Raise your hopeful voice...

Music.  Like food, its something that can evoke powerful emotions for me.  It often reminds me of people I love, special moments and many memories.  I cannot hear How Great Thou Art without thinking of my Nana or a Johnny Mathis Christmas carol without thinking of my mother.  When I hear Goo Goo Dolls' Slide, I still think of the sinking feeling I got when, in the 7th grade, I told Sean Beville 'I love you, too' because my best friend told me I had to say it back even if I didn't feel it (b/c it was the song playing on Z104 during this magical moment).  And at Kelsey's wedding, when I heard the first few notes of  Ben Folds The Luckiest as she began her walk down the aisle, that was when I really started to lose it.

The walk down the aisle is a big one.  It'll be the first time Javs sees me in my dress :) and has some obvious (although slightly outdated) symbolism of me leaving my childhood, i.e. walking down with my daddy-o, and starting a family with my husband, i.e. being passed off to Javs, getting hitched and heading back down the aisle with my husband.  Anyways, Javs and I started batting around songs we loved, thought were purdy and (shocker..) felt 'us.'  Not surprisingly, a lot of the songs we came up with were from musicals that we had seen/heard together and loved. 

This song is called Falling Slowly and is from the musical Once (it won the Oscar for Best Original Song back in 2008, their acceptance speech was adorable).  Once started as a low budget film (which is awesome and you should all watch), but is now a hit on Broadway (they kind of did it backwards, but it worked) that won 8 Tony Awards (including Best Musical) this year!  It was a musical Javs introduced me to back in our woo-ing days (when he was still trying to impress me with his vast and varied musical knowledge) that we've listened to countless times on car rides and during movie watching.  In all honesty, its a bit of a sad song if you read the lyrics, but there are some moments of hope peppered throughout and I love the theme of coming home.  This was it.

Now, how to have it played?  We've been working with Sam Hill Entertainment in Cville (both for a band and now for ceremony musicians), but debated if we wanted a guitarist or pianist to play.  (The song is written as a duet for both, but we listened to several versions via youtube that just had one or the other that were fine!)  We listened to three suggested guitarists on their site, reviewed the playlist each included and looked back to Sam Hill for advice (they all sounded good?).  Which was willing to learn and play our song?

it kind of looks like he is sleeping
in this picture, but I think he's
just getting into the music

Peter Fields was our guy!  Javs and I liked that his songlist included lots of options.  I loved his Classic Rock hits and he even provided a 'Broadway' section to his songlist.  Since we will probably be selecting some less tradition music for our pre-ceremony and processional - he felt like a good pick!  Oh, and he'd learn and play Falling Slowly for us (win!).  He also had a pianist that could join him for the ceremony if we wanted (at an additional cost of course). I was extremely tempted....since our song was designed as a duet, and for these instruments no less, I knew it would sound better with both....and per usual (or maybe it was the heat) as we discussed the options on the beach my parents threw up their hands and said if we wanted both, we should get both (the few hundred bucks wouldn't break the bank).  How wonderful are they?  We'll have our special song played as beautifully as it is written for the big walk down the aisle :)  Lets hope it doesn't make me too emotional....

**Advice Alert**  Just ask.

I think I've already given this advice, so I'll keep it short: if you want something, ask for it.  You may not get it.  But you definitely won't get it if you don't ask.  Javs knows I am not the world's biggest negotiator.  I hid in the car when he started to negotiate on the price of his mattress (it was very embarrassing...).  But I've tried in a few instances, wedding related, to negotiate a cost/service here and there.  While I haven't always gotten exactly what I asked for, I think every vendor offered an alternative (that favored us) or part of what we had requested.  (My goodness is that what negotiating is?!?)  Having both musicians pushed us to the high end beyond what we had budgeted for ceremony musicians, but when I asked if there was some wiggle room (yes those are the words I used verbatim) on the costs we ended up getting them lowered!  YAY - victory is mine.

So just ask.  (you never know)