• Traditional Music We’ve All Heard at Weddings

Bridesmaid Processional – Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Pachelbel Canon in D, Air from Water Music, Air on the G string

Bridal Processional – Wagner Wedding March, Trumpet Voluntary, Trumpet Tune, Pachelbel Canon in D

Unity Candle or any other interlude – Traumeri, Ave Maria, Air on the G String,  Meditation from “Thais”

Recessional – Mendelssohn Wedding March, Entrance to the Queen of Sheba, Rondeau, Hornpipe from Water Music

• Traditional Music With a Twist
  

Bridesmaid Processional  – Romanza from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Aria from “Xerxes”, Flower Song from “Lakme”, My Heart Ever Faithful

Bridal Processional- Sleeping Beauty Waltz, Flower Song from “Lakme”, Bist Du Bei Mir, Arioso

Unity Candle or any other interlude -Romanza from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Bist Du Bei Mir, Wachet Auf, If With All Your Hearts from “Elijah”

Recessional – Ode to Joy, Te Deum, Spring from the Four Seasons

• Popular Music

Bridesmaid Processional – Summer by Hisashi, Hallelujiah by Leonard Cohen, Theme Music from “Up”, I Had a Farm in Africa Theme

Bridal Processional – Wonderful Tonight by Clapton, When You Say Nothing at All by Krauss, Every Breath You Take by Sting, The Luckiest by

Ben’s Folds Five

Unity Candle or any other interlude – I Had a Farm in Africa Theme, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica, How Beautiful, Kissing You by Des’ree

Recessional – All You Need is Love by Beatles, When I Ruled the World by Coldplay, Don’t Stop Believing by Journey, Beautiful Day by U2

Are any of you engaged or someday will be? I have been planning my own wedding and have learned what it is to be you. To be the person looking for a vendor rather than being the vendor. It has been quite the learning experience. For one, I have felt that easy and quick communication is of the up-most importance. I have a type A personality and am quite impatient in my personal life so the sooner I receive information the better. Surprisingly, my fiance is the same. He has said quite a few times “We shouldn’t have to beg someone to take our money.” Very true!

I waited a while to deal with flowers because so many people told me how much flowers can cost. Even for some of the smallest weddings the fees can be in the thousands. Thankfully our venue is beautiful on its own and in our style. Modern, chic and elegant. However, I still need bouquets, corsages, etc. One day I decided to stop in a florist on my block on the way to the train because there was a sign for weddings. I went in and asked for a general range for bouquets explaining how many bouquets I would need and my love for Gerber daisies. The woman was SO RUDE! I couldn’t believe it. She refused to give me any information, had no books with possible ideas, but did give me a quote for a bridal bouquet that seemed a bit ridiculous. So I left and it took me a solid month to bother with anyone else. Lucky for me my next experience was wonderful. Wild Orchid, http://www.wildorchidofwestchester.com/,  in Eastchester, NY. I met with the owner, he was kind, organized and had books for me to flip through. I was so happy when I saw the Gerber daisies! I will likely have a dark pink that will pop with the Bridesmaid dresses but there’s a sneak peek below.

The DJ was also an interesting experience. A friend of ours referred us to a DJ with wonderful credentials. He was more expensive than we originally thought a DJ would be but we decided to go with it and find another place to save. My fiance was in charge of this piece and became very frustrated. The communication was lacking. We waited almost a week for the contract, he kept needing to reschedule the exchange of the contract etc. The straw that broke the camels back was he had said he would be in touch with my fiance during a specific day and they would meet to exchange the contract and deposit. They work across the street from each other in nyc so this should have been easy. However he never called. In fact, we still haven’t heard, so back to “we shouldn’t have to beg someone to take our money.” My fiance found a replacement in no time and he is wonderful!! Barry Blends, I highly recommend him. I am hoping for a dance party, not a wedding where only a few people get off their butts and dance. If you are in need of a DJ check out his site, www.djbarryblends.com. My favorite part of his site are the testimonials.

Finding a limo service was a cinch. Everyone in the area knows about Silver Star Limousine. They are the company with the commercial with the pink mini cooper stretch. I went to the showroom and met with Mario Jr. He was everything I needed. Knowledgeable, friendly, affordable, and had me at ease. Mario even recognized me from being at other weddings. He asked if I wear all black and have a long violin case. Yup! That’s me except it’s bigger than a violin case and has a viola in it.

So long story short my feeling is you should go with the vendor that is easy to work with, gives quality customer service, and has the product you want and hopefully love. As a vendor I hope I am able to achieve this with all of my clients. I can’t imagine being the vendor that someone cringes at! So I am working even harder (I didn’t think it was possible) to make everyone’s wedding as special as it should be.

Imagine this dress with dark pink Gerber daisies. I think this will be the look for my Matron and Maid of Honor. The bridesmaids will be in an  eggplant dress of their choosing.

Winning a prestigious award hasn’t stopped us from thinking about our growth. What will be the next step for TDP? That is what we are working on now. Electric string instruments are the rage. So we are hoping to add this service to our clients very soon. It is also very fun! Look for more info on this soon.

Personally, Shaun and I have booked our photographer, DJ and honeymoon all in January. I know people say planning takes a long time but I prefer to bang out as much as possible when the opportunity presents itself so we can enjoy being engaged. It’s so much more enjoyable for me to be home together or going on a date relishing in the happiness of engagement than sitting at home sifting through who we are going to hire and looking at the horrifying site of a excel spreadsheet dedicated to our wedding!!! I love my fiance but he is a CPA so the budget looks scary to me even though we aren’t breaking the bank. My creative lifestyle doesn’t lend to seeing very many spreadsheets that are highlighted with formulas often. However, it is VERY useful!

In case any of you fellow brides are looking for a photographer do check out Shaun Baker, www.shaunbakerphotography.com. He has been wonderful to work with and I love his photos. Despite working in the wedding industry I had no idea how much photography can be. OUCH! Shaun has the best of both worlds for me. For our budget he was reasonable, he has been quick with communication, his work speaks for himself, and his personality is relaxed. The personality of the photographer was important to me because I have seen frenetic ones at weddings and the energy is off when this happens. I am sure to be a ball of emotions on the wedding day so a relaxed vibe is definitely up my alley.

Our February list includes transportation, hotel, flowers, makeup, and wedding invitations. If all works out I will be done planning by the end of the month and living in engagement non-planning bliss. Fingers crossed!

Don’t Stop Believing – Journey

Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

Fields of Gold – Sting

Hallelujiah – Leonard Cohen

The Scientist – Coldplay

Theme Music from “Up” – Michael Giacchino

I was surprised today by the feelings I had ordering it. I thought it would be simple and without emotion but while  standing there signing my name and giving a deposit I was filled with a mixture of emotions. I am not sure how to explain them in words but there were so many. Maybe nervous excitement is the best way to explain it. Every so often I am reminded that I am engaged, getting married, it will be a very special day but forever is also a long time .

On a happy note, I have been loving our October weddings. This weekend is another a busy one ending with a stop at Crabtree Kittle House in Chappaqua. They are always so wonderful to work with. Fun times ahead!

In April 2009 I went to speed dating on Allen St in NYC. One of the Divas had told me her cousin was dating a guy she met at speed dating and I figured what is the worst that could happen? I meet a ton of absolutely not’s and have a funny story? No problem! So I decided to wait until my orchestra season was over and off I went. I had no expectations. Upon arrival to the location I was like, omg!, who are these guys they found BUT then a guy in a pinkish red fitted shirt came in and I text my friend, finally a hot one! He was very cute and muscular so my pheromones had heated up lol. The speed dating began and it was a range of funny and weird experiences. Then the pinkish red shirt guy was my date and he kept me laughing. He seemed like a player in those moments together but hey, a girl needs a date! There is much more to this story like we knew someone in common, him slipping me his card and me thinking he really liked a girl I had made friends with there, my being caught checking him out by on one of the other dates :O blah blah.

Fast forward two+ years and we were living together happily but had never taken a vacation together. I am huge on travel and it drove me almost insane every time he said he wasn’t ready to travel with me, doesn’t like flying (this is true), won’t get a passport, has no interest in leaving the country etc. All in all there are way too many positives with Shaun so I just let it go and hoped that one day he’d go away with me and give it a shot. This past weekend was the first time. We went to Mystic, CT which is about 2 hours away from where we live. I had asked that we go someplace close by. Just get out of our normal routines and not have to fly. I was über excited on Saturday when we left and Shaun was exhausted. The night before I had thrown a monkey wrench in his plan. My ring was at my parents house but my plans with a friend had been postponed so we were together. Long story short he ended up using a friend as a decoy and not getting home until 1am! I didn’t know until later but he made a iPhone video of himself walking to the car Saturday morning talking about his plan to propose and why I am the one. I LOVE this video. We also took some video in Mystic before and after the proposal as well as the night before in Foxwoods where I find my facial expressions to him quite amusing. I wish I could post some here but it’s $60 to do so! But right, right the story.

Sunday afternoon we booked tickets to take a boat ride on Mystic River at 2pm. Shaun was a little uncertain because the weather report said possible thunderstorms but I had faith that we would get lucky. I was right! Sunday was humid but no rain. We arrived around 1 to downtown Mystic. We found a bench to sit on by the river to wait. Shaun asked if I would change anything in our relationship and I said no, I’m happy. What would have happened if I gave a list of problems lol?! So we talked about us and the past a little. Made of fun of things we saw like a woman wearing hair rollers on the bench next to us, HA! The whole time he was giving me small smooches and rubbing my shoulders. He was nervous. Then he said thank you for being patient with me about going away together. I really needed to save money this year (he’s an accountant, need I say more…). Then he said I made my goal but I blew it and I said on what? Then he started rustling in his pocket and out came a jewelry box but it wasn’t the standard ring box. He opened it and asked me to marry him. I said yes and something else I don’t remember and he said did you say yes?! And I said yes, grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him ! We only had a few minutes until 2 so we walked over to the boat and called my parents and his mom. I was SOOOOO happy all day and I still am. The boat ride was very nice. I had left my phone in the car by accident so I wasn’t texting and calling people but I was enjoying being with him. We made two short videos, one just talking and excited about it and one where we explain the proposal. I am so happy he thought to make these videos because now we have short snippets of our engagement weekend. My fav is definitely the first one where he says how awesome I am, J/K! So there you have it. Lakshmi and Shaun are engaged. It’s not real to me yet but I am so happy. I will do my best not to bore you all with the minutia of the planning once we get around to it but I will probably complain from time to time or ask for help when I can’t make a decision.

Here I am the night before the engagement, clueless that there’s a ring in the hotel!!!

After dinner the night of the engagement. I clearly packed a lot of black tops. The tragedy of always needing black clothes to perform.

(Excuse my eyes and the reflections of light. We couldn’t get a good picture.)

The week of the event I kept asking Shaun, bf,  what do I wear. Of course I had asked earlier but he just didn’t understand what the big deal was. But on  the website it said camp casual. Ummm….what is that?! Finally Terry, the groom, told me he didn’t care what I wore but his wife would be wearing a long cotton jersey dress and he would be wearing a linen suit. I was in love with that response so I opted for jeans, a black top and some boots. I was informed by Shaun the week of that we would NOT be spending the night in the woods because he’s “not sleeping in a cabin in the woods!” Smh. This Queens boy was not ready for where we were going.

Saturday arrives and I walk  to the train and meet him by grand central. Shaun was pretty cranky because he had class in the morning. He’d already left home, driven to Queens and then into the city. I accepted the complaints but I was on time for the meet as well as another guest. It took us FORever to get out of the city. I always prefer to avoid the tunnels but we had no other option. The ride was chockfull of booooring tax convo between Shaun and Sean. Yes, the other guest has the same name. We drove through many towns, the highways didn’t go where we were going lol. Eventually we arrived and I thought it was so cute. A very small campground with heated cabins. We had trouble figuring out which group of people was our’s and my Shaun didn’t want to get out of the car because he was scared! LMBO! It was 4:30pm! I got out and figured it all out. Lucky for me I had been to sleep away camp as a kid so this was nothing to me. Shaun was talking about how this is how all the murders start in the show Criminal Minds lol. Clearly I’d die first since my 6’3 diesel boyfriend refuses to leave the car!

We found Terry and another coworker Ghada. Ghada was great! Such a funny woman with her adorable 9-year-old. The four of us sat outside by the lake making jokes until dinner. Ghada and I were clearly overdressed as the other guests were wearing t-shirts from the bride and groom, sneakers and old jeans lol. The dinner was held in the dining hall, the picture below is in the hall. Happily people were more dressed up for this part and we didn’t stand out anymore. The food was very tasty. A buffet of pulled pork, baked beans, baked chicken, corn on the cob etc. The vibe was wonderful. I felt like I was at a family party. The guests were in comfortable clothes, the music was pumping and the food was  home style. Terry and Jennie accomplished a lost art in wedding celebrations. Comfort, ease, low-key, family, friends, fun.

So what am I going to do? That is most important question I must answer. Honestly, I am not sure. I am contemplating what will bring me the most gratification. I am sure that I will not start prepping myself for years of auditions. My quartet is what makes me the most fulfilled musically so it will certainly continue but how do I build on that? Do I try to enter the world of freelance pop world in NY? I could but like every other part of this life the who you know game is key. I know who is in charge of hiring musicians for this work however that person has a core of musicians. Just like I have a core quartet and they are always hired with each having a sub just in case they can’t make it. So do I drop the dream because I didn’t get my Masters in the city or move there outside of school? I really don’t know. The only thing I do know is I must continue to become a better musician so a new practice regime will begin soon. Perhaps give another quartet concert and hopefully take up my colleague on playing together and for each other. She also suggested we give a concert together which totally freaks me out. She’s soooo good! Yes, yes, that’s me still feeling inadequacy after so many years. Stop it Lakshmi! Buck up little camper and make it happen!