Spend just a little time reading this and you’ll have ideas to end your wedding on a perfect note that will leave everybody in just as joyful a mood as you!

In the first part of this article, I offered tips about choosing your church wedding recessional music. This time, I’ll give you some specific music ideas.

Common recessionals

As with music for other parts of your wedding ceremony, avoiding commonly used music is one effective way to help the music be exciting, distinctive and a reflection of you.

Fortunately, despite all the overused wedding music out there (see “6 Wedding Ceremony Pieces of Music Everyone Ought to Avoid”), there’s only one overused piece to really watch out for when choosing your recessional: Felix Mendelssohn’s Wedding March (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream).

That piece isn’t allowed by many churches anyway, so it might not even be an issue.

Also fortunately, there are many, many great choices available to you.

11 great recessional ideas

Here are some recessional music ideas. Perhaps you’ve heard some of them already.

I’ve included a few example preview links. If you enjoy these links, you’ll want to check out my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music. It includes preview links for almost every piece of music.

I’ll include preview links in the next email newsletter (scheduled for July 2o). Sign up (it’s free) and don’t miss out!

• Georg Frideric Handel: Hornpipe from Water Music Suite No. 2 in D Major

For organ or organ plus trumpet

• Leon Boellman: Allegro (Menuet Gothique) from Suite Gothique

For organ

• Johann Sebastian Bach: Allegro from Organ Concerto in G Major (BWV 592)

• Jacques Lemmens: Fanfare

For organ

• Benedetto Marcello: Psalm 19 (The Heavens Declare the Glory of God)

For organ, but I’ve also heard it performed by harp and flute.

• Charles Marie Widor: Toccata from Organ Symphony #5

For organ

• William Walton: Crown Imperial Coronation March

For organ

• Paul Manz: God of Grace and God of Glory

For organ, but could also be played by organ and trumpet or organ and trombone.

• Johann Sebastian Bach: In Thee is Gladness

For organ

• Theodore Dubois: Toccata in G

For organ

• Felix Mendelssohn: Allegro from Organ Sonata No. 2

For organ

That’s it for now

I’d love it if you’d leave a comment with your thoughts on these wedding recessional ideas. Better yet, if you know other pieces that would make a great recessional, share them with us all. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated!

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

The trumpet is a spectacular instrument and makes a great choice for your wedding ceremony.

It’s a little less common than it used to be, but that’s no problem. Less common is a good thing!

Trumpets are a great source of music for weddings

A trumpet can be the source of festive brilliance as well as gentle warmth in your music.

In this article I’ll provide you more ideas for trumpet music for weddings – which you’ll appreciate if you’re planning to include a trumpet in your wedding ceremony music. In addition to the ideas here, check out these from the earlier article, 14 Brilliant Ideas for a Brilliant Instrument: Trumpet Wedding Music.

Trumpet wedding music ideas

So here are some pieces of music for weddings that a trumpet can do very well with, including some that you may not normally associate with the trumpet:

• Campra: Rigaudon
• Boyce: Trumpet Voluntary (can be played with 1 or 2 trumpets!)
• Handel: Many of the dozens of pieces from the Water Music suites
• Bach: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Handel: Largo (from Xerxes)
• Mouret: Rondeau
• Purcell: Allegro Moderato from Sonata in D (there’s a wonderful transcription by Charles Callahan that makes this piece more accessible to musicians with only moderate skill levels)

Spice up frequently-used music with an instrument

Some of the pieces, like Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” or Handel’s Largo are already frequently used in weddings. I’d even say the Bach piece is overused. But using a different instrument to perform them can spice them up and make them seem much more distinctive.

This is important to remember as you work on achieving distinctive, exciting and memorable ceremony music!

After I chose the pieces for this list, I realized they’re all from the Baroque era — which isn’t a big problem. After all, Baroque music is a favorite for weddings and has a natural fit.

But there’s plenty more out there. If you want some trumpet wedding music a little closer to modern times, say, pieces that have been written in the last 100 years or so, check your email Inbox. If your are signed up to receive my free email newsletters, I included 5 modern pieces of trumpet music for wedding ceremonies in the last issue.

Take action

Check out these ideas and see if any of them will work for you for your wedding or check out the other articles with music for instruments. If you know of some other pieces of trumpet music for weddings, please leave a comment. Help out fellow readers with your ideas.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

Let me show you a sample wedding ceremony.

If you need more, you can find 30 pages of sample ceremonies with my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music.

I want to take a closer look at one of them in this post in the hope that it will help you as you put yours together.

Click on the thumbnail image below to see the sample wedding ceremony and then the rest of the article will discuss it.

Note that if you receive my newsletter, you may have already seen this sample wedding ceremony – I included it as a bonus a few issues back.

Sample wedding ceremony:

To protect everyone involved, I changed all personal details – names, city, date, even the name of the church. I reconstructed the ceremony here from the original program. What you see is a page from the bonus materials that come with the Guide.

Let’s take a look at this sample wedding ceremony

I want to point out a few things about the ceremony. Not as a critique, but to help possibly connect it to your situation and give you ideas.

• The ceremony style is traditional and very simple.
• Note the use of two hymns. This is a nice way to reinforce that churches consider wedding ceremonies to be worship!
• The music is pretty sparse. I’ll bet this was a smaller wedding – but not so small that hymns couldn’t be sung (hymns with a very small number of guests might make some feel awkward). Using a hymn in place of a vocal solo can be a nice way to get around finding a soloist.
• The preservice music is brief: it probably began about 5 minutes before the ceremony started.
• No recessional music is not listed. I’m not sure why. Was this an oversight? Was the couple still undecided when the programs needed to be printed?
• There’s also no postlude. Maybe this was a smaller wedding. Skipping postludes is one of my recommendations for smaller weddings.

What you can get from this sample wedding ceremony are some ideas for structuring a simple, traditional-style wedding ceremony. You can also use it as a reference for a smaller wedding ceremony. Check out this article for thoughts on effective music in smaller weddings.

Remember this is just one sample wedding ceremony. The Guide contains lots more!

Your examples

I’d love to see other examples of wedding ceremonies (small or not). Help out fellow readers by posting details from your wedding or a sample wedding ceremony or two that you have laying around and used as an example.

And if you find this article helpful, please be sure to share it with your friends, family or coworkers. You can share the link very easily by clicking on the “share” link below!

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

Did you know that two of the world’s greatest composers had their 325th birthdays in 2010? And they both wrote lots of great wedding music? Well, they may not have written it to be used as wedding music, but we’ve since put it to good use!

Back in March, the world celebrated Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday. But a month earlier was Georg Frideric Handel’s birthday. I’m finally getting around to a much-belated birthday recognition for him.

Still popular today

Like Bach, Handel’s music remains popular today. One of his works is recognized by almost everyone: his famous and loved Hallelujah chorus from the oratorio “Messiah”, which itself is also extremely well-known, with performances of it heard regularly, especially during the Christmas holiday period.

I wonder if it’s because the music of Bach and Handel is so well-known and loved that even today much of it still appeals to couples planning their weddings.

In any case, to celebrate this major birth anniversary, here are my favorite Handel wedding music suggestions!

The list is a mix of well-known and often used Handel wedding music with some less commonly-used pieces (but just as appropriate).

Take a look and see what you think. I don’t know that you’ll want to have an all-Handel wedding ceremony, but you certainly could! Just don’t tell anyone it was my idea.

Top Handel wedding music ideas

Not in any particular order…

• Hallelujah chorus from “Messiah”
• Overture from Music for the Royal Fireworks
• Bourrée from Music for the Royal Fireworks
• La Paix from Music for the Royal Fireworks
• La Réjouissance from Music for the Royal Fireworks
• Air from Water Music Suite No. 1
• Aria (also listed as Larghetto) from Concerto Grosso No. 12 (Op. 6)
• Hornpipe from Water Music Suite No. 2
• Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from “Solomon”)
• Allegro Maestoso from Water Music Suite No. 1

I included a few sample music preview links. My Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music has links for just about every piece of music (and as I usually do, I also sent all the links to email newsletter subscribers!

What do you think?

Is there other Handel wedding music that you like or you think should have made my list? Your comments are always appreciated.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

Are you looking for unique, truly memorable ceremony wedding songs? Music that you won’t have to worry about your guests hearing at other weddings?

If so, you’re probably already trying to avoid overused music. I don’t need to remind you about how overused certain pieces are—you can be certain your guests will hear those overused pieces at almost every wedding they attend before and after yours. You may still be looking for music ideas to replace the overused choices.

The goal of your ceremony music

If you’re worried about choosing classical music or maybe even a little intimidated, remember the goal isn’t to select music that shows how clever or musically knowledgeable you are. The goal is simply to have ceremony music that expresses your great joy in just the way you’d like it expressed. To have music that reflects you, that is uniquely yours!

In this article, I’ll suggest ceremony wedding songs that are very appropriate for churches, but just aren’t all that well known. Be assured that they’re not pieces that are radical or “out there”, that might cause your guests to cringe, or that your church will question their appropriateness.

They’re just not used very often for whatever reason. I don’t know why they’re not used more. I’ve recommended and used some of them to great success.

The only downside to these pieces is that your request might surprise your musician! But, as long as you don’t spring the ideas on him or her at the last minute, the musician will likely be pleased to have some out-of-the ordinary requests! I’ve been careful to select pieces that aren’t so obscure that they’d be out of print or hard for your musician to find.

Unique ceremony wedding songs ideas

• Bach: Organ Concerto in C Major (makes a fantastic recessional or postlude)
• Franck: Panis Angelicus (also known by its translated English title “O Lord Most Holy”)
• Walton: Crown Imperial Coronation March
• Manz: God of Grace and God of Glory
• Manz: Jesus, Still Lead On (an easy but beautiful piece for organ or almost any instrument plus organ)
• Handel: March from the Occasional Oratorio
• McCabe: Trumpet Tune
• Pachelbel: Fugue in A Major
• Buxtehude: Canzonetta in G
• Elgar: Pomp & Circumstance March #4 (this is not the famous Pomp & Circumstance march used in graduation ceremonies!)
• Dubois: Toccata in G

For even more ideas (including preview links for almost all pieces!), check out the Wedding Music Unveiled Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music (you’ll find hundreds there!). You won’t be disappointed!

I appreciate your comments

Have you heard any of these ceremony wedding songs used before or are you planning to use any? What did you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below!

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

Don’t let your lack of musical knowledge hold you back when it comes to choosing the right music for your church wedding ceremony!

Too many couples let someone else choose all their special music only because they’re unsure of themselves when it comes to classical music.

If you want to include an instrument in your church wedding in addition to an organ or piano but just don’t know what pieces will work, keep reading.

I mentioned in an earlier article that many pieces of music work with a variety of different musical instruments.

Here are plenty of examples!

I took a bunch of pieces of music appropriate for church weddings and a handful of musical instruments and created the lists below. The lists are broken down by instrument and should give you all sorts of instrumental wedding music suggestions.

A few preview links are shown here, but my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music includes preview links for almost all the 200 or so pieces. Check it out!

Whenever previewing pieces, remember that the preview can only give you a rough idea about the piece. The recording doesn’t necessarily feature the suggested instrument and your musicians may have a different style.

Lots of ideas

Violin

• Albinoni: Adagio in G Minor (accompany with organ)
• Bach: Violin Concerto in E, III: Allegro assai
• Pachelbel: Canon in D
• Handel: Largo (from Xerxes)
• Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze
• Bach: Air on the G String from Orchestral Suite #3 in D
• Purcell: Ciacona in G Minor (accompany with organ or piano)
• Bach: Arioso
• Bach (arr. Gounod): Ave Maria
• Handel: Air from Water Music Suite #1 in F
• Handel: Arioso (“Thanks Be To Thee”)
• Mozart: Laudate Dominum (from Solemn Vespers)
• Bach: Wachet Auf (“Wake, Awake for Night is Flying”) (accompany with organ or piano)
• Bach: Bist du bei mir (needs another instrument)
• Telemann: Grazioso
• Manz: Jesus, Still Lead On (accompany with organ or piano)

Harp

• Purcell: Trumpet Tune
• Mouret: Rondeau
• Pachelbel: Canon in D
• Handel: Largo (from Xerxes)
• Handel: Air from Water Music Suite #1 in F
• Bach: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze
• Bach: Arioso
• Bach (arr. Gounod): Ave Maria
• Handel: Arioso (“Thanks Be To Thee”)
• Bach: Bist du bei mir (needs another instrument)
• Grandjany: Aria in Classic Style (accompany with organ or piano)

Piano

• Pachelbel: Canon in D
• Purcell: Trumpet Tune
• Mouret: Rondeau
• Clarke: Trumpet Voluntary in D
• Handel: Largo (from Xerxes)
• Bach: Air on the G String from Orchestral Suite #3 in D
• Bach: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze
• Albinoni: Adagio in G Minor
• Bach: Arioso
• Bach (arr. Gounod): Ave Maria
• Handel: Air from Water Music Suite #1 in F
• Handel: Arioso (“Thanks Be To Thee”)
• Brahms: Lo, How a Rose E’er Bloometh
• Mozart: Laudate Dominum (from Solemn Vespers)
• Bach: Bist du bei mir (needs another instrument)
• Brahms: St. Anthony’s Chorale
• Bach: Sanctify Us By Your Goodness (Chorale from Cantata #22)

Cello

• Albinoni: Adagio in G Minor (accompany with organ)
• Pachelbel: Canon in D
• Handel: Largo (from Xerxes)
• Bach: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Bach: Air on the G String from Orchestral Suite #3 in D
• Bach: Arioso
• Bach (arr. Gounod): Ave Maria
• Handel: Arioso (“Thanks Be To Thee”)
• Mozart: Laudate Dominum (from Solemn Vespers)
• Bach: Wachet Auf (“Wake, Awake for Night is Flying”) (accompany with organ or piano)
• Bach: Bist du bei mir (needs another instrument)
• Manz: Jesus, Still Lead On (accompany with organ or piano)
• Bach: Sanctify Us By Your Goodness (Chorale from Cantata #22)

Guitar (classical)

• Mouret: Rondeau
• Handel: Largo (from Xerxes)
• Clarke: Trumpet Voluntary in D
• Bach: Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Bach: Air on the G String from Orchestral Suite #3 in D
• Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze
• Bach: Arioso
• Bach (arr. Gounod): Ave Maria
• Handel: Arioso (“Thanks Be To Thee”)

Often these pieces can be played solo, accompanied by another instrument or with another instrument. For example, a Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring could be played by a solo cello. It can also accompanied by an organ or piano (or even another cello if you are so lucky). It could also be played as a duet with a violin.

There’s plenty of music out there for instruments. I’ll plan to give you even more ideas in a future article.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

I want to share more wedding processional music ideas with you.

In some previous articles, I listed many of pieces of music for you to consider for your processional. In other articles (and Wedding Music Unveiled’s Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music), I encourage you to choose pieces that sound good together, complementing your expression of joy.

I hear comments from brides-to-be that this can be challenging.

It’s all about putting the pieces together

So rather than just list more pieces, this time I’ll present combinations of different pieces to use as bridal and bridal party processionals (most weddings today, though not all, have separate processional music for the bride). I hope you’ll be inspired with ideas for piecing your ceremony music together!

The goal is to have wedding processional music pieces that when performed together, express your joy in just the way you’d like it expressed.

The pieces don’t need to be in the same style or genre to sound good together. It is possible to pair a stately, majestic piece with something soft and gentle. Such a contrast is what I want to help you with in this article!

One example

A commonly-used pair is Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary in D and Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D.

This a great example of pairing a majestic piece with a quieter, gentler piece. These days, the Canon in D is frequently chosen as the second piece (the bridal processional), but this is only a trend and there’s no reason the order can’t be reversed.

Ignoring how overused both are, the two pieces work very well together. The contrasts in style can be very dramatic.

Many more examples

Here are other example combinations for bridal party and bridal processionals that are exciting because of their contrasts:

• Mendelssohn: Andante Con Moto from Prelude in G Major and Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
• Brahms: St. Anthony’s Chorale and Gounod: Marche Nuptiale
• Mouret: Rondeau and Bach: “Sheep May Safely Graze”
• Bach: Air on the G String and Lully: Air de Trompette
• Handel: March from Occasional Oratorio and Handel: Arioso “Thanks Be to Thee”
• Charpentier: Prelude to the Te Deum and Handel: Air from Water Music Suite #1 in F
• Telemann: Grazioso and Brahms: St. Anthony’s Chorale
• Charpentier: Prelude to the Te Deum and Telemann: Grazioso
• Campra: Rigaudon and Bach: Wachet Auf
• Telemann: Grazioso and Handel: March from Occasional Oratorio
• Stanley: Trumpet Voluntary in D and Boyce: Trumpet Voluntary (Largo Andante)
• Bach: “Sheep May Safely Graze” and Boyce: Trumpet Voluntary (Largo Andante)

Do these help?

I hope these examples give you some great ideas and I wish you the very best in putting your wedding music plans together!

Let me know what you think of these examples or if you’d like more.

Leave a comment and share your thoughts. Your comments and feedback are always very much appreciated!

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

I want to share with you this list of wedding ceremony music I ran across. It’s a really good example of sample wedding music and may give you some ideas. It seems to have been put together with great care.

As I get more examples like this, I’ll share them with you. Having sample wedding music is so very important when you’re looking for ideas. This is especially true if you’re feeling stuck or stressed from all your other wedding day preparations which can leave you not feeling especially creative.

This ceremony used an organist, a trumpeter and a vocal soloist.

The vocal soloist sang only during the lighting of the Unity Candle (as is common). The trumpeter was listed as playing during seating of the parents & grandparents, the bridal party processional and the bridal processional, and the recessional! That’s quite a bit of music for an instrumentalist all in a row, but I’m sure the trumpet added a lot of character to this ceremony.

For more on including a trumpet in your ceremony, see this article on trumpet wedding music.

Here’s the ceremony music

You can preview music just by clicking on links (as in several examples below) when you get the Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music. The guide includes over 20 pages of music ideas (with preview links for almost all pieces)!

Before the ceremony:

• Brahms: Lo, a Rose E’er Bloometh
• S. Wesley: Air
• Bach: Air on the G String
• Handel: Bourrée from Royal Fireworks Music

Seating of parents & grandparents: Bach: Sheep May Safely Graze

Bridal Party Processional: Handel: March from Occasional Oratorio

Bridal processional: Johnson: Trumpet Tune in D

Unity Candle music: Hopson: The Gift of Love

Recessional: Mouret: Rondeau

Postlude: Bach: Allegro from Organ Concerto in G Major

I hope this sample wedding music gives you some great ideas!

If you want to see examples of full ceremonies (and lots of them!), you can get 30 pages of real-world example church wedding ceremonies as a bonus when you buy my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music. I’ve been told that these examples alone are worth the price! You can get it here or by following the “Guide” link at the top of the page.

Do you have any examples?

I’d love to see even more examples of real-world sample wedding music. I’m sure fellow readers would also! Even if you’re still piecing your ceremony together, consider listing your music choices in a comment. It would help a lot of couples with new ideas.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

I try to make sure you get all the wedding music ideas you need from Wedding Music Unveiled. But you still may need more. That’s when it can be a good time to turn to commercial wedding music compilation CDs for ideas.

Compilation CDs can provide good ideas, but watch out for CDs that only contain the same old choices you probably already know about. Just like other wedding guides that repeat the same handful of wedding music ideas, wedding CDs don’t always provide new ideas.

When I find a decent collection, you can be sure I’ll pass it along to you. Let’ start right now.

You might want to check this out

Here’s one that I thought was pretty good: The Power and the Glory—Organ Music for Weddings.

It’s available as a CD outside the U.S., but inside is only available online via both the iTunes Music Store and Amazon.com’s music store.

It has 40 tracks which is both unusually abundant and especially pleasing. Many of the choices are still the same as you’d hear from many other sources. With so many selections, in this case you’ll also get some variety which should help to provide you with ideas.

You’ll benefit from hearing everything played on an organ

Because everything is performed on an organ, it’s much more likely to match your situation. Other CDs simply reuse orchestral recordings from other CDs. You can get an idea for melodies you like, but unless you’re planning to hire an orchestra for your church wedding, the recording isn’t too likely to match what you’d actually hear at your wedding.

For your church wedding, you’re most likely to have an organ as your primary instrument. Getting your wedding music ideas from recordings made on the same instrument you’ll have is valuable, regardless of what music you end up choosing.

What you’ll find

Wedding music ideas on this album include expected choices such as

• Pachelbel’s Canon in D,
• Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary in D,
• Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, and
• Bach’s Air on the G String

But again, all on the organ so you’ll know better what to expect.

You’ll also find plenty of familiar but less common wedding music ideas. Some highlights include:

• Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba,
• Handel’s La Rejouissance from the Royal Fireworks Music,
• Vaughan Williams Prelude on Rhosymedre,
• Charpentier’s Prelude to the Te Deum, and
• Walton’s Crown Imperial March.

There’s quite a bit more, including a few pieces I wasn’t aware of!

You might enjoy Norman Cocker’s Tuba Tune, one of the four Pieces for Musical Clock by Haydn, or other unusual (for weddings, at least) pieces.

Note that the collection includes two pieces that I strongly recommend against considering for your church wedding: Wagner’s Wedding March from his opera Lohengrin (also known as “Bridal Chorus” but popularly known as “Here Comes the Bride”) and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from his A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Neither piece is appropriate for a church wedding and many churches specifically prohibit them.

Enjoy the suggestion and I hope you get some additional wedding music ideas!

Share your thoughts

What good CDs (or online music collections) do you know about? Leave a message and share with all of us! As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

How about including a little birthday music to go with your wedding ceremony music? One of the world’s greatest composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, turned 325 this year on March 21.

The music world is celebrating! Why not join in the fun and include at least one piece by Bach in your wedding to help the world celebrate? At the very least, it’ll be a chance for you to show off with a piece of classical music trivia!

If you’re still looking for music for your wedding ceremony, whether it’s a song during the wedding, or a piece for a recessional, processional, postlude or prelude, Bach’s music might just be the perfect choice.

Definitely appropriate for a church

Bach was a composer and musician who worked for and composed music for the church during much of his life. So you can be sure that his music will be appropriate for a church. Over the years, many of his pieces have found their way into weddings. I even know of an all-Bach wedding a few months ago!

Too many ideas to list

Here are some Bach music ideas for you to consider. I listed the well-known pieces first with suggestions for using the pieces in the ceremony. Whether processional, recessional or prelude, Bach wrote lots of good wedding music.

There are many more than I could list here — more are listed in Wedding Music Unveiled’s Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music (a few preview links are included here and the guide has links for almost each of hundreds of pieces of music!).

Well-known music of Bach

• “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” (prelude, processional, or as a vocal solo during the ceremony)

• Arioso (also known as the Sinfonia (or Adagio) from Cantata BWV 156 and also as the Largo from Harpsichord Concerto in F Minor) (prelude, processional)

• “Ave Maria” (arranged by Charles Gounod) (prelude)

• “Sheep May Safely Graze” (prelude, processional, or as a vocal solo during the ceremony)

• Air on the G String (Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3) (prelude, processional)

• “Bist du bei mir” (from Cantata 508) (processional)

Not quite as well-known pieces by Bach

• “Sanctify Us By Your Goodness” (from Cantata 22) (prelude)

• “Wachet auf” (or “Wake, Awake, For Night is Flying”) (processional)

• “Blessed Jesus We Are Here” (two different versions) (prelude)

Version 1, Version 2

• “Now Thank We All Our God” (recessional, postlude)

• “In Thee Is Gladness” (prelude, recessional, postlude)

• Fugue in C Major (“Gigue”) (prelude)

• Prelude & Fugue in G (prelude) (the pieces can be played together or individually)

Prelude, Fugue

• Allegro from Organ Concerto in G (recessional, postlude)

• “Little” Prelude in F (postlude)

• Concerto in C (postlude)

What do you think?

Do you have a favorite piece of music by Bach that you’re including in your wedding or have heard played in a wedding?

Leave a comment. I’d be thrilled to hear your thoughts!

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.