Church Music??

Question

I don't like any of the pre-made wedding music, so I am burning a CD to play at the chapel. The ceremony is supposed to start at 10. What time should the music start?? How many songs/how long should it be?? And how long do you think the song for the walk down the aisle needs to be? Thanks so much in advance! =)

It's not a church. It's a chapel. No priest. Just a JP. It's not a 'church' it's a building owned by a college.

Answer 1

It's really a shame that you can't find a pianist to play for you. As a music minister I am not a fan of using CD's for weddings. (no offense!)

I would suggest to have some soft instrumental music play about 15 minutes prior to the ceremony while people are seated.
Prior to the processional there is usually a prelude and during that the mothers/families are seated.
Then you will have the processional, it is up to you if you want 1 song for the bridesmaids and 1 song for you, or 1 song for both.
You can also choose a special song for during the Unity candle or just after the vows, but I wouldn't not suggest this for you because it's hard to cut a CD off if it is running too long and you don't want your guests getting bored. So you may want to just keep it simple.
Finally you will have the processional and everyone walks out to the same music usually.
You definitely need to put someone in charge of the CD's! You may want to have a separate CD for the pre ceremony music and the ceremony music to make it easier.

You may want to go with all instrumentals since it is easy to fade an instrumental out if you need to stop it. (Before the ceremony you could have non instrumentals.)

Here are some sites that may help:

http://www.ourweddingsongs.com/

http://www.myweddingmusic.com/Music/CeremonyMusic.asp?id=song23

Answer 2

You want the music to already be playing as the guests are coming in. Bach on G string is beautiful for this and so is Ave Maria (just the music is gorgeous!). You should start this music a half hour before the ceremony is set to start. I would only do one song on a loop. This will keep it simple and elegant and continuous. I would have the full length of the song for your walk and have someone in charge of just fading it out (by lowering the volume slowly) once you get to the top. Good Luck

Answer 3

Generally the music will start when the mothers, grandmothers, etc. will begin being seated. As far as the song for the walk down the aisle, that would depend on if you were using the same song for everyone to walk down to,or if you will be breaking into the bridal march.
Canon in D is very popular. It is about 4 minutes long I think.

Answer 4

Some Church's do not like non Traditional music you should check with your priest/Pastor