The wedding I played the piano for was on Saturday. We arrived about 45 minutes before the ceremony began and I immediately went inside to suss out the piano situation and I was, err, thrilled to see that the piano was right up the front of the room, next to the table where the bride and groom would sit to sign the register. My first thought? “I guess that rules out taking my shoes off to play, since I might end up in photos.”

I went to the piano and attempted to lift the lid, but it was locked.

Hmm. I asked the woman who worked at the building for the key and she came back a few seconds later and put a key in the lock … but it didn’t open. She left and returned again with another set of keys and tried each one … still nothing. It was now about 30 minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I was supposed to be playing some quiet welcome music as the guests were arriving, but it was starting to look more and more likely that I would need to drum something out on the closed piano lid.

I suggested to the woman that she look for an old-style key, since the piano was visibly very old and she went off again, apologising and obviously a little embarrassed. I was a bit frustrated because the bride and groom had paid to have the piano tuned the previous day. Wouldn’t that make it obvious that we were going to use the piano today for the ceremony and hence it should be left unlocked, or the key left for us to use?

At fifteen minutes until the wedding, I suggested to Phill that he should download Pachelbel’s Canon in case we might need to hold his iPhone up to the microphone. I was seriously starting to panic. Guests were arriving and I was concerned the groom might arrive before we got the piano open and, even though it wasn’t my fault, I still felt guilty.

The woman finally returned with an old-style key and thankfully it opened the piano. I started to play some jazzy songs and realised very quickly that the piano was very loud and very old which meant the notes tended to blend into each other so I had to be careful with my pedalling. I kept my left foot on the soft pedal and the piano lid closed which brought the volume down to a more appropriate level, since the room was rather small and had great acoustics.

The groom arrived on time, but the bride was about 20 minutes late. I kept playing and glancing at the door, ready for my queue to begin playing Pachelbel’s Canon, which is traditionally played by a string quartet but I had found a really pretty arrangement for piano. Finally they closed the doors and I began … and within a minute all five bridesmaids had arrived at the front of the room and I realised the bride wasn’t far behind. The good thing about Pachelbel’s Canon is that you can finish it pretty much anywhere, which is perhaps why it is such a popular wedding piece.

The ceremony was very quick and there was a speech about the reception during the signing of the register which confused me a little, especially since I had already started playing when the MC started talking into the microphone, but I played it by ear and managed to stop subtly and then start again once the MC had finished talking. We had Moondance ready to go for the bride and groom’s exit but it turns out it wasn’t needed, since the bride and groom were lead out by a few representatives of the bride’s clan from New Guinea who were singing and dancing a traditional wedding ritual. It was quite nice, having that cultural feel at the end of the wedding.

While I enjoyed playing, I must admit I was relieved it was over and that it had gone well. It’s different playing for friends because, well, if I stuff up, they know where to find me! Haha. Joking aside, it was a really lovely day and I was really happy to be a part of it. After the initial “locked-piano” situation which had me a little worried, everything just fell into place and just worked.

I love weddings.