Our Ceremony Soundtrack

Now that I've confessed to my one and only princessy bridal moment, it's time to put that into some context for you.  My musical ear is pretty finely tuned, so I was super picky when it came to ceremony music - not just what songs we chose but how those songs would fit together to set the stage for our celebration.  I wanted them to create a mood, to flow from one to the other in a sensible and meaningful way.  I guess you could say that I wanted to create something of a soundtrack for our ceremony that was reflective of both our personalities as well as the significance of the occasion. 

This was another one of those times where not being tied down to any traditional or venue-imposed ceremony music "rules" was both a blessing and a curse.  We had to figure out our own preferences (lyrics vs. instrumental, contemporary vs. classic, edit songs ourselves or play from the beginning) in order to narrow down an incredibly vast world of music.  Mr. FW and I pretty quickly agreed on a few songs we liked, but finding the perfect arrangements took me for-freakin'-ever. In fact I almost abandoned the project on several occasions because I couldn't find a useable copy of something, or the arrangements of two songs were each beautiful but didn't work well together, etc.

But I'm happy to report that after many days spent scouring YouTube, iTunes, Amazon, and our personal music collections we finally agreed on sixty minutes worth of music.  Sheesh!  :-)  Well worth it, though, if you ask me.  So if you were a guest at the Ferris Wheel wedding (wouldn't that be awesome?!), this is what you would hear.

Prelude
For the thirty minutes of music prior to the ceremony, we wanted to accompany the amazing city lights view of our venue with some classic and not-so-classic songs about San Francisco.  For all you Bay Area bees, I'm including links here for all the songs in the order they'll be played.  (If you just want to know the music for the actual ceremony, feel free to skip ahead a bit.)

{Flower Pot Men - Let's Go to San Francisco}

{Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay}

I especially like the line, "Left my home in Georgia headed for the Frisco Bay."  Like me!

{Scott McKenzie - San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)}

{Judy Garland - San Francisco}

{Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart in San Francisco}

Train - Save Me San Francisco

{Journey - When the Lights Go Down in the City}

{Vanessa Carlton - San Francisco}

Seating of the Parents

Our ceremony space is small, so it's not going to take that much time for three parents (or anyone, for that matter) to make their way down the aisle and take their places.  We considered grouping parents in with the wedding party, but ultimately we decided it made more sense for there to be some separation between them.  So we will use the first 90ish seconds of this gorgeous instrumental version of Michael Buble's "Everything" to set the stage for the rest of our ceremony.  

{piano cover of Michael Buble's "Everything" by YouTube user cdnchuchu}

Processional Part One

For the processional we looked for a song that was fun and contemporary but not so upbeat that our wedding party would feel like skipping down the aisle.  Striking the perfect balance between joy and solemnity isn't always easy, especially in under two minutes, but I think this instrumental version of Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" does just that.

{piano cover of Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" by the incredible Sunny Choi}

Processional Part Two

Because of the kinda awkward placement of the *moment* in this song, we decided to have the younger members of our wedding party enter at the beginning, then Mr. FW will enter around the one minute mark, followed lastly by me.  And just because you're dying to hear it again, here it is.

{Theme from Practical Magic}

Recessional

Okay, I just love the song we chose for this.  It's one that Mr. FW would come home singing, saying that it always made him think of me, but I'd never heard it before.  Once I listened to it, I just knew we should use it on our way back up the aisle.  The lyrics of Colbie Caillat's "I Do" are adorable, and it totally reminds me of how much Mr. FW loves me!  We plan to edit/cue it so that it begins 28 seconds into the song.  Just take a listen to how utterly perfect that will be.

{Colbia Caillat - I Do}

Postlude

(Which I think is the strangest word ever.)  We'll let the Colbie song play out while our wedding party makes their way back down the aisle.  Then we'll launch into another song picked by Mr. FW that I'd never heard before.  (As the person in our relationship who doesn't think the radio is just for listening to NPR, I guess it makes sense that he was so influential in choosing the music for our ceremony.) 

There are a few other songs we'll have lined up in case we still need more time at the end (including The Beatles' "All You Need is Love" and Billy Currington's "I Got a Feeling," among others).  And that's the whole shebang - the Ferris Wheel Wedding Soundtrack.

How much latitude did you have in choosing your ceremony music, and were you picky about it like I was?

Dah Dum t'Dumm, Dah Dum t'Dumm

You can tell that's the bridal march, right?  ;-)

I heard a lot of the dah dum t'dumms growing up because my mom was (and still is) our church organist and she played at many of the congregants' weddings.  When I went through my teenage phase of "I wanna be completely different from everyone in the whole wide world," I decided I wouldn't be a person who came down the aisle to the bridal march if/when I ever got married, and I never changed my mind about that.  But in all the years since then, I also haven't been that interested in getting married in general, so I've given precious little thought to any other specific things that I did or didn't want at my potential future wedding.  Except this one thing....

Hive, I'm gonna just come right out and say it.  This one thing is kind of a diva moment.  It is the ONLY princessy wedding thing I've ever latched onto, dreamed about, and held close to my heart.  And now that it's closer to becoming a reality, I'm having to really own what a diva moment it actually is.  So, I'm telling all of the internet about it and I'm trying to own it.  

It all started with the movie Practical Magic, which I adore.  Watching it in the theater, I vividly recall this one swell in the music that gave me chills, and in that moment I thought, "That would make an amazing bridal entrance."  I own the movie soundtrack, and I'm still caught breathless every time I hear it.  (I suggest you start at about 1:08 to get the full effect, but *the moment* starts about 1:30.)

It's princessy, right?  And totally diva-ish?  I know.  I know!  Yet as much as those two words really don't describe me, I just can't imagine myself walking down the aisle to any other music.  So I will do my best to conjure all of my inner diva confidence, absolutely rock out the moment, and just hope it lives up to all the emotional hype.

Like it or not, do you or your partner find that you'll be embracing any diva moments at your wedding?