It may be that all of us have a few weddings in our memories that stand out because they were a pleasure or a pain.

Today I played for my first Viet-Namese wedding at St Basil's Chapel, UST, Houston. The young couple, recent graduates, were a delight to meet with and there were no surprises - except by the bride's father at the end of the service (no mass) - which I will tell about down below.

The service was a mixture of English and Viet-Namese. It was interesting that the responses to the Viet-Namese portion were sung, whereas the English ones were spoken. Their language, though, is beautiful and has a very characteristic rhythmic flow, an almost regular pulse.

Prelude music was an Anonymous English trumpet voluntary, three selections from Couperin's parish mass, an anonymous English echo voluntary, and an improvisation on the Veni Creator.
The Processional music was J. Clarke's prince of Denmark's march, plus improvised trumpetings for the bride.
The Psalm Responsory, which I sang, was improvised chant, different for each verse.
The Alleluya Verse was improvised chant.
Ave Maria, the mode i chant was sung by me as the couple left flowers at the feet of the very large Seat of Wisdom statue.
The Recessional music was Biggs' arrangement of a movement from Soler's D-Major sonata for two organs which he dubbed 'The Emperor's Fanfare'.

Liturgically this was not anywhere near noteworthy, but as an inter-cultural experience and all the good music it was pleasurable. What really made it a very surprisingly different experience, though, was that at the end of the service the bride's father ascended the ambo to say some nice things about his daughter and her husband, then he turned toward me and thanked me for the music. I sort of nodded with a smile - but he kept on talking about how beautiful the music was and how grateful he was that his family had such beautiful music for their wedding... he must have talked in this way for at least half a minute. I dare say that this was gladdening and that few, if any, of my colleagues here have been so demonstrably appreciated. As liturgical faux pas go, this one was sort of nice - considering that the rest of the service was rather 'informal'.

I've had a few other outstanding weddings, one or two unfortunate ones, and many just average ones, which I may speak on later, but this one today was a unique experience.