The Knot Best of Weddings 2011 Pick and WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Award 2011!

We are excited to announce that we have been rated by local brides and voted the Knot Best of Weddings 2011 pick! It is such an honor to have been voted for the Knot Best of Weddings!

And we also received the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Award for 2011! It is our second year being recognized for being in the top 5% of local wedding professionals demonstrating quality and service excellence from the WeddingWire Network!

A HUGE THANK YOU to all of our amazing brides! We are grateful to all of you for allowing us to do what we love. Thank you for inviting us into the special moments of your lives and allowing us to create beautiful music for you! We are so blessed!

Renewal of Vows Ceremony at the Chihuly Exhibit

Angie and Doug picked the newest and coolest location for their renewal of vows ceremony... the new Chihuly exhibit in St Pete. We were blown away with the exhibit and we got some cool pictures... on camera phone (sorry for the poor resolution!) This was the most awesome idea - we played And I love you so for Angie's walk down the aisle, The Prayer for the recessional and Evergreen for the cake cutting.

August Wedding at the Rusty Pelican

Alafia Trio at the Rusty Pelican in August. It was very hot but we loved playing! Congratulations to McCall and Chuck!

Look what arrived in the mail recently!

Caroline and David were such a lovely couple to work with their gorgeous wedding at Lange Farm in May. We were thrilled they were so pleased with our services. (Side note-I am sorry the second picture is rotated, I can't seem to correct it. )

We at Alafia Strings have received so much praise and so many happy clients. Have you checked out our reviews on weddingwire?

http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/alafia-string-quartet-brandon/99330548ce4e8c3d.html

Until next time,

Alda :)

A very busy spring indeed!

I have been slow to update our blog; we have had a beautiful new addition to the family, Mary, born 3.30!

A few highlights since December; we have performed at:

Corporate event for Countryside Publishing

A wedding at Longboat Key Club

A wedding at Turner House in Palm Harbor

A wedding at the Crosley Estate

A wedding at Islands Garden Club (several times!)

A wedding at St Paul's Church (several times!)

A performance at St Peter's Cathedral

A wedding at Don CeSar Hotel

A wedding at the Renaissance Vinoy Hotel (with Pam Iorio in attendance!)

A wedding at Tradewinds Resort

A wedding at Sunken Gardens

A wedding at Lange Farm

A wedding at Our Lady of Perpetual Help

A wedding at Cross Creek Ranch

A wedding at Crystal Beach Community Church

A wedding at Palma Ceia United Methodist Church

A wedding at the White Chapel in Palm Harbor

A weddign at Phillipi Creek Mansion

A wedding at The Hilton in Longboat Key.... and Aaron and I played a few concerts with The Florida Orchestra. It has been a very busy spring indeed!

:) Alda

Thank you from ASQ

Tampa, Florida- January 20, 2010WeddingWire, the nation's leading wedding technology company, just announced Alafia String Quartet has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride's Choice Awards for Ceremony Music.

The annual Bride's Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Alafia String Quartet is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire's Chief Executive Officer. The annual Bride's Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.

We are happy to announce that Alafia String Quartet is among the very best Ceremony Music Providers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride's Choice Awards.

For more information, please visit us at http://www.tampastrings.com

November

November 7th we had two weddings, Jenise's wedding at Davis Island Garden Club and also Alexandra's wedding at The Don CeSar.

Jenise had a elegant traditional wedding using the Alafia String Duo at Davis Island Garden Club. This is one of our very favorite venues, the back yard is so serene with the water views and so private.  We love playing there and hope to do many more weddings there in the future!

Jenise's program worked very well with the duo:

Seating of the guests:
Bach Air on the G String
The Four Seasons Spring
Rondeau-Mouret
Winter from the Four Seasons

Mothers' Processional:
Ave Maria

Bridal Party Processional:
The Pachelbel Canon

Bride's Processional:
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

Unity Sand:
The Lord's Prayer

Recessional:
La Rejouissance

Postlude:
Trumpet Voluntary

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Alexandra was married at the Don CeSar near the pool area.  It was an amazing late afternoon wedding with beautiful weather.  It was absolutely perfect for the trio out on the lawn!  Thank you to Jennifer Fitzsimmons of A Friend of The Bride for coordinating a wonderful wedding- we always enjoy working with you!

Alex picked a very simple program and it was wonderful!  

Ode To Joy - Seating of the Guests

Canon in D- Procession of Bride

La Rejouissance- Recessional

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November 14th we played at Kapok Tree in Clearwater.   Traditional music worked perfectly!

Prelude music - Canon in D (Pachelbel); Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (J.S. Bach), Trumpet Voluntary (Purcell)

Procession of the Wedding Party - Ave Maria (Schubert)
Procession of the Bride:  Bridal Chorus (Wagner)
Recessional:  The Wedding March (Mendelssohn)

Congratulations to all of the lovely couples! We loved working with you!