It was fun to play again with some of the other ladies, but the venue was on a farm... it was clearly a farm that designed itself to hold weddings and receptions but a farm with animals still. We had to literally move a pile of dog poo out of our way to set up... And there were random cats that would roam around freely during the ceremony. Not my idea of a great venue, but everybody is different... The day was really windy too, so even though our music was pinned down it still flew away... oops.
Out of all the weddings that I've done this was the first one that did releasing of doves which was cool. The description of it was that doves are compassionate and have one mate for life that when they are released together nothing can separate them. My name is Pomba... coincidence? I think not :)
This was also my first wedding in 16 years of playing weddings that I didn't go to the rehearsal the day before. I was at another wedding and wasn't able to make it, but I sent the other violinist to get a look at what sort of situation we were looking at. The deal was also that we were going to get paid then, but it didn't turn out that way... apparently everything was really really stressful, bride was being a bridezilla, Mom was laying it on thick about how she didn't like the groom, sisters were crying somewhere.. DRAMA. So my very sensitive violinist didn't ask for money, as it didn't seem appropriate for the time. Well, we have learned our lesson. We got there for the wedding and nobody was there to tell us what was going on. We eventually tracked down the mother of the bride AFTER the wedding and asked if she was going to pay us... to which she was surprised. I'm not sure if the bride told her that we were doing this for free or told her mom it was taken care of or what, but her mom had no idea that she was supposed to pay us... ? Really? Annoying. So, we gave our contact information and she said that she would send a check. Well, it's been over a week and we haven't heard jack crap from this woman, and probably won't. And it's hard because we know them so we can't really just get nasty with them until they pay. Le sigh. You learn. This is the first wedding in about 75 that I've done that I've been taken advantage of like that... sucks.
Well, the conclusion of the not getting paid... turns out the Mom will only pay half and the bride then asks if there is any way that she can pay us less. WTF. Seriously? In the emails we had back and forth the first one she sent said that she would pay anything... now, don't take this as me taking advantage of her because I didn't. I quoted her the same price I quote everybody... and I told her that if that is something she couldn't swing then we could work something out. Well, she told me perfect and away we went. I guess she didn't tell her Mom and now she's trying to weasel her way out of paying us for something we already did. I told her that we still wanted to get paid what we agreed upon because that was my understanding. The whole thing makes me rethink wanting to play weddings for people I know... it isn't my fault that she can't read or that she may have just glazed over it. But she is pissed and was super passive aggressive about it. Irritated is the only word I can come up with.
I have another wedding that I'm supposed to play for a college friend that I played softball with and she's been really evasive too... I just finally got what time the wedding is out of her, but still don't know where it is or what she wants me to play. Not impressed. So, hopefully this will turn out better than the other one... and if she doesn't get back to me soon I'm going to tell her that I have other plans because our batizado is that same day!
JVG
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