A Bride's Guide to Wedding Ceremony Music
Excerpt from: "A Bride's Guide to Wedding Music" ..... FREE guide only available here
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The wedding ceremony is probably the most important part of your Wedding day. Depending on whether you have a religious, a civil or an alternative service such as humanist, you'll need some form of music to make it the 'occasion' it deserves to be. As well as the many types of service you can have, there are also many different types of music you can choose to enhance the ceremony.
A Guide to Choosing Wedding Ceremony Music for Your Scottish Wedding
There are certain parts common to all ceremonies:
- wedding prelude: when guests arrive, groom, best man, etc and wait for your arrival
- wedding processional: walk up the aisle
- service: the marriage bit
- signing of the register: the formalities
- recessional: bride and groom leave the ceremony, the guests follow
There may be slightly more or less to this list depending on the type of service you choose but these are the main elements concerning music. What music you have during the Ceremony is completely up to you. The following is just to show you some of the choices people make.
Pre Ceremony:
You will want to make your guests feel comfortable when they arrive at the ceremony and also to set the mood. So having music begin 15 to 20 minutes before the official beginning time will give people a clear message that they should take their places and that all is well. The musicians will be ready to play background music until you arrive (early or late)!
Suitable Music:
- Piper (playing outside)
- String Quartet or other small classical ensemble
- A Harpist - Classical or Celtic
- Guitarist - Classical or Celtic
- Solo singer and perhaps an accompanist.
Processional:
Your musicians will need to get a clear idea, often from the minister or celebrant, that You the Bride are ready. They will break into the tune or song that you've chosen to make your entrance and carefully watch your progress so they can bring it to a graceful stop when the celebrant is ready to speak.
Suitable music to lead you up the aisle:
- Highland Piper
- Classical Ensemble or String Quartet
- A Harpist or Classcial Guitarist
- A Singer
- A 4 to 6 piece choir.
Service:
This might include several hymns including a Communion hymn in a Church or nothing at all in a civil ceremony. For this the classical ensemble, guitarist and singers fit very well as can the harp but it's worth remembering that the Celtic harp is limited in the notes it can play so some songs and hymns are not suitable for it.
Suitable Music:
- An organist is traditional for the service particularly if you're having hymns but you can easily replace this with a pianist who can bring along a keyboard.
- For more contemporary songs a guitarist might be best but again a pianist could cover this section.
- A harpist can add subtle and quiet music to the background
Signing the Register:
This is often longer than you might expect as official and unofficial photographers tend to keep you with pen poised until they're quite happy. The best music for this segment is often something soothing to keep the mood controlled before the celebrant declares you man and wife.
Suitable Music:
- A harpist would add a magical touch
- As would classical music from a string ensemble
- For a religious ceremony the organist could play more mellow pieces while the register is being signed.
Recessional:
Here is the moment of joy, of triumph, of release so a piece of music to match the mood is essential. This, of course, would be the moment for the piper to lead out the couple, or the quartet to play 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheeba', the guitarist might play flamenco.
Suitable Music:
- Here anything like a harpist
- Classical guitar
- String ensemble
- Or a traditional piper would all be very suitable.
We hope this except from "A Bride's Guide to Wedding Music in Scotland" has been helpful to you in planning your big day. Remember you can download the complete FREE Guide below. Also we're here to offer free advice on choosing the music for your wedding and here as a helping hand from your early days of planning right through to the day it'self. No other music service can offer you that!. And the best thing is that you're dealing with the musicians themselves via our professional booking service and support team.
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Not sure what to choose?
Call us. We'd love to talk with you about your vision for your wedding. We have over 10 years experience in wedding music, plus we're all musicians, so we understand intimately the nature of your day.
Tel: 01631 730 469 or email: info@musenexus.co.uk
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