Ceremony Music

Traditionally, at Holy Trinity, you're supposed to use the "house" organist. After our first meeting with Pastor Cindy, she gave us his phone number and told us to get in touch with him soon because his calendar fills up really quickly. We did as we were told and called him that week. In the weeks that followed, I left 4 messages, and my mom emailed his wife; all with no reply. My mom finally got to talk to him one night at a church committee meeting, and he told her that he and his wife were in the process of trying to plan a fall vacation, and he wasn't sure yet whether he'd be available on the date of our wedding. This was about 3 weeks after I first tried to contact him.

Last Sunday, Matt and I decided that we were going to talk to Pastor Cindy about it in our next meeting (which is this weekend), and tell her that we're really disappointed and frustrated with the way he handled the situation, and that we would like her permission to go in another direction and not wait for his response. I started thinking about our options, and playing with some ideas.

I came across the Vitamin String Quartet, which is (just as it sounds) a string quartet that plays popular music - folk, classic rock, indie, punk, metal - you name it, they probably play it. They rearrange the songs so that they sound good in a string quartet. I found tons of songs that I thought would be great for our ceremony - the prelude, the processionals, and the recessional and postlude! I was really excited about it!

And then on Monday, I got a call from the organist saying that he would be available for our wedding, and that I should call him asap to set up a time when we can meet with him to discuss options. Of course! So now I'm angry. In 2 1/2 months he couldn't have called to say, "Hey, I haven't forgotten about you!" What if it turned out that he wasn't available? I'd then be at the 6-month mark with no one to play for our wedding! It would be pretty tough to find someone else at that point.

So now I'm torn. Do I just go with our original plan (which I was really only doing because it's what you're "supposed" to do at Holy Trinity) and use the organist? Or do I say, "Screw it, he was a jerk" and use the Vitamin String Quartet. My mom says that since he's available we should use him. I say I'm mad and he was unprofessional and I should go with my backup plan. Mom says it's not his job and I shouldn't cut off my nose to spite my face. I say that since we would be paying him, although it's not his full-time job, he should still be held to some professional standards. And the Vitamin String Quartet thing is so cool! Matt doesn't really care either way. He's angry with the organist, but also feels like we should just go with the original plan - it's probably easier that way, anyway. Oh, and the other reason we're not sure what to do is that we think that if we don't go with the organist when he's available, we have to pay an extra fee. I still need to look into that.

Urgh...what's a girl to do?

Here's a sample of the VSQ's stuff.

[I tried to get the video to embed, but it won't work. Sorry!]