One chance. That’s it.
You get only one chance to plan your wedding ceremony. You’ve never done this before. There’s no “practice” round. You have to get it right the first time.
Even more stressful is how foreign the work can seem, not knowing much about classical music or church music planning.
It makes sense to turn to others for advice to help make the ceremony as close to perfect as possible.
There is a lot of advice out there for planning a wedding. There’s even a decent amount of advice for planning wedding ceremony music.
But good advice is hard to find
But there isn’t much out there if you’re getting married in a church. And I’ve noticed that the ceremony music advice that is available isn’t very helpful for church ceremonies.
Many wedding guides seem to want to provide advice for every aspect of your wedding day. While it may be possible to be knowledgeable in many areas of wedding preparation, it seems that the “experts” out there aren’t expert in music. Their music expertise often seems limited to rehashing the same old tired music selections and general advice that doesn’t really help you.
Or they want to help the widest possible audience, forgetting (or not knowing) that advice for one type of wedding doesn’t apply to all. For example, advice for music for an outdoor wedding may not help you plan a church wedding.
Advice to watch out for
So when you’re searching around for advice, watch out for advice that may send you in a wrong direction or really isn’t all that helpful.
Here are two types of advice to stay away from:
- Music advice that doesn’t differentiate between church and “non-church” weddings.
The authors of these tips mean well. Some of their music suggestions might be perfect for some kinds of weddings or could be okay if you are using recorded music (not what you’ll have in a church wedding).
The authors might even have lots of experience with other wedding aspects. But they rarely have much to offer you in planning a typical church wedding ceremony and hide that by not differentiating between the two types. What you need is help targeted to you and you need it from someone with the right experience.
- Music advice that is incomplete, wrong or just not very helpful (even if it seems helpful). This one is hard for you, because you may not be able to recognize it when you see it!
Examples of advice that won’t help you very much
Here are some examples of the types of advice to watch out for.
My comments are in italics.
Example 1:
Lots of selections were listed by this other site, but which ones are appropriate for a church ceremony? And how long would it take you to find them? (hint: I found only 4) Another site I saw had a list like this that went on for 7 pages! There are recordings mixed in here with pieces that can be played live. Can you find them?
(Note that the listings here are not my recommendations and were carried over from the source site exactly as is, misspellings, errors and all).
“Because You Loved Me” Celine Dion
“Best of Intentions” Travis Tritt
“Bless the Broken Road” Rascal Flatts
“Book of Love” Peter Gabrial
“Bourree” Handel
“Butterflyz” Alicia Keys
“Can You Feel The Love Tonight” Elton John
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” UB40
“Canon in D” Pachabel
“Canon in F” The O’Neill Brothers
“Cantique de Jean Racine” Gabriel Faur
“Caribbean Blue” Enya
“Carolan’s Welcome” (Tradition Irish)
“Chapel of Love” Dixie Cups
“Chariot” Gavin Degraw
“Cheeseburger In Paradise” Jimmy Buffet
“Cherish” Madonna
“Come, Come Ye Saints” Jesse White
“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” Morman Tabernacle Choir
“Coronation March” Sir William Walton
“Cry” Mandy Moore
“Don’t Change” Musiq Soulchild
“Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” Areosmith
“Dona Nobis Pacem” J. S. Bach
“Echoes Of Eden” Steven Curtis Chapman
“Endlessly” Brook Benton
“Everything I Do, I Do It For You” Bryan Adams
“Falling Slowly” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
“Feels Like Home” Chantal Kreviazuk
“Find Out Who Your Friends Are” Tracy Lawrence
Example 2:
Ceremony music suggestions: Dvorak’s “From the New World” Symphony, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, Bach’s Prelude & Fugue.
Seems helpful enough, doesn’t it? But it isn’t helpful at all for you planning a church wedding.
Unless you can afford a large orchestra, a church with lots of room and happen to need about 45 minutes of music for your wedding ceremony, Dvorak’s “From the New World” symphony is not for you.
Bach wrote not one, but six Brandenburg Concerti, all wonderful, but none of them short, and all of them requiring a skilled chamber orchestra. He also wrote dozens of preludes and fugues, some of them not so well-suited for a wedding. Which pieces is this author suggesting?
Were you supposed to figure this out on your own?
Example 3:
“The safest wedding music idea for the marriage ceremony is to go the traditional way. If it is at a church, then it is more appropriate to stick to the traditional Wedding March and Here Comes The Bride.”
It’s like this author didn’t even feel like trying!
Example 4:
“Whether you choose piano, organ or a string quartet, arrange for your music to start at least 30 minutes before the ceremony begins so that your guests don’t arrive to silence.”
At least 30 minutes before!?! I’ve never been to a church wedding where even 30 minutes was necessary.
Example 5:
“Perfect choices are Bach’s Air on a G String, Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto No. 8 or Concerto No. 1 (from The Four Seasons, Spring).”
Just like example 2, the Vivaldi concertos will require all sorts of time and large numbers of musicians. Perhaps this was meant for non-church weddings where you might be playing recorded music? The only piece that’s practical to play live is the Bach. Too bad the author didn’t mention any of this. It would have been helpful for you.
You can count on us
Fortunately, you can count on Wedding Music Unveiled to be helpful (both in the planning and helping you overcome your fears so you can get to the planning).
Why? We’re focused. We are concerned with only one aspect of your wedding. We know about church wedding music and that’s all we’ll try to help you with.
What do you think?
Have you seen an example of helpful (or unhelpful) wedding music planning advice? Clue us in and leave a comment!
Wondering what we think of advice you’ve seen somewhere else? Ask!
And don’t forget to sign up for the Wedding Music Unveiled email newsletter if you want to see the rest of the examples. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated!
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