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    Beautiful Wedding Duo Music in Lake George at the Sagamore from Penguin Wedding Music!

    Beautiful Wedding Duo Music in Lake George at the Sagamore from Penguin Wedding Music!

    July 16th, 2012

    This wedding was several weeks ago, on June 30th, at the Sagamore in Bolton Landing near Lake George. It was quite a drive out of the city, but well worth the travel! It was a good thing that we knew most of our music by heart for this gig because the wind was gusting so hard that it was blowing our stands over – we actually just ended up playing from memory for most of the time! Here Comes the Sun, by the Beatles, worked great for this processional, but I think people had heard enough by the time the bride was ready to walk – the ‘aisle’ was probably close to 1,000 feet long!!!

    Check out some more pics on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Penguin-Wedding-Music/126066410817506#!/pages/Penguin-Wedding-Music/126066410817506

     

     

    Penguin Wedding Guitar/Cello Duo Plays at MyMoon in July

    July 15th, 2012

    We’re BACK! To Mymoon, that is, for the second time in about a month!

    For this weekend’s wedding, we played a new custom arrangement (you can get as many as 2 as part of our typical wedding package) of ‘Sugar Magnolia’, by the Grateful Dead. This was a great song for the recessional because it is very happy and uptempo.

    The wedding was great for the lovely couple, Sarah and Kevin, and Mymoon was decorated beautifully inside and out, as you can see below. The interesting decorations that are there year-round make for a great base to work from to make your wedding unique and beautiful.

     

     

    Blog and FB test

    July 14th, 2012

    Beautiful Ceremony and Cocktail Hour Music at MyMoon in Williamsburg

    June 12th, 2012

    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…

    Wedding Ceremony Music at The Foundry in Long Island City

    June 3rd, 2012

    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!

    Wedding Ceremony Musicians at The Pratt House

    May 28th, 2012

    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

     

    Traditional Wedding Ceremony and Recessional Songs

    May 22nd, 2012

    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.

     

    Haverstraw Bay County Park – Wedding Ceremony Music

    May 13th, 2012

    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

    Bittersweet Symphony –
    Yellow – Coldplay

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

     

    Wedding Ceremony Music at Water’s Edge

    March 30th, 2012

    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!

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    Wedding Ceremony Music At Madison Hotel

    March 17th, 2012

    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