Help - need music suggestions!

Hmmm.. this is a tough one because you are having to use something that will be good with the piano and I am not good with song knowledge in this area. I’ll tell you some of the songs we are using for our upcoming wedding and perhaps they might lead you in a direction that will work for you???

DH is in an a-cappella singing group so they are performing the majority of our ceremony songs and providing entertainment throughout the evening. They are also performing for the guests prior to the ceremony beginning.  Here is the breakdown of how that goes:

-Song marking transition from a-cappella singing group entertaining guests, to ceremony about to begin:  Aretha Franklin “I Love you”

-Then a-cappella starts parent processional with “chapel of love” and repeats versus until grooms processional is also complete.

-Brides processional starts with a a-cappella version of pachelbel’s canon (THIS might be an option for you. There is a LOVELY piano version of this that I have on a CD by George Winston.    You could probably get the sheet music)

-                     During the ceremony, a-cappella group performs a version of Garth Brooks “The River”

-                     Recessional is A-cappella version of “at last” since we have been together 13 years ;)

We have a ton of other songs picked out for certain aspects of the evening but I am not sure any of them would work for you

If you are looking for classical selections, perhaps Handel’s water music is available in sheet music appropriate for the piano?    There are some really lovely songs under watermusic, and some are pretty upbeat. We were going to use this for the transition right before the processionals start, but we opted for Aretha to get some toes tapping instead.

I will think on it and if I can come up with any other good ideas I will let you know. 

I only had piano for mine as well (also had two sis-in-laws sing a duet).  I'll try to remember what I used....

I know it was NOT Canon in D.  I can't stand that one at weddings b/c my cousin played it at my Grandpa's funeral and to me it has always been a very sad song.  It was popularized by the movie Ordinary People....very sad/depressing in that context... 

I know one I REALLY like for a recessional is Lemmen's "Fanfare".  It's an organ piece but very upbeat, could possible be played on piano.  I have an mp3 if you'd like to hear it....

Does your pianist do jazz? If so, I could rustle up a few ideas :) 

For the recessional look at a variety of toccatas - they are all very upbeat and most of them are for keyboards.

Even if you are not religious a hymbook or music book from a church might provide some great music ideas.  Tocattas are usually the type of piece played, by the organ, when the service is over.  Ones used around Easter are particularly celebratory.

I used Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (for the moms' entrance, I think), and something from Handel's Royal Fire Music.  I know the hymn we sang was Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.

stardog85

I was planning on using Vangelis' Hymn for both the attendant's entrance and mine, but someone informed me that the song repeats after 12 bars and thus may not be a good idea for both. 

If you like the music of Vangelis, you'd probably enjoy the music of David Lanz.  Let me know if you have a problem finding samples of his work, I could email you a few tracks of interest.  David Lanz writes great piano music, with a diverse range.  He has pieces that mimic "Hymn" in terms of line and tempo, but also ranges into pieces full of energy which would make good recessionals.   Some choices for recessionals from David Lanz could be "Declaration Overture", "Return to the Sun", or "Heartsounds". 

For my wedding, DH and I chose "Procession of the Nobles" as our recessional, but I don't know if that's every been condensed into a piano version.  If you were thinking something more contemporary as a recessional, perhaps you could go through a wide range of "Oldies".  I'm sure there'd be piano music for most songs of that genre.  You could also browse websites such as SheetMusicPlus.com, and go through their best sellers in piano editions.  You might come across something you'd enjoy, with the peace of mind that it's already arranged for piano.

Also, the "Cars" piano book contains "Life is a Highway", if you still had your heart set on it.  Hope some of this helped! 

 How about Handel's "La Rejouissance" for the recessional?  (Too bad I can't "hum" on the keyboard.)