If you've been running sound systems long enough, you get the occasional request to run sound for a wedding or other event.  I've run sound for home school graduations, jazz concerts, some weddings, and even a few plays.  I'm usually excited because I can use my talent for something new.  Some of the events can be a challenge and I always love a good challenge.  But there are always those times when I get caught off guard.

Take the time I was asked to run sound for friend's wedding.  Easy request.  A few vocal microphones, a few instrumental microphones, and maybe some canned music.  There was a very small rehearsal the evening before the wedding.  I did have a schedule that was accurate and made my little chicken-scratch notes.  The next day, I was approached by the bride's mother who was a friend of mine as well.  She said she was going to walk down the aisle with the groom's mother and when they got to the front, they would say a prayer.

Last minute little change-ups happen. It's just part of the job.  It was only the additional of a wireless handheld microphone at the beginning of the wedding.  N-O B-I-G D-E-A-L.  HA HA Ha Ha ha ha heh heh um...then came the moment of silence...at the wrong time.

The two mothers walked down the aisle together and I had my hand on the mic channel fader, ready to turn up the volume.  I was expecting them to walk up on the stage and then say the prayer.  Only they didn't.  As I was looking down from the loft area in the back where the sound board was located, the two just stopped at the row of pews closest to the stage.  All was quiet.

I thought to myself, "what are they waiting for?  Is someone important not seated yet?"  After 10 seconds, I realized that one mother had started to pray into the microphone but as it wasn't one, she stopped.  I turned up the volume and after a second or two more, she started the prayer again.  I was thankful she hadn't turned around and given me "the look." 

Later that day, I apologized to the mother of the bride about what had happened.  She was very respectful and in fact, didn't think it was anything to worry about.

Where did I go wrong?   

I grew up watching the TV show "The A-Team."  This small group of ex-military guys were on the run from the military for "crimes they did not commit."  They would help people, each episode, who were usually being harassed by some gang of thugs.  Near the end of each episode, the leader of the A-Team would come up with an amazing plan.  The last line of the show was always "I love it when a plan comes together."

I thought I had a plan for the wedding.  It was rehearsed, it was typed out in a schedule, and it was remarkably simple.  Then a new piece was added.  It wasn't rehearsed...it was stated in a way that the person saying it meant one thing and I, the person hearing it, thought it meant another.  "We'll go to the front" meant the front row of the pews, not the front of the sanctuary stage.

Ever since that incident, I've always made sure to repeat any last minute changes back to the person who has given them to me.  This ensures I heard them correctly.  Then I ask for any points of clarification that could appear unclear. 

I hate it when a plan doesn't come together.