16 Oct Wedding Music Ideas: Ceremony (Pop)

Here’s a quick guide to choosing Classical/Pop music for a wedding ceremony. Please see my next blog for Classical.

When choosing music for a ceremony, you need to choose music for:

• the bride’s entrance
• 3 pieces for whilst you sign the register
• exit of the bride and groom

 

The only limitations are that you are not allowed religious music in a civil ceremony, but registrars vary in how they interpret this. For example, some are happy with ‘Angels’ played on string duo as there are no words, others do not allow any music with religious references. Check with your registrars if you’re not sure.

Except for that, I think it’s best just to go for whatever music means something to you and not worry about tradition or what other people are having. The ceremony is about the two of you, choosing your favourite music will make it personal to you.

Bride’s Entrance

Anything goes!! This can work equally well with a really upbeat piece or something calm and serene. Think about how you want to feel walking into the room. Also, will you have bridesmaids coming in before you? One of the advantages of having live music is that we can tailor the song so it’s the exact length you need.

Here are some of my favourites:

A Thousand Years Christina Perri

Tale As Old As Time from Beauty & The Beast

Perfect Ed Sheeran

Tenerife Sea Ed Sheeran

Just The Way You Are Bruno Mars

Can’t help Falling In Love Elvis Presley

Can You Feel The Love Lion King

Feeling Good Nina Simone

Make You Feel My Love Adele/ Bob Dylan

Beethovens 5 Secrets (Look it up!! it’s on you tube- I arranged it for someone this year and it worked beautifully)

Still Falling For You Ellie Goulding

Signing The Register

There is normally time for 3 pieces or songs at this point. Again, upbeat or slow music works equally well here. Some suggestions:

Chasing Cars Snow Patrol

Songbird Eva Cassidy

All of Me John Legend

Over The Rainbow from ‘Wizard of Oz’

How Would You Feel Ed Sheeran

Kissing You Des’ree

God Only Knows Beach Boys

Have I Told You Lately? Van Morrison

Portugese Love Theme from Love Actually

Bride & Groom’s Exit

At this point, all your guests will stand up and give a huge round of applause for ‘the new Mrs & Mrs……’, so I think something upbeat works really well here. Some ideas:

Marry You Bruno Mars

Viva La Vida Coldpplay

Time of Your Life Greenday

All You Need Is Love Beatles

Greatest Day Take That

I’m Yours Jason Mraz

I Gotta Feeling Black Eyed Peas

Human Killers

Pre- Ceremony

You can also choose music for 30 minutes before the ceremony as the groom waits and guests arrive. With Southdene String Duo & Quartet, we have 30-minute classical sets, or you can select a genre (eg pop) or, if you prefer, you can give us a full play list of pieces from our current repertoire. Each song is roughly 3 minutes, so you can choose up to 10 songs if you wish.

Optional Extras

Sometimes, mother of bride or bridesmaids wish to walk in to their own music, perhaps something that has meaning to a family member not present or a particular favourite piece or song. We’ve also got plenty of groom music if the groom wants to make an entrance, such as ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Superman’ and ‘Darth Vader’s Theme’ (go on, we dare you!!)

Commission Your Own Song Arrangement

If we don’t have your favourite song or piece already, we’re always happy to arrange it especially for you. This costs £30 for Duo and £40 for Quartet and almost anything is possible. Songs with a strong melody line/ bass line tend to work really well. This is a great way to make the ceremony completely personal to you.

Please feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss your ideas, or come and talk to us in person at one of our upcoming wedding fayres.