I’ve been to quite a few weddings and I always look forward to the music in each wedding. The songs a couple chooses not only explains their feelings for one another, but it is a chance for them to show their personality to their audience. But let’s face it, when it comes to sitting down and picking out songs for your own wedding, it can be overwhelming.
A wedding ceremony normally includes:
Prelude songs – The songs played before the actual ceremony starts.
Processional songs – The songs played as special guests are seated and the wedding party walks to.
Bride entrance songs – The song that is played as the bride walks down the aisle.
Interlude songs – The songs played as the unity candle is lit and as any other special tradition is performed.
Recessional songs – The song played as the wedding party and bride and groom leave the ceremony.
Postlude songs – The songs played as the wedding guests exit.
Here are some tips to help you pick out truly unique wedding songs:
1. Determine the style and setting you want present at your wedding.
Do you want an informal wedding, in which more popular musical choices would be acceptable? Or do you want to stick with the large traditional wedding, in which instrumental and classical music would be more properly suited?
If you are using a church as your venue, keep in mind that since it is a place of worship, some churches may not allow secular musical selections. Be sure to check with your wedding planner or a member of the church.
Review your current musical collection and make a list of your favorite songs. Sit down with your fiance and analyze which songs are “your songs” and what each of them means to you.
If you have decided on a traditional ceremony, hire a songwriter or musician to compose a song specifically for you on your special day. Do you know a friend or family member that can play an instrument or can sing like an angel? Ask them if they would be willing to perform a song at your wedding.
2. What do you two have, as a couple, that is unique?
Is it your sense of humor? Do you both have a favorite indie band? Perhaps, a sense of love for a specific genre of movies? Use this to your advantage. Maybe you know of a song that describes a similar situation in which you met, use that.
When my husband and I were dating, we both purchased Green Bay Packers jerseys, later that same day we heard Must Have Done Something Right by Relient K. It instantly became one of our favorite songs because the first line of the song was “We should get jerseys cause we make a good team/But yours would look better than mine, cause you’re outta my league.”
Guys Like Me by Eric Church is another song that describes my husband and our relationship. It made me laugh the first time I heard it because I was astonished at how well it fit “us.”
Some people may discourage using today’s popular songs, in the case, that they may become quickly outdated. I disagree to a point, there are many songs that have gone down in history and changed the world of music as we know it. And then there are the songs that we are ashamed to admit we own the album to.
If you are leaning towards a popular song on the Billboard charts, use caution, and make sure you and your fiance can determine the true meaning behind the song and that it does, indeed, describe your feelings and your relationship. The best songs are the ones you can connect with because it tells your story. Use those songs to show your love for each other in the music at your wedding.
3. What struggles have you overcome as a couple?
Living day to day can be a struggle in itself. But have you have survived a long distance relationship, a job lay off, a pregnancy together? The fact that you two have overcome something and are still as strong as ever is a story to tell, use that to your advantage and choose a song that can tell that story.
My husband is in the Army and was deployed two times before we were married. Our first dance at our wedding was to Far Away by Nickelback. This song has so much meaning to the both of us. It may be cliche in some ways, but it told the story of our loneliness and our love prevailing through the distance of his deployments.
Another song I had chosen for our first dance was, Alone in this Bed (Capeside) by Framing Hanley. This was a song that I listened to on repeat during my husband deployments. It’s a much more tragic song about separation and distance (“I wish I could hear your voice/Don’t leave me alone in this bed. I wish I could touch you once more/Don’t leave me alone in this bed.”)
Our recessional song was Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve. In my opinion, it is one of the best songs ever written, and so true as well. (‘Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life.”)
4. What is that one guilty pleasure song you both can’t help to belt out in the car together?
99 Red (Luft) Balloons by Nena is a song my husband and I will blast throughout the house and sing and dance too. It has nothing to do with falling in love or our relationship as a couple, but we can both let loose and dance our cares away. We connect during this song. Not to mention, it is also in one of our favorite movies, My Best Friend’s Girl.
Also, take into consideration, the couple who made the news by posting their YouTube video of their wedding party dancing down the aisle to Forever by Chris Brown. Not a very common processional song, but their love for each other and their personality shined through with this song.
At my brother-n-law’s wedding, the recessional song was, I’m a Believer by Smashmouth. Their love of the movie Shrek and their uncontrollable desire to sing-a-long with this song resulted in this choice.
Don’t be afraid to venture into genres you wouldn’t think “suitable” for a “formal” occasion. It is YOUR wedding and a day to be cherished and remembered forever. So, have fun with your choices and pick songs that portray who you are as a couple.
5. Here are some song choices to consider:
Our Song by The Spill Canvas
Everything by Lifehouse
Echo by Trapt
Hurts So Good by John Cougar Mellencamp
For You I Will by Teddy Geiger
Dare You to Move by Switchfoot
You by Switchfoot
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
Right Here by Staind
Glitter in the Air by Pink
Wonderwall by Oasis
One of These Days by Michelle Branch
Raining on Sunday by Keith Urban
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? by Jet
You and I Both by Jason Mraz
I Only Wanna Be With You by Hootie and the Blowfish
Follow Through by Gavin Degraw
Moment of Truth by FM Static
Better With You by Five Times August
A Little More Country Than That by Easton Corbin
The Blower’s Daughter by Damien Rice
Linger by The Cranberries
Hero/Heroine by Boys Like Girls
Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys
