Songs for ceremony

I’m a violinist so I’ve done this many times. Unless you have like 20 people in your wedding party, I do think it’s overkill to have a different song for each group. People do it occasionally but the songs are starting and stopping so much you barely even hear them. It’s much more relaxing and peaceful to have everyone flow with the same song. Your dj/musicians can start at the chorus for you to walk out. It does tend to get awkward when guests are anticipating the bride and nothing is happening. They care much more about seeing you come out than the song. They can fade the music when you get up there. I have played weddings with whole songs and when the bride gets up there she just stands and waits 2-3 minutes for it to finish, but since you’re asking yes it gets awkward and your guests really just care about seeing you and your dress and your ceremony rather than listening to a whole song. I hope this helps a little!

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Hi Peggy! Thank you soooo much for this. This is super helpful! I definitely think having a song for each group will be a little too much. I think I'll do an instrumental song maybe up until the flower girl walks out. When the flower girl walks out, the song starts playing, and then I'll just let it play as I walk down the aisle and have the DJ fade it out when I get there? Our aisle is pretty long, so I think a good majority of the song will at least be played between the two of us, it's 4 minutes long. I may have to go to the venue and time how long it will take me to walk down the aisle lol. Thank you!

View Quoted Comment Yes this sounds like a good plan.

We're playing a few songs before the start of the ceremony at the request of my FH- he wanted to hear a few songs "one last time" as he put it lol. From the time the parents are escorted to the last bridesmaid, we'll be playing Canon in D. For my processional, we'll be playing Clair de Lune. If I happen to get to the alar before the end of the song that's fine- our DJ will fade it out.

Do you have a DJ running this music, or is it just a playlist on someone's phone? The reason I ask is because a professional DJ can handle all of that for you. You tell them what you want (like walking to just the chorus of that one song), and he'll set it up that way, and also fading out the song once you reach the aisle. I've already been giving our DJ the instructions on that. I went through the songs myself to look at song length, listen to them to figure out at what point in the song I want it to stop or change. I gave my DJ all that info, and he's putting it together for us.

If you're DIYing the music for the ceremony, then you should ask someone you trust to help with that sort of thing. For the bridal walk, you can have the chorus of the song cued up and ready to play, and that person (whoever you designate) would just need to stop it once you reach the altar. Same can be done for the processional, and other songs. It's really just a matter of organization I think, if you're doing it yourself.