Beautiful Ceremony and Cocktail Hour Music at MyMoon in Williamsburg

Last weekend, after Chris’s return from California, we played at MyMoon in Williamsburg. We have played this venue a handful of times now, and it is always very beautiful.

Today we tried out a new tune for the ceremony, which was a special arrangement of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns n Roses (or G+R, for the real fans!) This is a great example of Penguin Wedding Music’s diversity…we can play classical music for your prelude and then rock out when the time is right!

Here is a pic of Steven practicing his part before we get started…

So this week I believe I won the prize for the worst picture taken at a wedding with the blurry pic below. It is sad considering how beautiful of a wedding and what a great venue this is. The Foundry in Long Island City (also known as just lic) is rated as the top wedding venue in New York City according to about.com . This is no small feat in a city with thousands of venues. The Foundry is actually a 19th century metal foundry that was converted into a beautiful event space. The staff had things together enough to the extent that the event seemed stress free. This is  more uncommon than it should be at many venues!

We played the ceremony in the main area which is lush and green but with a cool industrial kind of vibe. Then we played the cocktail hour in the room next door which is supposedly a new room. The dinner which we did not play looked like it was happening in a large tent outside of those two rooms. I can see how this is one of the top venues in the city  if you are looking for a slightly non traditional kind of venue. There were probably around 100 people there and the space felt quite full.

The songs we played for the ceremony were:
Can’t Help Falling In Love for the bride
In My Life for wedding party
Viva La Vida by Coldplay for the recessional.

It was another great wedding that we were proud to be a part of!

This weekend we played at the Pratt House located on 68th and Park Ave. The Pratt House was one the home of Harold Pratt, the son of oil tycoon Charles Pratt and now houses the Council on Foreign Relations. This is one of the top venues for a traditional kind of wedding in NYC. Very classy indeed! We had a lot of fun at this wedding; here are some of the songs that we played.

Ceremony:

All You Need Is Love
More Than This by Bryan Ferry
Blackbird

Cocktail Hour:

All of me
Black bird
bitter sweet syphony – the verve
Moondance  – van morrison
Girl from ipanema – cocktail hr
loui armstrong- la vie en rose coctail
Desafinado coctail
SImon tov
Hava Nagila
Ave maria

Couples often as me good songs to use for the wedding ceremony and recessional. I believe the first thing to consider is that you want to think about songs that already have meaning to you individually or as a couple. It might be the first song you danced or kissed to, from the first movie or band you saw together or the song that made you think of one another when you had to be apart from each other.

The next question is if this song would sound good on guitar and cello. One of Penguin Music’s strong points is that we are able to arrange mostly any song and make it sound good. Sometimes we get creative, such as in the arrangement of Justin Timberlake’s song Lovestoned, we took a part later in the song where there are strings and more of a melody to build an arrangement from. However, for certain songs we just would not sound good and would let you know if this is the case with the song you chose. For example, if it is a fast rap song where the words are the most important element, it probably would not sound very good without voice.

If you do can not find this one personal song, don’t despair! We have a large repertoire of music which I am sure you will be able to find a song that has meaning for you. Here is a list of some of the common songs that we do for the ceremony, but dont feel that you have to be limited to these:

Common Wedding Ceremony Songs

• Falling Slowly from Once (now a Broadway show!)
• Bach – Air on G
• Beatles – Blackbird
• Saint-Saens -The Swan
• Mendelssohn -Wedding March
• Shubert- Ave Maria
• Mendelssohn -Ave Maria
• Over The Rainbow – as performed by IZ
• Can’t Help Falling In Love – Elvis
• Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol
• Ever Shel Shoshanim
• Wedding Song – Stookey
• Wedding Song – Elvis
• Canon In D
• Yellow – Coldplay
• Viva La vida – Coldplay

Common Songs For The Recessional and Ceremony

• Starlight – Muse
• Wedding March
• Bridal Chorus
• Over The rainbow
• Good Life – one Republic
• Isnt she lovely – Stevie Wonder
• All you Need Is love – Beatles
• Here Comes the Sun – Beatles
• Simon Tov
• Yellow – Coldplay
• Viva La vida – Coldplay
• All Of Me

Remember that you do not have to use this list. There are many songs on our song list that work well for all parts of the ceremony at http://penguinweddingmusicny.com/current-repertoire/ . The list above are just some of the most common.

This weekend we played a beautiful outdoor ceremony at Haverstraw Bay County Park in West Haverstraw New York. It was the first outdoor ceremony of the year. The weather was as perfect as it could be with blue sky and 70 degrees. It overlooks the Haverstraw Bay which is just north of the Tappan Zee bay (Tappan and Haverstraw are both Native tribes or at least the name they were given by European Colonialization in the 17th century)

There was a priest who was oversaw the ceremony and was quite entertaining…I will have to get his name! Here is some of the music that was played for the ceremony:

Procession of Grandmother, Mother of Bride, Parents of Groom, and 3 bridesmaids – MANDOLIN RAIN
Procession of Bride – BLACKBIRD
Recessional – STARLIGHT (MUSE)

For the prelude:

Falling Slowly
Don’t Stop Believing
In My Life – Beatles
Over the Rainbow
You and Me – Lifehouse

Unchained Melody
I Dreamed a Dream
Can’t Help Falling in Love
Slide
How Sweet it is – James Taylor

The Water’s Edge is one of the premier wedding venues located in Long Island City. Where is Long Island City? Just in case you don’t know, it is in Queens. Whenever I go there I think I am going somewhere far into Long Island, but in fact it overlooks the Manhattan skyline as you can see in the pictures. I loved the bright colors for this ceremony!  The songs for this ceremony were:

Bridal Entrance: Falling Slowly from Once
Recessional: Good Life by OneRepublic

Good Life was a new one for us and we are definitely going to add it to our regular repertoire!

watersedge1

Hidden in Morristown NJ is this jewel of a hotel called the Madison Hotel. As you can see from our amateur pictures, there is a beautiful green house with massive chandeliers. Here is some of the music that we played chosen by the couple that made for a beautiful ceremony.
Prelude:
Chasing Cars
Don’t Stop Believing
Iris
You and Me – Dave Mathews
Bittersweet Symphony
You and Me – Lifehouse

Yellow by Coldplay -  for the bridal party

Bride – Can’t Help Falling In Love

Recessional – All you need is love

Happy New Years everyone! We had a great year playing for so many beautiful couples and beautiful venues. There is no better way than to bring in the New Years playing music. As usual, these pictures taken by me do not do the venue or event must justice. It was an amazing and fun wedding at Liberty House overlooking New York City. Can’t beat that on New Years!

We have played at the Kane Street synagogue nearby as well as the Brooklyn Historical Society, but this was our first time at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. This is a very modern looking synagogue with great acoustics. The Chuppah looked like freshly cut Aspen trees (I am from Colorado, they were probably not) which the groom informed me they were cut the day before in Connecticut. The Rabbi presiding was quite entertaining. The cantor and the grounds manager were nice and easy to work with. A great venue that I hope to see more of. Starting next year, I promise to add pictures again to these posts!

This was our first time playing music at the Stone House at Stirling Ridge. It is a somewhat newer venue. There is ample space for guests and easy parking! This is a good new wedding venue and I have a feeling we will be seeing much more of this place.