A Wedding at Castello Lanza Branciforte (Trabia)

A destination wedding that, as sometimes happens, is also a homecoming and an embrace of the family and the homeland of the bride, Cecilia, a Palermo native now living in London. The groom, Sung Jae, surrounded by friends and relatives who came all the way from Korea for his celebration, doesn’t seem to mind one bit. And for us at Sarabanda, today is a demanding tour de force that keeps us busy from the civil ceremony right through to dinner, by way of a voice and piano duo during the welcome aperitivo, the drinks reception before dinner.

The amphitheater by the sea: a wedding with a civil ceremony

Cecilia and Sung Jae chose to get married on site with a civil ceremony. Castello Lanza Branciforte was the ideal choice, full of terraces, platforms, panoramic bastions and courtyards to choose from when creating the perfect setting for each moment.

For a band, this means many different spots to prepare and fit with sound, so as to keep moving instruments and equipment in the middle of the celebration to a minimum: every music area has to be set up before the guests arrive for the ceremony, which is, of course, the first act of any wedding.

In this case, the couple preferred solo piano music, a minimal and discreet accompaniment to every stage of the ceremony: the couple’s entrance, the speeches by friends and relatives, the vows, the exchange of rings, the exit; each moment calls for its own music.

By the way, in our repertoire section you’ll find a part dedicated to civil ceremony music, and our repertoire divided by type of line-up: Cecilia and Sung Jae chose the minimal solo piano option, but a piano and violin duo or a trio with voice is just as evocative.

The couple’s entrance and the aperitivo

We’ve barely played the last notes of “Beautiful that way” when we all move to the castle’s main courtyard. Here Sung Jae and Cecilia asked us to welcome them with some vintage Elton John, and of course we have to be ready before they make their triumphant entrance: no problem, the beauty of being a four-piece is that we can split the jobs and be in two places at once!

The welcome aperitivo that follows the couple’s entrance is a relaxing interlude, suspended between the two most important moments of the whole day, the ceremony and the dinner. That doesn’t make it a “dead” moment of the party, though: it’s more of a warm-up before the grand finale, the time when people settle in, mingle and exchange their first bits of light conversation. And today we’re also in charge of this soundtrack on tiptoe, with a minimal line-up that, like a very slow, barely perceptible “crescendo”, adds just one more voice, Salvo’s, to the piano that shortly before had accompanied every moment of the ceremony.

The heart of the party

Sung Jae and Cecilia chose “A mano a mano” for their first dance, in the jazz waltz arrangement of ours that they loved so much. For the rest of the evening, though, we split our time between the ‘international’ repertoire Sung likes best and the Italian singer-songwriter repertoire Cecilia prefers. And rightly so: everyone has their own tastes and preferences, and we try to please everyone with a repertoire of over 200 songs and our musical versatility.

When it comes to dancing, though, everyone agrees: in Italian or in English, as long as we dance!