The Dotted Crotchets: February 2014

Wednesday 26 February 2014

A Dotted Crotchets Wedding - Laurence & Sharon

Last Summer The Dotted Crotchets String Quartet braved the heat and the roadworks to perform for Laurence and Sharon's big day in Liverpool, and what a beautiful wedding it was!

"Laurence's proposal was a fairytale - at the top of Macchu Pichu following a 10 month round the world trip - but when it came to planning a fairytale wedding, I didn't have any preconceived ideas. So we began with how we wanted the day to feel - relaxed, happy, personal and fun! We both love Liverpool and decided on two amazing city waterfront venues - The Light, in the Royal Liver Building for the ceremony and the Merseyside Maritime Museum for the reception and party. The venues set the scene for a nod to the nautical, which I incorporated into lots of the handmade touches. I designed all of our stationary, including our invites with the logo 'our next adventure' around an anchor against sea-blue chevron stripes; made a ribbon pin with anchor design for my nephew; and tied mini bronze anchors around the necks of the vases and jars I collected in the months leading up to the big day."

"In a historic building, The Light was a completely new wedding venue, so new in fact that we would make history in being the first people to get married there. It was a beautiful room which needed little decoration apart from a few playful paper pom poms lining the aisle. We thought a string quartet would be perfect in this space, and it was a detail which we kept secret from all of our guests - which really added the wow factor as they arrived on the day. With the Liverpool triathlon happening on the same day, there were a number of road closures, and despite allowing an hour to travel what was a 5 minute journey, I was still 15 minutes late, so thankfully the quartet entertained our guests with a list of pop classics - everything from ELO - Mr Blue Sky to Katy Perry - Firework."

"I fell in love with my dress (as most brides do!), it was fun with a vintage feel, I dressed it with an original 50s headband and had a 50s style veil made. My sisters were my beautiful bridesmaids and were able to carry off pretty, embellished, high necked and above the knee cream dresses. My flowers were a mix of oranges, yellows and pinks, tied in a relaxed style."

"I walked down the aisle to Desree's Kissing You, an emotional and favourite song for both of us, there were lots of tears! For the signing of the register we had The Beatles - All You Need is Love, Ben King - Stand By Me and Aerosmith - Don't Wanna Miss a Thing. Reminding us of a special time in Ibiza, where we met, we chose Coldplay's Viva La Vida as our triumphant exit song! More music followed as we enjoyed Prosecco, canapés and the views across the Mersey from the balcony on what was a scorching hot summers day."

"All 120 guests walked to the Maritime Museum, one of our ushers bought us both 99'er ice creams - just one of the many photo opportunities along the way! Arriving to a red carpet, we had Pimms on the dock, where guests could find their table on the old world map table plan (homemade by Laurence and I) before moving up to the Dining Rooms. In the reception and party room there were more handmade touches - a 'dancing shoes' picnic basket full of flip flops which got raided before the DJ arrived! A vintage style suitcase with a pile of postcards from Liverpool, Ibiza and Glastonbury (the scene of our 'hag' do) was our guestbook. We invited guests to add to the homemade dessert table - Laurence's mum made a traditional fruit wedding cake and I iced it - it definitely looked homemade!"

"Our first dance was to Elbow's 'One Day Like This' and by the end of the song all of our family and friends had joined us on the dance floor, which summed up the day for me, so much fun and happiness surrounded by the people closest to us!"

Laurence and Sharon's Wedding Playlist

Bridal Entrance

Kissing You - Desree

Signing of the Register

All You Need is Love - The Beatles

Stand By Me - Ben King

Don't Wanna Miss a Thing - Aerosmith

Exit

Viva La Vida - Coldplay

Drinks Reception

A mixture of pop, indie and chart hits performed by The Dotted Crotchets

First Dance

One Day Like This - Elbow

Suppliers

String Quartet: The Dotted Crotchets

Photographer: Phil Whitby

Videographer: Papertwin - www.vimeo.com/72829810

Ceremony Venue: The Light - Royal Liver Building (sadly no longer available for weddings)

Reception Venue: Merseyside Maritime Museum

Flowers: Fishlocks

Bride's Dress: Justin Alexander

Bridesmaid's Dresses: Ted Baker

Groom's Suit: Canali from Flannels

We love how unique and personal this wedding was, and I'm sure you'll all agree that Sharon and Laurence pulled it off in style!

Congratulations to Mr and Mrs Denis!

If you would like your wedding to feature on our blog please send an email to ruth@thedottedcrotchets.co.uk for more information.

Monday 3 February 2014

A Dotted Crotchets Wedding : Natalie and Clare

At the end of August 2013 we had the privilege of performing for Natalie and Clare's wedding reception at the Manchester Art Gallery. This is a beautiful and unique city centre venue, which suited the couple's big day perfectly...

"We got engaged in Paris at the beginning of 2012 after 6 years together. As soon as we started planning our wedding it was clear that what we both wanted was to ensure that our family and friends had a fun, relaxed and enjoyable day. For us making a commitment in front of the people that we love was enough, so all of the ‘extras’ that we planned into the wedding were to show our appreciation for the support and love we have received from our friends and family. We wanted to arrange a day that they would all enjoy and remember as a ‘good day out’."

"We chose The Manchester Art Gallery as our venue, having been to a friend’s wedding reception there a few years previously. We could imagine creating the day that we wanted in that venue. We knew that we wanted some live music to feature in the day and set about looking at the options and how this would fit in with the ‘feel’ that we wanted for our day. We liked the idea of a string quartet who could play during the drinks reception and dinner to give our friends and family something nice to listen to, but we didn’t want the traditional ‘classical’ string quartet. We googled ‘string quartet and Manchester band music’ and up popped The Dotted Crotchets. We loved their unique style and the fact that they wore colourful quirky clothes rather than more formal attire, completely in tune with our loose Parisian/vintage theme, including colourful macarons as favours for the guests! The Dotted Crotchets website was really helpful and we loved the extensive musical playlist on offer, including The Stone Roses and The Cure!! They were exactly what we were looking for and we emailed them straight away hoping they would be available! They were and we certainly have no regrets about booking them for our wedding."

"Our ceremony took place in one of the smaller gallery rooms with the day moving on into one of the larger galleries for the drinks reception. We had chosen to add hibiscus flowers to the glass of prosecco that our guests would receive, giving it a distinctive purple colour and in keeping with the bright colours of the macarons and flowers. The Dotted Crotchets played our eclectic choice of music throughout the drinks reception ranging from Oasis to Lady Gaga. Our guests really enjoyed their music and I think they all felt very decadent wandering around the artwork, drinking prosecco and listening to a very talented and unique string quartet."

"The day moved on through the gallery and dinner was in the glass atrium, where The Dotted Crotchets set up professionally at one side of the room. They played music as our entrance into the atrium was announced and we walked together down the staircase into the centre of the room, something that we had decided at the last minute to do and were so glad we did as we honestly felt so special being welcomed by our guests. The Dotted Crotchets thought on their feet and plated ‘Marry you’ by Bruno Mars for our entrance. We were happy with their choice. They played throughout dinner until the speeches and really added to the ambience and feel to the day that we had wanted to create."

"Dinner was over and sadly it was time for The Dotted Crotchets to leave, however, the live music was not over as Natalie’s dad had arranged for The Manchester Gay and Lesbian choir to sing to us all after his speech. They sang ‘Climb every mountain’ – The sound of music and ‘Somewhere’ – West Side Story. This was an amazing end to a wonderful day and we all moved onto the evening reception to dance the night away."