Crafting a Great Wedding Music Program

Part One - The Ceremony

From a musician’s perspective, a wedding is an event with several distinct parts, each of which may call for different types of music. Here we’ll address the prelude and ceremony.

The prelude is generally light (meaning: non-invasive, easy-to-listen-to) background music chosen by the musicians in accordance with the overall ambience of the moment. As guests arrive and mill about before the ceremony begins, we find that a mood of relaxed elegance is usually called for. You are welcome to indicate a few favorite pieces and we will incorporate them. Most ceremonies don’t start exactly on time, so we are prepared to play enough background music to fill the necessary time until the processionals start, rather than planning a strict “set list”.

The ceremony itself has several parts that you’ll need to choose music for. These parts are:

• Seating of parents/honored guests and procession of attendants (one or more pieces depending on the number of participants)
• Entrance of the bride (usually a separate piece, but can be included in the entire processional if you desire)
• Interlude music where applicable - usually for Unity Candle, rememberance, communion, or similar event.
• Recessional/exit music

After the recessional, we often play what we call “post-lude” music as guests are departing the ceremony area. Like the prelude music, we usually choose a few pieces ourselves that are similar in style to the recessional.

CHOOSING CEREMONY MUSIC

So many possibilities! The first step is to narrow the field. It’s a good idea to start with the Bridal Processional and construct the rest of the ceremony music program around that. So, the first question to ask yourself is:

• Do I want the traditional “Here Comes the Bride”?

If yes, then the rest of your ceremony music should be similarly traditional and you’ll likely have a very easy time choosing it.

If not, then you’ll need to decide from one of the following styles of processional:

1. Elegant and lyrical
2. Stately and march-like
3. Contemporary/non-classical

Once you’ve determined which of the above types you favor, consult the repertoire list for your particular ensemble.  Each of our ensembles’ repertoire lists will have a few suggestions for classical ceremony selections that are tried and true.  If you’re not familiar with the pieces, now’s the time to get on our website and listen to demo clips, or get on YouTube and search for good renditions of each tune.

A few examples of the Elegant-Lyrical type of processional:

“Jesu, joy of man’s desiring” - Bach
“Canon in D” - Pachelbel
“Wachet Auf” - Bach

A few examples of the Stately-March-like type of processional:

“Trumpet Voluntary” - Clarke
“Rondeau” - Mouret

The above examples can all be found at www.collagetrio.com (the specific ensemble playing each clip will vary)

And here are a few examples of Contemporary/Non-Classical special request songs that we have recently played instrumentally as processionals or recessional:

“Each Coming Night” - Iron & Wine
“Say Yes” - Elliott Smith
“We’re Going To Be Friends” - the White Stripes
“Viva La Vida” - Coldplay

A vocal rendition of a swing tune or a contemporary pop song can work brilliantly for a recessional. Here are a few examples of songs we’ve performed this way, by request:

“The Way I Am” - Ingrid Michaelson
“I Will” - Beatles
“I’ve Just Seen A Face” - Beatles

After accompanying hundreds of wedding ceremonies and seeing a lot of things go really well and a few things not work out so well, we have a few suggestions for your consideration, which we hope will help in the design of a seamless ceremony:

• If your bridal party is under 6 people (including flower girls/ring bearers) and your parents/honored guests who will be part of the processional number less than 4, then we strongly advise choosing only one piece of music to accompany all of them down the aisle (then you can use a second piece for bride). The only advisable exceptions to this would be if the mothers will be lighting large candelabras immediately after coming down the aisle, OR if the distance of the processional is very long (more than 150 feet).

• For those of you who lean toward the non-traditional, we highly recommend bending to tradition just slightly and using a fairly recognizable traditional piece for the parents/attendants’ processional. Your guests will likely be listening for something they’ve heard before, so this will help minimize confusion and/or astonishment. Also, if you’re using a contemporary song for the entrance of the bride, preceding it with a traditional piece will give the contemporary song greater impact and memorability.

• When using two separate pieces for parents and attendants, many couples are inclined toward a more up-tempo selection for the attendants; this is a fine idea, however, we advise against using a march-like piece, as your guests may think it’s the bride’s entrance, and it will diminish the impact of the bride’s entrance piece.

• Consult with your officiant to determine which points during the ceremony, if any, will require music. Most commonly, we are asked to play a very short and lyrical piece during the lighting of a unity candle, when this is part of the ceremony. We have a number of selections that can be logically brought to a cadence in under one minute. We will need a detailed outline of the ceremony so we know when to play any interlude music; if you have one, a copy of a printed ceremony program is sufficient. A brief conversation with your officiant upon our arrival is also beneficial (though we often have a very hard time tracking him/her down so this is not a reliable method).

• For the recessional, we need to know whether we should start immediately after the kiss, or after the breaking of the glass, or after the introduction. Most often, this is what we see:

• Pronouncement: “I now prounounce you ….”
• Kiss, followed by much applause
• Introduction: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. ________ !” - more applause, and we start the recessional at the apex of that second round of applause.

Got a bunch of ideas now?  We hope so!  Part Two - Cocktail Hour and Dinner - coming soon.

-S.