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Ceremonial Music

Music helps create feeling. It is a noticeable expression of your personal tastes–influencing the guests’ mood at the ceremony and the reception. Play recorded music or hire an organist and soloist, a harpist, or a string or brass quartet.

Make sure to have musicians and vocalists attend the rehearsal. Be clear when songs should begin and discuss volume in advance. Music should enhance, not dominate. Below are classical and contemporary ideas.

Prelude
Minuet - Boccherini
Sleeping Beauty Waltz - Tchaikovsky
Ave Verum Corpus - Mozart
One Hand, One Heart - West Side Story
All I Ask of You - Phantom of the Opera
Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers

The processional
Canon in D - Pachelbel
Trumpet Voluntary - Clarke
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring - Bach
In My Life - Beatles
Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
Unforgettable - Nat King Cole
Wedding March - Wagner
Trumpet Voluntary - Clarke
Arioso - Bach

Incidental
Ave Maria - Schubert
Clair de Lune - Debussy
The Lord’s Prayer - Malotte
From This Moment - Shania Twain
We’ve Only Just Begun - The Carpenters
Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley

Recessional
Ode to Joy - Beethoven
Wedding March - Mendelssohn
Brandenburg Concerto - Bach
I Got You Babe - Sonny and Cher
My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
How Sweet it Is - James Taylor

Postlude
Le Rejouissance - Handel
Rondeau - Mouret
Whole New World - Alladin’s Theme Song
It Had to be You - Kahn
Someone to Watch Over Me - Gershwin

Definitions
Prelude: Starts as guests are being seated.
Processional: Wedding party and bride enter.
Incidental: Interlude or other transitions during ceremony, such as unity candle.
Recessional: A lively, celebratory piece playing while everyone exits.
Postlude: Entertains as guests ushered out.

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