Piano-only recessional song, or original recording??

Tough situation! I'm really big on my song choices and their meaning to me, so if I were in your position I'd just go with playing the recording. On the flip side, having a different/easier song that could be played on piano might make for a nicer "flow", but since it's for the recessional rather than the processional I think it's less important that the medium is all the same, and more important that I'd walk out to the song that I wanted, if that makes sense

For reference, here is our song list! We're getting married in December so we tried to choose music that reflected a "winter leading to spring" or "new life" theme. All prelude music is instrumental. Everything else is sung. Asterisks are next to songs that aren't finalized yet. If you think we should change the last song and have suggestions, post them here (we are Christians getting married in a church, so it does need to be church-appropriate).

Prelude

“Holy, Holy, Holy” – Sufjan Stevens

“North” – Sleeping at Last*

“Holocene” – Bon Iver

“Samson” – Regina Spektor

“Winter Song” – Sara Bareilles + Ingrid Michaelson

Wedding Party Processional

"I Get to Love You" - Ruelle*

Bridal Processional

"Snowfall" - Ingrid Michaelson

Hymn

"Holy Holy Holy" - Heber & Dykes

Couple's Communion

"Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming" - Anonymous

Recessional

"A Thousand Winters Melting" - The Myriad*

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Yeah, for sure! I'm glad someone else sees that this is actually a tough situation for us--I was worried people would be like....."why are you bothering about this" haha.

And yes, I'm leaning toward the recording...however, my FH was not, last time we talked about it. We'll figure it out Thanks for the advice!

OMG I adore Sufjan Stevens! And that Regina Spektor song makes me cry every time I hear it

I'm playing an Explosions in the Sky song for the processional, it's about 5 minutes long and really quiet and pretty...Just playing that as my bridesmaids and then I walk down the aisle. Then when we exit, we're playing a Lemonheads song that should be fun

I would just play through the speakers

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I'm actually IN LOVE with your song selections. I think it depends on what's more important to you, the vibe of the ceremony or this specific song. I think I would opt to play it over the speakers. Since it's the recessional song I don't think it would be a big deal to make it different from the rest of the instrumental selections.

If you really love that song have the original played.

Personally I would just pick a new song. But that's becuase we dont have a song that we want to use THAT much and the change in music style would bug me. But if your desire to use the song means you are willing to change the style, then by all means go for it! Dont let us tell you not to!

I would play the original through the speakers. Honestly, you might not even get to hear it, unless you plan on staying in your ceremony space. I loved our recessional song, but because all out guests were clapping and then we left the space right away for photos, I heard about 2 seconds of our song.

Since it is the recessional, I wouldn't worry as much about playing it through the speakers..... people will be clapping as you walk out, cheering, etc. and will probably pay less attention to that song than others during your ceremony. You and your FH will only hear like 2 lines of it anyway!

I think it would be rude to play recorded music after hiring someone to play. And also if music is such an important part of your relationship, then live is always better.

View Quoted Comment Well, the person who’s playing for us is a close friend of ours, and she’s actually doing it for free as a favor (though we do intend to give her some money as a gift). So it’s a bit different than hiring a professional musician and telling them not to play. We brought up the possibility of using a recording to her and she’s totally chill with it.

Make sure your church doesn't have any restrictions about playing recorded music. The church I got married in only allowed live music. Could you hire a string musician or 2 to play with your pianist during the ceremony? That's what I did because music was also very important to me. I arranged it so that some songs were played solo by either the violinist or cellist and others were played with a full sound by the pianist, violinist, and cellist.