Weddingbee Blog

When people think of the music at wedding ceremonies, there’s a certain sound that comes to mind. There are lovely groups of musicians who specializing in playing harps, violins, flutes, and cellos at wedding ceremonies. While those groups always sound very nice when I’m a wedding guest, I wasn’t all that excited about having that sound at our wedding ceremony.

From the King Family Vineyards website

As I explained in the past, we are hugely into music. Mr. Mink is a radio show host and we are loyal fans of improvisation. At first, Mr. Mink thought I would want ultra-traditional music. I did a little homework and looked at area musicians who play wedding ceremonies. They all looked wonderfully talented, but none made me excited. I told Mr. Mink that I couldn’t imagine any of the people I found at our wedding. I wanted upbeat music that would make me smile, nothing that sounded solemn or sacred. I wanted “our” music and I wanted guitars.

That’s when Mr. Mink contacted this guy:

I’ll address the guy on the right at the end of this post / Image from The Hook / Photo by Tom Daly

William Walter is the front man of William Walter & Co. They’re a Charlottesville based band that tours regionally and plays the festival circuit each summer. While Mr. Mink knows William pretty well, I was convinced that playing a wedding was way beneath this guy in light of the crowds he usually plays in front of during the summer. Remember, I think about opportunity cost a lot and I imagined a Friday night in June being a pretty big night for gigs.

Photo from Last.fm

I shouldn’t have worried! William was more than happy to play for us! He (and that megawatt smile) are going to play our ceremony and cocktail hour. When Mr. Mink shared the news, I had one of my “eek!” moments. I’m SO excited about this! Our out-of-town guests probably won’t know who is playing at our ceremony, but I imagine our local friends will pretty excited to see William at our wedding.

Image from Jambase.com / Photo by Stratton Lawrence

Oh, and the goofy guy to William’s right in the band shot at the top of this post? That’s Tucker Rogers. He’s also in the other two pictures, but with short hair. William said he’s going to bring Tucker along so we have a duo. Double eek! We’ll have William Walter and Tucker Rogers playing for us!

Here’s one problem: I’m totally blank when it comes to specific songs we should ask William and Tucker to play. I’ve never been to a wedding that didn’t use very traditional music like Pachelbel’s Canon and Ave Maria.

Where does the non-traditionalist look for music inspiration for their wedding?