Daily Archives: August 11, 2013

Music – The Technical Side

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photoPlease allow me to have another geek moment, if you will.  This time it’s about music at the reception.

Music is a great part of my life having learned several instruments, composing over the past 10 years and it has been something that has helped to unite Scott and me right from the very beginning.

I have been spending some time figuring out the music for the reception and while I have all of the actual music figured out, I am now trying to figure out how to network the music for the reception.

What I currently have is :

  • an old Apple Airport Extreme router
  • my MacBook Pro hooked in directly to the router via CAT5
  • two iHome speakers (iW1 and iW2)
  • one iPhone to remotely control both speakers and music

The plan is to stream up to 4 hours of music using AirPlay – The reception is really only 2.5 hours but you never know how we may need to change music on the fly.

I’ve had some really good experiences routing the music from our laptops and Mac Mini to our Apple TVs in the condo, but I’ve had some challenges with these speakers cutting out when we had a party a few weeks ago.

I figured it was because we simply had too much data being pumped through the old Airport Extreme which, while it’s dual band, is not dual band simultaneously.  Everything in our condo is wireless which can really tax a network. We’ve since upgraded in the condo with a new Airport Extreme and and Airport Express for deadspots towards the bedrooms.  I figure, creating a dedicated network would address these dropouts.

Nope!

The iW1, despite being a better sounding speaker, seems to be contributing to the network troubles.  It’s constantly cutting out especially when playing with the second speaker on WiFi.  Running a port scan or connecting to this speaker through a web browser completely garbles up the connection.  The iW2 doesn’t have this issue.

Testing the iW2 by itself, it seems to play continuously, no problems with panning and scanning music while testing fades and such.  I can throw almost anything at that speaker and it takes it.

Thankfully, the iW2 has an ethernet port, sadly the iW1 does not.  So my solution is to wire up the more reliable speaker and hopefully the iW1 behaves on our day.  And having played a few tracks, this setup seems stable.

My approach to DJing this wedding, and it’s a tactic I’ve used before when DJing casual events, is to pretty much setup a long play list to play through and let iTunes do it’s magic fading in and out.  It’s neat sitting back and watching the music do it’s job to bring up and slow down the crowd.

Having the iPhone on the network is going to be a neat addition to this DJ experience.  I can be anywhere in the crowd, adjust volume on any speaker, and change any attribute of the playlist including changing the ordering of songs.

Yes, I fully admit to being a control freak on what music is played at the wedding after seeing the experiences of some other weddings.  That said, I have to admit, I do wish that Apple had kept the music request feature in their remote app.

Enough geekery – about the music?  Expect everything from the 80s to current with several genres but mostly EDM, Dance, Pop and a lot of British music.  If you want to let your inner diva out, go for it. There will be something for everyone in this playlist.

I promise that after the wedding, I’ll post our choices for each part of the ceremony and the full reception play list I planned.

Scott here – Missing my Dad

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My Dad and I (circa June 1994) at my undergrad Graduation from Simon Fraser University.

My Dad and I (circa June 1994) at my undergrad Graduation from Simon Fraser University.

I will come out and say it plain and simple – I am missing my Dad a lot right now.   Not wanting to be a “downer”, but it is true.   Though the wedding planning process has been fun and exciting and challenging and such, it has also brought me really bold-faced with the reality that when my wedding day comes in 14 days – he will not be there.    I know on that day, I will and do have a multitude of reasons to be happy on many many fronts, but I am going to be honest that with it will be tinged a hint of melancholy for those that will not be there.

I am SUPER blessed to have my Mom who has been incredibly supportive of Iain and I from the very beginning.    She has also been really supportive of us as we have gone through the excitement and challenges of developing the wedding plans.  We are also very glad that she is going to be able to join us from British Columbia along with my Aunt, both coming in from BC about 10 days before the wedding, for the wedding day and a bit afterwards.

That all being said, I just wish he was going to be there, to see the smile of pride on his face as he sits there with my Mom to witness his son marrying his best friend and the love of his life – much like it was when he married my Mom over 45 years ago.   Amongst other things – my Dad (and my Mom, too) showed me the example of how to be in a marriage – deeply committed, deeply loving and deeply giving – not only to each other but also to those around them.   The funny part of what was just mentioned is that he was a man of few words – so didn’t say “I love you” very often – but I knew it through his actions as his actions spoken louder than words.   The example of how to be in a marriage is something I hope to carry on through the many years ahead with Iain.     Many times over the last 12+ years I have wanted to call him and ask him a question, many times I have wanted to just hear his voice again, or to hear him say he was proud of me.   In the lead up to the wedding, I have wanted to talk to him and hear his wisdom again.   As I was talking with a friend recently I was excitedly speaking about the wedding and they asked when my Mom was arriving and I said “Mom and Dad will be….” and I stopped in mid-sentence and nearly “lost it” emotionally…. as it had been the first time in a long time that I have said something like that – having gotten used to not mentioning him in situations like that.

Dad, I know you will be there in spirit.   You will be there in the hearts and minds of those who knew you and loved you.   You are always remembered, always missed and always and forever loved.

 

On Candles and Decorating

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So….  as part of the wedding ceremony, Iain and I are doing some “candle-y things”.   That is the official technical term for it, don’t-cha-know.  🙂

unitycandle-setWe are doing the Unity Candle ceremony just after the exchange of rings.   At the beginning of the ceremony, our Moms will be lighting two “side” taper candles each representing our respective families.   When it comes to the appropriate time, we will be taking those tapers, joining the flames together and then bringing them down to light a central “pillar” candle.   The joining of the flames and lighting a central one to represent the joining together of our lives and the “formal” bringing together of our families.    This is the “base model” of the set…. we will be decorating up the candle a bit with a few things (some ribbon, maybe some “bling”, and a vellum wrap-around with a little poem on it and our names), and will post more once those decorations are completed.

memorial-candleThe other candle-y thing we are doing is at the beginning of the ceremony – is having two very important friends of ours light memorial candles.   These memorial candles are lit to represent those close to each of us that are no long with us (through death).   We will be particular remembering our respective Dads, an Uncle of mine, and our respective Grandparents.

These candles will also be decorated some as well – again with matching ribbon to above, and a velum wrap-around on the outer vase with the names of those being memorialized with each candle – as well as our names and the date of the wedding.     Pictures will get posted once the decorating of those are complete! 🙂

We purchased the candles for our wedding at a place called Yummi Candles – who have their main manufacturing facility for North America here in Toronto (I guess technically Mississauga).   Attached to that facility is a small “factory outlet”.   This means that candles can be purchased for a fraction of what it would cost at any other location.    On their website their 3-pack of 3×8″ white pillar candles is $22, at the outlet is $11, etc.   So, all together saved a fair amount of money buying it there.

The “NEW” Flatware choice

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742414346809_mainOn a recent read through out Registry at The Bay, we discovered that the flatware choice that we originally made, was going to be discontinued, so decided we had better switch to something that is going to be a bit more stable.   It actually matches some of the bar-ware and other things that we have selected…. so in the end it kinda works out well.

That all being said, we have chosen:

Lauren Ralph Lauren,  Pattern Name:  Watchband.

It is a nice solid flatware choice, we think.

Our “first” Flatware choice

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Our Flatware - Splendide "Chalet"

Our Flatware – Splendide “Chalet”

So…. as part of our Registry at The Bay, we chose to put some more formal dinnerware on our list.    We a mirror finish stainless steel instead of silver (Can any of you see Iain or I sitting and polishing silver?).   We ended up trying a number of different patterns – and this process ALMOST resulted in stuff being thrown at each other….  but I digress….  eventually we got this one…. and went “THIS is the one we want!”    A nice solid set, good weight in the hand without being overly heavy.    Our choice then is:

Company:   Splendide

Pattern Name:   Chalet