day to day life but could be fun nonetheless. It was quite useful in making the rings however as the whole process was done by hand. There was no pouring of molten metals into a perfectly sized mould or anything like that. There was some naked flame involved in the soldering process but the rest of the afternoon was spent with various other machines and tools, not least of which were the hammers and the saws. And with that many implements of destruction, someone had to get hurt and it was me that ended up claiming the idiot prize.

To be perfectly honest, it really wasn’t much of an injury at all. It would be generous to say that I actually sliced my finger with the saw blade. It was more of a nick really. About 3mm in length worth of laceration but just like some paper cuts which are so totally not at all life threatening either, it stung like nobody’s business at the time and has been inconveniencing me ever since. And it was my own fault which sort of adds insult to injury really. We were warned about keeping our fingers out of the way when we were sawing through the metal to make the rings join in a circle. Since I’m not used to that sort of work though, I was obviously having a few issues holding the metal in such a way as to keep myself completely out of the way. Sadistically however, I was kind of glad to hear later that The Boy had a few difficulties when he was buffing my rings. With bucket loads of friction, small pieces of metal get very hot very fast and he was evidently feeling it. On the whole through, it wasn’t exactly a difficult process to make the rings and pretty much anyone can do it. We were guided through each individual step and our Artisenne even told us that she had previously instructed a blind man on how to make a ring for his partner. Due to his lack of sight, it wasn’t really safe for him to use the buffer apparently but he was able to accomplish everything else.

So we happily spent our afternoon muddling through each of the processes involved in making our bands. Lunch and refreshments were provided by the company, as was a digital camera on the day for us to document the entire project as we wished (although snap happy as I am I also brought my own “baby” as The Boy referred to it). Champagne upon the completion of the finished product was provided to celebrate as well and the wedding rings we finally ended up with looked really professional. Not that I had any doubts that they would look otherwise of course but its still pretty cool to see something that you would have been happy to pay good money for in a shop and know that you made it yourself. Or at least most of it. Because it does help that you get assistance along the way...

As much as we were able to, we completed each of the steps involved ourselves but when something was just that touch too fiddly or seemed to require a bit of a ‘knack’, our Artisenne stepped in to help us out and make sure we ended up with something that looked great. If we happened to have wanted any stones set in the rings then they would have actually taken care of that for us but we stayed “fairly” simple. They look after all the engraving if theres something you want carved into your band as well and we have actually been thinking about this option. We don’t want our names or the wedding date or anything like that though so we need to come up with another idea. The Boy did have the thought that we could use the words from the title of the sermon that will be given at our wedding, ie. Grace and Holiness which I think is kinda nice. It would be fitting and meaningful for The Boy to have Holiness in his ring and for me to have Grace in mine so we might do that. Its also probably a whole lot simpler to accomplish than using ‘With This Ring...’and’...I Thee Wed’ which was my other idea too.

Take V

Well I figured if I wrote a speech using song lyrics and another using movies lines then I may as well write one using poetry. I have after all seen a couple of examples of bridal speeches where poems are recited in lieu of, well, a speech really. Normally I am not such a fan of poetry but I did come across something written by Roy Croft though that just seemed to fit.

“Firstly, I would like to start my speech by saying a few small thankyous. A lot of the main ones have already been covered or are ones that The Boy and I would still like to make personally but there are a couple of other heroes who should not remain unsung. It would be remiss of me not to offer our thanks for example to The Boy’s workplace and to mine for the internet access so crucial in planning our day. Many a lunch time was spent pouring over pictures and sourcing vendors so that we could bring everything together today. I should also thank our neighbours for the same reason but I don’t really want to introduce myself and explain that they never secured their home network. Another thank you I have is for all of our friends who so conveniently got married before we did. Their weddings provided a great chance to see firsthand how different ideas worked and allowed us to pinch only the ones we liked. And I think they worked out pretty well on the whole.

Apart from my thankyous though, there were a couple of other things I wanted to say in my speech. When I was researching to find out what was traditional or required for a brides speech the overwhelming consensus appeared to be that there were no rules whatsoever. General opinion seemed to dictate that I firstly offer our appreciation for persons not yet mentioned and then talk about the groom or share a funny story about our courtship. I realised that I don’t have any of those that I can repeat however so I decided to go with talking about The Boy instead. Stubborn, irrational, pedantic, argumentative and just plain bitchy are all words that have been used to describe me at some point in time and this man I have married gets to see every one of those traits on a somewhat regular basis. The fact that he has happily committed his life to me today just goes to show how patient, tolerant and understanding he really is. The fact that he can see through or put up with all of the bad stuff to get to the good demonstrates that he is definitely a diamond in the rough and this is part of the reason that I am happy to call myself his wife.

My aunt asked me a question a couple of years ago in the first weeks that The Boy and I were dating. She asked if I could see us having a future together and settling down to get married. The idea unnerved me a little bit at the time (as it might after only a couple of weeks) and I think I said that I couldn’t not see a future for us. I wasn’t sure at the time what the future would hold but I didn’t think there was no possibility that we might end up here today. Now as I stand here, I can still see those two futures that I saw then, one with The Boy and one not, the difference being that now I don’t want to see my future without The Boy. He is a major part of my life and I know that I am a better person for knowing him. I hope that I can be that same partner in life to him that he is for me and I am looking forward to us spending our future together.

The Boy knows that I do not always openly express my feelings and that sometimes I don’t take enough time to say the important things in life but I recently found a poem that I thought pretty much summed up a lot of things that I could say right now so therefore;

‘I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can’t help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing outInto the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavernBut a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.’

So please everyone, join with me and raise your glasses in a toast to the best friend that is my husband and to the future.”

Take IV

Well I thought it was about time that I took another shot at the wedding speech. I sort of stuck it on the back burner for a while when life started getting in the way but it is still on the to-do list of things that need to be completed. Preferably before the big day. As I was looking for inspiration though and ideas that would befit our momentous event, I started thinking about other productions and the ability of some people to put things far better than I. Like the screen writers whose primary purpose is to find just the right words to say. The fashioning of a moment to move an audience and evoke an emotional response. That is what I would like to be able to do. Those are the things I’d like to be able to say. Maybe I should just borrow...?

“So I have been thinking long and hard about my speech. I have come up with version after version as I try to find the right words to express just what this day has meant to me and the ideal phrases to convey how important this man I have married is in my life. It would seem somehow fitting to say something both eloquent and poetic about what we share together. To speak about what we feel for each other or some of the reasons we have chosen to be wed today. I have looked for inspiration in poetry and prose but I keep circling back to all those so called perfect moments in the movies over the last decade or so. Moments that are perhaps romantic or dramatic or even funny but that all seem to sum up in a small way at least one aspect of what I wanted to talk about here tonight.

From Jerry McGuire’s “You complete me” to Mark Darcy’s “I love you, just as you are”, the simple concept of acceptance really needs no further words. For me, they carry with them the idea that a person can be a home as much as a place may be and that in and of themselves, if you’re lucky enough as I have been to find that person, they are ‘enough’. These words express a love like those which were borrowed by Patch Adams. “I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep”. A love that is perhaps as difficult to explain as it is simple in nature. But we still try to express if not what this love is for each of us, then why it is all we have.

To paraphrase from The Notebook, “The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds and thats what has been given to me. I am nothing special; just a common person with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me, and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who’s ever lived: I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul and to me, this has always been enough”. It is thoughts such as these that I believe we take into our marriage because we know that together we can be better and stronger than we ever could be apart. As the lines that were given to Susan Sarandon, “We need a witness to our lives. Theres a billion people on the planet. I mean, what does any one life mean? But in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things. All of it, all the time, every day. You’re saying ‘Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness’”.

It was said in The Bachelor “Its a wonderful thing, as time goes by, to be with someone who looks into your face when you’ve gotten old, and still sees what you think you look like”. I think The Boy and I have both been lucky enough to find in each other someone who will want to stay through the good times and the bad. Who will promise to stand as a witness, support, encourage and counsel as the need arises. Neither of us always finds it easy to have surrendered so much of ourselves to be who we are together but it is a commitment that we have both made freely. We have a genuine desire to see as many tomorrows as we can together and to be able to look back on all our yesterdays fondly. There really aren’t words enough to express everything I feel about being married to The Boy but if I might borrow from Robbie Hart with sincere apologies, “Wanna make you smile whenever you’re sad / Help you around when your arthritis is bad / All I wanna so is grow old with you / I’ll get your medicine when your tummy aches / build you a fire if the furnace breaks / oh it could be so nice, growin’ old with you / So let me do the dishes in the kitchen sink / Put you to bed when you’ve had too much to drink / I wanna grow old with you.”.

So when I was thinking about this speech, I was kind of hoping that it might write itself and I guess in a way it has. There really does not seem much more to say other than to actually thank this man for committing to share his life with me and to thank all of you, our guests for coming to celebrate this event with us. And without further ado I’d like to ask you to raise your glasses to love, to laughter and to happy ever after.”

Like A Dream

I had a dream about not being prepared for the wedding last night. It wasn’t a nightmare because it didn’t scare the pants off me or anything like that but it was a little unsettling at the time. It wasn’t about the wedding itself however. I mean I wasn’t going oh my god, I’m getting married today and I don’t have a dress yet but I was feeling dreadfully unprepared for the rest of the day. I know that I was with my parents and a seemingly random dog and that I was quite concerned about making sure I’d be able to have everything that I wanted with me. I was racing around the house (which was not our house, or rather their house but somewhere that seemed a mixture of a few places I know, mostly my Sydney Aunt and Uncle’s) and frantically thinking of all the items I would need because I couldn’t come back for anything forgotten. I think I started writing a list as well, just to make sure I got it covered.

I know I needed my camera. I think I wanted my tripod. Clothes to change into after the wedding and over the weekend when I would be in a hotel were also on the list. I can’t remember anything else though. Now that I think about what possessions I might need in order to get ready and to last a few days without going home, there doesn’t seem an awful lot of other things that would be important. Well, apart from money and keys but they wouldn’t have needed to be ‘gathered’. They just would have been there. The list was growing at about 5 or 6 items however. And I had that feeling you get after you realise you’ve woken up late. You’re focusing as much on the need to rush as you are on the things you need to remember before you leave the house and you just feel like sitting down cause you can’t figure out where to start.

I’m sure you could come up with some sort of Freudian analysis of my dream and say that although I appear to have settled in my decision to marry, I could still be feeling somewhat unprepared for what comes after. The fact that I was not in my own house but rather another disjointed home might suggest that I have some personal unresolved issues or may need to organise my thoughts or my environment more in order to take the time to chill out. Of course, you could also say that the random dog was the one my cousin asked me if The Boy could dogsit last night while we had a girls night out. The house was therefore her home because she and I will travel together to said girls night and the rushed feeling comes from the fact that I was lucid dreaming right before I was woken up late this morning.

I must say though that I am still waiting for the good dream about this wedding. The one where my girlfriend from overseas flies in to surprise me and we have some amazing last minute additions to the day because we win lotto a fortnight before the event. Where the guests decide they’re still in the mood to party after the reception and we all kick on until The Boy and I feel the need to pass out in our very expensive hotel suite which we don’t leave for about 24 hours. We do poke out our heads for a small gathering of the interstate guests but then abscond back in to opulent luxury before flying off to an exotic location for our honeymoon which includes several foreign countries. I think that would be a much more productive way of spending my sleeping hours if I’m going to remember them afterwards. Plus they do say that positive visualisation can help things come to pass...

Channelling Julie Andrews

We’re up to church music at the moment. After a mammoth weekend of wedding stuff, we are deciding what to play for the processional and the recessional and all the bits in between and its not an easy job. Well, it might be if you were already in love with certain pieces but we pretty much have a list of what we’re not playing at the wedding as opposed to what we are. Air on a G String is out as is Clarkes Trumpet Voluntary. The Wedding March is most definitely not allowed and the Canon in D will not be getting a look in at all. Now before anyone gets upset with me because they had this at their wedding and they thought it was a beautiful piece, I actually like all these pieces. Well, except for The Wedding March, I’m actually not overly partial to that one. The thing is though that given our budget and available resources, we could not have these pieces played as we would wish them to be played at our wedding (namely with a lot of brass) so we would rather opt for something else entirely.

Since we are going to be married in an old church which has a lovely organ, we would like to take advantage of that as well. We could possibly ask friends to provide all the music throughout the service or have the organist play the piano instead but it would seem a shame not to use a grand organ at all if it is available. So we have been surfing the net looking for options and alternatives to the stock standard pieces every experienced wedding musician would have in their repertoire almost by default. I wanted something that sounded happy and upbeat that didn’t remind me of a dirge. Oddly enough, we found recordings of some pieces by the Mormon Church that I quite liked but they didn’t seem quite fitting on the whole. I didn’t mind if it was a contemporary piece or a classical one but seeing as it needed to be played on an organ, the night we were searching started to feel quite drawn out until we hit on a processional that worked.

It will probably both amuse and come as no surprise to some people that the first piece we chose was the Wedding Processional from The Sound Of Music, arguably one of the most famous musicals ever. The movie was a phenomenon in and of itself and at some point in their lives, millions of girls from all different generations wanted to actually be Julie Andrews. I thought what better way to start The Wedding in front of all our guests than to borrow a bit of musical brilliance and well maybe channel a bit of the great lady herself as I walk down the aisle. I did vaguely look at having a bit of Cinderella moment by finding out of there was such a thing as the processional from The Slipper and the Rose (one of my all time favourite movies since I was about 5) but it really wasn’t a feature in the movie. When Cinderella turns up to gatecrash the prince’s wedding they all remove to discuss whether the prince can marry her instead and then they have the main refrain for the two of them I think. She doesn’t get a proper traipse down the aisle.

Now that this has been sorted though, we still actually have all the rest of the pieces to go. There are hymns I believe that are a requirement of us being married in an Anglican church and we need to choose something for the signing of the register while everyone has to sit quietly in their pews and the recessional as we leave the church. Given the somewhat modern (and perhaps girly) piece we have chosen for when I enter the church, the idea appealed to have a modern “boy” sort of piece as we leave the church. It amused us no end to find the Mario Brothers Theme and the Tetris theme played on church organs on You Tube but I somehow think that this would not sit at all well with some of our guests. It is our wedding of course but still, it wouldn’t be meaningful enough for us to go to that effort. I imagine we shall choose some other pieces that fit a little more seamlessly into the ceremony and save the kooky for another time. There is still a whole reception full of music that we can inflict on our guests as the mood takes us.