Weddings
If I learn nothing else from this job, I will have learned to plan early for my wedding, and to not expect that everything can go the way I want it to.
Will elaborate later. Bath awaits.
And now it's later.
There are certain strictures involved in getting married at the Cathedral. The music department has a ton of them, and they're all laid out in the little wedding guidelines booklet that people are supposed to get when they go to meet with the priest or deacon who will be working on their wedding. Said priest or deacon is supposed to inform the couple to contact us at least six weeks prior to their wedding to set up their music, musicians, etc.
There were three couples that were really behind, so I called them (actually, each for a second time) about two weeks ago. Two of them got back to me right away, and one of them didn't get back to me until today. It turns out that their deacon hadn't told them anything in regards to music, and had pretty much just said they could do what they wanted, as their wedding was to be conducted in a language other than English. So when they called me today, it wasn't to ask about when they could meet with the music director, as is normal. They called to ask completely different questiosn about the music they had already set up. When I informed them of their mistake, they told me they had never received the booklet, and that their deacon had given them no real strictures in regards to how their wedding would be run.
I told the music director this, and he has me on the phone with said deacon, trying to figure out what's going on. He wants to lay all the work on the deacon, as it was supposedly him who screwed things up. The deacon wants to lay it on the music director because he thinks that he can take care of it in the next two weeks; which, by the way, are some of the busiest around here. And here I am, stuck in the middle of it, not knowing what the hell to do.
I hate to hand it off to the boss, but at this point, I can't do anything else. I talked with the couple once about the strictures, and if I were to call them back, I'd just have to tell them the same thing. The deacon seemed to want to just look the other way in regards to their music choices, because of the style and language of the wedding. The music director wanted to stay true to the guidelines, so that we don't get ourselves into a situation we can't handle. This is where we go into the realm of shit I can't handle. I had done my part. I had contacted the couple about coming in for a meeting twice, and no one got back to me until three weeks before their wedding. I'm sorry if that's my fault. I explained the rules regarding music when the groom called me today. Other than that, I don't know what I can do. It's not my job to do much else, because really, what authority do I have? I can't call the deacon and be like, "WTF mate, we can't do this," though in essence I already did do that, though much more politely.
I guess what I'm upset about is that there isn't anything I can do, yet it feels like I *should* be doing something else. I don't know. I really don't.
Dinner and rehearsal. Blah.
Will elaborate later. Bath awaits.
And now it's later.
There are certain strictures involved in getting married at the Cathedral. The music department has a ton of them, and they're all laid out in the little wedding guidelines booklet that people are supposed to get when they go to meet with the priest or deacon who will be working on their wedding. Said priest or deacon is supposed to inform the couple to contact us at least six weeks prior to their wedding to set up their music, musicians, etc.
There were three couples that were really behind, so I called them (actually, each for a second time) about two weeks ago. Two of them got back to me right away, and one of them didn't get back to me until today. It turns out that their deacon hadn't told them anything in regards to music, and had pretty much just said they could do what they wanted, as their wedding was to be conducted in a language other than English. So when they called me today, it wasn't to ask about when they could meet with the music director, as is normal. They called to ask completely different questiosn about the music they had already set up. When I informed them of their mistake, they told me they had never received the booklet, and that their deacon had given them no real strictures in regards to how their wedding would be run.
I told the music director this, and he has me on the phone with said deacon, trying to figure out what's going on. He wants to lay all the work on the deacon, as it was supposedly him who screwed things up. The deacon wants to lay it on the music director because he thinks that he can take care of it in the next two weeks; which, by the way, are some of the busiest around here. And here I am, stuck in the middle of it, not knowing what the hell to do.
I hate to hand it off to the boss, but at this point, I can't do anything else. I talked with the couple once about the strictures, and if I were to call them back, I'd just have to tell them the same thing. The deacon seemed to want to just look the other way in regards to their music choices, because of the style and language of the wedding. The music director wanted to stay true to the guidelines, so that we don't get ourselves into a situation we can't handle. This is where we go into the realm of shit I can't handle. I had done my part. I had contacted the couple about coming in for a meeting twice, and no one got back to me until three weeks before their wedding. I'm sorry if that's my fault. I explained the rules regarding music when the groom called me today. Other than that, I don't know what I can do. It's not my job to do much else, because really, what authority do I have? I can't call the deacon and be like, "WTF mate, we can't do this," though in essence I already did do that, though much more politely.
I guess what I'm upset about is that there isn't anything I can do, yet it feels like I *should* be doing something else. I don't know. I really don't.
Dinner and rehearsal. Blah.