Wedding music in North Carolina: folk, swing, and around the world...

I snapped this shot of my fellow musicians Jim Baird and Robert Griffin during the wedding ceremony (that's why they look so serious). The wedding was held outside at Elodie Farms in Bahama, NC.

The bride had requested an unusual combination of music: she and her bridesmaids are big fans of the Jane Austen country dance scenes on Masterpiece Theater from the BBC, and she sent me clips from YouTube and asked if we could play that music for her prelude, processionals, and recessional. I played at English country dances for years so it was a snap!

Then she decided to hire a caller and after cutting the cake, there was English country dancing for 45 minutes. The youtube video below is the one she sent us, so you can get in the mood.

I am the kind of musician who can't bear to say no when people make special requests. We got a little list of songs and played them all while folks ate their tasty dinners. One of the songs, which the bride had heard on our website, was "Our Love is Here to Stay" and you can hear one of our versions below - it changes depending who is on the gig.

Our Love is Here to Stay performed by Mappamundi

I snapped this while Jim and Robert were taking a verse. The bride and groom are caught in the act of turning around each other in the dance, don't they look happy?

The caller was kind and patient and taught the simple dances to everybody who wanted to learn, even little kids. Watching the crowd in the tiny room swirling around each other in approximately correct fashion was lots of fun.