To be amazed at the lack of imagination

[Maxandrubyrubyandmax]

Attended my third church wedding in less than a year yesterday. But what amazed me was that the three weddings had EXACTLY the same choice of music! Here comes the bride, all things bright and beautiful, lord of the dance, Jesu joy of mans desiring during the signing of the register and out to Mendelssohn. With everyone so fixated with having the Original wedding these days and so many great hymns and processional pieces of music why oh why are we repeatadly faced with the same pieces of music again and again and if we are going to be stuck with the same pieces can't people pick something a bit more appropriate than Wagners shagging tune and a song miabout nailing someone to a cross and at least occasionally go for Royal Oak for all things bright and beautiful. Even the person who wrote it seemed amazed it was allowed in church! Off to another wedding next week. Won't be holding my breath!

DH and I, and DS and DDIL had "Mine eyes have seen the glory..."

That raised the roof on both occasions, 26 years apart!

MrsDV. Oh happy day to walk back down the aisle to sounds fab (love the fact your dog was included too)

Lambbone - You're not one of those MILs are you? Can you say hand on heart there wasn't a MIL thread on here about you shoe-horning your fave hymn into DIL's ceremony?

Always fun when the couples have the same reading that I read at both of my grandparents funerals too...

1 Corinthians 13

Not as bad as 'love is patient, love is kind' blah blah blah. A nice bible reading. But it's at EVERY SINGLE WEDDING

A lot of people who marry in church are not regular church goers. Even fewer of the congregation at the average wedding will be church goers. The bride and groom choose what they know, based on fairly limited knowledge, and those who are a bit more thoughtful choose hymns they hope the congregation will know.

I went to a wedding a few years ago where I was the only person singing All Things Bright and Beautiful when it came up on the order of service. And no, I hadn't been asked to do a solo!

My disaster of a first marriage has a traditional church wedding and I went went down the aisle to trumpet voluntary (had a brass band) and out to entrance of the Queen of sheba the only hymn I remember us having was love divine.
Oh I LOVES autumn days it's my favourite hymn ever and yes we sang it at school along with when a Knight won his spurs

Everyone has the same readings. Corinthians and Captain Corelli's mandolin? Bingo!

I hate the Here Comes the Bride so I .

It turns out that the first dance song at our reception is now the Most played song at wedding receptions. But no one at my wedding had heard it before (overseas). We were trend setters, ha!!

We didn't have exit music or music during the ceremony. I had no idea those were 'things'.

To the person who said lord of the dance is a dirge, you aren't singing it correctly. It is a bounce along song

It's such a shame the a great part of our musical heritage is being lost (mainly through political correctness in schools) that out of the hundreds of amazing hymns the nation seems to be limited to about 5

Perhaps I am!

We'll find out when they have kids. I should insist on being in the labour room

I went to a wedding where the bride walked down the aisle to Jeff Buckley "Hallelujah". It was quite atmospheric in its way, but the lyrics don't seem at all wedding appropriate!

I agree most people choose those hymns because there's a good chance people will be able to sing along. Basically hymns people know from school are a good bet. I wonder if you could have "Give me oil in my lamp keep me burning"...

Brexit I walked down the aisle to Purcells trumpet tune too. I love it. So what was your trend setting first dance?

So far no one has mentioned ANY of the music or hymns we had at our church wedding 25 years ago! Our recessional is played quite a lot by Classic FM and it always makes DH and I smile 🎶😍

I've had the misfortune to attend several funerals recently. The families were more religious tham most of the mourners and chose hymns that hardly anyone knew or, if the words were familiar, had an unusual arrangement. Hardly anyone was able to join in and the hymns sounded miserable, like dirges.

I was a bit cross at my mum's funeral (for many reasons, this was just one) that, having asked for 'Thine be the glory', we got the horribly clumsily reworded to be 'moderne', 'Yours is the glory'. Gack.
The pointed lecture at all three of her (decidedly atheist) daughters about having more than a 'boy look' (yes, those words exactly)at Christianity was even more offensive. Dick of a minister.

We married in a registry office because heathens, but had we succumbed to his parents wishes and gone church, I would have had as many hymns as I could shoehorned in there. Definitely Jerusalem (for the WI), mine eyes have seen the glory (I just like how should it is), that childish one about jet planes meeting in the air to be refulled (favourite at primary school) and probably bread of heaven because again, shouty.

I'm not really sure any of these are wedding material but who cares?

For the record our entrance music was boring and the same as literally every other registry office ever but my DH liked it, and we had a selection of film music for everything else.

People want what's traditional for their one-off big day. Although I think lord of the dance is an odd choice unless the wedding is around Easter. As PPs have said, you want hymns that people know and churchgoers are in the minority these days so you pick well known ones. A bit like how Carol services always have O come All ye Faithful.

Re funeral music, we chose The Day Thou Gavest Lord Has Ended for my mum's funeral on recommendation from the vicar and it was beautiful.

I used to be in a church choir when I was 9-12 and sang at loads of weddings, sometimes 3 in one day in high season. Having to smile while singing those same hymns over and over was torture!! But loads of people get married in church cos it's a nice building and aren't regular churchgoers, so the only hymns they know are the ones they sang at school or whatever. I'm not slating them, btw - by my 1st wedding I wasn't religious anymore and still got married in a beautiful church

The only weddings I've been in the last 20 years which didn't have exactly the same hymns were in Methodist chapels - so everyone had at least childhood memories of the Wesleyan standards. DSis's wedding music was glorious. I had none at all (married in a music free denomination) and it's the only thing I would have liked from my Methodist upbringing. My choices would have been Sheep Shall Safely Graze for the processional, All Hail the Power of Jesu's Name and Love Divine All Loves Excelling for the hymns, and Mozart's Horn Concerto in D major as the recessional. Given that this would have required an abbey (so there was enough time to get to the horn solo) and enough space for a chamber orchestra it is probably a good thing that I married in a very low key religious ceremony and could not get carried away.

I walked down the aisle to Chanson de Matin by Elgar, and back out to The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. Can't remember what we had while we were signing the register, and no hymns as it was secular. Our first dance was to Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer.

For mum's funeral we sang Jerusalem (and really lifted the rafters; she was a member of two choirs and an operatic society - plenty of singers there!) and left the crematorium to Nearer My God To Thee.