Michigan Wedding Music ~ Harpist at the Shadowland Pavilion, Silver Beach

I love weekday weddings - especially for brides who are planning their ceremony in a popular destination.  This Thursday evening ceremony was held in the Shadowland Pavilion on Silver Beach in St. Joseph, Michigan.  Many of their family and friends made the trip to Southwest Michigan from Texas, so the holiday week was perfect timing for an extended wedding trip.

Amy & Art had definite ideas about their wedding music!  Most of the pieces they wanted were already a part of my harp repertoire, but they also had a couple of special requests that were important to them.  During the prelude, it was mostly popular music:

• Clocks by Coldplay
• I'm Yours by Jason Mraz
• Just Haven't Met You Yet by Michael Buble
• At Last by Etta James
• Sea of Love by the Honeydrippers
• Going to the Chapel by The Shirelles
• Ode to Joy by Beethoven

They chose more traditional options for the processionals ("Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" for the families and "Canon in D" for the bridal party).  The bride's entrance music was the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun".  The couple's dog, Buddy, did an outstanding job as ring bearer!

Amy & Art really put a lot of thought into their ceremony, and it was personalized by their officiant, Rev. Laura Sumner Truax from Chicago.  As the service began, they had family members read the names of loved ones who had passed away or were not able to make the trip.  I accompanied a cousin of the bride singing the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World". 

They had a different take on the popular sand ceremony.  Instead of combining two different colors of sand, they combined sand from the beach of Lake Michigan (where the bride spent many summers) with that from South Padre Island (where the groom grew up), topping it off with rocks and shells from both locations.  During the sand ceremony, they requested "Marry Me" by Train.

Just before they were pronounced husband and wife, the families of the bride and groom performed a lasso ceremony, a Hispanic custom that signifies the joining of the two families at the wedding.  For the recessional, I accompanied a friend of the family singing "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain and Tennille.  The recessional stayed upbeat with "All You Need is Love", "You Want to Make a Memory", "A Thousand Miles" and "Collide".

Southwest Michigan is full of beautiful beach-side wedding venues!  The harp is the perfect instrument for a wedding ceremony on (or near) the beach.  Please visit my website, Southwest Michigan Wedding Music, for information on including the beauty of harp music in your wedding plans!

Wedding on Silver Beach | St. Joseph, Michigan

If ever the job of wedding harpist earned combat pay, this one deserved it!  After an unbelievably hot summer, the weather finally cooled off, and it looked like it would be comfortable to play outside for once.  Since the ceremony was set to take place on Silver Beach in St. Joseph, Michigan, Jeff accompanied me to the wedding to carry the harp across the sand.  Harp carts just sink!

The closer we got to the beach, the more the wind was picking up and trees were swaying.  We knew we were in trouble when we saw people heading to the beach with surfboards!

As usual, we were the first to arrive to get set up before the guests came.  It was so windy, I couldn't take my hands off the harp.  What you don't see in the picture is my leg wrapped around the music stand to keep it from tipping over!  Even with music clips, the whole book of sheet music kept blowing away.  It was obvious that I'd need Jeff to help with more than harp-schlepping on this one - he needed to sit next to me through the ceremony and hold down the pages of my music.  He's such a good sport!

The wedding party was small - only a maid of honor, best man, flower girl and ring bearer.  They entered to the traditional Irish tune "Danny Boy".  The bride chose Enya's "Only Time" for her processional.  Once the ceremony concluded, they exited to "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Rogers & Hammerstein's musical, "Carousel".  By the time I had finished that piece, all of the guests had left the beach to get out of the wind.  This goes on record as the shortest postlude ever!

Yes, it is possible to play the harp on a beach.  If you can provide us with a 4'x4' platform on which to place the harp, we will bring the Laurel Leaf lever harp you see pictured here.  If that's not possible, we have a Celtic harp that can be placed on the sand itself:

Since it us up on legs, the sand doesn't affect the instrument.  We're happy to provide music for beach weddings anywhere on Lake Michigan - just hope for a less windy day!