Choosing the Ceremony Music

To simply say that I love guitar music would be an understatement. All of my favorite bands happen to have amazing guitarists too. I have been slowly learning to play guitar for the last couple of years, completely self-taught at that. I have liking for all guitar music, from rock-style riff of an electric guitar to the bellowing melody of an acoustic playing classical guitar.

When it came to ceremony music, I dreamed of having a classical guitarist play as I walked down the aisle. I neglected to look into the actual cost of hiring one because I assumed it was way out of my budget. I was planning loading my stereo with batteries and burning a CD. One lesson that I have learned in the process of planning our wedding is to stop assuming things.

I was prodded by a friend to look into the cost of a ceremony musician. I did, with the intention of seeing for myself that they were way out of my budget. My intention was to make myself feel better about burning a CD of our ceremony music. Like I said, assume nothing. I found a local classical guitarist that was well within my budget.

Now, I really want to walk down the aisle to "Storybook Love," which is the theme from Princess Bride. The movie is one of my favorite of all time. Seriously, I have gotten in trouble among friends because I can recite every single word of the script along with the movie. I digress. Anyway, I asked the guitarist if he could play "Storybook Love." He asked me to send him the name of the song and the composer, which I did. He responded back with a youtube video, just to confirm it was the right song. He went on to explain that he will learn the song for our wedding, for me to walk down the aisle to. I almost cried, happy tears of course.

Since then, I have been working to figure out the ceremony music. The guitarist will play half an hour of prelude music, I am leaving this up to him. He has a huge repertoire of music, which includes Latin music, classical, and contemporary pieces. I am also leaving him to his own devices for the postlude music. As for the actual ceremony music, this is what we have decided:






Our mothers will enter to Schubert's "Ave Maria." Yes, it's traditional, it's expected, but it's beautiful.







The bridesmaids will enter to Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 by Bach.







And I will walk down the aisle to "Storybook Love" by Mark Knopfler.

Just listening to this, with the mental image of walking down the aisle to Tom in my wedding gown, makes me cry. I knew I was going to cry during our ceremony, but at this point, if I make it halfway down the aisle before the tears go, I would say I'm doing good.

Are you hiring a ceremony musician? What music did you choose?