88 Keys on the Road - Blog

Posted by Rev. Tomkin Coleman, Minnesota Wedding Officiant.

When evaluating a musician for your wedding, or trying to decide what kind of musician, or even if deciding between live music or a DJ, you're of course going to listen to your clips. But here's some advice from my 15+ years as a wedding officiant - I've seen all sorts of weddings, and the difference between live and DJ, the difference between instruments, and the difference between other musicians and Sharon is dramatic. Starting when I first walk into a ceremony site (whether it's a church or a reception hall), I could probably tell by guest's laughter and talking whether there was live music or not. I mean, yes, I can hear whether music is playing, but I could probably tell just from the guests' behavior - if there's music playing, they're all at ease, all chatty, all friendly with each other, but if there's no music, people definitely have an awkwardness to them. After all, they're all dressed up with relatives they haven't seen in a long time, and there's soon-to-be in-laws all around, and so it's easy for people to tense up and be nervous. But live music puts them right at ease - it's soothing, and fills any awkward silences, and makes every conversation easier. Next - the ceremony: With a pianist, it's just one musician, and so there's so much flexibility. When there's a trio or quartet of musicians, it's much harder to get everyone to start and stop the music at an unexpected time, but with a solo musician like a pianist, if the music needs to wrap up quickly, she can end easily at the end of a phrase...and she can start up, too, if needed. Especially in non-traditional ceremony sites, this sort of flexibility makes everything go smoothly (in a non-traditional wedding site, it's not as obvious to everyone how everything goes...no matter how much rehearsal was done the night before!) Final - Sharon herself. She has an amazing sensitivity and sense of timing, and those elements, combined with her years of experience, means that even if a mistake is made in the wedding (someone trips, or some child runs off, or anything else), she's there to take up the slack and extend the music, or cut it short, or start in if needed. So listen to all the clips in the world - you're probably better than me at knowing what you like, I'm sure! But from my POV, the choice of musician is incredibly important for reasons besides just the quality of the sound - and Sharon is not only a wonderful-sounding musician, she's one that really makes a wedding go smoothly and easily. Bravo!