Play Me Off, Johnny!

Play Me Off, Johnny!

September 15th, 2008 @ 9:31 am by Mrs. Lemonade

Do you want to know what’s been on my mind lately?

Music. That’s right, sweet, beautiful music for our wedding, specifically for the ceremony. You see, music is REALLY important to Mr. Lemonade and me. Our first official date was at a concert, we go out to see live music at least once a week (we do live in the Live Music Capitol of the World, after all!), and Mr. Lemonade works in the music industry managing bands. In fact, our best man and one of our groomsmen both play in one of his bands, and we’re having live music at our welcome/birthday bash. We’ll also have two live bands at our reception. We feel pretty confident about the songs and decisions we’ve thrown around for these portions of the wedding weekend, but we’re seriously laboring over the ceremony portion.

Now, I know what you’re thinking—we’re still seven months out, so there is no big deal, right? Well, not exactly… see, two very dear friends of ours are also musicians who have offered to play acoustic guitar for our ceremony, which is something we both really want. We are so very excited about this, but are also a bit nervous. While these guys are super creative and their depth of musical knowledge never ceases to amaze me, we’re not quite sure we feel comfortable just winging it. Thus, we really need to make some decisions like, NOW, so they can get their hands on the tabs and learn the pieces. It’s just so daunting with an almost infinite amount of choices!

We’re aiming to keep things pretty traditional, so that helps narrow things down slightly, but we’re thinking of mixing in some acoustic standards to round things out and make it all a bit more personal.

Here’s what we’re thinking so far:

Prelude (as guests arrive, to be played about 30 minutes prior to go time)– we’re not sure about the rest of the pieces, but we’d like to end with Hallelujah by Lenard Cohen.
Processional – no idea!
Bridal March – Cannon, Pachabel
Interlude – no idea!
Recessional – Spring, Vivaldi
Postlude (to be played post ceremony as guests leave) – the Beatles; Orpheus (Instrumental), Josh Allen

As you can see, there is still a hole or two in our set list!

Hive, do you have any suggestions to help us fill in the gaps?

Tags: ceremony music, san antonio |

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10 Responses to “Play Me Off, Johnny!”

Bee

Miss Sweet Tea (message) 461 posts, Helper bee

You sure you don’t want to go with the Jeff Buckley cover of Hallelujah? I’ve always had a soft spot for that version, m’sef

For the processional, what vibe are you going for? Upbeat, more serious, funky, something else?

Our Processional is Ave Maria (Schubert)- there is a beautiful sung version with Dolores O’Riordan from the Cranberries and Pavarotti that would be awesome. Would’ve used that one if we didn’t have live music!

9/15/08 @ 11:21 am (reply)

Member

CarolineG (message) 422 posts, Helper bee

Songbird - Eva Cassidy

9/15/08 @ 11:49 am (reply)

Guest

alison

I’m also a bride to a professional musician so our wedding is “our rockstar wedding”. We’ve recruited friends to play before the ceremony, during the cocktail hour and will have 3 bands at the reception. FI will perform the father/daughter dance, his dad the mother/son dance.

Anywho, we’re using:

Processional (girls) - All You Need is Love (Across the universe arrangement) sung by my friend.

Bridal March: the rain song by zepp.

Interlude/Processional/Prelude: whatever our buddy plays

9/15/08 @ 11:53 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Lemonade (message) 239 posts, Helper bee

@Miss Sweet Tea: OMG! Must go download Ave maria with Dolores O’Riordan STAT! And I too love the Jeff Buckley version — Josh may actually create his own version for us…

@CarolineG: Ah yes — that is a good one!

@alison: Ooh! Sounds like tons of fun! I love the personal touch the music will add!

9/15/08 @ 12:17 pm (reply)

Guest

Lindsey

I love Pachelbel’s Canon in D. I grew up playing piano and this is one of my favorite songs to play. When I had to decide what songs to proceed down the aisle to, I thought that Canon in D for the bridal procession was a no-brainer. HOWEVER, my pianist brought up the good point that if Canon in D is used as the bridal procession, the song won’t be played that long (since it doesn’t typically take more than a minute to walk down the aisle).

Instead, my pianist suggested we play that song for the bridal party procession, so it can play a bit longer. I liked that idea and we ended up using “Air from Suite III in D major” by J.S. Bach for the bridal processional. “Air” was a great choice - such a sweet and emotional tune! We also used “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by J.S. Bach for the Seating of the Mothers before the wedding party walked down the aisle. Our wedding was a pretty traditional ceremony in a church, so these songs were perfect.

Good luck choosing the rest of your songs!

9/15/08 @ 12:50 pm (reply)

Member

bridecat (message) 90 posts, Worker bee

Here is what I am thinking…but haven’t finalized yet!
Ave Verum Corpus - Mozart
Air from Water Music - Handel
Largo from Xerxes (or Ombra mai fu) - Handel
Sheep may safely graze - Bach
Air on a G string - Bach
Entrance from the Queen of Sheba - Handel
Pastoral Symphony No.6 (Fantasia) - Beethoven
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring - Bach (possibly attendants entering)
Trumpet Voluntary - Clarke (maybe bride entrance)
Bist du bei mir - Bach (or Stölzel) - thinking of using this in the middle of the ceremony
Wedding March - Mendelssohn (for the exit)

9/15/08 @ 2:03 pm (reply)

Guest

Anne

Ooo, we’re using acoustic guitar as well! Have you thought about Amazing Grace? That’s what my bridesmaids are walking in to. I’m coming in to the acoustic version of Free Fallin’.

9/15/08 @ 2:33 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Pumpkin (message) 50 posts, Worker bee

Is the interlude when you are signing the marriage certificate? If so, two songs that I love that would be lovely as just acoustic guitar are the acoustic version of Bryan Adams’ Heaven and Chantal Kreviazuk’s Feels Like Home.

9/15/08 @ 9:02 pm (reply)

Guest

Lauren

We are using Bach, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring for Processional. Canon for bride. Handel, Le Rejouissance for Recessional. Handel, Hornpipe for Postlude.

These were suggested my our ceremony musicans and all are perfect.

Good luck.

9/16/08 @ 2:25 pm (reply)

10.

Guest

Lionsaoi

I walked in to “Entrance of the Queen of Sheba”. It was gorgeous, unique and, honestly, most of our guests got a kick out of the title.

9/17/08 @ 11:35 am (reply)