“The trio were excellent. Set up in plenty of time and played all of the songs we requested beautifully... Couldn't have asked for more!”

The next day, Duo d’Amore was back at Ravine Vineyard, this time with a string trio of two violins and cello to perform for Mark and Nicole’s wedding. This wedding could not have been more different, though it was equally fantastic, and very dramatic. Ravine has two sites where couples can get married: the site we performed at the day before is situated just around the corner from the parking lot (this is actually much better than it sounds) and affords a beautiful uninterrupted view of greenery: vines, trees, fresh cut grass, and more an more vines. The site that we performed at for this wedding is in a way more intimate, and it is located at the bottom of the vineyard. Guests arrived here either by walking along a designated row in the vineyard, or were shuttled directly to their seats via a golf cart driven by the staff at Ravine. Then came the helicopter! The groom arrived at the upper ceremony site via a helicopter, which was certainly a dramatic and bold way to arrive at a wedding ceremony! By this time we had setup down the hill, and were expecting the first set of guests to arrive. We performed a number of musical selections and carried onto the ceremony, as soon as the wedding guests were in place. For the processional, we performed two songs the Beatles’ “Here There And Everywhere” for the 8 attendants, and the Etta James classic, At Last. During the signing, we performed Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World”. As we looked over to the signing table, the bride and groom were smiling at us and gave a wide grinned nod of approval. To conclude the ceremony, the trio played “All I Want Is You” by U2. We continued to play a few pieces of music as the guests exited back to the main building. As we were exiting, we congratulated the bride and groom, who said we did a fantastic job!

Attendants Processional: Beatles’ Here There And Everywhere Bride Processional: Etta James: At Last Signing of the register: Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World Recessional: U2: All I Want Is You

Wedding Planner: Kassandra at Ravine Winery

Ceremony musicians: Duo d’Amore-string duos, trios and quartets

Ravine vineyard is located in the heart of Niagara, and unlike many of Niagara wineries, rather than a flat landscape, Ravine Vineyards landscape is full of rolling hills and beautiful vistas, which makes for a magical location for a wedding. In speaking with Laura and Matt weeks and months prior to the wedding, they decided on having classical music played by the violin and cello prior to the wedding, and a mix of classical for the ceremony itself (see below). The ceremony was officiated by John Shore from Kettle Creek Weddings, who did a marvelous job, and was happy to work with us again. After the ceremony ended, the guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’ouevres at the stunning outdoor bar, which we performed many of the clients favorite pop songs. As usual, everything was spectacular, thanks to Ravine and especially Lis from Bliss!

Pre-ceremony: Assortment of romantic traditional songs (Massenet Meditation from Thais and additional classical)

Ceremony: Processional: Canon in D Bride Processional: Give me Love by Ed Sheeran (TBD- could extend Canon in D) Signing: Somewhere over the Rainbow in the style of Israel K Recessional: no strings required. Bagpipe to pipe recessional

Cocktail Hour: Here Comes the Sun-Beatles Here, There and Everywhere-Beatles Imagine- John Lennon/Beatles Something-Beatles Unchained Melody Unforgettable-Nat King Cole) All You Need Is Love-Beatles) Bittersweet Symphony-The Verve Moon River-Mancini What A Wonderful World-Louis Armstrong Can’t Help Falling in Love-Elvis Never Say Never-The Fray Runaway-The Corrs Secrets-One Republic Yellow-Coldplay) You Raise Me Up-Josh Groban Fix You-Coldplay In My Place-Coldplay

Venue: Ravine Vineyard Officiant: John Shore with Kettle Creek Weddings, john@kettlecreekweddings.com Wedding Planner: Lisa at Bliss Events www.blissevents.ca Wedding musicians: Duo d’Amore-string duos, trios and quartets