Wedding Ceremony Music

It's the moment you've been waiting for – you and your bridal party making a grand entrance and walking down the aisle. But what will you choose for your wedding ceremony music? Music has the power to set a mood, evoke emotion, and give a moment cohesiveness. Are you a traditional Wagner's "Here Comes the Bride" and Pachelbel's "Canon in D" type of couple? Or are you more contemporary, looking for a song that captures your spirit like Norah Jones's "Come Away with Me"? Here is a list of both classic and contemporary wedding ceremony music. Many of the songs can be used for processionals and recessionals, and/or serve as prelude music (when your guests are finding seats and waiting for the ceremony to begin) or postlude music (when your guests are exiting, and/or waiting in the receiving line). I recommend that couples go to Amazon and do a quick search for any of these titles. Amazon has an MP3 excerpt for most songs, allowing you to get a sense of the music before you purchase it.

Traditional Wedding Ceremony Music

• "Bridal Chorus from Lohengrin" (Richard Wagner) (also known as "Here Comes the Bride")
  
• "Canon in D" (Johann Pachelbel)
  
• "Guitar Concerto in D Major", Largo, (Antonio Vivaldi)
  
• "Air" (from Water Music Suite), (George Frederic Handel)
  
• "The Prince of Denmark's March" (Trumpet Voluntary in D major) (Jeremiah Clarke)
  
• "Procession of Joy" (Hal Hopson)
  
• "Rigaudon" (Andre Campra)
  
• "Wedding March" (from The Marriage of Figaro), (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
  
• Prelude from "Te Deum" (Marc-Antoine Charpentier)
  
• "Trumpet Tune and Air" (Henry Purcell)
  
• "Trumpet Voluntary" (John Stanley)
  

Other Classical Wedding Ceremony Music

• "Coronation March for Czar Alexander III" (Peter I. Tchaikovsky)
  
• "Overture" (from Royal Fireworks Music), (George Frederic Handel)
  
• "Promenade" (from Pictures at an Exhibition), (Modest Mussorgsky)
  
• "Sinfonia" (from Cantata No. 156), (Johann Sebastian. Bach)
  
• "Cantata No.29" (Johann Sebastian Bach)
  
• "Prelude and Fugue in C" (Johann Sebastian Bach)
  
• "Toccata" (from L'Orfeo), (Claudio Monteverdi)
  
• "Romance from String Quartet" (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
  
• "Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major" ("Elvira Madigan") (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
  
• "Trumpet Tune in A-Major" (David N. Johnson)
  
• "A Midsummer Night's Dream, incidental music, Op. 61 Wedding March" (Felix Mendelssohn)
  
• "Winter," Largo or "Spring" Allegro (from The Four Seasons), (Antonio Vivaldi)
  

Contemporary Songs Appropriate for Wedding Ceremonies

• "At Last" (Etta James)
  
• "Only Time" (Enya)
  
• "Come Away With Me" (Norah Jones)
  
• "Appalachia Waltz" (Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor)
  
• "Unforgettable" (Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole)
  
• "It's Only Time" (Magnetic Fields)
  
• "The Look of Love" (Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach)
  
• "The Vow" (Jeremy Lubbock)
  
• "Come What May" (Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor)
  
• "Storybook Love" from the movie "The Princess Bride" (Willy DeVille)
  
• "Wedding Processional" (from The Sound of Music) (Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein)
  
• "Can't help falling in love" (Elvis Presley)
  
• "What A Wonderful World" (Louis Armstrong)
  
• "When I'm Sixty-Four" (The Beatles)

Choosing music for your reception!

Q: I have a list of all of my favorite songs that I want the DJ to play "in order". How do I make sure this happens?
A: You don't want to. But, if your DJ has no experience or you are hiring a family friend, you might have to. When you hire a Professional DJ, they've been to hundreds of events like yours. And while each event is different, they will adapt to you and your guests all night by playing requests from everyone! Even a DJ with 20 year's experience can't predict which songs will make the crowd dance at every moment throughout the night "in order"! A Professional DJ uses his vast music knowledge and expertise to entertain your guests by constantly reacting to their ever-changing moods. Just like you selected varieties of food that appeal to all of your guests, choose categories of music you prefer and let the DJ do the work for you.

Q: But I'm getting married! Isn't my day be special?
A: It will be! Good DJs keep in constant contact with you all night and there are many special things the DJ will have your guests doing at your reception. But most Brides/Grooms forget that every one of your guests will want at least 5 minutes of conversation with you. As a result, most couples don't even hear half of the songs that are played! It's better to choose between 10-15 songs that you most want played and your Professional DJs will make sure you know when they are. (Why only 10-15? Because 4 hours of music is ONLY 50-55 songs!) Your guests will also stay longer if the DJ is playing their requests and responding to their musical tastes so leaving room for their selections makes good sense.

Q: How can I tell if a DJ will really play the requests my guests ask him for?
A: This is a question you should find the answer to BEFORE you book the DJ! Ask how his music is organized. A versatile DJ that is used to playing requests quickly will color-code and/or number his music in books to help him remember where everything is. Those companies that say they have 5,000 selections at an event but don't have them organized by Song Title with a numbered system have a worthless library. If it's not easy to find, it's going to take a while to play it... if at all. Many lazy DJs "coast" through a reception memorizing only the same, lame 30-40 songs they always play. Make playing requests from your guests mandatory!

Q: Do I give my DJ any other specific songs?
A: Most receptions start with your 1st Dance as husband and wife (a kind of "spotlight dance" with just you two) followed by a Father/Daughter Dance (sometimes Mother/Son Dance at the same time or following) and then a Wedding Party Dance where attendants dance as couples. All three songs are typically slow songs of your choosing. Also, if there are any birthdays, anniversaries or any other special celebrations occurring, it's helpful to let the DJ know these too!

The BEST tip is to simply ask a lot of questions and visit the DJ at an event before you hire them! DJ Companies that constantly perform "above the average" let you do all of these things and welcome your special input! On your Wedding Day, relax, enjoy and let the Professional DJ do the work for you!

It's a nice day for an iPod wedding

As a bride-to-be, Jessica Spence was taking extra care to note the details at a friend's wedding recently.

One thing that stood out to her was an idle-looking DJ who hit a few buttons on his laptop and appeared to take the rest of the night easy.

"I swear to god, the DJ was playing Solitaire throughout the dinner and cocktail hour," Spence noted in an online forum at wedding-planning site TheKnot.com. "It seems sort of silly to pay someone a lot of money to sit at a laptop and put on songs when we can do the exact same thing."

With their confidence in wedding DJs dented, Spence and her fiance are counting on their iPod to provide the musical entertainment at their wedding reception in Minneapolis later this month. They're among a growing number of couples making personal music players a central part of their big day.

Keeping wedding budgets in check is one reason couples are going the digital-DJ route. According to wedding-planning guide Bridal Bargains, professional DJs charge an average of $600 per wedding. A live band can run upwards of $1,000. If a couple has already plunked down $300 or so for an iPod or an iRiver, and spent hours refining their digital-music collection, it's easy to see why a DJ might seem superfluous.

"What could be easier?" said Lori Leibovich, editor of IndieBride.com, a Web site for brides. "You bring it, you program it, it sounds great. It doesn't surprise me at all that more people are doing it."

Do-it-yourself wedding music has emerged as a popular discussion topic on IndieBride's discussion forums, as well as those at TheKnot.com. In another signal that the trend is on the rise, the latest edition of the best-selling book "Bridal Bargains" features a section on "the iPod wedding."

Celebrities are looking into iPods as DJs, too. Rock star Alanis Morissette, who's engaged to actor Ryan Reynolds, has said during recent interviews that she may use an iPod at her wedding next year.

Indulging your inner DJ
Saving money obviously isn't the only motivation. Many couples view their wedding music as an opportunity to express themselves and put a personal stamp on their event. A digital-music player seems to set a more relaxed tone, too, one bride-to-be said.

"I think it will really add to the feel of the night not being so staged," said Emily Mighdoll, who is planning to use an iPod at her wedding next year in Delray Beach, Fla. "There's music, but no one will be telling us what to do the whole night. It's also sort of neat being able to control a piece of how the party goes."

It's also the ultimate way to indulge a bride or groom's inner disc jockey. Grooms, in particular, find that aspect appealing, Mighdoll said.

"My fiance is definitely an audiophile and has tons and tons of music--anything we'd want a DJ to play and more," she said. "He's definitely selecting the playlists." (Mighdoll, however, said she's retaining veto power over the song selection.)

But do-it-yourself wedding music is not as simple as it might sound. For one thing, most couples find that they need to borrow or rent a sound system, including speakers, amplifiers, cables and a microphone. Rental costs can easily exceed $100.

Couples may also want to ask a trusted friend or family member to play MC and manage music transitions from dinner to dancing. Others advise using a laptop to sidestep some of pocket-size players' limitations, such as some iPods' 2- or 3-second pause between songs. Backing up music to a CD in case of a technical malfunction is also not a bad idea.

Music selection can also be tricky, a former radio DJ writes on IndieBride's online forum. "From a DJ's perspective, the music is not for you," she writes. "You are not playing your favorite songs. You are playing songs people want to hear and that people want to dance to."

She recommends sticking to crowd pleasers like "YMCA" by the Village People and "Whip It" by Devo.

Professional DJs say all of this detail is too much for most amateurs to handle. That's why the technology isn't putting any DJs out of business, said Jim Tremayne, editor of DJ Times magazine.

"A good, experienced, professional mobile DJ will offer more than music selection," Tremayne said in an e-mail interview. "That DJ will offer the timing that an iPod can't. He'll do introductions. He'll play the music at the exact time that you want. He'll offer the expertise of someone who's done this hundreds of times."

So If you really want to have an Ipod Wedding, learn how to set it all up HERE

By Alorie Gilbert

Hire the Right DJ for the Right Occasion

Planning an occasion is a lot of hard work. No matter if it is a graduation, a wedding, a bar/bat mitzvah, an awards ceremony, or any other occasion, you spend hours planning what decorations to hang, what food and drinks to serve, what to wear, and who to invite. Do you have a DJ host your occasion, or do you simply play your own CDs? If you want to have an event that everyone will be talking about for days and years later, hire a good DJ to run your music and light show. Hiring a DJ can actually be fun. Just follow these simple tips, and you are sure to have a fabulous DJ suitable for any event.

TIP #1: Ask around. Ask your friends and family members to recommend a DJ who they have either worked with in the past or have listened to at another party or event. The best advertisement is word of mouth and your friends and family members will definitely be able to tell you if a particular DJ is good or not. If your friends or family members can't recommend anyone, you can also call local radio stations or a professional entertainment company or check the yellow pages.

TIP #2: Interview your potential DJs. Get to know them and learn about what they have to offer. Explain what type of music you and your guests want at the party or event. Ask the DJ if he or she has videos or cassette tapes of past performances that you can review. Most professional DJs will have samples. During the interview, study the DJ's personality. Is he or she someone who you would want at your event? Is the DJ interested in your event? How do you feel he or she will interact with your guests? Remember, the DJ's personality is very important. Make sure he or she is really who you want to DJ your special occasion.

TIP #3: Ask the DJ for his or her music specialty. Does the DJ have the style of music that you and your guests want to hear? Will the music be right for your specific occasion? Will he or she take requests? Can he or she provide a variety of music that you think everyone will like?

TIP #4: Ask for references. Any professional DJ will gladly provide them. You will want to carefully check the references before deciding to hire the DJ. After all, you would not want a lunatic hosting your special occasion! TIP #5: Make sure the DJ has all of the equipment that you will need at your gathering such as speakers, lights, microphone, etc.

TIP #6: Get everything in writing. Make sure the DJ knows the exact time, date, and location of the event. Make sure you agree on the fee and have all the DJ's promises in writing. You want to have all of your bases covered in case something does not go well.

TIP #7: Don't wait until the last minute to find a DJ. Start planning early. Many DJs are booked quickly with weddings, graduations, proms, and other parties. Try to book your DJ at least 3 months in advanced.

Consider booking a DJ when you are planning your next get-together. It is important to find the DJ who will best meet your occasion's needs without blowing your budget. Your guests will certainly remember the music from your event since the music will set the mood; so choose your DJ wisely. With a cool DJ that everyone likes, your event will be a hit, and everyone will talking about it for a long time!