Wedding Music

A contemporary North American wedding ceremony, most often held in a church, uses music to announce and accompany a specific order of events, starting with the ritual seating of mothers and grandmothers by the ushers, followed by the entrance of the groomsmen and clergy, then the bridesmaids and lastly the bride and possibly the bridegroom self.


All these events are accompanied by their own individual pieces, selected beforehand in conjunction with the musician(s) hired to perform. In lieu of live players, recorded music can be substituted to fulfill these functions.
Typically beginning with 20–30 minutes of prelude music, this generally includes reflective pieces such as Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. Use of string quartets and harps have in modern times increased in popularity, sometimes replacing the customary organ. After the prelude, there is generally special music for the seating of the mothers and grandmothers. A popular selection is the “Canon in D” by Johann Pachelbel. Then the bridal party (bridesmaids) proceeds down the aisle, followed by the bride — often escorted by her father. They arrive at the church altar where the groom, groomsmen and priest are assembled. This bridal march is accompanied by a processional tune.


For over 100 years the most popular processional has been Wagner’s ”Bridal Chorus” from Lohengrin (1850), often called “Here Comes The Bride”. This has been historically played by an organist. Since the televised wedding of Lady Diana to Prince Charles, there has been an upsurge in popularity of Jeremiah Clarke’s “Prince of Denmark’s March” for use as processional music, a piece that was formerly (and incorrectly) attributed to Henry Purcell as “Trumpet Voluntary”.During the service there may be a few hymns, especially in liturgical settings. Optional solos and a short piece for the lighting of the Unity Candle may also occur. At the end of the service, the bride and groom march down the aisle to a lively recessional tune, the most popular tune being Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826). Another popular choice is Widor’s Toccata from Symphony for Organ No. 5 (1880).


The ceremony concludes with an instrumental postlude as the guests depart. In the US, the most common musical instruments used for ceremony music is either a piano/organ or a string quartet, but a harpist, woodwind quintet, or classical guitar is sometimes used.After a photography session, a catered meal and dance ensue, known as a reception. Receptions either offer couple dancing with a live band, or hire a DJ to play popular recorded songs, often chosen by the couple.

A Wedding DJ or an iPod?

I am sure that if you were to ask an honest Wedding DJ if playing music for guests was their more difficult part of their job, they would say “no”. Most DJ’s have all by this time switched from the CD or and record media to a digital format with a laptop. Some DJ’s are actually using a digital mixer set-up with two iPod’s. When you think that their job is essentially pushing buttons and sliding the mixer volume so the guests can hear the music at the appropriate level, you will begin to ask yourself it is necessary to pay those hefty DJ fee’s at your wedding reception.


The resolution to this problem, is to dig a little bit deeper into what a wedding DJ actually does at a wedding reception. Although there is definitely a difference from DJ to DJ in what they will do at a reception, there is a general outline that every DJ should do at a wedding.These tasks would include helping to plan a wedding itinerary, playing to the demographics of the wedding reception, acting as the Master of Ceremonies and making the appropriate announcements and accepting requests for the guests who are on the dance floor.

Let’s talk about the wedding itinerary. Most professional DJ companies will either offer an itinerary planning session that would be a meeting with the bride and groom, to talk about the order of events for the day of the event. Some companies even use an event planning service that is worked within their website that will allow clients to login to a server and make adjustments to the itinerary leading up to the big day. This is essential as the order of events can make or break the wedding more than the DJ. Why? People need to be entertained and using each of the events throughout at a Wedding reception as tools to keep the guests on the dance floor can really prolong the entertainment value to your guests.

An experienced wedding DJ will know that he or she must play to the demographics of the wedding reception. This would mean, playing to who is actually on the dance floor enjoying the music in the form of dance. If there are a lot of older people who like to dance with their significant other, than it would be wise to play a lot of ballroom or ratpack music, or even soul music that can be danced with a partner. Swing music is another good idea. One would want to avoid new music coming on when their is an older crowd enjoying the dance floor. This is something that an iPod play list will surely not do. This is essential to promoting dance floor longevity.

The Master of Ceremonies or MC should be able to ask people to the dance floor when they are through with an event. Doing this not only creates energy in the room, but it allows people to know where to go and when. Nothing is worse than a wedding where there is no microphone personality as it will seem like a four hour keg party, rather than an organized and well constructed event. It is essential that you plan your wedding even if you don’t use a DJ, that you have someone MC your event. Constructing the general flow of the event could be the different in a successful wedding reception and an expensive dinner party.
Lastly, accepting requests is essential to keeping your guests there. A DJ nor and iPod are psychic. People will want to hear particular songs like “The Electric Slide” and going and trying to find one in an iPod could be rather annoying or troublesome for guests. You can come up and ask a DJ to make the request and that way the people on the dance floor get to hear the music they want to hear which will promote the dance floor as a lasting form of entertainment throughout the evening.