After booking the chapel, I had no idea what to do for wedding music. I wanted quality musicians…read morethat were affordable, flexible, and professional. Enter Windy City Chamber Musicians, recommended to me by Amy R. She married in the same chapel as I, and therefore had first-hand experience of WCCM in action there.
I contacted Claire at WCCM to see if they were available for my date. They were, much to my relief. I listened to the samples on the website, looked at the price quotes depending on the musicians used, and debated. And debated. And debated some more. After much hemmin' and hawin' over deciding whether to do a trio or duo (the chapel is on the small side and I felt a quartet would be a bit much), I decided on the duo as it was the most affordable option, as yours truly was footing this bill on her own.
I mailed my deposit to secure the date, and awaited the packet to arrive in the mail with further instructions. After a few weeks, I emailed Claire asking where the packet was. She apologized and said that she was busy and forgot to send it. A few days later, I received the packet in the mail which included the cue sheet for musicians, a planning sheet, and a ceremony sheet to fill out for our music choices. After making our choices, I sent the information back mid-October, well before my November 1st deadline. I opted for a few traditional pieces like Canon in D major and Wedding March obviously. For the sand ceremony and postlude I chose The Beatles pieces "Here, There and Everywhere" and "When I'm 64", respectively.
The lack of stars is due to communication; if half stars were an option WCCM would be a 3.5. I would email Claire and she wouldn't respond until I would send another email. When I would mail her my payments, I'd ask her to email me and let me know when she received them. Sometimes she would, otherwise I'd have to email and ask if she received them (when I mailed them weeks prior). I had sent her money towards the balance three weeks earlier, and I had to email her to find out if she received it. How am I to know if she received it, or if the money was stolen or the envelope lost? I understand people are busy but this was my entire experience. My wedding was in December so for being an off-peak month for a wedding, I don't understand why the communication was poor. Very frustrating.
Then I inquired as to whether a musician could come to our rehearsal, as our wedding is non-traditional and therefore will be done differently. On the cue sheet for the musicians, it states "...when a wedding is more complicated or non-traditional, a musician may need to be present at your wedding rehearsal." Claire stated that she could find out if one of them would be available but it would be an additional charge. I declined, as I didn't have the extra money. She told me that instead, we could talk over the phone after she received the cue sheet.
We did end up talking over the phone and all the plans put in place were perfectly executed on our wedding day. The musicians were great, no complaints there. In fact, we received quite a few compliments on their pieces played both during the ceremony and cocktail hour.
WCCM was one of two vendors we didn't meet with before signing the contract, but it worked out much better than the other vendor. I went by a good recommendation and I'm sad that my experience wasn't worthy of five stars, however, I'd certainly recommend them to anyone looking for talented musicians and nontraditional wedding music.
