Results tagged “wedding music choir hymns” from The Sunday Mail - Jayne's Jaunts

Hey folks

I'm just back from experiencing the best day of my life, getting married to my lovely man. I'm not too sure if he would like his name on here, so I will from now on refer to him as whiskey (his favourite drink, geddit?)

For me, the strangest feeling on my wedding day that I didn't really expect was that of being overwhelmed. Yeah I knew that I would be nervous, but I didn't bargain on feeling overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and kindness. There were so much more people at my wedding and reception than what I expected, and they were all so happy for me, most of the time I felt like I was going to cry.

But anyhoo, back to the reason of my post. I wanted to give some hints and tips to future brides regarding music at their wedding. I will just list the things that I did for our ceremony and give some reasons why I chose it. Music is a big part of my life as whiskey and I enjoy it a lot, but for other brides they may like music but may not really know what to go for on their special day.

Processional: Sanctus, movement for a Requiem Composer: Maurice Durufle

I think this raised a few eyebrows amoungst my choir mates when I announced that I would like them to sing this, as a Requiem is a piece which is usually reserved for funerals. However, this movement didn't mention death in it and the music is particularly beautiful and set a great tone for the beginning of the ceremony. I'm going to geek out a wee bit and roughly translate the latin:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Hosanna in excelsis

which means:

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Hymn: 'Praise my soul, the King of Heaven'

A great hymn for weddings as it is very melodic. It is particularly good if you have a lot of people coming to your wedding that may not know many hymns. Chances are they would have heard the tune to this hymn before; if they haven't, they will find it easy to pick it up and sing along.

Hymn: Let us build a house where love can dwell

This is a lesser known hymn. It is from a non-denominational Christian hymnbook called 'Common Ground' and it is quite a modern hymn. I absolutely love this hymn, it is definately one of my favourites. Perhaps I was taking a bit a of a risk with this one as most people won't know it, but I just couldn't help myself, the words are just so beautiful, and very appropriate for a wedding:

Let us build a house where love can dwell
And all can safely live,
A place where saints and children tell
How hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions;
Rock of faith and vault of grace;
Here the love of all shall end divisions:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
All are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where all are named,
Their songs and visions heard
And loved and treasured, taught and claimed
As words within the word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter,
Prayers of faith and songs of grace;
Let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
All are welcome, all are welcome,
All are welcome in this place.

All I can say is, that I got to the third verse and I started to cry :-)

Recessional: Lift your heads, o ye gates, movement from The Messiah Composer: George F. Handel

Another choral favourite of mine. The Messiah is immensely popular piece, any choir worth their salt should be able to sing this without much preparation as they should have it firmly in their repertoire. This was a great one to end with as it is quite upbeat and cheery.

I did quite a bit of research before I chose these pieces of music. I had to consider what would be easy for the choir to learn, what would be easy for our guests to sing, what would set the right tone. I can't emphasise this enough brides-to-be, please get a choir if you can. They don't need to be professional singers, the choir at my wedding was made of enthusiastic amateurs and they were excellent. The sound of the voices at the ceremony was just magical, and a lot of our guests commented on how helpful the choir was to them; they sang the hymns with their strong voices and helped to guide the congregation in their singing.

I am being whisked away for a little honeymoon, but in my next post I will cover what we did at our reception...

Cheers

Jayne