You wouldn’t pass up help that would simplify your work, would you?

I couldn’t be happier that you’ve found Wedding Music Unveiled to help you organize and simplify your ceremony music planning!

But did you know that by only reading the articles on this site, you’re getting only some of the full wealth of information I have for you?

Too much to share here

It just isn’t practical on this site to share all that I have for you. There are more music selections, tips, articles and other goodies than I can make room for. I share some of these extra items with in my email newsletter.

Subscribe today and take advantage of all the information you ought to have for planning your wedding. It’s free.

Let us help you make your day perfect. Take advantage of all we have to offer you.

But if you don’t subscribe to the newsletter, you are missing out.

You’re also missing great bonus tips and information. Here are examples of newsletter topics from the past few months:

• how to enjoy your ceremony music even when the ceremony will likely be a blur to you
• connecting your pre-ceremony music to your processional music to build up to your entrance
• how to avoid the stress from juggling many different ceremony ideas in your head
• staying in touch with reality to avoid being disappointed by your music
• avoiding trouble by recognizing and handling the limitations of your soloists
• understanding your reaction to possible music selections as you listen to it to help make the best choices
• additional music selections
• amusing examples of really bad wedding music advice I’ve come across
• reminders about & early details from web site articles before they’re posted (sometimes even with extra details that don’t get posted!)
• and much more!

It’s not just for the couple!

If you are a wedding musician (whether a full-time church musician or someone who occasionally plays for weddings), clergy, church staff or a wedding professional, there’s also special information just for you. Just click the appropriate button after entering your email address and you’ll get information that’s relevant to you.

Getting help is easy and is just a few clicks away

If you’d like some extra help (and who wouldn’t?) with your wedding music, subscribe today!

Subscribe now by signing up at the top & right side of the page or below.

© 2011, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

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• bad wedding musician
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©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to communicate your joy in a way words cannot express.

Lots of work is ahead

Whether you have been engaged or just got engaged over the holidays, if you have a wedding coming up this year you already know just how much work you have to do in the coming months!

Preparing for your wedding day is no small project. You need to plan a reception, the ceremony, rehearsal dinners, dealing with out-of-town guests, attire, gifts, decorations, and the list goes on. Each of these by itself can be a major project.

This is your chance to express yourself

Don’t let your ceremony music get lost in the shuffle! It’s an important part of your day.

So much of the rest of the day is about accommodating the needs of other people.

But this is your chance to express your joy while you have the attention of your family, your friends, your wedding party and most importantly, your soon-to-be-spouse!

You need to get it right the first time

For some of your wedding day’s details, you can call upon your own skills or rely on planning guides, friends, families, web sites, and other sources of information in your preparations.

But planning music for a wedding ceremony, a church service, or any formal event is not something that comes naturally to most people. After all, it’s not something that you have probably ever done before. You’ve probably never even done anything similar. You don’t have the benefit of practice to get it right.

You need it to be perfect and have only one chance to get it right!

Motivation, not pressure

Why am I telling you this? Don’t you have enough to worry about already?

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to stress you out.

I’ve seen too many couples put music off until the last minute (and even have the musicians “just handle everything”).

What I hear back from couples that have done this is generally either regret that they should have put more thought into it (or started earlier) or that the results were “OK”.

What I’ve heard from couples that have taken their music seriously and really put some effort into it has been “Wow!!!”. (OK, maybe they used different words, but “wow!” captures the nature of their responses.)

Don’t let the opportunity go by

As I said above, don’t let your ceremony music get lost in the shuffle! This is your chance to express yourself, to express your great joy.

If your ceremony music ends up being nothing more than background noise, you’ve truly missed out on an opportunity.

Get started now

To learn how to get started, check out my free Church Wedding Music 101 video mini-course. Enter your email address below (or on the top right side of the page) right now and I’ll send you the link and you can start watching the first video right away.

© 2011, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

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©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

“What is wedding prelude music?”

I get a lot of questions like this about wedding music.

I’m not surprised. In fact, this is the reason I started Wedding Music Unveiled—to help you make sense of church wedding music and make it easier for you to plan it.

If you are just starting out, you too might be confused by or unfamiliar with many wedding ceremony music terms.

Here’s a list of such terms with introductory-level definitions—explanations that work for you, not for musicians! This should put an end to the confusion.

Check out the end of the article for even more helpful information like this!

There are many “wedding music getting started” articles posted here that you should also check out!

Wedding music terms

You’re likely to come across many of these terms in your wedding planning. I hope you find the quick, practical definitions useful:

• Bridal march. The piece of music played while a bride enters the church. A better term is “processional”.
• Bridal party processional. The piece of music played when the bridal (or wedding) party enters the church. Only used in weddings when the bride enters the church all by herself to a separate piece of music.
• Bulletin. Also called “wedding program”. In many churches, the bulletin is what is handed out Sunday mornings as people enter church. It contains announcements, events, and information about the worship service. Some people also use the term when it comes to weddings, but “wedding program” is probably better.
• Canon. A style of music and also the name of a famous piece written by Johann Pachelbel in the late 1600s. A canon itself has nothing whatsoever to do with weddings. It’s also not a weapon of war (cannon is a completely different word).
• Entrance march. What some people call the processional.
• Entrance music. What some people call the processional.
• Exit music. What some people call the recessional. Note that it refers to the entire wedding party leaving the church (including the just-married couple) but not the guests (see Postlude).
• Hymn. A song sung by all in worship to God. Hymns can be used in weddings.
• Instrumental. Technically, any piece of music played on an instrument. For weddings, people tend to use it to refer to music that is played by an instrument other than their primary instrument (for example, a violin piece instead of an organ piece).
• Instrumentalist. Technically, a musician who plays any instrument (as opposed to a singer). But for weddings, it typically means a musician playing a secondary instrument (something other than your primary instrument which typically is an organ or piano).
• Interlude. There is no such thing. It’s a term probably coined by someone who did not understand church weddings. When people say interlude, they generally mean a piece of music (most often a vocal song) played at some point during the wedding service.
• Minister of Music. A musician employed by a church to oversee all things musical. May also happen to be an organist, but the term expresses a higher level of duties than just playing the organ. A good person to approach first about your music if your church has one, regardless of your plans for music.
• Organist. A person who plays an organ. Because organ-playing skills are completely different than for other keyboards (such as a piano) and because organs are very complex and expensive instruments, the person who serves as your organist generally should be from the church or someone who has the right skills (check with the church first).
• Postlude. The pieces of music (often several pieces) played as the guests leave the church.
• Prelude. The pieces of music played before the ceremony starts as guests are arriving. The purpose of prelude music is not to cover up the noise of guests arriving. It sets the tone for the ceremony to come.
• Preservice. An alternate term for prelude (at least regarding weddings).
• Processional. The piece of music played as the bride and/or wedding party enter the church.
• Recessional. The piece of music played as the couple and their wedding party (but generally not the guests) leave the church after the ceremony. Different than the postlude (what guests leave to).
• Solo. Technically, anytime a musician plays by him or herself. But for weddings, it’s a sung piece of music (even if there are multiple other instruments involved). It is almost always during the ceremony (though it doesn’t strictly need to be—it just generally works out that way). When multiple singers are involved, don’t refer to it as “The Solo”.
• Soloist. In the context of weddings, a vocalist.
• Song. While some people use it to refer to any piece of music, it should only refer to a piece of music sung by one (or a small number of) singers. Often it refers to what the soloist (or vocalists) sings. It’s different than a hymn, which is something everyone sings, though you could choose to have a soloist sing a hymn as a song.
• Trumpet voluntary. A piece of music in a certain style that features a trumpet or trumpet-like sound on an organ. Often very festive, elegant, or march-like. It has nothing to do with weddings, though its style means that many trumpet voluntaries work well in weddings. One trumpet voluntary, Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary in D is used in many weddings.
• Walk down the aisle music. What some people call the processional when they don’t know the word processional.
• Wedding ceremony. In a church, a worship service featuring the marriage of husband and wife. The key point here is that it is a worship service and not an event constructed however the couple wants it. A church’s standards of worship must be maintained.
• Wedding march. What some people call the processional. Also the name of several specific pieces of music.
• Wedding service. Same as wedding ceremony, but probably a more accurate term as “service” recognizes the inherent worship aspect.
• Wedding program. What is handed to arriving guests that lists the order of the ceremony, participants and details (often including music).
• Wedding solo. Another way of referring to a song sung during the wedding ceremony.

More help is available!

I hope this list helps you! Want more like this?

Consider my introductory Church Wedding Music mini-course, a series of three free videos that’ll get you started! You can get immediate access below or on the right side of the web page. Or if you want more information, click the link above.

So what else would you like to know? What are you confused by when it comes to wedding ceremony music?

Let me know and I’ll try to help.

Don’t forget there’s a lot more information available in our free email newsletter and our church wedding music guide.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

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• what does processional mean in a wedding
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• what does recessional mean in a wedding

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

In relation to the other parts of your wedding day, how much effort are you putting into your ceremony music?

How does the time you devote to ceremony music planning stack up against planning for your reception dinner, photography, attire, makeup, etc.?

I sometimes hear from couples that in retrospect, they now wish they had spent much more time on ceremony music.

I’d like to hear how music ranks in relation to everything else for you. I’d also love to hear about your overall priorities (i.e., what’s most important, least important, and so on).

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

Will your wedding ceremony music be background filler or the soundtrack to your most-important moment?

Too many couples don’t put much thought into their wedding music

Sadly, this is often the reason I hear for couples not putting much effort into their ceremony music: it should be nice but it’s really just background “filler”—its point is to cover up silence.

Maybe the bride will put some effort into her processional, but that’s about it. Everything else can be chosen by the musician with the instruction to “play something appropriate.”

Try a better approach to your wedding music

What’s wrong with this picture?

What’s wrong is that it ignores music’s great and unmatched ability to express powerful emotions.

It can express emotions well beyond the capability of even words. That’s why it’s so universally used in great celebrations.

What does it say about a couple’s approach to their wedding if they consider an element that most use in great celebration to be nothing more than a way of covering up silence?

What does it say about a couple’s approach to their wedding if such a great celebration in their life doesn’t deserve music that expresses how they feel?

Make it personal

What I mean is: If you pick your music and put thought into it, it reflects you and will be very personal.

If someone else picks it, then it won’t reflect you at all and certainly won’t be personal.

It may still sound nice if the musician does their job, but it won’t have any connection to you.

Does your wedding deserve great music?

So my question for you is this:

Isn’t your wedding worthy of expressing the great joy you feel?

Of course it is! And there are many ways you will express your great joy: You will have a beaming smile on your face. You will put great effort into even the smallest details. You will spend hard-earned money not in extravagance, but in expressing how very important this moment is to you.

So why do some couples stop short then when it comes to music—which can perhaps communicate this great joy more powerfully than anything else?

Why do some couples take what is a powerful universal means of celebration and think its only purpose is to cover up silence?

Here’s a challenge

I have a challenge for you.

Make your wedding ceremony music the soundtrack to what will be the greatest celebration of your life to this point! Don’t let it be anonymous noise that blends into the background and will be forgotten as soon as it is over.

Work on it such that when you or your guests look back on that day years from now, the uplifting music is one of the things they remember for having put smiles on their faces.

Help achieving the challenge

The steps to do this are not impossibly difficult.

I know that you may not know anything about classical or church music. I know that you may not be entirely sure how to go about taking music more seriously. I know that you’re already busy with plenty of other wedding preparations.

That’s why I’ve filled this site with wedding music ideas and tips to help make this celebration distinctive and memorable for you. I’ll work to help make it a less daunting task but still one that has wonderful results!

Will you accept my challenge?

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

Search terms that found this article:

• church worthy wedding processional songs
• Powerful Wedding Ceremony Songs
• short wedding ceremony filler
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• wedding photo Material
• wedding songs fillers
• what are the most important musical instruments in a wedding ceremony
• where to place a song in the wedding ceremony
• why is musuc important wedding

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

Who doesn’t love a good disaster story?

When it comes to wedding disaster stories, I like them because there’s often a lesson that can be learned. And when there’s a lesson, some good can come from what may have been an awful experience for those involved.

In that spirit, here’s another wedding music disaster story. From the lesson come three specific tips you can use in your wedding planning.

The Story

At the wedding ceremony, no one provided the musicians with a copy of the wedding program.

By itself, this wasn’t a big deal. But if the musicians had seen the program, one of them could have noticed that the bride had switched the location in the ceremony where the vocal solo was to be sung.

She hadn’t told the musicians about the change. I don’t know if this was an oversight or she thought they’d see it in the program.

Regardless, they weren’t prepared for the change.

When the time for the solo came, they just sat there because they didn’t know. Eventually after a long period of awkward silence, probably sensing what had happened, the minister announced that the solo “would now be sung”. Then came the scrambling as the musicians hurried into position.

I’m sure their performance was not what it could (or should) have been.

As disaster stories go, this one is pretty mild (fortunately for all involved!). It certainly could have been much worse. But it was still an unnecessarily awkward situation.

The lesson to be learned

The obvious lesson here is that communication is critical.

The wedding program wasn’t the ideal way for the musicians to find out about the change. But it was a last chance to spot trouble.

I emphasize communication between you, your musicians and your church in my six wedding music planning steps that you’ll find in my Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music. It’s all geared toward making sure your ceremony turns out perfect.

Tips to avoid wedding music trouble

Here are three tips that would have prevented all this:

1. Set a deadline for yourself to declare your ceremony music details “final”. When you get to this point, inform the musicians of your final plans and tell them it’s final. If you absolutely must make changes after this point, check with your musicians first.

2. Pick someone on your wedding day to provide actual, final wedding programs to the musicians. Do this even if you don’t list the music and even if using the church’s musicians.

One of my experiences: Before the ceremony, I hadn’t been given a program, but I wanted one so that I could review it for any unexpected surprises. The guests were already arriving but I couldn’t find one anyone who knew where they were. We finally found someone who knew that the bride’s parents had them locked in their car.

After tracking them down with just five minutes before I needed to start playing music, I finally got my program!

3. Send draft copies of the program to your musicians well in advance for their feedback. In addition to bringing issues to light quickly, it can help spot both big and small mistakes.

Do you have more tips?

What do you think? What communication problems have you seen (or seen narrowly averted) in your wedding ceremony planning? What other tips do you have to share?

By the way, are we connected on Twitter or Facebook yet?

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

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• weddings gone wrong stories
• lesson gone wrong
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• wedding gone wrong stories
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©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

I’d love to get some feedback from you, my readers.

The question for you is: Are you picking your wedding ceremony music or are you asking your musician(s) to do it?

I know the answer could be somewhere in the middle. Maybe you’re picking a key piece or two, such as your processionals and letting the musician pick the rest.

If you’re letting the musician is picking music, are you listening to the choices to make sure they agree with you or trusting their judgment?

Please leave a comment below and share your approach with all of us. I’m curious to see what you’re up to and how this site is helping couples plan their wedding ceremony music. Thanks!

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

If I’ve learned anything from running this site it’s this: You guys want music ideas.

This is exactly what I expected when I started out. I saw how few ideas were available in wedding guides and other wedding sites and knew you needed better help than they were giving.

I try to offer a lot of ideas in the many articles on this site. I made sure there were more—lots more—in the Guide to Selecting Memorable Church Wedding Music. You’ll get over 200. For all parts of the ceremony.

And even better yet, there’s no risk for you. I offer a 90 day money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied (I’m very confident it will help you).

If you find the perfect music listed there, not only do you have nothing to lose, but you have so much to gain!

So check it out. There’s no reason not to. In addition to all the ideas you get a thorough planning guide which simplifies your work and our highly-appreciated (based on feedback) church wedding music checklist.

Check it out by click on the banner above or the book image to the left.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

I want to make sure my articles are just what you need.

If you’re getting married this year, your wedding plans are well under way. Your ceremony music plans should be coming together (for Spring weddings) or maybe just getting started (for Summer or even Autumn weddings).

Which do you need more of:

wedding music ideas

or

time to make your wedding music ideas reality?

I can focus on pieces of music, instruments, sample wedding ceremonies, etc. if people are struggling for music ideas.

But if it’s the latter, I can focus on time-saving tips, effective planning, etc. (not that I’d ever stop giving music ideas, I’ve got lots!).

Let me know! Leave a comment or send me an email at dave [at] weddingmusicunveiled [dot] com (the address may look garbled, but it’ll work; it’s just a way to prevent getting tons of spam).

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

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• i have a question for you
• i have a question for you song
• music i have a question

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.

I hear grumbling about overused wedding music, often from musicians, having to play the same pieces wedding after wedding, as if it were the bride’s (or couple’s) fault. I’m not convinced this is the case.

It’s true that wedding planning guides don’t include much variety. But how much encouragement and support for using distinctive music do musicians provide?

I know some musicians who do strive to help couples find the perfect music. But there are others who seem content to recommend the same pieces already heard over and over again.

I thought about this after my recent article on how couples can better prepare for meetings with their musicians. Maybe the musicians can also better prepare for meeting with their couples! Keep reading for some tips on making your discussions more effective.

What is it couples want for their weddings?

Couples are looking for help when they come to you to discuss their wedding music.

True, some will ask for the “same old” wedding favorites. If that’s all they know about, can they be blamed? For some couples, these familiar choices may be exactly what’s right for them and this is perfectly fine. But for many couples, these may be the only music choices they know about and it’s up to you to help them see that they have other choices (as I try to do with Wedding Music Unveiled).

Regardless, what they want is a ceremony with music that is special, personal and memorable. And they’re coming to you for help in achieving this.

You have a choice

Do you just give them what they ask for or work with them to figure out what they really want, to learn about their tastes, and to help them explore the vast amounts of great classical and sacred music options they truly have (but don’t know about)?

The second option takes more of your time. It is certainly easier to play the same favorites wedding after wedding after wedding.

The choice is yours: but you’re doing both them and yourself a disservice if you don’t help them. They’re turning to you, the expert, for help after all!

There’s not much room for complaining about overused music if the couples aren’t given the chance because you didn’t speak up.

Some tips for more effective wedding discussions

Here are some tips to help you provide a greater level of service to couples. Some may require a little work. Some will save you time:

• Work to expand your wedding music repertoire. Learn new music or just think about pieces you already know that might make good wedding music. Articles here can help you as can our church wedding music guide.

• Save time by making a performance binder of all your wedding music repertoire. When a couple comes to you, instead of pulling out dozens of books, just pull out this binder with photocopies you can quickly play from.
  • Save even more time with color-coded tabs, sections in the binder (or separate binders for a large repertoire) for prelude/pre-service music, processionals, recessionals, and even vocal music.
  • You can organize pieces by music genre or whatever works best for you.
• Find recordings of pieces in your repertoire—such as in the iTunes Music Store (as we often do on this site)—and provide couples an electronic document with links when they schedule a meeting with you. Ask them to come prepared with their initial likes and dislikes as a starting point for your discussions.

• Organize your usual wedding music planning discussion topics by bullet points.
  • Save even more time by expanding this into a written document couples can read in advance.
  • Possible topics can include what church wedding music means, your church’s policies, etc.
  • Consider directing couples to our church wedding music guide and you won’t need to write anything!
• Give couples a checklist to work from. Again, Wedding Music Unveiled can help you out. Our checklist which comes with our our guide, is a valuable tool.

More ideas?

Please share ideas you have for helping couples more effectively (or more efficiently!). I’d love to hear your thoughts.

© 2010, Wedding Music Unveiled. All rights reserved.

Search terms that found this article:

• overused wedding songs
• overused wedding reception songs
• overusesed wedding songs

©2012 Wedding Music Unveiled. All Rights Reserved.