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!

I walked down the aisle to One Day Like This by Elbow and back down again with new DH to the theme from Jurassic Park
We chose primary school hymns to try and get people singing along.

Our organist won't do widor's toccata - her legs are too short she says :D

I used to sing in a church choir and have been to probably over 50 weddings.
Standard are:
Guide me o thou great redeemer
Make me a channel of your peace
Praise my soul the king of heaven
Tell out my soul
Love divine all loves excelling
Shine Jesus shine (retch)
He's got the whole world in his hands (ok this only happened once but it was so awful)

I think a lot of people haven't sung hymns since they were at school, so they either pick a couple from a list online, or do the kiddy ones they remember.

Same with readings, that bloody corinthians one, footsteps in the sand, and the velveteen rabbit...

We had a few original ones though, one where the bride entered to the theme from inspector morse, and another where the best man was a dog...

bugger glad to see I'm not the only one who arrived to the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba but ours wasn't a church wedding so no hymns allowed (I would have annoyed Balloons vicar and gone for Jerusalem - which has always been sung at weddings in my family).

I went to a great Welsh-English wedding. They had Jerusalem and Bread of Heaven, with the vicar actively whipping up competition for the most rousing rendition. The rafters were well and truly raised

Grumble I was another Queen of Sheba

We had :
Alleluia Sing to Jesus
Dear Lord & Father of Mankind
Lord of all Hopefulness

Signed the register to Handel's Largo from Xerxes.

I read somewhere that "Always look on the bright side of life" is increasingly popular at funerals.

When we went to talk to the organist about our wedding music, he was suggesting Crimond (yuck), and hymns that I had sung so many times at weddings that I loathed them. He was somewhat surprised to be be given the hymns and page numbers from Ancient and Modern! Once I'd explained I'd spent most of my teenage Saturdays singing at weddings, he understood.

I had the Hornpipe from Handel's Water music to come into to, the Widor Toccata to come out to, and we had Love Divine to Blaenwern (the long tune), Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, and I think, O Perfect Love. As it was a full dress Naval wedding, swords and all, I wanted Eternal father, but got vetoed. We had Lead Me Lord during the signing of the Register. Full peal of bells when we came out as well.

I do wish I'd had Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, but the aisle wasn't that long. I made everyone stop at the back when we left so I could listen to the Widor in full.

I understand that Widors Toccata is tricky to play but we had a family friend who was a fantastic cathedral organist and all our music sounded amazing at her hands (and feet).

We signed the register to a bootleg recording of Bob Dylan's 'Every Grain of Sand'. It was absolutely magical.

I think it's because the congregation are expected to put some effort into singing enthusiastically. If you pick niche hymns that no-one knows then you just get a load of embarrassed semi-silent mumbling.

If you pick something ubiquitous that any fool can remember from school assemblies you've got a better chance getting a rousing rendition out of them.

I walked up the aisle to Elvis singing The Hawaiian Wedding Song. We were lucky to have a priest with a sense of humour and who allowed us to choose what we wanted.

I walked down the aisle to "Romantic Flight" from How To Train Your Dragon

Had Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings and a string quartet version of Hey Soul Sister while signing the register.

Walked out to the upbeat, folksy version of How Long Will I Love You from About Time.

Oh and our first dance was I Would Walk 500 Miles, the Sunshine on Leith version

I couldn't have coped with the restrictive music in a church wedding.

Gah old woman brain - in my defence it was many years ago we had guide me now (bread of heaven) and all creatures of our God and king (alleloooyaar)

We had hark the herald and oh come all ye faithful

Love a christmas wedding!

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!)

That would have been amazing.

I got married in an old building (heathens), can't remember what we used as entrance, but exit was 'arrival of the queen of sheba'.

Guest sat down to Air on a G String. Walked down the aisle to Whiter Shade of Pale. Signed the register to Hanz Zimmer. Then back out to 'Happy Together' by the Turtles.

Had a poem about dinosaurs for one of the readings.

Wasn't a church do but we found a place that had a chapel that was no longer religiousy so it looked like a church wedding. Best of both worlds!

We had Lord of the Dance mainly because I love singing it and it's an easy one for others to sing.
We walked out to the theme tune from Star Wars which made people smile.

I wanted "will your anchor hold" but it was vetoed as no one knows it

That's lovely

I thought it had quite good metaphors in the context of a LTR