This wedding has Hi-Fi all over it: from the couple, to their friends, the entire day was a joyous occasion full of love and music. It doesn’t get much better than that! Leah explains just how important music is to them:

Jon and I are both musicians and we went to Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music in NYC, which is where we met each other. Jon’s a double-bassist in the Quebec Symphony and I’m a singer/composer, so obviously we felt like the music was a crucial part of our day because it’s what we’re both most passionate about and it’s what brought us together. Not to mention that all of our friends are musicians. Our wedding party included another bassist, an oboist, a violinist, a percussionist, 2 singers and a dj.

The music was also the biggest emotional roller coaster of planning the wedding. Our ideas for the music changed many times and it was so hard to edit ourselves down. Jon’s best friend Paul is the bassist for the band Punch Brothers, and originally we were going to go an alternative-bluegrass route for the wedding with him playing and singing some of our favorites (“You Are My Flower“). The band was playing at Bonaroo the night before the wedding and he was planning to rush over to N. Georgia to perform his groomsman duties/play for us when we got a call several weeks before the wedding saying that the band had been asked by Steve Martin to tour with him and the first night they were opening for him was of course, the night of the wedding! We had to give him our blessing, and we were basically back to square one.

We turned to the rest of our wedding party and decided that we would have the most fun if this became a collaborative project between us and our maids/groomsmen. And that we wanted to include something from every genre. One of our best friends, composer Fernando Arroyo, composed/arranged 5 pieces for the wedding. We had 2 violinists, a bassist, a cellist, an oboist, and four singers play in various combinations, all of them either wedding party or good friends of ours. Jon took up the task of running music rehearsals and it was hard to even pry him away long enough to do pictures the day of.

1. The Parents and Grandparents processional was to a beautiful arrangement Fernando did of Mozart’s Serenade in Bb. The closest thing I can find to what it sounded like is this arrangement from the movie Bright Star. It’s a gorgeous processional piece and we loved having something a little more traditional for the parents and grandparents.

2. The Bridesmaid’s Processional was an original piece composed by Fernando called “Stepping Into a New Life”. A piece for the strings that was very meditative and unlike anything I had ever heard in a wedding. I only wish I had a recording! The first time I heard it was at the wedding rehearsal and I was overwhelmed with emotion.

3. My bridal procession was to a string arrangement of “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel. A very special song to us by one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters. The arrangement Fernando did was very similar to this arrangement by the Vitamin String Quartet. We wanted something flirty and pastoral and were determined to get Peter Gabriel in there at any means possible. And there was a bass solo, Jon was pumped.

4. We had four singers sing the old revivalist song “Down to the River to Pray” a cappella as a call to worship.

5. My best friend Carla sang “Real Love” by John Lennon and arranged by Fernando. This song was her recommendation to us. Definitely one of the highlights of the ceremony, and basically of my life. And people still talk to me about it! Carla’s voice is really soulful, and her background is in jazz, so it gave the song a really unique spin. (Listen for yourself!)

6. The Recessional music was another original piece for strings. Very festive and celebratory, almost like a jig, called “Dawn for Family” by our friend Fernando.

Our first dance was to “The Man in Me” by Bob Dylan. The lyrics are perfect and it was a little shoutout to Jon’s all time favorite movie obsession, The Big Lebowski. Other songs we played at the reception that we LOVE include “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, “That’s Where It’s At” by Sam Cooke, and “No Parking on the Dance Floor” by Midnight Star.

Other Highlights
Home – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Your Arms Around Me – Jens Lekman
I Was Made for You – She & Him
Ice Cream – Sarah McLachlan
Love You Madly – Cake (a close runner up for first dance song)
Just Breathe – Pearl Jam
September – Earth, Wind, and Fire
Falling Slowly – The Swell Season
To Be Surprised – Sondre Lerche
Flowers in the Window – Travis
Hollywood Swinger – Kool and the Gang
All is Love – Karen O and the Kids
Get Up Offa That Thing – James Brown
5 Years Time – Noah and the Whale

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Images: Our Labor of Love