Help on choosing a wedding hymn!

[lilibet]

Any hymn singers out there?

The Minister is coming tonight and we have to have our wedding hymns finalised. We need four and have got three - we need a good opening hymn. Our others are A New Commandment, Be still for the presence of the Lord and we are finishing with Majesty.

This is our shortlist and our reasons against them:-

I, the Lord of Sea and Sky - not sure the words are suitable
Lord for the Years - Dp says it sounds like a cross between Land of Hope and Glory and Onward Christian Soldiers
I am a new Creation - we only have an organ and I think it's more suitable for a group
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind - dp thinks the tune is 'drab' and I'm not sure about the words, but it is a lovely hymn
Tell out my Soul - I love it but dp thinks it's a hard tune to sing if you aren't familiar with it.

Any opinions or any new suggestions? On the whole we prefer more 'modern' hymns but are a bit limited as we only have an orgon and no group, so a lot are ruled on on that count.

Lilibet - we had "Tell out my soul" as an opening hymn and a ploy to lull people into a false sense of security that they would know all the rest of the hymns - which they didn't as they were all modern (including one written by my sister )
Don't think Dear Lord and Father as the next line is "forgive our foolish ways..." maybe not good for a wedding.
So, my vite goes to tell out my soul as the words are great and it's very uplifting which is just waht you need after the nervous walk down the aisle. Good luck

Did people who don't know it find it wasy to sing? What other hymns did you have?

It's not going to be that nerve wracking a walk - there are only 6 rows of pews!

Tommy, that was a bit cruel ! I think it isn't that tricky, tbh, Lilibet.
We didn't let "forgive our foolish ways" put us off having Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, either. As our late, wonderful parish priest remarked, "Well, you have been LIVING TOGETHER I suppose".
We had "Lord of all faithfulness", to the Slane tune, Lilibet. That's modern with lovely words if you are still finding that TUTB hard to please!
Many congratulations, when is the happy day?

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is nice but I know what your dp means by 'drab'

I don't know the others by title, would have to hear them!

I think we had 'Praise my soul the King of heaven', 'Jerusalem' (which I LOVE) and can't remember the other . Jerusalem is my absolute favourite!

Not much help I know!

Actually - just ignore me as just realised mine weren't modern ones. DOH!

bind us together?

Just found my order of service and we had:

Lord of all hopefullness - because it's a hymn I figured ost people know, and I like it

I vow to thee, my country - for same reasons

Love divine, all loves excelling - the words seemed fitting. Knew of it, but not to sing it at the time. But congregation seemed to get by.

I did provide all the words (in the order of service) for everyone.

Love all those Hulababy!

Guide me O thou great Redeemer.

Also like "Praise my soul".

Couldn't have had Jerulseum - had too many memebers of WI there as it was

Also like "Praise my soul".

Couldn't have had Jerulseum - had too many memebers of WI there as it was

Whatever you choose, just make sure the majority of people know it. One of ours was a favourite of mine but lesser known. It sounded very sorry for itself when being sung in the church!

I chose one...All Things Bright and Beautiful, my dh chose one, O God Our Help in Ages Past (Hmm!) and then we agreed on Lead us Heavenly Father, Lead us.
I agree make certain that they are well known tunes.

Lilibet - we always have an animator leading the singing - someone who stands at the front and indicates to the congregation when to sing and when to go up and down with the notes (IYSWIM!) We also had lots of people who were regulars in the parish dotted around the church to sing loud but we did have a choir which helps obviously.
We also had a modern psalm setting (which can't remember off hand but by Christopher Walker), a South African alleluia, my sister's hymn (called "Bless our lives, Lord") and a Taize chant at the end.
I love singing

Ooh! Yes, I have a lot of Taize music, very easy to pick up and great words and tunes....what a good idea if you have access to any do listen.

We also had a choir which helped make the hymns sound better!

Another vote here for 'Tell out my soul'. We had it at our wedding, its got a wondefully uplifting tune and the 'to children's children and for evermore' bit at the end always chokes me up.
As a vic myself, can I plead with you NOT to have 'All things bright and beautiful!!!! 'Love divine' is quite nice, but not a very bouncy tune as an opener unless you have the alternative tune - never know tune names, but the one where you arrnage the words in verses of four lines not eight!. lord for the years is a boring tune though nice words.
Given you've gone for quite modern ones, another you could consider as an opener would be 'bind us together Lord'?
Hope you have a GREAT wedding!

Yet another for Tell out my soul, which my brother had at his wedding - it was a lovely moment. It does go REALLY high for most congregations these days - would your organist be able to transpose it down a couple of tones? Also, do you know of any loud singers who are going to be in the congregation - check they know it and ask them to give it some welly?

how about:

Let there be love shared among us
Let there be love in our eyes,
May now your love sweep this nation,
Cause us O Lord to arise
Give us a fresh understanding,
Filled with your love that is real,
Let there be love shared among us
Let there be love

Let there be peace shared among us?

We had it at our wedding and I think its a lovely gentle hymn.

We went for traditional "everyone will know these" hymns because there's nothing worse than a churchful with only 5 people singing (IMHO!). Lord of All Hopefulness, Praise My Soul the King of Heaven and Lord of the Dance (the hymn, not Michael Flatulence)

we had tell our my soul

what about lord of all hopefulness

the vicar will know good ideas

think tell out my sould has a " missed note" thought htta pweople may miss