Ceremony Music

I had some music playing before the ceremony started.

If you go on YouTube and search for instrumental wedding music, there are tons of beautiful options! We are having a string quartet play for our ceremony, so I have been scouring YouTube for song ideas. I do agree with your mom on having music play while your guests are arriving and waiting for the ceremony to start. It provides a nice ambience and background noise so people aren’t just sitting awkwardly in silence.

I walked down the aisle to the Canon D. Our bridal party walked down the aisle to a voilin cover of My Heart Will Go On by Taylor Davis which I found on YouTube. I was looking for instrumental songs and when I found it I knew it was perfect because I love the Titanic. I also really loved a piano cover of Perfect by Ed Sheeran for our recessional, but my husband vetoed it because he wanted something with words.

Movie soundtracks are great. You can use anything you like. Music is not required but it does help everyone know when entrances are made.

We played music starting about 30 minutes before the ceremony. I wasn't there so I have no idea how people liked it haha. I think it sets the mood well though and gets everyone in the wedding headspace.

For your processional song, you find almost any song as a string version if you just look it up with "string quartet" after the song name. Our wedding party walked down to "Home" by Vitamin String Quartet and I walked down to "Can you Feel the Love Tonight" by Midnight String Quartet. Both are on Spotify.

We did about 30 minutes of soft prelude music (all played by the organist) while guests were arriving!

Here are some helpful song lists you can browse for inspiration 🎵 :

28 Instrumental Wedding Songs for Every Part of Your Big Day

29 Wedding Prelude Songs to Kickstart Your Ceremony

30 Modern Processional Songs That Cue All The Tears

I'm walking down the aisle to "The Ludlows" from the Legends of the Fall soundtrack, but we'll keep some relaxing Disney piano music on before the ceremony and during the reception

I know you're "supposed to" have prelude music, but you don't really have to. I do think it would be awkward to walk down the aisle in silence. The music starting/getting louder is a major cue that lets people know to sit down and be quiet because the ceremony's about to start. We used Vivaldi's Four Seasons because my cousin recorded herself playing it on the violin for us and it was perfect. Another one I really like is Pachelbel's Canon in D. A lot of the classics come up if you google violin wedding music.

I'm still in the beginning stages of planning everything but I really want to walk down the isle to Christina Perri - A Thousand Years and its the instrumentals (Piano/Cello). I also think having music playing in the background before the ceremony wouldn't be a bad idea