This weekend M and I head to our old university town for what could be our last visit before the wedding, although I hope it won't be. We have a meeting with our Chaplain and then we are spending the evening with an old friend and our DJ choosing the music for the wedding.
In light of the upcoming meeting with our Chaplain we have had to compile the text for a draft order of service. This morning I sent it to A3, who is a graphic designer, to turn it into a fabulous order of service. Although I am not going to reveal the actual choices yet, these are the reasons behind them:
Processional music: This is the music to which my mother and her mother also walked down the aisle. We listened to it last night on a crackly cassette tape recording which is 30 years old and I cried. It is the perfect choice as I did not want something too trumpet-y and fan-fare-ish and I certainly did not want to arrive to a comparison with the Queen of Sheba.
Hymn 1: We wanted to have one hymn from each of our parents' weddings. Turns out that M's parents only had one hymn, which was also the first hymn at my parents' wedding. So, we have chosen that for our first hymn as well.
Hymn 2: Undecided. Probably depends on what the Chaplain has to say and when the hymn comes during the service. Perhaps to be sung as plainsong by a choir?
Hymn 3: A favourite of both of us. It may well sound like a school Assembly or a rugby match but everyone knows it and it will be a rousing chorus to end the service. I'm sure you know to which hymn I refer!
Reading 1: Biblical. To be read by my Godmother.
Reading 2: A passage from a novel. To be read by someone of M's choosing, possibly a godparent or his Father.
Prayers: To be compiled and lead by our Mothers.
Music to be played whilst signing the register: To be played by my dear friend on her cello, possibly accompanied by my godfather on the piano in one piece. (If she allows me, I shall link to her, otherwise she shall remain anonymous for now!) Once we have found out how long we need to allocate to this we can start finalising our choices from her suggestions.
Recessional: Probably Mendelssohn's wedding march. Cliched maybe, but it is a wedding.
Reception: Some of our friends have formed a band and another is the DJ. The DJ shall play our first song and then the band will play 8 or 10 of our favourite songs including some Led Zeppelin, Queen, David Bowie, Nick Drake, Eric Clapton and others. The DJ will then take over and play a combination of our choice of music for the rest of the evening but we shall leave the order to him.
4 comments:
I love your comment about not wanting to be compared to the Queen of Sheba, I had never thought about that and in fact my processional was the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, although I enjoyed the comparison :) And can I guess at the third hymn being Jerusalem... Also my third hymn if that's the case! Looking forward to hearing the details. LB x
LB, sorry! I should have known someone else would have picked that and I would potentially offend... I guess it's just not for me.
Yes, you are right with the 3rd, of course! Glad someone else picked it too.
Oh, Rachael, even though you didn't name anything, I think your selections sound wonderful. How great that y'all chose pieces that are meaningful to both your families!
I'm curious - are you going to use the cassette recording of the song for your processional or do you have musicians lined up? I kind of think the cassette recording could be really cool, but that's just me.
No, the organist will play the processional. As we are marrying in the university chapel we have the university's director of music as our organist, so no need for the cassette recording.
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