How to Find Perfect Wedding Music

Choosing the perfect music for your wedding ceremony will depend on the style and theme of your wedding. For formal, traditional weddings, the wedding ceremony music is normally classical music or ballads. For more casual weddings, the perfect music could be anything from classical to pop. The most important thing about wedding music is that the bride and groom like it.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Decide if you will use live musicians or recorded songs. It will be decided by your personal preference and wedding budget, but it is very nice to have a harpist, flutist or classical quartet for your wedding ceremony, accompanied by a soloist.

2. Visit wedding music websites to download samples of wedding music. If you are using live music, locate musicians and singers in your area and ask them to send demo tapes to you.

3. Choose wedding music for the prelude. The prelude is the time when your guests are being seated at the church or other ceremony site. Select about six songs for the prelude, which normally will last about thirty minutes. Classical music from Bach and Handel work well for processional music. You can also choose ballads from popular artists, such as "Gift of Love" by Bette Midler, "You and I" by Stevie Wonder or "I do" by 98 degrees.

4. Select songs for the processional. You will need two songs for the processional--one for when the bridesmaids enter and another more dramatic piece for the brides' walk up the aisle. The most popular choices for the bride's processional music are Wagner's "Here Comes the Bride" and Pachelbel's "Canon in D." However in recent years, songs such as "Con Te Partiro" by Andrea Bocelli and "Grow Old With Me" by Mary Chapin Carpenter" have risen in popularity.

5. Pick ceremony songs. Many brides choose not to have any music during their ceremony. Some have a song only during the candlelighting, while others choose to have a soloist sing during a break in the ceremony. You may even choose to sing a song yourself. Some popular ceremony songs include Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", "The Wedding Song" by Paul Stokey and "Ave Maria."

6. Choose exciting, dramatic recessional music. This is the song played when the couple is leaving the altar together and departing from the church or ceremony site. The most traditional recession music is Mendelssohn's "Wedding March." However modern brides can choose anything from Harry Connick Jr.'s "It Had To Be You" to the Beatles' "In My Life." Even in a traditional wedding, you can get creative when choosing the recessional song.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are hiring outside musicians, plan at least six months ahead. The best wedding singers and musicians are booked well in advance.

[MrsLizzy]

on 7/18/2007 I always think "Here comes the bride" and the matching "there goes the bride" piece are rather tacky and unimaginative, implying that the couple don't know anything about music or just don't care. For the bride's processional, I recommend the Pachelbel Canon in D Major, Purcell's Trumpet Voluntary or Charpentier's Prelude to Te Deum. For the recessional I have two favourites: Widor's Toccata played on a good organ by a good organist, or Sir William Walton's Crown Imperial from his "Coronation March", either played as an organ solo or else with an orchestra, when it is simply magnificent. It's one of those fantastic pieces that is so full of sheer joy and emotion, it always makes me cry!