Well, I’m back from Thanksgiving with a quart of my mom’s turkey soup in the fridge and a little vacation from wedding planning behind me.

I did read an interesting article, though, about music placement in the wedding ceremony on americanchronicle.com. This is something I haven’t actually given a lot of thought to, but the article says music can be used throughout the ceremony, not just for your walk down the aisle.

The article recommends music as a prelude to the reception and also says it can be used before or after the vows, during the lighting of the unity candle and softly in the background during a reading.

While I like the ideas, I’m not sure how I’ll work those in to a wedding on a boat. It’s unlikely that I’ll have room for a pianist or band, and I have been thinking about using classical CDs to play in the background during the cruise, but I hadn’t given any thought to music during the actual wedding. Are CDs acceptable for that too? I can only fit 149 people on the boat and I’d hate to cut guests off the list to fit musicians.

If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. What did you do for your wedding music?

On another note . . . .

I’ve booked Howard Johnson’s (I know, remember them?) for hotel guests, since they were willing to offer me the best rate at $89 per night. Booking the hotel is a real balancing act, since you have to consider finding a place that’s nice enough for older relatives to want to stay but doesn’t price friends out of the market and leave them sleeping in their cars.

So Ho Jo’s seemed the way to go. There’s an indoor pool for the guests, two restaurants and the rooms are standard, but look clean and comfortable, and I was able to bring the price in at under $100 per night.

If you’re looking at a destination wedding, call all the hotels in the area. When salespeople find you’re shopping around, they’re often willing to cut their price, especially if you have a big party.