Picking songs for your wedding ceremony is not an easy task. With so much to think about and organise in the lead up to the big day, ceremony music can be one of those things that gets left to the last minute. If you don’t know where to start with your song choices, fear not. Even as a wedding musician, it took me ages to decide what songs to have at my own wedding!

How many songs do I need to choose for the ceremony?

For most wedding ceremonies you’ll need to make music choices for the processional (entrance) and the recessional (exit) – but there’s also usually a space for two or three songs during the signing of the register. So that’s up to five songs that you’ll need to have lined up.

Blog: Wedding Ceremony Music explained

Why have live music at the ceremony?

As a singer and guitarist, part of my service is having your bespoke songs played live and acoustic at the wedding ceremony. It’s a great way of giving your ceremony a personal, unique touch – and is a lot more elegant than having to arrange someone to play songs from a phone or iPod! The big advantage of having a live musician like myself is that I can adapt your chosen song so that it matches the walk down the aisle. So that might be cutting out verses or even changing lyrics – anything is possible so you can truly make your wedding music unique to your big day!

To read more about my live music services click here. To see my full repertoire click here.

100 Songs that I’ve played at weddings…

Following on from my previous blog posts Top 10 Wedding Ceremony and First Dance songs and Top 10 Unusual Wedding Songs, I thought it would be useful to put together a more comprehensive list. Some of these are slow and romantic, some are upbeat and fun – so these should suit most types of ceremony, depending on the ambience you want to set. Many of these would also make a good first dance song.

Traditional/Instrumental

1. The Traditional Bridal March/Bridal Chorus
   
2. Pachelbel’s Canon In D
   

Classics – chilled/romantic/soulful

1. Ben E. King – Stand By Me
   
2. Al Green – Let’s Stay Together
   
3. Etta James – At Last
   
4. Elvis Presley – Can’t Help Falling In Love
   
5. Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender
   
6. Eric Clapton – Wonderful Tonight
   
7. Van Morrisson – Crazy Love (also sung by Michael Buble)
   
8. Frank Sinatra – Fly Me To The Moon
   
9. Otis Redding – (Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay
   
10. Roberta Flack – First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
    
11. Bob Marley – Is This Love
    
12. The Beach Boys – God Only Knows
    
13. Percy Sledge – When A Man Loves A Woman

Classics – upbeat/fun

1. Jackie Wilson – (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher
2. Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
3. The Beatles – All You Need Is Love
4. The Beatles – Here Comes The Sun
5. Stevie Wonder – For Once In My Life
6. Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered
7. Stevie Wonder – Isn’t She Lovely
8. Van Morrisson – Brown Eyed Girl
9. Hall & Oates – You Make My Dreams Come True
10. Dusty Springfield – I Only Wanna Be With You
11. Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love
12. Queen – Best Friend

80/90’s – chilled/romantic

1. Oasis – Wonderwall
2. Foo Fighters – Everlong (acoustic)
3. Robbie Williams – She’s The One
4. K Ci & Jojo – All My Life
5. Sixpence None The Richer – Kiss Me
6. Chantal Kreviazuk – Feels Like Home
7. Bryan Adams – (Everything I Do) I Do It For You

80/90’s – fun/upbeat

1. The Ramones – Baby I Love You
2. Sting & The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
3. Blue Swede – Hooked On A Feeling
4. The Verve – Lucky Man

Modern (2000 onwards) – fun/upbeat

1. Ray LaMontagne – You Are The Best Thing
2. Jason Mraz – I’m Yours
3. McFly – It’s All About You
4. American Authors – Best Day Of My Life
5. Coldplay – Sky Full of Stars
6. Take That – Greatest Day
7. Bruno Mars – Marry You
8. Lumineers – Ho Hey
9. Counting Crows – Accidentally In Love
10. Michael Buble – Everything
11. Newton Faulkener – Dream Catch Me
12. The Kooks – She Moves In Her Own Way
13. The Calling – Wherever You Will Go

Modern (2000 onwards) – chilled/romantic

1. Christina Perri – A Thousand Years
2. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
3. Ed Sheeran – Perfect
4. Ed Sheeran – Tenerife Sea
5. Ed Sheeran – Lego House
6. Ed Sheeran – How Would You Feel
7. Paul Weller – You Do Something To Me
8. Elbow – One Day Like This
9. Ellie Goulding – How Long Will I Love You
10. Elton John – Your Song (also sung by Ellie Goulding)
11. Jason Mraz – I Won’t Give Up
12. Joshua Radin – I’d Rather Be With You
13. Keb ‘Mo – Closer
14. Jack Johnson – Better Together
15. Jack Johnson – Angel
16. Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole – Somewhere Over The Rainbow
17. John Legend – All Of Me
18. John Legend – Stay With You
19. Samm Henshaw – Only Wanna Be With You
20. Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars
21. Snow Patrol – Run
22. Adele – Make You Feel My Love
23. Passenger – Let Her Go
24. Oasis – Let There Be Love
25. Damien Rice – Cannonball
26. Coldplay – Yellow
27. Coldplay – Magic
28. Kodaline – The One
29. Ben Howard – Only Love
30. George Ezra – Listen To The Man
31. George Ezra – Hold My Girl
32. Birdy – Wings
33. Bright Eyes – First Day Of My Life
34. Bruno Mars – Just The Way You Are
35. Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats
36. Paolo Nutini – Last Request
37. Paolo Nutini – Loving You
38. David Gray – This Years Love
39. Derek Gust – I Do
40. Tom Odell – Grow Old With Me
41. Tom Odell – Real Love
42. Train – Marry Me
43. Plain White T’s – Hey There Delilah
44. Lifehouse – You and Me
45. James Arthur – Say You Won’t Let Go
46. James Morrison – I Won’t Let You Go
47. Keane – Somewhere Only We Know
48. Stephen Fretwell – Run
49. Jamie Lawson – I Wasn’t Expecting That

For some acoustic inspiration, check out my Acoustic Wedding albums on iTunes/Amazon/Spotify etc! The Acoustic Wedding Album volume 1 is available here and The Acoustic Wedding Album volume 2 is coming very soon…