On 3/10/18 a wedding, marked by quite a number of surprises that elicited emotion as well as laughter, took place at Scarritt’s Wightman Chapel. A Silver Strings trio convened there to oversee the nuptials of Halee and Craig. There was nothing typical about this wedding and the sense of humor displayed by the couple will see them through any rough patch in their marriage.
Halee chose things like the themes from Downton Abbey and Pride and Prejudice with a nod to their Catholic backgrounds Silver Strings played “Ave Maria” and the Prayer of St. Francis. The first surprise happened as the flower girls took their places…actually it’s never a surprise when a 3 year old decides it’s fun to start walking across the front of the church and then back down the aisle just when we’re supposed to be playing the bride in. We waited for someone to snag her before we began the next surprise — to the groom.
Halee swore me to secrecy that her processional, a song written by Craig, was not to be mentioned to him. She had sent me a sound file so I could arrange it for the trio. (Thank heavens Craig Duncan was playing violin with me this time as there were some omissions in the music, thanks to my music writing program, that would have been disastrous if we hadn’t gone through it first during call time. He quickly saw where the problems were and we were able to repair our parts before the prelude.) And maybe the delay created by the young flower girl’s distraction just increased the excitement of the moment so that when Craig realized what the song was, the tears flowed.
Shortly after the deacon opened the ceremony and the readings were done, he made his way to the lectern and joked that his homily was going to last 45 minutes at which point the groom threw up his hands and sat down on the stairs with his chin in his hands. More laughter. The homily was actually less than 5 minutes.
The next surprise was the period of time after Halee and Craig said their vows and instead of continuing to the exchange of rings, unbeknownst to the couple, had us play a verse of a hymn to give them time to contemplate what they had just promised. Then after the ring exchange and again unbeknownst to the couple, the deacon had the parents come to the stage to participate in the Nuptial Blessing. Very touching.
At long last Halee and Craig were pronounced husband and wife and we sent them off to Vivaldi’s “Spring” followed by Craig’s song again. May their union be filled with fun and laughter in the years to come. Congratulations to them and their families!
