During the months after Tara and Eric booked us as their ceremony musicians, many weddings started canceling and postponing due to Covid concerns, But we were hopeful their wedding would still be able to happen. We moved into phase 3 in North Carolina just in time for this wonderful couple to have the wedding day they had planned!
The bride and groom chose a mixture of our most popular string quartet music for their prelude as their guests arrived. Tara had a very specific plan for her walk down the aisle, and it was executed magically! We played A Thousand Years by Christina Perri on string quartet for her walk down the aisle. When it was time for Tara to appear, the doors of the venue closed, and we began playing the iconic introduction to A Thousand Years. We then played the verse with the doors still closed. Then during the crescendo to the chorus, Tara‘s coordinator began to open the doors, and she walked out when we started playing the part that says…"I have died every day waiting for you…"
It was a magical moment, and these epic bridal entrances still give us chills every time they happen. It takes a lot of planning to execute a bridal entry perfectly, but this challenge always excites us, and we are so careful to do lots of communication to ensure that the walk down the aisle happens just as it should. This walk is one that people plan and dream about for years. It’s very special when a bride has specific instructions about how she wants to enter, and we are able to visualize it and help her make it reality.
Tara and Eric hired some spectacular vendors for their wedding day. Reverend Rebecca Nagy was the officiant, and she is a pro in all senses of the word. She’s fantastic.
Sweet magnolia estate is an impressive venue because of the options they have for indoor and outdoor space. Thanks, Tara and Eric, for entrusting our string quartet with your wedding music in Cornelius, NC! It was an honor to provide music for your wedding day.
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Sunday was our first time at High Grove Estate in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Apparently this is a big up and coming event venue in the Raleigh area, and it seems like they’re doing a ton of weddings. It’s a gorgeous venue with a lot of versatility. In the COVID wedding era, we stayed masked and set up away from guests, but with the string trio for the wedding ceremony music, it was plenty of sound and carried beautifully. 
High Grove Estate in Fuquay-Varina is this beautiful mansion tucked away with gorgeous landscaping and lots of room to turn this space into your dream venue. There are so many fantastic venue options in the Raleigh area, and this one is a great one!
Bride Kate and Groom John contacted us first a few months ago to book a classical string trio. These days, most of our weddings are crossover styles, like modern and popular music, so it’s really rare for us to play a fully classical wedding. So we were excited to dive into these traditional classical wedding songs. During the prelude, our string trio (which consisted of two violins and a cello) played Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi. It’s so nice using an iPad for these, because the page turns in classical music can be really tricky. The iPad makes it go so much more seamlessly.
The recessional was La Rejouissance by Handel, on string trio.
John and Kate were fantastic clients, and we loved working with them! Thanks for asking us to play for your wedding in Fuquay-Varina! It was going to be the most popular wedding date in years. Everyone had their calendars full for this date. And then Covid happened. Lots of cancellations and rescheduling, and we all wondered what would happen to the most popular wedding date of the year. In spite of all the changes, the date still turned out to be fairly busy for our team. None of the weddings were what they were originally planned to be. And several of our October 10 weddings were new bookings that had come about once clients decided to elope or have a small micro wedding in the Carolinas 10/10 ended up being a rainy day in much of the Carolinas due to the hurricane in the gulf. Here’s a recap of our Weddings from the most popular wedding day of the year! 1: WRAL Azalea Gardens Wedding in Raleigh, North CarolinaThis was our first time playing at this beautiful venue. Clients booked us at the last minute for this wedding, and we provided solo harp music for the prelude and ceremony.  When we arrived and unloaded the harp, it was still sprinkling rain, and it’s always a tough decision for clients when this happens whether or not to leave the wedding outside, or to make the call early and move inside. Thankfully, the rain held off, and it was beautiful, and the wedding remained outside! Weddings at WRAL Azalea Gardens in Raleigh are exquisite! We loved performing at this venue. 2: Hidden Hill Event Venue in Morganton, North Carolina
It was a foggy wonderland as our string quartet arrived to Hidden Hill in Morganton, NC, for this string quartet wedding. Jordan booked us a long time ago, and we were so happy that the wedding was still able to move forward on this date! It was also threatening rain at this venue, and we didn’t know if it would be able to move forward outside or not. The rain held off here too, and the fog created such a unique experience at this venue. It was beautiful.  3: Wedding in Banner Elk, North Carolina at Diamond Creek Club
Diamond Creek Club in Banner Elk, NC, is stunning, and the views from the mountaintops are unparalleled! One thing that stood out to us as we played here was the quiet that exists on the mountain. There is no traffic or any other noise. Complete silence. It makes for the most romantic and powerful outdoor ceremonies, overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the leaves changing colors, in such palpable silence. The wind is noticeable every time it blows, and every note played by the strings is more present as it breaks through the silence. It's a magical experience playing here.
When we arrived on-site for this wedding, it was raining steadily. We unpacked and rehearsed in a covered barn on the property. Once time for the wedding neared, the clients decided to delay the start of the ceremony by 30 minutes to see if the rain would stop. This was such a smart decision, because the skies cleared just in time for the ceremony, and they were able to have the wedding ceremony outside overlooking the mountains. Wonderful flexible vendors were able to move chairs and decor at the last minute. After the ceremony, our trio played cocktail hour music and also played for the couple's first dance. The couple loved country music, so the addition of the guitar with the strings created a really nice combination of instruments. This venue is SO remote. We had to have flashlights to go find our cars at the end of the evening, because there are no lights anywhere. It was a fun experience. 4: Wrightsville Beach Wedding at the Blockade Runner in North CarolinaIronically, our wedding at the Blockade Runner Resort in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, was the wedding with the most beautiful weather of the day!
Wilmington weddings are such fun. We played violin solos for this sweet wedding on the beach! Beach weddings are such fun! They are a little challenging with all of the sand and wind and everything that comes with it, but it’s totally worth it. There’s something very special about them. We loved working with Katie from bubbly events in Wilmington, NC.
5: Biltmore Wedding in Asheville at Antler Hill Barn Biltmore weddings are always stunning, even in the rain! We worked with Ashevilleeventco for this epic wedding at Antler Hill Barn on the Biltmore Estate property.
We played violin cello harp trios for the wedding ceremony and also for the cocktail hour music. Asheville weddings can be tricky with weather, and this one was no exception. It was sprinkling rain for much of the day, but the couple had planned ahead with a tent and with a indoor Plan B. Adding a harp to wedding music in Asheville adds so much to any ensemble. Going from a duet to a trio really elevated the ambiance of this wedding and gave it that elegant quality that comes with having a harpist at your wedding. We loved these gorgeous florals too.  This day didn’t turn out quite like we planned. Who would have ever seen this year coming?! Certainly not us. But we were grateful to be involved in each of these weddings on October 10. With all of the changes that Covid has brought, it has definitely made us grateful for every single wedding we have the privilege to play. Even while carrying equipment up a hill, or walking through through the rain, there is still an awareness of gratefulness for the job that we get to do every single Saturday and for our wonderful couples and clients that spread the word about Deans Duets and trust us with their wedding music!
 Katelyn & Stephen changed their wedding plans so many times due to Covid. Location, numbers, and many other things had to be planned and re-planned as the year progressed. When they decided to move their wedding to a beach house in the Outer Banks, the bride contacted us to see if we were available. We were so excited to provide violin and guitar duets in Pine Knolls Shores for the ceremony and cocktail hour music on the beach. As the day grew closer, the weather forecast looked more and more perfect. The couple rented a beautiful beach house as their venue and celebrated with their closest family and friends right on the beach in the sand.
This was also our first time working with Ivory and lace events. They were fantastic! The couple even provided an umbrella and chairs for us to be in the shade so that our iPads were safe and cool, and we didn’t have to worry about them overheating.
 The music selections were so much fun. Everything from Taylor Swift to Beyoncé. We used a small battery powered amplifier for the beach to give the instruments a little extra volume for the wedding music on the beach. Even though Covid is still turning weddings upside down in October, we are loving the extra detail and personal touches that it is allowing clients to add to their wedding days. It seems like a lot of thought is going into the music selections these days. We are customizing almost every program to fit the personality and taste of our couples. And we think that makes the weddings all the more special.  Thanks to Katelyn and Stephen for inviting us to provide your wedding music in Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina. We are loving these beach weddings lately and can’t wait to be back!
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AuthorApril is a professional violinist and the music coordinator for Dean's Duets. Archives
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