Earlier today, I spoke to a good friend of mine who is getting married at the end of next year. What she had to say to me completely blew me away: she and her fiance want me to play the harp at their wedding, which will be an outdoor ceremony in the grounds of a sort of castle-y looking venue. (Yes, they are fantasy geeks.)

This is very cool but sort of scary too, as the *one and only* time I've ever played the harp in front of an audience was when Sam, Leen and Dave were lying around on an air mattress on my spare room floor and I was messing around trying to remember some pieces in between talking and throwing wadded-up airline socks at each other. So I do not think this counted as a formal occasion.

I've played other instruments in smallish orchestral performances, but on those occasions I was nicely hidden in the depths of the second row, knowing any mistakes I made would be drowned out by better players. Still, on the plus side, wedding music is largely background music, and nobody is going to be looking at *me* while it's going on.

I'm already starting to go through my sheet music and see what might be good processionals, recessionals, and incidental music to suggest to them. After watching the video tonight, I would dearly love to nick an electric guitar from somebody and play Mark Knopfler's "Princess Bride" theme as the recessional, but I think my friends want mostly medieval music. And I have about a year to practise whatever they choose, so I'm sure it will be all right, but this is still going to be one of the coolest and scariest things I've ever done.

This is so exciting.