Wedding Harmony

If You're not familiar with Vicki Grafton and My Simple Details, you should be. Vicki planned her own Bali wedding and it's been plastered all over the place. I'm sure you've seen in on Style Me Pretty or even recently on The Budget Savvy Bride's Wedding of the Week. Anyway, Vicki was the planner for the event in the below video. The camera work leaves a little to be desired, but it wasn't like it was being filmed by a real videographer (at least I HOPE not). Still, you get the gist. Really clever and those guys can SING!

Enjoy.

Best Groomsmen Medley from Vicki Grafton on Vimeo.

"I Wish" Wednesday

I so wish that I could stop obsessing about the things that went wrong at the wedding. Really, only two things sucked and everything else was over-the-top fabulousity. I think I’m just going to vent those things now and be done with it.

First, y’all know that the bartender thing at Aloft Hotel was a bust. I have heard back from them. They sent me a Starwood Hotel Preferred Guest card with 20,000 points on it. The card they set up for me was a new card. If they had thought to check, they would know that I’m already a Starwood Preferred Guest and I already have a card. So now, I have to go through the process of changing the card numbers over to ONE card and transferring the points, blah, blah, blah. More of a pain in the ass than it’s even worth. Aloft Hotel – YOU FAIL.

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The other thing that I didn’t like was the DJ. At all. I met her at one of the bridal shows and thought that having a female DJ would be cool and different and un-cheesy. I left the music management up to The Candyman. He met with her, discussed our music tastes and he was happy with the meeting so we hired her.

Months before the wedding I sent her the Martha Stewart list of songs that I blogged about here. She emailed me saying that adding the songs we liked wouldn’t be an issue and she thought the songs were cool. A few weeks before the wedding, we sent her our full list of songs we wanted. It was very specific. This is what she received from us:

For the Atmosphere

Anything by Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, The Drifters (Think Myrtle Beach Shag/Beach Music Festival)

Classic Country (Nothing recorded after 1980)

Bluegrass

Anything by Mahalia Jackson

Early Slow Dances

Givin’ Him Something He Can Feel/ Aretha Franklin

You Send Me/ Sam Cooke

At Last/ Etta James

Jet Lag/ Joss Stone

Picking up the Pace

Do You Love Me/ The Contours

Hallellujah, I Love Her So/ Ray Charles

Fell in Love with a Boy/ Joss Stone

Rasberry Beret/ Prince

Higher and Higher/ Jackie Wilson

Forver/Chris Brown

Getting the Way Down and Dirty

Rock Your Body/ Justin Timberlake

Goin’ Down/ Freddie King

Nothin’ but a G Thang/ Dr. Dre

Gett Off/ Prince

Sexy Back/ Justin Timberlake

Blame it on the Boogie/Jackson 5

Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)/ Beyonce

Candyman/ Christina Aguilera

Mellowing Out

Destiny/ Zero 7

Every Morning/ Keb Mo’

Pretty specific, right? We had also sent her a time line of the evening and what kind of music we wanted during dinner and the cocktail hour. Well, when we walked into Mere Bulles, the first thing I noticed was the blaring music. I think the first thing I told Tabitha (who was standing right at my elbow – God love her) was (in somewhat of a bridezilla manner that I must now apologize for), “The music is WAY too loud and what the hell is she playing? Light cocktail/dinner music now and have her turn it down!” Within nano-seconds the music was lowered and more appropriate. But I swear, I thought I was in a freakin’ dance club when I first walked in. Not a good start.

And as an aside, I have to say that whenever I needed Tabitha, I looked up and there she was. She was always at the ready and that was so comforting. The fact that the music changed instantly (I swear, it was like a light switch it happened so fast), I knew I could relax and that she would handle everything. I knew that at the church too, but Mere Bulles is where it set in. I think I was too busy with the whole “getting married” thing at the church to worry.

I barely noticed the music during dinner, as it did remain low and unobtrusive. However, I don’t remember hearing anything that we requested. I’m not going to bitch too much about that though because she may have played it and I didn’t notice or hear it.

After we cut the cake, we had out first dance and father/daughter dance, which were fine. The music that she started playing after that was questionable. She really could not and did not read the crowd. We had told her that our guests were a tad older. I mean, we’re in our thirties, our parents are in their fifties and sixties as our many of our older family members. All of our friends are in their thirties and up, for the most part. I have to think hard about who was under thirty! So, playing all sorts of club music straight out of the gate? Not smart. I mean, some of the songs I liked and requested, it was just her timing sucked. Bad. Out of the entire list above, I remember hearing three songs. Three. We really wanted our guests to dance and have fun, but that really didn’t happen. Both of our families are from the South. They all dig beach/shag music and most people enjoy dancing to that style of music. I can’t remember hearing one song that fell into that genre, not one. On top of all that, other than the scheduled dances with The Candyman and my dad, I don’t think she played one slow song. Um, what? Seriously, I danced one kinda slow song with my brother and that was it.

After the wedding, I polled some good friends and they all agreed that the DJ sucked.

While I don’t think it ruined anything, I don’t think it was all that it could have been. I think people still had fun, but it really kind of pissed me off that after all the information we shared with the DJ, she just played really standard, blasé wedding music – which is what we really did not want. I guess this is a perfect example of how the best laid plans can go awry and that there are just some things you have to let go, deal with and make the best of. I think I did that during the wedding. It’s just now that I’m obsessing over it, which is so incredibly stupid. Let me repeat. So. Incredibly. Stupid.

So my wish for Wednesday is layered:

Stop obsessing over the damn DJ.

Find the positive in the fact that you can share this info with fellow brides – so that they too will know that things won’t be perfect, but that it will not affect how you feel unless you let it.

Make sure you’ve got a kick-ass day-of planner.

Forever

This video makes me so happy, I cried.



Thanks to AEL for sharing and making my day!

Calling All Music Snobs

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While I used to consider myself a know-it-all music snob, I long ago relinquished that title to those with more time on their hands and the wherewithal to engage in the activity. I have better things to do like play Mafia Wars and Scramble on Facebook. Oh right, and plan a wedding. And blog about it.

Early in the planning stages I found a cool article in Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. She listed "songs you won't hear at every other wedding." The same article can be found here. Or, you can just see the list below:

For the Cocktail Hour
"I Only Have Eyes for You," Billie Holiday
"How Deep Is Your Love," The Bird and the Bee
"Tupelo Honey," Cassandra Wilson
"It's Wonderful," Ella Fitzgerald
"Soledad," Jorge Drexler
"In a Sentimental Mood," John Coltrane
"Stop, Look, Listen to Your Heart," Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross
"I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl," Nikka Costa
"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," Shelby Lynne

For the Dinner
"The Weight," Aretha Franklin
"Wind Cries Mary," Jamie Cullum
"Don't Speak," Leela James
"Easy," The Commodores
"All at Sea," Jamie Cullum
"Shelter," Ray LaMontagne
"This Must Be the Place (NaiveMelody)," Talking Heads
"Across the Universe," Rufus Wainwright
"Closer," Travis
"The Look of Love," Dusty Springfield
"More Than This," Roxy Music

For Your First Dance
"Sea of Love," Cat Power
"Thank You," Lizz Wright
"Northern Sky," Nick Drake
"Brighter Than Sunshine," Aqualung
"In Your Eyes," Jeffrey Gaines
"Somersault," Zero 7
"Isn't It Romantic?," Tony Bennett
"A Case of You," Joni Mitchell
"You're the Best Thing," The Style Council
"Baby, Now That I've Found You," Alison Krauss
"Here Comes the Sun," Nina Simone

For the Father/Daughter Dance
"Maybe I'm Amazed," Jem
"Sweet Pea," Amos Lee
"In My Life," The Beatles
"Isn't She Lovely," Stevie Wonder
"I Can See Clearly Now," Jimmy Cliff
"A Song for You," Gram Parsons
"To Sir with Love," Al Green
"The Wind," Cat Stevens
"Have You Met Miss Jones (Swing When Version)," Robbie Williams

For Boogie Time
"Heart of Glass," Blondie
"Let's Stick Together," Bryan Ferry
"Mercy," Duffy
"What'd I Say," Ray Charles
"Ring of Fire," Johnny Cash
"Some Kind of Wonderful," Joss Stone
"Modern Love," David Bowie
"I Only Have Eyes for You," The Flamingos
"Valerie," Mark Ronson with Amy Winehouse
"Twistin' the Night Away," Sam Cooke
"('Til) I Kissed You," The Everly Brothers

For the After-Party
"If You Find Yourself Caught in Love," Belle & Sebastian
"Who the Cap Fit," Bob Marley
"Sirenes de la Fete," Brazilian Girls
"Following," Chungking
"Beautiful World," Colin Hay
"Heartbeats," Jose Gonzalez
"Cupid," Jack Johnson
"Karmacoma," Massive Attack
"Je T'aime Moi Nnon Plus," Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin
"Little Black Sandals," Sia

I've downloaded a lot of these for my own enjoyment, except for Belle & Sebastian. I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick than listen to that melancholy, wrist-slitting crap. I also sent a copy of the list to my DJ. She's including these on her play list too. Very cool.

I also gave the list to my dad in hopes that he will choose a good father-daughter dance song. I don't know if it's his job to pick, but I think it would be nice if he did. It's also one less thing for me to worry about, right?

I'm also starting to think about the Do Not Play list. Off the top of my head, I've got:
The Macarena
The Electric Slide
The Chicken Dance
The Hustle
Love Shack
Grease Mega-mix
Theme from Friends
That's What Friends Are For
U Can't Touch This
Achy Breaky Heart
Gonna Make You Sweat
YMCA

What's really scary is that all of these songs were on Top Wedding Song Lists from various idiotic websites. What's on your Do Not Play list?