Wedding Ceremony Music Schedule
The wedding ceremony is arguably the most important part of your day. Understandably, this is where people are most tense. It helps to have musicians who have done hundreds of ceremonies and are very comfortable with how the ceremony will unfold. This article will help you understand, from a musical perspective, how the ceremony will happen.
The first part of the ceremony is actually when the guest first arrive at the location. This may be a church, at the reception venue (which doubles as the ceremony venue, too), or even and outdoor setting. It’s nice to create the atmosphere for the ceremony as the guests are arriving. We recommend that the musicians play very light background music that is more on the side of uplifting. The volume should be very low so it’s not overwhelming and people can still chat comfortably to each other. We try not to perform any music with vocals during this arrival stage because we think it is a nice effect to leave those singing for when the bride first arrives.
The ceremony officially begins with the arrival of the bridal party. Usually the groom and groomsmen have already arrived and are waiting patiently down the front. The first song with begin with the entry of the bridesmaids, sometimes flower kids. Some ceremonies will use the same song for both the bridal party and the bride. This is quite common, however, some brides like to have their own specific song as they enter the ceremony. This separates them from the bridal party and can be a clear indicator to the audience that the bride has arrived. The beauty of using live musicians, as opposed to a recording, is that they can tailor the music length for the bridal party and bride as they walk down the aisle. There is no need to worry about the music ending prematurely because the musicians can just loop sections of the song on the fly. This is why live music is a really strong choice for a wedding ceremony.
The next musical stage of the ceremony is the signing of the registry. Depending on how long you would like for this stage of the ceremony, the musicians will play one or two songs. This background music, with singing, is the perfect atmospheric backdrop for the signing and photos that occur during this stage. Once again, the musicians can tailor the music so that there are no awkward pauses or silences. The volume is usually set at a moderate level where the guests can still talk amongst themselves while the signing and music are unfolding.
The final musical section of the ceremony is when the wedding celebrant announces the bride and groom as husband and wife for the first time. The time of this is important and usually the musicians will communicate with the celebrant prior to the ceremony to make sure that the “musical hit” happens at just the right time. Usually the song doesn’t last for very long because the couple don’t take long to walk out of the place of ceremony. Before they know it they are outside and chatting to their guests.
This is a basic outline of how 99% of ceremonies unfold. Some weddings have specific hymns that are placed throughout the ceremony. These are all fairly straight forward. For further questions please contact us at info@bigthanksband.com.
Categorised in: Band, Ceremonies, Uncategorised, Weddings