“I was recently asked what one of my funniest moments were. There are several which I may have to share in the near future, but the one that stands out the most is a wedding I had to play about 22 years ago. At this time it was still pretty early in my playing ‘gigs’ career.
“I was contacted by the bride a few months before her wedding date, and we confirmed the regular questions…. Date availability, venue availability, whether or not she wanted piano or organ and song selection. After we confirmed those things she asked me if I would bring my music. I said of course! I bring my music to all the weddings I play. We hung up the phone and that was that.
“Well… A few months later on the day of the wedding I show up to the venue (pretty blue wedding music binder in hand), I go to tell the bride that I had arrived and to get the wedding day logistics. She greets me with typical bride flurry. She then asks ‘Where is your music?’ I said ‘It’s right here in this blue binder…’ She then asks louder and panicked ‘No!!! Where is your music???’ I’m totally confused. So I open the binder, and said ‘Here!! It’s in here!! See?’ The bride starts shaking her head, and said ‘No, the music you play on!!!’ It then dawned on me .. ‘MUSIC’ meant ‘INSTRUMENT’ to her Meaning the venue had no ‘music’ to play on..
“Needless to say it was a scramble to find a keyboard and the wedding started late, but it all worked out. But boy did that change the way I asked questions about future gigs!”
~Mary Bellah