Cottage Industry Weddings

Over 10 years of playing 200+ Bay Area weddings I came to a conclusion: the wedding industry has gotten WAY out of hand. From ice sculptures to flowers covering every surface, the resources poured into one day seemed disproportionate. Expectations of what that day should be had been blown up over the years, and when it came time to plan my wedding I was on a mission to circumvent ‘The Industry’.

Now, this isn’t to say I was a wedding scrooge. As a young girl, I used to buy bridal magazines, amuse myself for hours designing wedding dresses, and dream of when that day would arrive. Movies like Father of the Bride, The Wedding Planner, and My Best Friend’s Wedding and my mom’s Martha Stewart magazines laying around, painted a rosy, 90s picture of meringue dresses and manicured lawns. Disney and a small town convinced me that freedom - and escaping family chores - came in the form of a white dress, and a faceless, fuzzy groom figure.

These wedding dreams lay dormant through my 20s and early 30s - and that artistic flair found expression in a career as a classical musician and concert organizer. I found delight in creating joy for people through performance. Watching the audience let down their guard as the music carried them away, I learned the combination of disciplined practicality that lead to transcendent moments. And I found my calling. In 2018, I began playing in a professional string quartet where I cut my teeth on tour logistics and building a brand, and then went on to found my own collaborative chamber music collective (wave chamber collective). Here, I chose themes, worked with musicians and artist collaborators to build new kinds of immersive performances.