Church Wedding...Music Restrictions...HELP

I think the Psalm depends on the readings that you choose.

Does that mean Pachelbel's Canon can't be considered an option for Processional?

This is what we're doing for the mass:

-Entrance: All the Ends of the Earth

-First Reading: Tobit 8: 4-8

-Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 103

-Second Reading: Colossians 3: 12-17

-Gospel Acclamation verse: God is love; let us love one another as God has loved us.

-Gospel: John 15: 9-12

-Offertory: When Love Is Found

-Communion: One Bread, One Body

ETA: Our priest gave us a booklet to make our selections for the different parts of the mass and marriage ceremony.

I'm in the same boat. My church said no to pop music, but we can use something classical (Mozart, Handel). They actually had a list of pieces as a sampler. If you're using any of the church musicians, connect with them as see if they have any suggestions.

We are going to buck the system and use Come Fly with Me as our recessional (having a brass quintet play it so the church musicians will not be clued in). What are they going to do at that point? The ceremony's done.

They didn't give you a list to choose from?

http://www.saintmarychurchfwb.org/music-for-catholic-weddings

@E&M I'm not sure...they've been very quiet about the whole thing to us and it's so frustrating! I like your selections though that will be beautiful. We aren't having a full ceremony so I'll have to make sure our songs are good ones!

@Audrey We couldn't do any pop music either...even unpopular songs...I promise you my guests don't actually know that Sara Bareilles song and we're not even allowed to play just the instrumentals. I wish I had your guts to have someone else play at the end! I had so many plans

@Cat No they didn't but that list is awesome, thank you!!!

I'm also Catholic and was married in a Catholic church(extremely traditional)

They let me walk down the aisle to Morning has broken by Cat Stevens. Of course I had to have it approved.

"Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring" it's religious and sounds pretty.

My Church allowed Canon in D. I walked down the aisle to Trumpet Voluntary and did Ave Maria for the flowers to Mary. I honestly don't remember anything else -- I told the musicians to pick their favorites for the other songs! But they let me sneak in a non-religious song for the recessional.

We're getting married in a Catholic Church and our music director actually loved when FH asked if we could have the Jurassic Park theme played on the organ as the BP processional. Its a really beautiful song and he was so excited to play it. He did have to get permission from the head Priest but since he's close with my family he approved right away

Would they allow contemporary Christian music? Check out Hillsong, Bethel, Elevation, Passion Band, Chris Tomlin, Kari Jobe. They might have some versions of hymns that have been updated to be a little more modern.

Our Father by Bethel is just the Lord's prayer set to music.

If it's very important for a couple to have pop music for their wedding, why not get married out of the Catholic church? The church is not a venue that you can rent and have it all your way. Music in the Catholic Church for weddings, like weekend masses or funerals, is about and bringing greater honor and glory go God. Asking for non-religious music is just like asking for your favorite poem to be read instead of the Gospel reading. Catholic church musicians are required to follow the guidelines from the Holy See to protect the integrity of the liturgy. (https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_instr_19670305_musicam-sacram_en.html) Couples can decide if it's more important to have what they want how they want for their wedding OR if it's more important to have a Catholic sacramental wedding. You have the choice, of course, but the latter requires respecting the Holy Church.

All true, and thank you for saying this. I am Roman Catholic, and am involved my church choir and music program. The church music/choir director/organist is also my best friend and in 17 days will be my MOH. ( My hubby of 38 years and I are having a convalidation ceremony.) Catholic churches have a carefully and usually extensive, list of appropriate music and hymns so the bride and groom, several weeks before the wedding, probably during their first meeting with the priest/officiant, should have received a list of approved music. Anyone who is a practicing Catholic should know that not just any music is played at liturgies - they are carefully selected and approved, and a proper church music director (ours has been a church organist for 60 years, also a past president of NPM) knows what can and cannot be played and why. BTW Lohengrin traditional processional , (Here Comes The Bride), and Mendelsohn's recessional are typically not permitted. Other appropriate music would include Pachibel's Canon and Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.

The church's music director will have a complete and extensive list of liturgically approved and appropriate music.

Oh, lovely! I am very active in my RC church choir and am a cantor and featured soloist, so I am familiar with all these!

My husband of 38 years and I are having a "convalidation" ceremony during our church's regular 10AM Sunday Mass. The music/choir director/organist is my best friend, and will be my MOH, so we chose the music together. It's also Holy Trinity Sunday so she had to keep to the guidelines for the day, and the readings (which I'm hoping our son, who is Best Man will do at least one) are whatever they are for that Mass. But, I chose "Sing To The Mountains" as the processional (hubby and I will process into the church as is done every Sunday with the priest, the lector, the servers, and whomever else is featured that day - usually a baby being baptized at that Mass, with the parents. This is only the 2nd convalidation done at our church in recent history). The ceremony will be performed after the homily, before the Offertory. (Our grandkids, boy 12, girl 9 will bring the gifts.) Then, my MOH will return to the organ and instead of the usual Offertory hymn for that day, she will sing, at my request, Schubert's Ave Maria, solo. She had to choose the Communion hymn for the liturgy of the day, it's Laudate, Laudate Dominum. (I wanted Moore's Taste and See, but OK). The choir will be there and at my request will sing Joncas" Psalm 118 - This is the Day, which we all love, as the meditation hymn after Communion. The recessional, which I chose, is "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow"

Nicely done! Being an organist, I'm sure that the your organist was grateful that your request was the Ave Maria and not the theme music from the VAMPIRE wedding in the Twilight series! Yes, someone REALLY did ask for this for her Catholic wedding! Or course, I had to veto it and try to educate her as to why this would not work and what would work. Which setting of "Laudate Dominum" did you use? Mozart? Taizé? or?

I realize this is years later, but Cat Steven's "Morning Has Broken" is also a traditional Catholic melody for several other lovely hymns, such as "This Day God Gives Us", and "Baptized in Water", so that's probably why they allowed it. I'm in the church choir and I'm a cantor so I'm familiar with these. In fact, I've sung one or the other of these not just for Mass but also for my DIL's grandma's funeral.

Very well said, thank you! I am a devout Roman Catholic, and I am in the church choir, I'm a cantor and featured soloist. And, I'm having a "convalidation" wedding ceremony at our church's regular 10AM Mass in 12 days. The church organist/music & choir director, who is also my best friend and MOH, and I chose the hymns for that day based upon my requests but also the liturgy for Holy Trinity Sunday. And, in lieu of the usual Presentation hymn, at my Mass, she will sing Schubert's Ave Maria which I specifically requested of her. The Processional will be "Sing To The Mountains"; the Recessional, "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow", and the "meditation" which the choir usually sings after Communion is, also my request but we've done it many times for holidays and observances, is Michael Joncas' Psalm 118 This Is the Day the Lord Has Made. Our music director has been playing in Catholic churches all her adult life (about 60 years!), is a retired Catholic school music teacher, and a trained liturgist when it comes to church music. The pastor is also strict about liturgy. The brides and anyone else planning a liturgy, funerals, etc, must choose from the list of approved music. Period.

Vampire wedding song, really?!!!! My organist, who is also my dearest best friend and my MOH, got a chuckle from what you said!! She's had 60 years of playing in Catholic churches and is a trained liturgist. As you know, churches have an approved list. She sticks to that as does our pastor. And she was thrilled to sing Ave Maria for me - she asked the pastor/officiant if she could sing it in place of the regular Presentation hymn, because it's usually sung during the ceremony, and she as my MOH will be at the altar with me then. When she returns to her bench, the Offertory will begin and she will sing it then. (PS: the regular Presentation hymn for that Sunday is "How Great Thou Art" which is my favorite hymn!) Clearly, so many brides, and other planning liturgies like funeral, are not regular attendees at Mass. The Laudate Dominum we are using, which we have used many times before, is by Christopher Walker, via OCP.