A Musician's Wedding

Today @vincentchin and I braved the traffic and rain to attend a friend's wedding all the way in Klang. A 30km journey from Damansara Heights took us more than 1 hour. Insane. As our eta was showing 8.35pm, we were expecting the dinner to be 2-3 courses in. Little did we know the couple has yet to march in.

Here's something that really puzzled me. The banquet was held in a school hall. There were a lot of tables. We got to know that we were assigned to Table 16. Here's the thing. I scanned around and located Table 17 (you know when you're late, you have that hope-to-quickly-find-your-seat-and-sit-down kind of feeling) but Table 16 was neither left nor right, neither front nor back of it! It was like Table 6. Then Table 9. There was no sequence. No pattern. Doubt even Sherlock Holmes could've solved that.

So the next best thing was to find our table based on another information that we know - a friend whom we saw his name on the list, sharing our table. After searching high and low, we finally located him. No table number on the table. :/ Well, I finally breathed a sigh of relief (remember the awkward feeling of standing up, feeling lost in a crowd because you're late?). To my horror, I saw 1 empty chair. Just 1! As we approached the dude was like, "Oh you guys are at this table? But our table is full! My wife's going to sit there!" You could imagine what was going through my mind!

We finally seated ourselves at a table with a few empty seats. Couldn't care less whose seats they belonged to. I just want to sit down! Then the next time I knew, it was freezing cold. The singer besides me described it was 'Winter Sonata'. And I hate cold. I had to invest in a thick comforter just to be in the same bedroom as my wife! Anyways, back to the banquet. The draft was finally settled halfway through the dinner.

So we musicians go about a wedding slightly different from the regular couples. Firstly would be the day it's held. Most of us perform for weddings, and those usually happen on a weekend. Other events as well. So to ensure that most of our guests would be able to turn up, which would naturally comprise of mainly musicians, it's better to conduct it on a weeknight. And tonight was a weeknight, hence the heavy traffic. :/

Another thing you could expect is, the couple would usually sing or perform as they march in. Here's a short clip of the beautiful bride singing a Cantonese love song as she was walking in.

Lastly, expect a lot of live music. Random jamming sessions. Usually, ​at a wedding, we're treated with a very professional band that has come prepared. Not for a musician's wedding. Expect bands to be formed right on the spot. Every musician at the risk of being called out to perform right there and then. Tonight we had some of the best musicians in town in attendance. It was spontaneous​. It was fun. It was definitely memorable.

Weddings are always beautiful. A celebration of love. A proclamation​ of lifelong dedication. And as we all know, it not the destination itself but instead the start of a wonderful marriage ahead. :)

all photos taken from Pixabay