Music To Be Married By

Music To Be Married By

December 11th, 2007 @ 4:20 pm by Mrs. Magnolia
Share

Yesterday afternoon, I had a fun wedding-related errand. Mr. Magnolia is out of town, so I went on my own to meet with the music coordinator at the Cathedral where we will be married. He’s a lovely man, and I truly enjoyed talking with him about which songs/hymns we would like to have played during our ceremony.

When we selected our readings last month, we were given a booklet by our celebrant from which we could pick and choose to design our ceremony. I figured that the music selection would go much the same way.

However, when I showed up for my meeting, the music coordinator handed me a “Run of Nuptial Mass” with no options listed. And here’s the thing: I haven’t exactly been a regular church attendee over the last several years. There are very few hymns/appropriate songs that I could name off the top of my head, and those which I can are more likely to be played at a funeral rather than a wedding (Amazing Grace, anyone?). Plus, when I did go to church regularly, I generally just perused the hymnal for the Christmas songs, since they were my favorites!

But then I had a happy surprise…the music coordinator sat down at the organ and began to play options for me. It only took us about twenty minutes to select all of the music for the ceremony, and I really think that it’s going to be simply lovely!

Here’s what we selected:

Seating of Mothers - Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring/Bach

Processional - Canon in D/Pachelbel

Bridal Processional - Trumpet Voluntary/Clarke

Presentation of Gifts - Love Divine, All Loves Excelling/Prichard

Communion - Arioso/Bach

Recessional - Ode to Joy/Beethoven

Ode to Joy was the one piece of music that I insisted on, and I knew that I wanted it to be played for our recessional. First of all, it was one of the first pieces of music that I learned to play on my clarinet in elementary school. And second of all, the University of Georgia Redcoat Band always plays it when the Bulldogs win… and that’s one of Mr. Magnolia’s favorite parts of a winning football game. So it’s only fitting, really!

So now I think I have everything I need to start working on programs, which is very exciting!

How did you all choose the music for your ceremony? If you were limited in your selections, were you still able to feature pieces of music that were meaningful to you and your fiance?

Tags: ceremony, music |

Share |

Latest Gallery Pics

Hot Pink and White with Zebra 36" Lighted Spandex Ostrich Feather Centerpiece

8 Responses to “Music To Be Married By”

Member

jilian (message) 783 posts, Busy bee

I really wanted to come down the aisle to a live single trumpet. How perfect that my hubby’s good friend is a high school band teacher and plays the trumpet!!

As far as the music goes - I had no clue - so just told him to play whatever was normal and beautiful. And it was beautiful

My mom walked down the aisle to Canon in D and we poured the sand to I forget what. I had been given a CD of common wedding songs by a friend to help, but the quality wasn’t great. So I was on iTunes two nights before the wedding listening to different versions and choosing songs! That’s what I get for not having a program - I didn’t have to decide until the last minute!

12/11/07 @ 4:28 pm (reply)

Guest

Lynn

We have a family friend that plays the harp. She is very talented and offered to play for my wedding as a gift. She basically had a concert for us in her living room as we selected what songs we wanted. I actually am a regular church goer aand had a few favorite hymns I wanted worked in and as well as a few classics.
My husband is a trumpet player and very musical. He wasn’t able to go to the meeting with me. I was a bit worried he wouldn’t be happy, but he loved it all.

12/11/07 @ 4:47 pm (reply)

Member

Summer2008 (message) 66 posts, Worker bee

We chose “wedding” music for our ceremony:

Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral from Lohengrin by Wagner for the processional

The Wedding March from the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart

Peasant Wedding from the Moldau by Smetena

Plus I am a music teacher so I decided to orchestrate some of the music myself and I have a quartet of friends playing for us (Flute, viola, violin, cello).

I really like that it’s all wedding related - it’s cute, and a little corny. Just like me (but more on the corny side)

12/11/07 @ 5:43 pm (reply)

Guest

Natalie

We are using the following music. Our music will be played by a violin/guitar duet. The violinist is a friend from high school who runs his own music school now!

Seating of the Mother (my FI’s mom as my mom will be escorting me down the aisle with my dad): Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Processional - Canon in D (yes very traditional so far!)
Bridal Processional - What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
Recessional - Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles

I like that we have mixed traditional with a little contemporary..but not so modern to be inappropriate!

12/11/07 @ 9:04 pm (reply)

Guest

Sarah

The only way my dad could remember my fiance’s name was the mnemonic “G&S,” so we used all Gilbert and Sullivan music about brides, weddings, wooing, etc. It was hugely popular–to the extent that I’m really getting tired of fielding requests for recordings of it.

12/12/07 @ 10:45 am (reply)

Guest

Joyful2

I love organ music, and the organist at our church is amazing. I really want to walk down the isle to “Ode to Joy,” which is rather corny, because my name is Joy. The idea came from a conversation on the band bus on the way back from a competition in high school. For the recessional, I want to play “Joyful Joyful” from Sister Act 2. Again, corny, but meaningful and fun.

12/12/07 @ 1:15 pm (reply)

Guest

anaj95

I had Love Divine as well in my ceremony!

Music was a big deal to me. We wanted to go with different, non-traditional songs as well. I had saved past Sunday programs in which I liked various hymns, so I used a few ideas from them. Our music cooridnator and my folks also had great ideas.

As for music, my dad sang a few songs in a quartet, we had a bell choir, a violinist, and a flautist. I also had 2 hymns (which is rare for a wedding ceremony). However, I grew up with music and my family (including extended) have amazing voices so we wanted to highlight it.

Prelude - Be Thou, My Vision
Processional - Ceremonial Procession (Haan)
Hymn - Lord of Light
Quartet Song - The Gift of Love
Hymn - Love Devine, All Loves Excelling
Recessional - Rondeau (Masterpiece Theater song)

I’ve gotten so many compliments on what a great ceremony and how they loved how musical it was. The most random people have told us how they loved having the hymns (the ones I didn’t know that liked to sing!).
I don’t regret having this much music for the world!

12/12/07 @ 3:33 pm (reply)

Guest

Magnolia Wedding, Part 8: We Do! » Weddingbee » The Wedding Blog

[...] mass because we wanted to receive communion, but we kept the service under an hour by limiting the music and selecting shorter readings. Our friends were taking bets as to how long the ceremony would [...]

6/11/09 @ 5:55 pm (reply)