Christmas is (was!) coming…..

We’ve noticed an increasing number of winter wedding bookings over the last few years and 2010/2011 was no different. There’s something so cosy and appealing about crackling open fires, mulled wine…..not to mention all that snow!

We battled valiantly through unprecedented weather and traffic conditions to a few of our winter bookings this year, and although we twice appeared as a Trio rather than a Quartet, we did our very best to try and fulfill every booking. So here’s some belated congratulations to our winter-wedding couples:

18th December – Carly and Lee held their wedding at the Cheltenham Park Hotel, where we entertained guests with classical and Christmassy music for the ceremony and drinks. The drive home afterwards through the icy streets of Cheltenham was definitely NOT as much fun!

19th December – Rebecca and John had chosen the beautiful setting of Coombe Lodge for their wedding, and we performed for the ceremony and drinks reception.

22nd December – the first time we’ve performed as a Duo. Susie and Chris held their intimate wedding at Homewood Park in Bath. They absolutely loved our pop song arrangements – must be because the groom used to be a music journalist!

29th December – Congratulations to Victoria and Christopher. We played classical music requests for their drinks reception at Bradley House near Warminster.

30th December – we returned to one of our favourite haunts for the drinks reception of Adam and Alex at Orchardleigh House. We gave guests our first performance of Mr Blue Sky, Sweet Child of Mine and Your Song, as the groom had asked for lots of up-beat modern music.

Autumn weddings….

….are always lovely. There’s still a hint of summery weather, everyone is happy, and for us it’s still a busy time of year. So, here are some (very) long-overdue congratulations to our couples!

Amy and Sam – 18th September. Married in the beautiful church of Stalbridge in Dorset, surrounded by their friends in lovely sunshine!

Simon and Sarah – 18th September. A busy day for us! We then hot-footed it from Dorset to Lodge Park in Cirencester to play for Simon and Sarah’s evening reception in the intimate setting of Lodge Park.

Rubina and Barry – 24th September. A return to the picturesque lakeside setting of Canada Lodge to play for Rubina and Barry’s ceremony and drinks reception.

16th October – Congratulations to Grace and Jalam, married in the stunning grandeur of Walton Hall in Warwickshire.

29th October – A local wedding this weekend, Dean and Charlene (in an amazing red dress!) married in St Anne’s Church, Bristol and we then entertained their guests during drinks at the Royal Marriott Hotel.

30th October – Congratulations to Catherine and Anthony, who held their wedding in the magnificent Berkeley Castle.

5th November – Gemma and Stephen had booked us for their wedding breakfast at the Grange in Bristol. Their guests loved choosing lots of cheerful tunes from our Jukebox cards to keep everyone entertained!

20th November – Congratulations to Rebecca and Nick, married in St Julians Church, Wellow, and held their reception at a new venue for us – the Wick Farm Barn.

27th November – Francis Close Chapel in Cheltenham was a stunning setting for the marriage of Sarah and Travis – we loved the vicar’s quotes from ‘Love Actually’ during the sermon!

4th December – Lots of pop music requests from Rebecca and James, who booked us for their ceremony and drinks reception at one of our favourite local venues – Eastwood Park.

Very big apology!

Ooops…..looks like we may have been rather slack about updating this blog lately. We’re not lazy – honest! It’s just that we’re lucky to be an extremely busy Quartet, and sometimes the weeks just seem to fly by without us getting round to it! We promise, PROMISE to be better as the wedding season gets in to full swing this spring and summer.

Coming up…..a quick round-up (if a bit late) of our last few months.

The Cotswold String Quartet!

Recently, Sarah and Dury were invited to have a stall at the Winkworth Farm Open Day.

It was a great chance for couples to come and see the venue and meet the venue’s reccommended suppliers. In between caterers, cake-makers and photographers, we set up our stall complete with a chance to visit our website and see our video clips. It was great to see so many prospective clients, and the free cake and soup from the caterers wasn’t bad either!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you…..!

Well what a lovely afternoon! Thanks very much to Jeff and family, who booked us for his wife’s special birthday celebrations at Calcot Manor near Tetbury. It’s always very complimentary to know we’ve been recommended by previous clients, and we had performed for the wedding of their family friends a few years ago.

Calcot Manor was a new venue for us, even though it’s only just down the road. We were delighted to perform an afternoon of classical music for the birthday girl, including many of her favourites, whilst she chatted with her friends over coffee and cake.

It’s always a pleasure to play music to such appreciative guests, and we must of course say thank you for giving us some of the delicious cupcakes – Yum!

We don’t just play for weddings….

…..we also love playing for corporate occasions, and this one was no exception. We were delighted to provide pre-dinner entertainment for the SciSys PLC Christmas Party in the Assembly Rooms in Bath on 10th December. We greeted guests with a mixture of well-known classical music and a few festive tunes too. I’m sure some toes were seen to be tapping to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Wedding at Castle Coch, Caerphilly, Cardiff

Congratulations to Carly and Adam – married at Castle Coch.

It’s been 4 years since the quartet moved from Cardiff to Bristol. Makes us sound like a family doesn’t it? But weirdly we did all move at about the same time!

But I digress. It’s always nice to pop back over, and today was no exception. One of our favourite registrars from this part of the world popped up at Castle Coch this afternoon. Always good for a laugh, he referred back to one of the funny poems the couple had read out during their ceremony, he closed proceedings with, ‘well, even if he does leave the loo seat up I’m happy to pronounce you husband and wife!’. It’s one of the great things about civil ceremonies.

It was a very intimate wedding. Whether we’re playing for 120 or, as in this case, 11 guests it’s always the same high level of performance and professionalism for us. Carly had asked for a specific set-lists of classical music before the ceremony, and walked in with her Dad to Pachelbel’s Canon in D. There was then Air on a G String for the registers, before they walked out to Handel’s Queen of Sheba.

It was a fantastic setting, and it was a delight to finish the day with the couple sneaking back into the room for some private photos in front of the quartet, and we were happy to play Handel’s Air from the WaterMusic at Carly’s request.