Wedding Wednesday: Ceremony Music

When thinking about ceremony music I immediately knew who I wanted to do it and what I wanted it to to sound like, but it was picking the songs that was tricky.

J and I met Bruce on the very first day that Coffee Buzz was open. He very quickly became one of our most beloved customers and over the past year J and I have built a wonderful friendship with Bruce and his wife Cheryl.

Bruce is an extremely talented musician, I wrote about his band, Glad Rags HERE. Bruce also teaches music lessons, repairs instruments and does recording! I was so excited when Bruce agreed to play the music for our ceremony. We will have him on acoustic guitar which gives me chills just thinking about it! Our church is really small and with the number of guests we are inviting it is going to be packed, so I absolutely LOVE the thought of an acoustic guitar filling the space with music! Plus, having a friend do the music makes it that much more meaningful.

Choosing the music wasn't quite as easy. Part of me is really traditional and wanted the "classic" wedding music and part of me is nontraditional and wanted to walk down the aisle to one of my favorite songs. I spent a lot of time searching the internet and brainstorming songs.

Ever since the movie "Once" came out I have been in love with the song Falling Slowly. Then when (my fave) Kris Allen performed it on American Idol my love for the song turned in to obsession! I knew I wanted this song incorporated in to the ceremony somehow. Initially I wanted to walk down the aisle to it (yes, I love it that much) but I have since decided it's more appropriate as a song during the ceremony. So, as J and I are lighting our unity candle I am going to have Bruce and my beloved friend Robyn sing this wonderful song. I will cry my face off, it's best that I just embrace that now. Here's my boy Kris Allen performing the song (in case you haven't been lucky enough to hear this song before):


As for the processional and recessional, we're going more traditional.

For the processional I want to do "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Bach on acoustic guitar! Which will sound something like this:


When I heard Canon in D on acoustic guitar I got chills and teared up (I still tear up when I listen to it) so I knew this was the song I had to walk down the aisle to. It's classic, it's beautiful and I cannot wait. Here's how it sounds on acoustic (LOVE):


For the recessional I am kind of stuck. I know I want to do the classic "Wedding March" by Mendelssohn but I can't decide if I want Bruce to do it on the acoustic guitar sort of like this:


Or if I want it done on the organ so it's more dramatic, like this:


What do you think?!