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Gothic Wedding and Reception in TexasFind other tips & info in Articles and Information
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| On October 31st of this past year, I had my first opportunity to play a Gothic Wedding and Reception. It was held in Aledo, Texas at Parson's Table, a 100 year old renovated church. Traditional and Non-Traditional weddings have been part of my regular venues for several years. Because this was a completely new venue, and very unique at that, I decided to first do a lot of research. This research began before the bride, her mother, and the groom came over to my house for their free consultation. By the time they arrived for their appointment, I had amassed a list of musical selections, both Classical and Contemporary, that were definitely considered Goth. Classical composers consisted of: Gounod, Waldteufel, Saens, and Carl Orff. One Contemporary Goth composer that I liked was Danny Elfman. Prior to my new search, I already had music in my repertoire by Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Godard, Grieg, Beethoven, Liszt, Schubert, Verdi, Debussy, and Offenbach. With needing music for a 30 minute prelude, all the appropriate ceremony music, and selections for a 2 hour reception, I used each one of the newly found, researched pieces and much of my prior repertoire. In addition, I still needed to look for more appropriate music for the reception. For weeks after my clients initial consultation, I went through countless books of music in my own library and discovered wonderful Russian, German, Hungarian, and Polish pieces which I thought would sound great played on Strings.... And so they did ! Anything in D minor or E minor worked great to set the appropriate mood. I had always played "Dark Eyes" on Strings on my 88 key electric, Yamaha piano, but now I had many more Gypsy tunes to add to my already extensive repertoire of World Music. It was a lot of work, but much fun. Most of the music for the prelude was played on Strings and Electric Piano setting. The actual Processional, Bride's Music, Recessional, and Postlude was played on Organ setting The sounds for the reception varied between these three....with Strings dominating. I received not only compliments about my music that magical evening, but also wonderful comments about my attire. This brings up my next couple of points about my Gothic research. I wanted to dress and look appropriate for the occasion. Clothing, hair styles, and makeup also had to be part of my inquiry. I will first discuss clothing. I found a long black, velvet dress with pearl buttons all the way down the front, lace collar, puffed 3 quarter length sleeves with a tiny embroidered burgundy rose placed over an ecru colored piece of lace on the outer part of the sleeves... which matched the collar...it was simply perfect for the event. For accessories, I chose black, fingerless, short lace gloves. For jewelry, I won at auction on EBay a beautiful burgundy, rhinestone/black cameo vintage necklace and earring set. When the bidding went higher than I expected, my husband, manager, roady, purchased this for me as a wedding anniversary gift. Next, the investigation into hair and makeup. Most of the Gothic style of hair is black and straight; sometimes short....sometimes long. Well...my hair is medium length, reddish brown. I did find in my study pictures of shorter hair, curled and red. I curled my hair on a small curling iron and then backcombed it into a full, but not overly done, bouffant hair style. Not too difficult! Makeup was easy for me since I had studied and taught theatrical makeup when I majored and performed as a dancer in my younger days. I decided to do a complete ballet makeup. Blue eye shadow, dramatic black eyeliner way out beyond the edge of the outer and lower eyelids, highlighted with white on top of each outer line, with a tiny bit of red at outer edge of both eyes, soft red blusher and matching soft red lipstick completed the appropriate look for Goth. It was also evident that the bride and her mother also researched Goth. The detailed work that they did towards making this a memorable event was impressive. They made all the decorations themselves. The bride's mother designed and wrote the poetry, for each hand made program. The programs were black and red, embellished with jewels on the front cover. Just delightful. Colors for the wedding were burgundy and black. The bride wore a beautiful ecru, long bridal gown with burgundy colored beading in the form of roses on the dress. Now, you can understand how excited I was to be able to match my attire to the bride's chosen colors. Needless to say, this wedding and reception was fun to not only research, but to perform. One lady at the reception commented: "You look so elegant!" That has also been a word at a past reception in Flower Mound, Texas which described my "music." This particular Gothic Wedding Ceremony and Reception will certainly remain in my memory as one of the most fun and memorable events that I have played. And now, in addition to my Traditional Weddings, I am also looking forward to playing more Gothic Weddings and Receptions in Texas. Laura Cummings/solo pianist Sounds of Laura www.soundsoflaura.com |
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