Registry Office asking for so much information

Unfortunately all local authorities are different. We did exactly as you said 'a pianist will play a selection of non religious classical music' and it was fine.

It is rather picky to ask for specific pieces as it's not as if there'll be any words - it's just music! Also - like they'll be able to tell on the day if the harpist plays something completely different!

Can a harpist or any other instrumental music ever be religious if there are no words?

When we submitted ours I just said all music will be instrumental so will have no religious references and that was approved.

Hi Ladies,

That's why I thought what I wrote would be acceptable. I understand it can have no religious songs played, but apart from that what does it matter?

On a harp it can be quite difficult to know what the song is straight away and I highly doubt the Registrar will listening carefully to ensure everything the harpist plays is on the list.

Would really like to complain to the Register Office but at the end of the day I want my ceremony approved lol!

I think the harpist could play whatever they like, but if they choose to play something well known like Ave Maria then it will be seen as a religious song. I don't know what would happen, but at worse, they might stop the ceremony and things could get uncomfortable!! Isn't it worth having the choices written down and approved to make sure nothing goes wrong? Unfortunately different registry offices work in different ways. Maybe they've had trouble before and that's why they are insistent now.

I wouldn't complain - I'd just do what they ask. Yes, it's annoying but in the grand scheme of things it's not worth kicking up a fuss about.

I agree, and I won't say anything, just needed to vent a little bit

Perfect place for that! ?

It does seem that some are fussier than others. We had to actually drop in the cd of our music for our ceremony for them to ok beforehand.

I don't even think I was asked what pre-ceremony music I was having! I just left it up to my string quartet. They did sneak in "Jesu, joy of man's desiring," but nobody seemed bothered.