WEDDING HYMNS?? HELP!

[izzybiz]

Im getting married in 5 weeks, and need a nice Hymn for the service, we arent regular church goers, and so the only Hymns Dp and I can remember are the ones we sang at school, any ideas??

Also we need to choose a nice love song to have playing in the background as we sign the register, I cant think, my brain is too full at the moment! Nothing tooo cheesey though!

Can you get the choir to sing Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring during the register? It's a nosh. Truly heavenly. Nice to go for the most popular hymns as if your guests don't go to church and aren't old enough to have sung hymns in school they won't be raising the roof if they don't know them! You could try Bread of Heaven or I Vow to Thee My Country or Stand Up Stand Up for Jesus (words now I think are When Things Began To Happen).

Make me a channel of your peace is lovely and you will know it when you hear it

I had Eva Cassidy's 'Fields of Gold' when I signed the register

Are you having a choir? If so, obvious things are things like Jesu Joy, Panis Angelicus, any Ave Maria. We had Faire is the Heaven (Harris) and Coelos Ascendit (Stanford) as anthems, and Greater Love (Ireland) as a sort of gradual anthem. Or you could ask your organist to play their choice of music - or any requests. Nimrod is lovely, or Apres un Reve, or any of the Gymnopedies (none of them organ pieces, but they all work well, and happen to be in a lot of the wedding albums).

What are you having in and out? If you haven't decided, coming in, traditional is Bridal March (Wagner) - here comes the bride - but other ideas are any of the trumpet voluntary type pieces, Pachelbel canon, we had Nun Danket by Karg Elert, going out, trad is Wedding March by Mendelssohn, also good is Widor Toccata, Vierne 1st Symphonie Final, we had Widor VI Symphonie (Final).

oooo slubbon you have good taste - we also had Praise my Soul (with the last verse played in rather rousing fashion by our fantastic organist) and Guide me too , also had "thine be the glory"

We are going for the traditional bridal march coming in, and wedding march out.

Am going to try and find an instrumental version of "first time ever i saw your face"
for the register signing.

I did like a hymn that we sang in church last sunday, but i cant remember now what its called!

We cant have "All things bright and beautiful" as we sang that at my nieces funeral
But I do want something lighter iyswim.

All these replies are fab, I will go through them all properly tommorrow. Will post what we come up with, Thanks.

izzy - can you remember any of the words from the hymn you sang last Sunday?

Now now Kermit - I have had a soft spot for that Widor ever since I played it to my friend and she cried, when we first met, and then 6 years later played it at her wedding.

Anyway we had a different Widor, played by possibly one of the greatest organists in the WORLD!

oh yes tortoise - who was your organist then??? (nosy)

Well that would be telling....

of course it bl**dy would - that's why I'm asking

I know!

Not naming names, but he is an amazing amazing organist, and a good friend, and we were SO lucky he was available and willing to play for us!

Izzy - let us know what you decide on!

teuch - how the devil are you? Haven't seen you on here for years! Pleeeeaaaaase pop over to the Feb 06 post natal club and say hello and give us an update .

oooooo I'm going to throw a big tantrum now......don't I even get a teeny weeny little clue????

nope!

bah-humbug [sticks tongue out emoticon]

"Guide me O thou great redeemer" (bread of heaven) is a great one and everyone knows it.

Same goes for "Jersusalem"

I love "Great is thy faithfulness" which I think is really appropriate for weddings.

My little brother is getting married tomorrow and they are having 2 xmas carols along with Jeruslam!!! lovely!!!

I had Jerusalem, Lord of all hopefulness and Thine be the glory.

Processional was Canon in D Major by Pachelbel and recessional was Trumpet tune and air by Purcell.

During the signing of the register a dear friend sang Ave Maria by Schubert.

Definitely best to stick to the classics for a wedding with a lot of not-regular-churchgoers. SOme years ago I went to a Christening (OK I swallowed my principles a bit there) and the vicar had insisted on 3 hymns that no fecker knew. Mild amusing diversion was provided by all the muso guests being so rubbish at sight-reading, but it was a bit, erm, Not Good.

I had 'Guide me Oh thou Great redeemer' to the tune Cwm Rhondda first (since we were there at the time And boy did we give it some welly, with full harmonies by my family, and dh's family looking rather stunned

And 'Praise my Soul the kind of Heaven' after the wedding.

Sing something that people know and can actually sing

and actually we did sing Jehova

Hello everyone!

Just thought id let you know what we decided on,
Very traditional bridal march in, the Hymn we chose is Love divine(all loves excelling)
For the signing of the register we are having Canon in D minor playing softly in the background, then Wedding march out!

Only 2 weeks to go!

Good luck to Kitty for Saturday, hope it all goes perfectly for you.xxxx