Music For A Church Wedding

Hi there

I've been married for just over 4 yrs now and had a church wedding with traditional music - The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba for me coming in and Mendleshon - Wedding March coming out (I had always wanted this from an early age lol). Since then we've experienced many types of musical entracnes from a New Zealand lullaby, The Beatles to a singer singing the entrance/exit song. My best advice would be just because you're getting married in church you don't have to keep things traditional - this is your day.... be happy and I personally think that your cousin singing Ave Maria as you make your procession down the aisle is simply perfect... only you though can make that decision and it's not at all OTT. There will always be people that want to keep things very traditional like me if I could do it again (with the same man of course) there are heaps of things I would change now but not at the time. I knew what I wanted and went ahead. I say go for it as I said it's your day don't let church and tradition from having want you want. Vicars these days are really accommodating when it comes to processional and recessional, signing the register music long gone are the days of just organ music!

HTH

Tracey x

You can have whatever you want (as long as it is approved by the church of course).

I would suggest having your cousin singing a couple of songs whilst you are signing the registers...a friend of ours had her BM sing Songbird whilst they were signing their registers and it was lovely. It's always a bit of a lull so it'd be nice for your guests to have something special to listen to. If it makes you emotional, I really wouldn't suggest having it walking down the aisle, it may just be too much!

And if you want to walk back down the aisle with your new husband to Elbow, then do it. Better that than a piece of music you won't listen to again. And just think how nice it'll be when you're on honeymoon/in the car/out for a jog, and that song randomly comes on your iPod.

Well it's 'our song' but we want something a bit faster for our first dance - so we definitely need to have it at some point on our wedding day

Thanks for the advice both, it seems a bit like anything goes! Still got a while to decide anyway...

Yes you can, and it is actually quite common to do so. I would say the majority of wedding ceremonies I have performed at have a piece of classical music for the entrance and some modern music for the exit. By all means discuss your choice with the venue, but just go for some music you want to hear.

If you are having live music, you could always seek the advice of the musician(s) about your options as well.

Could you have 'One day like this' played on the organ as you walk out? So you get to have the song you want with a traditional feel?
my OHs dad is playing the organ for us and has said he will play whatever, so we're having traditional entrance and exit music (not sure what yet) and then as we both like a bit of rock, having our favorite rock love songs on piano while we sign the register and as music while people arrive. So yeah, I think a mixture is nice, and adds some individuality and personality.

Talk to your vicar about having your cousin singing, I'm sure they will be fine with that, perhaps having her sing during the register signing will give people a chance to listen to her properly but also how lovely to have her sing you down the aisle! so whichever, I think it will be gorgeous

Hazyclaire i have the intrumental version on cd if you want it.. i initially wanted this song as entrance music but it wouldnt work in the church, one of my friends edited it for me - it's 2 mins long if i remember correctly

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I agree with this. I'm like you, want the traditional element whilst still having a fun and modern feeling to it. Will probably err more towards the traditional during the ceremony, but when we attended our church a couple of weeks ago at the end of the service the organist played black eyes peas tonights gonna be a good night, took us a couple of mins to decide it was defo that but was well impressed!!!

Oooh this is an idea! I wonder how it would sound? Actually our organist is expensive as he is a director of music (not quite sure what that means but sounds impressive!) so it would be good to make good use of him rather than him just playing the hymns. And hopefully as a director of music he should be pretty talented and be able to play whatever we request!

I did ask if they had a normal organist to save us some money but they said no lol!

x

He'll probably enjoy playing something a bit different. OHs dad plays organ at weddings and as far as I know, as long as he knows well in advance what you want so he can practice he'll play whatever, so let your organist know soon and there shouldn'tbe a problem ?