The Wedding
Samantha and Matthew
The Assembly House, Norwich, Norfolk
30 August 2021
For the wedding of Matthew and Samantha, we travelled from our Cotswold home to Norwich. As this isn’t exactly on our doorstep, it necessitated driving to Norwich on the day before and staying overnight. Rather pleasingly however, we had managed to secure two weddings in Norfolk on consecutive days and even better, only 10 miles or so apart from each other. This meant we could set up ‘camp’ in the Premier Inn at Norwich Airport (yes Norwich does actually have an airport) for a couple of nights.
A Day in Norwich
One of the best parts of our job is that we get to see lots of lovely places. As we had gone up the day before the wedding we found a bit of time to look around Norwich and ended up going into the cathedral for evensong.
Wedding at Norwich Assembly House
Arriving at the Assembly House for Matthew and Samantha’s wedding, Jules was delighted to find a Steinway Grand Piano in the ceremony room. It soon became apparent that it was properly maintained and tuned. And so, for this wedding, we ditched our digital piano in favour of the real thing. This had always been the plan anyway, but until you arrive you never quite know what the venue piano is going to be like!
It was lovely to pair the Cello up with a Steinway Piano – ironically the second Steinway we had encountered almost in as many days as there was also a Steinway Piano in the Great Hall at Loseley Park for Georgia’s wedding.
The ceremony was lovely, albeit there were a few issues with names, and consequently some of the vows had to be said a few times just to make sure everyone had said their full name in the right order! We had a lovely time playing for the ceremony albeit we felt a little centre of attention up on a stage behind the bride and groom! The thing is you cannot easily relocate a full size Steinway, certainly not when it’s on a stage!
Wedding Drinks Reception Music
In addition to playing for the wedding ceremony, we also provided music during the short drinks reception whilst the ceremony room was re arranged for the wedding breakfast.
Sadly this meant leaving the Steinway and Jules had to play a rather less pleasing upright piano. It also turned out that said upright piano was perhaps not on the same maintenance contract as the Steinway and hadn’t been tuned for some time! Fortunately it was just about in tune with itself and so we slightly detuned the Cello to match and then started our first set!
JAM Duo at Your Wedding
JAM Duo play for weddings and events all over the UK. Whether you are getting married in Norfolk, Cornwall, Surrey or the Cotswolds, JAM Duo would love to hear from you. To find out more please continue to browse our website or get in touch via our contact form.
