Podcast: Play in new window
Complaining about weddings is probably the single favorite pastime of church musicians when they get together. (Okay, even as I read what I just typed, I have to acknowledge that many of my friends and colleagues have a much longer list of things and people we all love to complain about, but let’s just accept that this one is pretty high on the list. 😉 ) I’m honestly not a wedding-complainer, though–I have always really enjoyed sitting down with couples and helping them discover the musical possibilities for their wedding liturgies, and then being there with them to help them realize their vision for the day. And in my experience, they are generally really lovely, cool, smart people. Of course I have my war stories; we all do. But overall–it’s a pretty great thing to be part of. And I’m one of the least romantic people you will ever meet. (Just ask my husband.)
This podcast episode is edited down from a long conversation I had some months ago with my good friend Mary Prete, who was instrumental more than a quarter-century ago for developing one of the first and I suspect longest-running Wedding Fair programs around, at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago’s West Loop. What struck me about her approach to wedding ministry was not just the way she applied her business-brain (she has a really good one) to the challenge of marketing and strategizing to get people to these fairs, but also the deep underlying sense of ministry and outreach with which she approaches the whole process of meeting and working with engaged couples to help them plan for their wedding liturgy.
Have a listen!
Music heard in today’s podcast:
Covenant Hymn (Gary Daigle and Rory Cooney) G-4017
As recorded on Praise the Maker’s Love CD-292
SingAmen! the Podcast, with Jennifer Kerr Budziak
Sound by Jim Bogdanich
SingAmen! opening music: Promenade, by Bob Moore (from Let Every Instrument Be Tuned for Praise, CD-491, from Liturgical Suite #4, G-4789.. ©GIA Publications, Inc).
SingAmen! closing music: Amen, (from More Sublime Chant, CD-459, The Cathedral Singers, Richard Proulx, conductor. ©GIA Publications, Inc.)
