Help with wedding choir music please

[Cantdecidewhich]

We are getting married in June and met the choir last night , we have booked the organist as well. I need to choose four hymns, music to sign the register and blessing music.
The choir is made up of 9 ladies and 3 men and would really appreciate any suggestions that I can consider as the hymns I originally had in mind would be more suited to a more male dominated choir.
Thanks for any input.

What's the standard of the choir? I've sung this at weddings before - it's really beautiful and the meaning is lovely. It's not massively difficult but it is in lots of parts so needs confident singers

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2-LQve92U1o

Ubi caritas et amor deus ibi est - Where charity and love are, there God is.

I should add - I wouldn't worry too much about the balance, the choir will work to even it out and men's voices are normally fairly dominant in a choir situation.

Other suggestions -

Be still for the presence of the lord
Give me joy in my heart
Tell out my soul
Abide with me
Be thou my vision
Make me a channel of your peace
Shine Jesus shine

@StrawberryPi they are very good I am sure they could master anything that we ask of them, thanks for the reply I will listen to it.

Do you know what voice parts they have - in particular do you have both tenor and bass lines? The choir will probably have a list of repertoire they've done before so that's a good place to start. Lots of pieces are available in different arrangements so do think of pieces you love and ask if they can find something that fits them.

As the deer pants

As the deer pants for the water
So my soul longs after you
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship you

You alone are my strength, my shield
To you alone my my spirit yield
You alone are my hearts desire
And I long to worship you

I think anyway, it's been a while since I've sung it. I love it at weddings and it has a beautiful tune. I personally think it's best when arranged with a single soprano voice over the top of the main choir. That does need a serious voice though!

Ubi Caritas is lovely - there's also this, which is based on the same music, but slightly different harmonies:

Also love Elgar's Ave Maria

And Faure Cantique de Jean Racine is beautiful (and a little bit longer):

Id ask them whats in their repertoire. Also, will you have a congregation joining in the hymns? Will they know them?

I agree about 'Be Still for the Presence of the Lord', a wonderful hymn suitable for the choir and the congregation.

@UnaOfStormhold they were practising last night and I definitely heard the choir master say tenor, alto, bass and soprano. They are going to email some suggestions but I am just trying to find something I absolutely love. Thanks for the reply.
We do like quite rousing, uplifting music if that helps :)
@herja definitely got a strong soprano, I will listen to your suggestion thanks.

The standard of the choir matters a lot - I want Cantique de Jean Racine but they need to be good! Greater Love by Ireland is lovely too if they have sufficient singers (think you need more). The lord bless you and keep you is easy, perhaps combines with Irish blessing both by Rutter.

As for hymns, pick well known ones, increases chances of people singing - 3 hymns is normal, I organise church weddings and funerals!

@StrawberryPi

Guess you are from a different tradition, our choir do traditional!

You'd need a few for Greater Love (it is good, though!) For my friend's blessing, we sang this, one or two to a part:
soundcloud.com/hutchingsmusic/song-of-solomon
It's unusual, but worked really well.

@MmeSzyszkoBohusz Faure Cantique de Jean Racine is very lovely I will consider that but still open to ideas. Thanks for the suggestion.

@Katisha we have invited 130 guests so hopefully some will join in :)

Not the hymn, rather the one from Five Mystical Songs, Antiphon aka Let All The World in every corner sing by Vaughan Williams. V uplifting, a wonderful anthem. His anthem O Clap Your Hands is also stirring.

@okiedokieme that second batch of suggestions were hymns rather than choral suggestions - ones the congregation would likely know you and join in

I'd go for three rather than four hymns if your congregation are not regular churchgoers - people get a bit embarrassed about trying to sing if they're not used to it.
And for the signing of the register, ask the choirmaster what the choir feels they are good at and maybe listen through to those. I sing in a church choir and quite often we get asked for things that aren't right for us (in our case we can't do pop stuff well) and rehearsal time is quite constrained what with preparing music for the normal services..
They are pretty likely to know what works well for weddings and hopefully they already know something that you'd like.

@Katisha good point I will cut it down to 3 hymns. I don't think our choir will do modern stuff either they are all quite old. I have asked for their suggestions but would still like to have a few ideas myself. Thanks for your reply :)

What about “there is love”? If you google it it’s sometimes called the wedding song.

The Faure is fairly easy and any reasonable choir should be able to sing it. The Ireland Greater Love is beautiful but a more difficult sing. Like as the Hart by Herbert Howells is also absolutely lovely. It’s the book of Common Prayer wording of psalm 42 - a PP wrote the modern words above.