Musical Madness

ACK!

Picking ceremony music is apparently more difficult that it sounds. FI and I actually just spent FOUR HOURS listening to classical pieces to use, though I suppose that was mostly my fault. I refuse to use Canon in D (it's kind of like that "love is patient" quote - if I hear it at one more wedding....) or Wagner's Wedding March (would really rather not having a Nazi-supporter's music playing at my wedding), so out went two of the most popular (if not THE most popular) pieces for ceremonies.

The best resource we found was actually a website for a string quartet called After Five String Quartet. Their website is FABULOUS. It lists their repetoire (which is HUGE) and includes mp3 files to each of the songs, all set up in a nifty little online spreadsheet that lets you know what part of your ceremony each song would be appropriate for, and how many times each song has been requested by brides and grooms for each part of the ceremony. It really is great.

So between the After Five page and iTunes, FI and I were finally able to decide on an order of music for the ceremony:


Prelude
Corelli - Pastorale

Seating Family
Handel - Air (from Water Music Suite in F)

Party Processional
Bach - Air (from Suite No. 3)

Bride Chorus
Bach - Ave Maria

Recessional
Vivaldi - Spring (3d Movement)

Now to just make sure our ceremony musicians are comfortable with all of these pieces. ::fingers crossed::