Ceremony Music: Decision Time

Ceremony Music: Decision Time

September 26th, 2007 @ 7:27 pm by Mrs. Peppermint

What to do about the music for the ceremony….Hmmm…

A while back I posted about our desire to use Non-Traditional Music for our Ceremony. The urge has continued and I was reminded by this thread on the boards. So, alas, I’m here to present to you what we’ve decided on. At first I was worried what my family as well as my more traditional guests would think about some of our choices. Would they seem childish? Would it make the ceremony any less serious? Ultimately, we opted to use songs that actually meant something to us. To make them a bit more formal, we scoured the internet for instrumental versions that might class them up. Special thanks to reader, fizzy, for sending us to Vitamin Records where we found one of the CD’s we’re using!

For the pre-ceremony music we’ll include instrumental music from Henry Mancini (Two for the Road, Romeo & Juliet, Breakfast at Tiffany’s), some instrumental David Bowie, and perhaps some favorite film scores (we did meet in film school after all…)

Next, the men will be walking down the aisle to the instrumental version of Ziggy Stardust (Bowie). You can hear a clip of it here.

For the bridesmaids’ processional (and ringbearers & flowergirl!), they’ll come out to an instrumental version of All You Need is Love. The version we found is by Canadian Brass available on iTunes, and you can sample some of the music here.

And for my grand entrance, we picked Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Instrumental by The Symphonic Orchestra, available on iTunes). This is a favorite song of Mr. Peppermint and mine and this version is really beautiful (listen here)!

The recessional will be to Wouldn’t it be Nice (the original Beach Boys version with full lyrics). We thought this would be fun and a great way to kick start the celebration!

I’m really happy with the music decisions we made. The next big task was to find out who was going to play them! After looking into the cost of having this type of music played by a band or quartet, we opted to have one of Mr. Peppermint’s good friends DJ the ceremony. I was a bit hesitant at first (would that be formal enough? Would it seem strange?), but now think it will be perfect–plus we can pick the versions we want to hear. Also, the officiant recommended a DJ for an outdoor ceremony because sometimes the music of a quartet can get lost outdoors.

What music are you using for your ceremony? Are you going traditional or more contemporary? Are you having a band, DJ, quartet?

The ipod DJ pictured above can be found here.

Tags: music, palm-springs |

| Share this post: Ceremony Music: Decision Time

Latest Gallery Pics

Grandma's Rosary Wrapped Around My Bouquet

19 Responses to “Ceremony Music: Decision Time”

Member

crackhead (message) 46 posts, Newbee

I am just going to make a CD for the ceremony and have the sound guy for the church play it. I didn’t want traditional classical music and the traditional wedding march. I wanted something that was more our taste. So I found a lot of contemporary songs that were acoustic or still had classical instruments in them and very soft, no loud singing or drums or guitars.

I read that you should start music about 30 minutes before the ceremony as people are being seated. So my more favorite (?) songs are at the end when more people will hear them:

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
Tori Amos - Lovesong
The Sundays - Wild Horses
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
U2 - All I Want Is You
The Beatles - Something
Dave Matthews Band - Where Are You Going
Aqualung - Brighter Than Sunshine

I think we’re all going to walk down the aisle to this song and the minister can just ask people to rise for when I’m ready to walk (to the same song). I haven’t quite decided yet.
Jem - Maybe I’m Amazed

And then for our recessional, I’m still debating between something cute and uplifting like:
Grease Soundtrack - You’re the One That I Want
Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
or an instrumental part of a Sigor Ros song

And then as people are filing out of the church I want to play:
U2 - Beautiful Day and Sweetest Thing

9/26/07 @ 7:51 pm (reply)

Guest

VenturaBabe

We got married on the beach and had a ukulele player. The songs were “Time after Time” (by Cyndi Lauper, but no lyrics were sung) for the mothers/grandmother seating, “Somewhere over the rainbow” (the Hawaiian version, with lyrics) for the bridesmaids/ ringbearer/ flower girl, “You belong to me” (with lyrics) for my processional, and “Wouldn’t it be nice” (by the beach boys, with lyrics) for the recessional.

9/26/07 @ 9:16 pm (reply)

Guest

Jenny

We had a classical guitarist. He played and sang “Grow Old With Me” as I processed down the aisle, and the recessional was “Morning Has Broken.”

9/26/07 @ 9:25 pm (reply)

Guest

futuremrsrose

I love the songs you’re using. Nada Surf has a beautiful version of “All You Need is Love”.

My fiance and I are considering these songs for our wedding:

Bridesmaid/Groomsmen song:
My sister is insisting on My Girl-The Temptations
I’m also considering
All You Need is Love-Nada Surf

I’m walking down the aisle to-
Here Comes the Sun-The Beatles

Our recessional-
We Go Together-from Grease. (Ha!)
or
Time-Chantel Kreviazuk
orrrrr
Just Like Heaven-The Cure

We’re young and having an outdoor wedding, so I think we can get away with it.

9/26/07 @ 9:30 pm (reply)

Guest

sillybride

We had non- traditional music and it was one of the best decisions we (I really) made. Walking down the aisle to tiny dancer made me feel like I was in a movie. Now I get really emotional when I hear it on the radio because I remember exactly how I felt when I walking to meet my husband.

Groomsmen- instrumentals Tupac California Love
Bridesmaids- instrumentals Material Girls by Cyndi Lauper

Me-Instrumental Tiny Dancer Elton John

9/26/07 @ 9:54 pm (reply)

Guest

ocicats

I love everyone’s choices - Ziggy Stardust, Hallelujah, Here Comes the Sun (but I like Nina Simone’s version), and Just Like Heaven. We got married in Hawaii so we for the processional and recessional we used traditional Hawaiian songs, but we were considering In My Life by the Beatles.

9/26/07 @ 10:33 pm (reply)

Guest

Rosemary

I cannot believe there are instrumental David Bowie Music. Well at least a string version.. That’s an awesome idea. I would love to walk down the ailse to Space Oddity.

9/26/07 @ 11:41 pm (reply)

Guest

Our church comes complete with organist, but we will be playing an iPod during the signing of the register, and we are doing our own music for the reception

9/26/07 @ 11:50 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Radish (message) 388 posts, Helper bee

We stuck with traditional/classical stuff because we had a Catholic ceremony and we had to. It turned out beautiful though, especially with the huge pipe organ and acoustics in our church.

I just listened to that version of Bridge Over Troubled Water - it’s beautiful. I love that song and it always reminds me of my mom, *sniff, sniff* She rules.

9/27/07 @ 2:19 am (reply)

10.

Guest

Jilian

Since we had a small ceremony at a B&B - I played DJ via an iPod that was piped thought the B&B speakers. Working the iPod into ‘wedding expenses’ worked in my favor too! It was cheaper than hiring a DJ!

My husband is into Grateful Dead and other jam band artists plus bluegrass. I love country. So before the wedding I had a country playlist. During dinner we played his Jam Band music. It worked out well. We both got to hear ‘our’ music.

I did walk down the aisle to a live trumpet played by a family friend. That was something I’d always wanted since seeing it at a wedding years ago.

9/27/07 @ 8:37 am (reply)

11.

Guest

kris

We’re dj’ing it. I love the sound of spanish guitar and really wanted to hire someone, but since it is outdoors and we were already paying our dj, we decided to just go for it and let him do everything. Thanks for the string quartet info.

9/27/07 @ 8:42 am (reply)

12.

Guest

Terry

Lately, it seems all the rage to have non-traditional music, but I’m noticing that the non-traditional choices are surprisingly similar for most couples. Your playlist is uniquely individual, and I love it!

My bride will be walking to Autobahn, performed by the Balanescu Quartet (originally by Kraftwerk, the original godfathers of electronic music.) It’s classy, beautiful, interesting, and totally geeky.

The rest of our playlist is just everything we love that’s appropriate to the theme. And since it’s a destination wedding, we’re taking the playlist down on a laptop, 2 MP3 players, and a CD. Just in case. Since the music will be unfamiliar to some of our guests, we’re selecting some songs to make discs for them to take home.

9/27/07 @ 9:03 am (reply)

13.

Guest

Terry

Sorry, don’t mean to come off rude. The consistency between playlists isn’t because people are uncreative and boring. It’s because some songs are just *right* for weddings! We’ve got plenty of the “new standards” on our list, too.

9/27/07 @ 9:07 am (reply)

14.

Member

tanya2s (message) 416 posts, Helper bee

For the moms being escorted down the aisle, the harpist played “Follow Me” by John Denver, which is the song my parents walked down the aisle to at their wedding. The bridal party walked in to “Sigh No More, Ladies,” from the movie version of Much Ado About Nothing (love the ironic lyrics!), and I walked down the aisle to “Storybook Love” from The Princess Bride. We walked out to a medley of a Handel piece and “Sons of California,” (all on harp, mind you), and then in response to a joke we’d made prior to the guests’ arrival, the harpist threw in a few bars of the Imperial Death March from Star Wars!

9/27/07 @ 9:27 am (reply)

15.

Member

soontobemsd (message) 50 posts, Worker bee

I have the best string quartet… I wanted a lot of non-traditional music and they worked with me to see what could be arranged and what could not. We came up with a nice mix of non-traditional - with a little tradition sprinkled here and there :).

Prelude: (all instrumental) My Funny Valentine, A Whole New World, Truly (Lionel Richie), Georgia (Ray Charles)**shout out to my ATL roots, Don’t Know Why (Nora Jones), etc.

Mothers: Summertime
Bridal Party: So Amazing

Bride: When I Fall In Love (Nat King Cole)

Unity Candle: The Lord’s Prayer

Recessional: Mendelssohn Wedding March

9/27/07 @ 9:57 am (reply)

16.

Guest

CamilleC

I’m going pretty traditional with classical music but one of my prelude songs will be “Flower Duet from Lamke” by Modern Mandolin Quartet. That’s makes it a bit different and unexpected.

9/27/07 @ 11:48 am (reply)

17.

Guest

andrea

We have a violinist/harpist playing Norah Jones for the processional (Come Away With Me - what a beautiful song! I love the lyrics) and The Beatles (And I Love Her and All You Need is Love) for our recessional. ‘Non-traditional’ music makes the ceremony feel less formal, which I love.

9/27/07 @ 11:58 am (reply)

18.

Guest

Angel

I love movie scores!

My violin instructor played with a local guitarist for the ceremony. I only had three song requirements that day: the recessional, the first dance, and the getway song. For everything else, they just played whatever they wanted to. It ended up being perfect because a) they know what they’re doing b) she knows me and my style, and c) I didn’t have to stress.

Oh, and I wouldn’t worry about childish. I chose faster version of the “Sesame Street Theme” for the recessional and the bluegrass song from Back to the Future Three for our getaway.

It was so cute to hear all the little kids singing to the Sesame Street song as we skipped back down the aisle. What can I say? We’re great big kids at heart.

9/27/07 @ 12:59 pm (reply)

19.

Member

crackhead (message) 46 posts, Newbee

OMG thanks for the link to the instrumental David Bowie CD on Amazon!! If you scroll down there are sooo many awesome groups they covered. I downloaded a bunch of stuff. Its almost making me rethink my music choices.

9/27/07 @ 10:55 pm (reply)