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Pre-wedding (obviously), the Pin Cushion spent some time searching the interwebs to find suggestions for less-than-traditional songs for our ceremony. What did I stumble upon but a Weddingbee post? Mrs. Peppermint’s post from 3 years ago, “Non Traditional Ceremony Music“, was a treasure trove of suggestions. People are still leaving comments and song choices 3 years later. Impressive, Mrs. Peppermint. Very impressive.
After a morning filled with heated musical debate, a few (not-too-willingly-made) compromises, and many many YouTube videos watched, we created our ceremony playlist.
Here are the songs we chose to have playing while guests were being seated.
“Going to the Chapel” by The Dixie Cups
“Love and Marriage” by Ol’ Blue Eyes. My mom lovingly demanded we include this in our wedding. She recommended it as our first song. We declined. And yes, this is the opening song for “Married with Children”. We brought nothin’ but class to our wedding…
“When I’m 64” by The Beatles. This was a contender for my processional song (the mister’s choice), but eventually lost the race to another song (though Mr. Pin Cushion argued his case strongly, even bringing up hanging chads and unethical polling practices [like the bride having veto privileges]).
“That’s Amore” by Dean Martin. Another Mama Pin Cushion suggestion. Plus, it’s a song about pizza… mmm…
“Happy Together” by The Turtles. I love this song. It’s my go-to shower singing song.
“All You Need is Love” by The Beatles. Classic.
“You Send Me” by Sam Cooke. Another contender for my processional song (my choice).
We then had to figure out the processional songs for the wedding party and for me. Our “debate” and “discussions” might have veered into the “argument” category a few times at this point, but only momentarily. These were big decisions, and Mr. Pin Cushion and I had strong opinions, which it seems, neither of us wanted to do much compromising on!
We finally managed to choose The Beach Boys, “God Only Knows” as our bridal party processional music. This was only after it was vetoed as our first dance song by Mr. PC (he’s didn’t like that the first lyrics are “I may not always love you…” [if you keep listening, it’s actually a romantic song]).
And after too many hours, we decided on my processional song. It’s been used before, but that didn’t diminish our love for it. The guitar intro kills me every time.
“Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles
I didn’t notice until just now that we have no new songs—like, no songs made in the last 4 decades. I guess we’re not the musical hipsters I had thought we were…
Please share your suggestions for ceremony music! I know that Weddingbee was an invaluable resource for coming up with our playlist, so maybe we can get some new recommendations up for people to use!
Our bridal party walked down to Here Comes The Sun, I LOVE IT!!! And actually, I love all your choices…My musical tastes definetly tend towards that era, especially LOVE “You Send Me!”
Great musical choices 
We’re doing “Across the Universe” for the bridal party, “Blackbird” for me, and “Here Comes the Sun” for the recessional… all instrumental on acoustic guitars
I walked down the aisle to “Here Comes the Sun” and I LOVED IT! my wedding party processional was and an Incubus cover of “I Wish You Were Here” done by the Vitamin String Quartet. I had a lot of them during the seating of guests too!
God Only Knows is my favorite song in the world and yes you have to keep listening to it
If FI were more of a Beatles fan (he’s not), I’d walk in to a strings version of “Here Comes the Son”
Me too Mrs. Ribbons! … but I couldn’t get the fiancee on board with ‘God Only Knows’ for the same reason Mrs. PC couldn’t. Still working out the music, but I do know I’m going to walk down the asile to ‘Postcards From Far Away’ by Coldplay (it’s insturmental), and we’re talking about doing ‘Wouldn’t it be Nice’ by The Beach Boys after we’re announced man and wife.
I think these are awesome songs! Who cares if they’re not “new.”
We haven’t sat down to discuss this aspect of the wedding yet, but I’d already thought of playing The Dixie Cups. 
Lighthearted and upbeat is much more my style.
“When I’m 64″ is such a good song. Love it.
I have definitely debated the lyrics to “God Only Knows.” Glad to know there are other hardcore “lyric-listeners” out there!!
Can I just say that, with that in mind, “Daughters” by John Mayer is quite possibly the WORST father/daughter dance song in history?
@jami_lynn: Our recessional was to Wouldn’t It Be Nice. Loved it!
Our Prelude music is very similar to yours. We’re doing songs like “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain and Tennille and ”
Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye (in addition to some of the songs you picked). The groom and his men are entering to the Star Wars Theme and my girls are walking down the aisle to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” (Vitamin String Quartet version).
My entrance song is “The Riddle” by Five for Fighting. I love the fact that the chorus is “there’s a reason for the world- you and I.” Our recessional song is “This Will Be (an Everlasting Love) by Natalie Cole, which we hope will set a fun, celebratory mood!
I think I’m just going to steal this list. It’s amazing! I also like Today I met the Boy I’m gonna marry
Everytime I read a post about someone using nontraditional songs, I get so jealous. Our church basically doesn’t allow it. Your song choices are great! And @Jennifer5642 - “The Riddle” would be one of my top choices for my processional for that lyric alone. I love it!!
That’s so funny…I was just reading Mrs. Peppermint’s post this morning! I got lots of good suggestions for our recesional and processional.
We are doing an iPod so we want to minimize ceremony music lest things get screwed up. That being said, Mr. G can pick out his own processional music, I am having Jack Johnson (fellow Gaucho alumni and so my style- California laid back), and we are exiting to I Believe In A Thing Called Love a la Pencils.
Oh honey, you had me at Sam Cooke. He is my absolute fave oldies singer. Cupid is my favorite SC song but You Send Me is pretty darn good too. Oh man, you’ve got great music taste. Well, except the Beatles. I am not a Beatles fan but I like their old stuff enough.
God Only Knows is my favorite Beach Boys song.
Overally great choices. I can see that it was hard.
I just bought “You Send Me” to use for our prelude! For the processional, I am using an acoustic guitar cover of “All You Need Is Love” and I’m very excited about it. The Beatles were a childhood obsession and I couldn’t imagine having a wedding without their music!
Right now I’m debating between “Northern Sky” by Nick Drake and Elliot Smith’s cover of Big Star’s “13″ for processional music. For the recessional I really would like “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, but that one is still being negotiated.
Now I’m off to read Mrs. Peppermint’s post…
@jami_lynn: I’ll have to go listen to that Coldplay song, I’ve never heard it.
@Jennifer5642: Those are such great choices! Love the Star Wars! We used Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder for our recessional, though I was so excited I didn’t even hear it!
@Miss Glasses: We went with a computer, and I promise you don’t have to keep it simple just because you’re having an ipod wedding! We made 3 playlists and then had a friend be our “ceremony DJ”
@Berkeley_Bride: Love “Home”! We almost used that as our first song, but it’s so long! Where are you getting married in Berkeley??
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Mrs. Pin Cushion, Oakland, CA Age and Occupation: 25, Nurse Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, PhD Student Engagement Date: November 23, 2008 Wedding Date: July 2010 Venue: Radonich Ranch, Los Gatos About Me: I'm the 3 Cs: crafty, creative and quirky (oh, that's not a C? Close enough!). I'm also a recycling fanatic, fluent in bad accents and I have the loudest laughter this side of the Mississippi. I have not just one sweet tooth, but a whole mouth full of sweet teeth. I cry at 97.4% of all movies I see, but my fiance's always there to hand me a tissue. My geek-chic fiance and I are planning a wedding full of color, cookies and handmade goodness and I can't wait to spill the beans on all of our crazy ideas!
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