ceremony music

Ceremony Music – Strike a Pleasing Chord

 in Music / Wedding Ceremony / Wedding Rehearsal / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / music professionals / recorded ceremony music / wedding music by

Ceremony music can strike a pleasing chord and enhance your wedding ceremony, if done well. However, it can often be the weak link in ceremony planning and result in a noticeably discordant note in an otherwise beautiful ceremony. If you hire live musicians with experience performing for wedding ceremonies, or if you hire a professional DJ, you can be confident that the music you select will be a lovely accompaniment to your ceremony.

As you’re planning your ceremony you might encounter a cost cutting suggestion of using recorded music played from a personal device. This can be a good suggestion if carefully implemented, but too often leads to disappointing results. With all the technology available at our fingertips today it seems like having a friend or family member run your music from a phone would be a simple and inexpensive option. But a number of pitfalls await this decision.

  1. Having someone run the ceremony music from your phone can result in them not knowing where the music is located, or what order to play the songs in. Worst of all, the device can lock during the ceremony with no way for the person to unlock it for the recessional at the end of the ceremony.
  2. You’ll need to have your device connected to speakers, and not any speaker will do. You need to be able to have the music played loud enough that the wedding party can hear it and know when to enter and leave the ceremony space.
  3. The person running the music needs to know how to fade out a song, cycle it to play again, and switch songs quickly to support a processional with multiple music selections.
  4. If you’re going to rely on any sound system components from your ceremony venue you need to take the music device there in the weeks preceding the ceremony to ensure that the proper cables and speakers are available. This can help avoid a situation where it’s time to begin the ceremony and no music is available.
  5. Finally, you will want to have the person running your music attend your rehearsal so they can practice the processional and recessional in your ceremony space. This will give you a final chance to correct any problems with your music plan.

The best way to ensure that your ceremony music strikes a pleasing cord is to rely on professionals for either live or recorded music. If you make another choice, invest the time and attention to detail to maximize the chances of success.

Create Meaningful Ceremony – Weddings

 in Ceremony / Personalization / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / love story / meaningful ceremony / personal ceremony / personal wedding / personalized vows / wedding guests by

Create meaningful ceremony to celebrate the important moments in your life. Share your love with a personal wedding. Welcome a new child to your family with a sweet naming ceremony. Honor a loved one with a poignant memorial service. Mark a new phase of life with an inspirational celebration. This week’s focus is on how to create a personal, custom wedding ceremony.

Your wedding ceremony needs to reflect you as a couple. Here are five ways to ensure that the ceremony is authentic for you and honors the commitment you are making to each other in marriage.

  1. Before the first word of the ceremony is spoken, set the tone with music. Use your favorite genre or select lyrics that speak to you.
  2. Bring your guests into your ceremony by acknowledging the role they’ve had in your lives to date, and asking for their support for your marriage going forward.
  3. Tell your story. Or more accurately, have your officiant retell vignettes that share how your love story evolved.
  4. Write your own vows. The centerpiece of the ceremony, this is your opportunity to make promises to your love that are meant to last a lifetime.
  5. Choose your wedding party intentionally. Select those people who support you and your relationship. Pay less attention to traditional gender roles and matching numbers, and surround yourselves with love.
Personal Wedding Ceremony with modern wedding party

When you create meaningful ceremony to begin your wedding day celebration you express your love in memorable ways. You also engage your guests to celebrate with you and prepare everyone to move on to the next parts of your important day.

Next time I’ll be talking about how to create meaningful ceremony when you’re welcoming new members to the family. Make sure to check it out in two weeks.

Choosing Readings and Music: Your Wedding Ceremony, Part 2

 in Ceremony / Music / Readings / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / ceremony readings / custom wedding / custom wedding ceremony / personalized wedding / wedding ceremonies / wedding ceremony by

Choosing readings and music that reflect your personalities, values and interests is a great way to start personalizing your wedding ceremony. Last week’s blog got us started with the basics needed to legally marry, but there is so much more you can do with your ceremony. Especially if you are inviting family members and friends to share your wedding day, you’ll want to start the day with a ceremony that reflects who you are as a couple.

Music is a great place to begin. Using music that is significant to you for your entry and exit is fun for you and shares something about you with your guests. I’ve heard “Storybook Love” the theme from “Princess Bride”, “Everything is Awesome” from the Lego Movie, “Marry Me” by Train and “I Like It, I Love It” by Tim McGraw. Each offers an insight into the couple – fanciful, fun, contemporary, and country western. You can include more personal selections to back a unity ritual, as prelude music or postlude music as your guests leave the ceremony space. Of course, if you’re going for a traditional ceremony feel you might stick with “Canon in D” by Pachelbel, “Trumpet Voluntary” by Jeremiah Clarke, or even “Bridal Chorus” by Richard Wagner – you know, “Here Comes the Bride”.

Another way to reflect your personalities in your ceremony is through the reading or readings you select. Perhaps you have a dog or two that you view as family members. A lighthearted reading about what you can learn about love from your dogs may be a perfect match for you. If you’re avid cyclists, there’s a reading for you, too. And if you shared years of friendship before moving on to a romantic relationship, there are a number of readings to select from. Once you’ve selected your reading(s), consider who will offer them during your ceremony. The person who introduced you, a beloved grandparent, or a mutual friend of yours will provide an additional memorable moment to your day.

As you work with your celebrant to craft your ceremony, carefully choosing readings and music that reflect you provides additional insight into your relationship and shares more of your personality. Letting your guests know more about you is a great way to invite them into your celebration. Watch for next week’s blog about additional ways to personalize your ceremony.

Personalizing Your Wedding Ceremony

 in Ceremony / Music / Readings / Rituals / Unity Rituals / Wedding Vows / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / ceremony readings / personalized wedding / unity ritual / wedding vows / weddings by

Personalizing your wedding ceremony is a favorite catch phrase these days, but what does it really mean? Wedding ceremonies are full of traditions and can feel formulaic – seen one, you’ve seen them all. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Especially if you are planning a ceremony outside of a religious community the options are nearly endless.

Here are some ideas of ways to personalize your wedding ceremony:

  • Choose music that is meaningful to you. Country music, a single violin, guitar or harp, a movie theme or a classic rock’n’roll song can all be perfect if they are perfect for you.
  • Enter the ceremony space in an authentic way. Perhaps you’ll choose to walk in alone, with your parents, with your children, with your partner, or with your extended family. It all works, as long as they are the people you want to surround you at this moment.
  • Select a reading (poetry or prose) that reflects you as a couple or speaks to you in some way. Adding a reading that doesn’t resonate with you in some way is wasting time.
  • Write your own vows. The promises you make to each other on your wedding day are the most important words of the day, so make sure that reflect what is in your heart.
  • Consider unity ritual options beyond a unity candle or sand ceremony. There are a number of rituals with lovely symbolism, so take the time to explore the possibilities. And as with readings, if it doesn’t speak to you, consider passing on a unity ritual altogether.
  • Especially if you are having a smaller number of guests, look for meaningful ways to include them in your ceremony.
  • Include the important people in your life in your ceremony. Yes, it’s all about the two of you, but having significant people participate will make it special and memorable for you.

Personalizing your wedding ceremony isn’t difficult, but it takes some additional time and effort. An experienced, trained wedding celebrant can help you unpack these ideas, offer options and suggestions of her own and write custom elements and rituals to make your ceremony truly unique. Enjoy the process of personalizing your ceremony and treasure the memories for a lifetime.

Music Strikes a Sour Note

 in Ceremony / Music / Weddings  tagged ceremony music / music / wedding / wedding ceremony / wedding music by

Music strikes a sour note in your wedding ceremony when it distracts from the ceremony experience instead of enhancing it. In the best of all worlds, your musical selections start and end on cue, are played at an optimal volume, and reflect you as a couple. Ceremony music can be of any genre, can be offered live or recorded, and can go seriously wrong.

My best advice to you is to hire professionals. Whether that is an experienced DJ playing recorded music or live professional musicians, the advice holds. Music is the most common part of the wedding ceremony to go wrong in my experience, and when it does, everyone cringes. Here are just a few of the experiences I’ve seen during ceremonies:

– In one ceremony, the couple had a friend who was a talented violinist, and they asked him to play for their ceremony. He arrived very close to the ceremony start time, and set up his equipment. Yes, the violinist had electronic tracks recorded that accompanied his live performance. All this could have been wonderful if he had an experienced assistant who managed the electronics while he focused on his violin. Instead, there were long, awkward pauses waiting for him to begin the accompaniment and then a rush while he tried to position his violin and join in. The long pause before the recessional began left the couple standing in front of their guests, ready to leave the ceremony space, but without any music.

– In other cases music strikes a sour note when friends or family are asked to provide the ceremony music from an iPod/iPad or similar device. I’ve seen these devices trying to play music loud enough to be heard beyond the front 2 rows. They forgot to bring speakers. I’ve seen these devices lock between the beginning and end of the ceremony with the person not knowing the password to unlock it. I’ve seen devices that were tested and connected to bluetooth speakers 30 minutes before the ceremony, only to have them time out and refuse to reconnect for the actual ceremony.

– And maybe the worst was the teenager asked to run the ceremony music from a device in the minutes before the ceremony. She didn’t know which songs were for which parts of the ceremony, and we heard snippets of each of them as the wedding party entered and she tried to figure it all out. When the recessional song (“Signed, Sealed,Delivered”) played as the bride entered, I knew it was going to be a memorable ceremony, and not in a good way.

You can prevent the situation where music strikes a sour note during your ceremony by hiring knowledgeable, experienced people. If you have hired a DJ for your reception it is usually a relatively small incremental expense to have them cover your ceremony, too. If you are hiring live musicians, make sure they’ve played for weddings before, and see if one of them can attend your rehearsal to be clear on where your musical selections fit in the ceremony. If you decide to take a chance and have a family member or friend handle your recorded music, make sure you’ve gotten the needed equipment and that they attend rehearsal and actually play the music as you want them to for the ceremony. Music can be a wonderful addition to your ceremony. Make sure you plan appropriately so you avoid the situation where your music strikes a sour note on your wedding day.