I thought a tune would be a good wedding present for my bride, so I set out to write this tune in secret the month before the wedding. It was hard -- I spent enough time working on it that it was the first tune that popped into my fingers when I picked up a whistle, and more than once I played a bar or two before I realized what I was doing.

I then printed up a bunch of copies of the tune and got Jen's maid of honor, Susan Wittstock, to distribute them to the musicians at the wedding reception. Once the session was going in full swing upstairs, I ran through it a couple of times with Jim Perkins so he could work out chords. We dragged Jen to join the other musicians, and premiered it for her, with most of the musicians sight-reading.

Shortly after the wedding, I tried to write a tune which could follow this one in a set, to be called "The Bride with the Banjo". I composed an A part for it, liked it -- and then realized it was just a fifth part to "The Platinum Ring". If you'd like the authentic Jen and Sol wedding reception version, just leave off the fifth part.