Weddingbee Blog

A friend of mine actually did have Wedding: The Musical: the MC sang Wilkommen, the bride sang  Maybe This Time and the bridal party did a chorus line… But this post is about the music for our wedding. Or some of it, anyway.

The way we see it, there are a few categories of music to pick:

• The pre-show – tunes for people to listen to when they arrive at the venue
• Processional
• Recessional
• First dance(s) (no idea yet—our song is Hit the Road Jack)
• Par-tay (we’re leaving this one to the DJ)

And, we have our DJ for the whole thing!

We decided what we wanted for the ‘pre-show’ pretty early on: all Vitamin String Quartet, all the time. Something you’ll have to understand about me (us, really) is that music is fun.

I love funny songs (this is my current favourite). I love it when songs play in a situation where they’re unexpected or only tangentially appropriate. So the thought of our relatives and friends peacefully waiting for the ceremony (because they’ll all be early, naturally), listening to lovely string music…is that Lady Gaga?! I love it. It’s playful, it’s fun, it’s totally us. We’re going to go through VSQ’s catalog and pick our favourite songs, fun songs, songs that didn’t make it into other parts of the wedding. So far we know we need: Bad Romance, Back in Black, Fat Bottom Girls, Money… lots of good classic rock (I’m a classic rock fan) played by a string quartet. The thought of it just makes me smile, and I can just imagine the looks on people’s faces when they’re thinking “Ah, very civilized, string music, yes… You Shook Me All Night Long?”

Processional: don’t even ask. I have no idea. Again, I want it fun, but not stupid/silly. I was looking for something classical, and I have a love of brass, but a lot of what I like to listen to (and play! French horn!) is fairly pompous. Like… Pomp and Circumstance, for example. Or the 1812 overture, now there is a great French horn part! But really… canons? I think that’s a bit too, too… something. I’ll figure this out soon.

Recessional: this one had the most options in our iTunes playlist. Whenever one of us thought of something even vaguely appropriate, we added it to the list. We want this song to be upbeat and happy, and (once again) fun. For this one, we were really only looking at ‘modern’ (as in, not classical, sorry Trumpet Voluntary!).

I was a big fan of Hello, I Love You (Won’t You Tell Me Your Name) by The Doors, because it reminded me of this XKCD comic:

Plus, The Doors are awesome. Sadly, Cinnamon Buns vetoed this one on account of not being quite upbeat enough. I’m totally insisting on it being in the VSQ pre-show though.

We thought about Janis Joplin’s Piece of My Heart, because we liked the “Come on, come on, come on” intro, as well as the tempo of the song. Then we actually listened to/looked up the lyrics and decided that that might not be the best song for a wedding.

We both love The Barenaked Ladies but Be My Yoko Ono wasn’t quite right either. And I think my parents might have some words with me if we chose that one…

We half-joked about the Katamari theme, but decided it was a bit too crazy, and only about 3 people in the audience would get it.

Trooper had two songs in the running, Raise a Little Hell and We’re Here For a Good Time, but they got deleted in favour of other songs we liked better (like ‘Hello I Love You’. I’m not bitter. )

Cinnamon Buns really liked I Was Made For Lovin’ You, especially the version with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, but although it has the beat… I felt it was a little dark, so that was my veto.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered and Higher and Higher both got the chop for reasons I can’t even remember.

We agreed that So Long And Thanks For All The Fish will not be the recessional, but will be the song played at last call.

Also shot down were all songs by one of my favourite musicians, Tom Jones.  It’s Not Unusual, Sexbomb, nothing was up to snuff for Cinnamon Buns. AND he said that if I use She’s a Lady  for my processional, he and the boys are walking down the aisle to the theme from Shaft. Pout. I used to call Tom Jones my guilty pleasure but I am done being guilty about it, I love him!

So now we’re down to the top two, with one runner up. The runner up is Three Dog Night’s Joy To The World. We both love it, but it probably won’t be this one.

The top two are:

Save Me San Francisco by Train

and

A Little Less Conversation by Elvis (kinda)

We got engaged in San Francisco, and we discovered that particular Train song a few weeks before we went. It just makes me want to get up and DANCE, and I am not a dancer.

The Elvis song was a late addition to the running, but we think it is funnily appropriate—there will have just been lots of conversation (the ceremony) and now it will be time for some action (the reception). Plus, you can’t help but groove to it.

So there is a peek into the collective Cinnamon Bun psyche, through music. Which of our two final choices would you pick?