Live Wedding Music: Choosing the Right Music for Your Wedding Ceremony

Live music can add the perfect touch to your wedding ceremony. From the point at which guests assemble, right up to the exit of the newly weds, it creates an atmosphere, evokes emotion and brings a sense of cohesion to proceedings.

Admittedly, as part of Bristol wedding band Moon Loungers (www.themoonloungers.com) I am slightly biased when it comes to this subject. But my views are based on experience drawn from performing at hundreds of wedding ceremonies across the South West of England, in which live music has definitely added something special.

So the big question is: what music should you have at your wedding? Here is a break down of a typical ceremony – along with some suggestions for the music that best suits each stage.

As guests assemble

During this part of the ceremony, music will help to both relax and entertain your guests, as well as the groom (who may well be suffering from a few nerves). It’s popular to have classical pieces performed by harpists, violinists, pianists and string quartets; however, if classical music means little to you, or seems a bit too stuffy and formal, then more modern, popular music can be performed in a suitably restrained and understated way to great effect. It should remain in the background though - you don’t want to divert attention away from the bride and groom.

As an acoustic duo, we recommend delicate ballads such as Here, There and Everywhere (the Beatles) and English Rose (Paul Weller) for this part of the day. However, we’ve been known to perform slowed-down, acoustic versions of more rocky songs such as Sweet Child of Mine (Guns n’ Roses) and Starlight (Muse) based on special requests by the couple. It’s great when you can perform music that really means something to the bride and groom on their big day.

Entrance of the Bride

For church weddings, Wagner’s Bridal Chorus (aka ‘Here Comes the Bride’) is still the popular choice. However, for the civil ceremony there are lots of options. Again, more traditional classical pieces (Pachelbel’s Canon in D being the most popular) can add the perfect touch, but it might mean more to the couple if the bride makes her entrance to a performance of a song from their CD collection.

Popular songs that we’ve performed at this point in the ceremony include The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face (Roberta Flak), Fields of Gold (Sting) and Something (The Beatles). Less obvious requests have been more upbeat numbers such as Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison) and There She Goes (The Las). Our favourite, however, has to be The Blower’s Daughter (Damien Rice), although it has reduced one or two grooms to tears at what is a rather critical moment!

The signing of the register

The same points apply here as they do during the arrival of guests, and obviously it makes sense to keep the musical style consistent throughout. As most of the formalities have been completed, you may wish for the music to take on a slightly lighter tone as you build up to the exit.

Songs such as Your Song (Elton John) and What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong) work well at this stage of the ceremony, but Chasing Cars (Snow Patrol) is undoubtedly the most popular current choice. More obscure selections are welcome though – we recently played The Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell) at the request of one music-loving groom, for example.

The bride and groom's exit

Mendelssohn’s Wedding March remains the traditional choice for churches – but please beware of mediocre organists… For civil ceremonies, an upbeat tune will provide the perfect accompaniment to all the applause and help create a celebratory mood…

Better Together (Jack Johnson) has been the popular choice for the last few years, although it could soon be usurped by Take That’s Greatest Day (which sounds almost custom-written for weddings!). All You Need is Love (The Beatles, once again) is also popular (thanks to the film Love Actually), as is our personal favourite You’re My Best Friend (Queen).