Choosing Your Ceremony Music

The Right Music for your Wedding Ceremony.

At Winnipeg Wedding Music, we offer a fairly unique service. Along with offering a variety of ensembles in a variety of sizes, we also go the extra mile and learn the songs YOU want for YOUR wedding.

The great thing about us is we can do almost any song for your wedding ceremony. As we use only professional musicians and singers and so we can play almost any song for your special day.

Whether the music is classical, jazz or popular in nature.

We don’t make you responsible for finding or buying the music like others might and we don’t charge extra for the service!

How Many Songs to Have at Your Ceremony?

Many couples come to us with one or 2 songs they want at their wedding, some come with 10 pieces of music and all want to know how many they need.

Here are the potential places in your Wedding Ceremony for music. Ones marked in bold are in every Ceremony.

  • Processional: Where the Bride and party walk down the aisle.
  • Secondary Processional : this is where the bridal party will walk down the aisle before and without the bride
  • Signing: Music played while the bride, groom, officiant and witness sign the certificate.
  • Candle lighting/Sand Pouring: Music played during mid ceremony events
  • Communion
  • Poetry/readings/dedications: Music played while these things are orated (please note that if you want music played while someone is talking you have to specifically ask. Musicians will not play during speaking parts unless directed to.
  • Recessional: Where the Husband and Wife walk back out (with wedding party and family following)
    So you can see you need at least 3 but up to 6 or 7 pieces picked out depending on the structure of your Wedding Ceremony.

How to Pick the Songs for Your Ceremony

The first thing to decide is whether you want vocal or instrumentally based music. If you don’t know, then realize that most of the service is spoken word and 90% of weddings have instrumental music.

Instrumental Music

Picking instrumental (no singing) songs to be played at your wedding can be tricky but not if you follow some simple guidelines.

  • Pick songs that have melodies that are easily recognizable
  • Have music that reflects your feelings more than your tastes in music
  • Pick songs where the title says a lot about how you feel (Stand By Me, At Last, Always and Forever, You’re In My Heart, You Needed Me, etc.)
  • Pick songs that cross multi generational lines
  • Don’t pick songs that are too new
  • Don’t pick songs that are too obscure
  • Don’t pick songs based on the instrumentation. We can play almost anything and you do not have to think if it will work with the group you have chosen
  • Picking a new song with great lyrics but a 4 note melody is a bad choice for instrumental music and might be better suited for a vocal based setting.
  • An older song with a clear melody is the better choice.

Vocal Based Music

With a vocalist singing the words, you no longer have to worry about the familiarity of the melody but there are other other concerns.

  • The songs you pick can’t be ones with male and female singers (duets)
  • An over the top performer might ‘steal the show’ from the bride and groom
  • The songs might need to already be in the singer’s repertoire.
  • If not, they will need a lot of advanced notice to track down the lyrics, music and get an arrangement in their key.
  • usually it is best to pick from a singer’s existing repertoire (less choice but better performance)
  • Singers always need at least one musician unless they use canned background music or else it is no longer special.

If you have any questions about choosing music for your ceremony, feel free to call or write anytime!

Wedding Music Winnipeg
2025 Corydon Ave Suite 202
Winnipeg Manitoba
R3P 0N5
(204)-487-3664
riverheightsmusic@gmail.com