What songs did you have at your civil/secular ceremony?

January

Looking at songs for our civil ceremony on New Years Eve and we have a few picked out but I'm interested to know what songs you had... Maybe for some ideas!

So... What did you have for your processional, recessional and signing of the register? And, did you have any other music?

Ms2011

Walking Down the Aisle - Savage Garden-I Knew I Loved You ( nephew played it on his guitar:))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo3mxr7saUc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Didn't have any other music, didn't feel I needed it & didn't miss not having more

Ginny

Pure imagination from Willy Wonka (bridesmaids)
Claire de Lune (for me)
Everlong -Foo Fighters
Hallelujah- Leonard Cohen(signing)
Starlight -Muse (exit)
All you need is love - the Beatles.
We had a string quartet to do all the above, they were fantastic.

mrsbyrne

I was at a civil ceremony in UK recently where they had William, it Was Really Nothing by The Smiths and Gangsters by The Specials.

mrsbyrne

This is gorgeous
http://m.youtube.com/results?q=please%20please%20please%20let%20me%20get%20what%20i%20want%20cover&sm=1

kaki

We had:

Home - Engineers
Avril 14th - Aphex Twin
Bookstore - Jon Brion
Frame - Kaki King
Postcards from Italy - Beirut

Would highly recommend entrusting the job to someone who can keep their cool under pressure, as well as running through the order of ceremony with them a few times beforehand (learnt that one the hard way )

Tigger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAGnKpE4NCI

John Mason

Walking up the aisle - The Imperial March (Darth Vadar music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8


Signing of the registrar - The Doors - Touch Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECk9A-07Pw&list=RDPECk9A-07Pw

Walking back down the aislle - Dont Stop believing from the Wedding Singer (not the Sopranos version)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a7DPlCmsKA

Daisy Dalzer

We had:
Walking up the aisle- "Can't help falling in love with you" (more of the UB40 arrangement than Elvis)
Between readings/ Lighting candles- "Make you feel my love" Adele
Vows- Instrumental “Glasgow Love Theme" (from Love Actually I think)
Signing of the Register: "Aint No Mountain High Enough" (Marvin Gaye) and "Crazy Love" (Van Morrison)
Recessional: "Higher and Higher" (Jackie Wilson)

Aoife O'Neill did our music and we loved it!

Frigga_92

Aniron, Aragorn and Arwen's song from LOTR
The Ramones - Baby I love you
The Runaways - 8 days a week

Realtine

Foo fighters – everlong – processional

Death Cab Fur Cutie – I will follow you into the dark –
somewhere in the middle

Elbow – One day like this –
end of /walking out (might change this)!

All acoustic - nephew on guitar and singing.

rainbow kirby

Have only started planning for this - but we're looking at having The Universal by Blur right at the end of the ceremony. Haven't picked any other music.

Delsar

The Golden Horde - Friends in Time
The Ramones - Baby I Love you
The Frank and Walters - After All

They each meant something to us. Go with music that has meaning for you both.

January

He wants the 11th Doctor's theme

Toots

Realtine wrote: »

Death Cab Fur Cutie – I will follow you into the dark –
somewhere in the middle

Oh god, I love that song, it makes me tear up at the best of times! I'd be a sobbing mess playing it at a wedding!

F1fan

My brother and his pal played 'Here comes the Sun' by the Beatles acoustically for processional, and 'Bright Blue Rose' by Christy Moore for recessional.

Vojera

We had Here Comes the Trio (a string trio) for ours and I couldn't recommend them highly enough. They did a great job and one of my very few regrets of the day is that I didn't get anyone to video them.

We had:

• Entrance: Pachelbel's Canon (which my OH really wanted but the anime fan in me associates with with Evangelion :O)
• Remembrance: 'Shining Light' by Ash (made me cry)
• After the readings: '1000 Years' by Christina Perry (I don't care if it's the Twilight song, it's lovely!)
• Signing the register: 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC (it's our song! It always has been. The looks of people's faces as they realised what it was were gas.)
• Exit: Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation (my wifey is a huge fan and is in the process of converting me)

I want to do it all over again!

mozattack

VERY TOPICAL

We need to organise this for August. We are doing the Ipod job - it has a remote.

We are planning on doing two/three songs but I am not sure when they should be played, how long they go on for, etc etc.

The room is in a castle so nice but not exactly huge, perfect for 20 guests.

Anyone know when the music should be played as I was never at a civil ceremony... is there even a walking up the aisle given there is no aisle and it is a small room.

PANIC

mozattack

Vojera wrote: »

We had Here Comes the Trio (a string trio) for ours and I couldn't recommend them highly enough. They did a great job and one of my very few regrets of the day is that I didn't get anyone to video them.

We had:

• Entrance: Pachelbel's Canon (which my OH really wanted but the anime fan in me associates with with Evangelion :O)
• Remembrance: 'Shining Light' by Ash (made me cry)
• After the readings: '1000 Years' by Christina Perry (I don't care if it's the Twilight song, it's lovely!)
• Signing the register: 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC (it's our song! It always has been. The looks of people's faces as they realised what it was were gas.)
• Exit: Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation (my wifey is a huge fan and is in the process of converting me)

I want to do it all over again!

Hi there...

How come you had readings at a civil ceremony? Makes little sense to me, is that "normal".

For the exit, what is the exit given it wouldn't have been a church so the exit was maybe walking back 30 feet and out the door? I am curious.

Finally, who manned the music?

--- love the ACDC inclusion BTW ---

Typer Monkey

You can include readings at a civil ceremony. They can be poetry, a piece of prose, song lyrics etc. as long as there's no religious references. If you book in time the HSE registrar will come to your venue to marry you there. Most venues have a 'civil ceremony room' now and lots have an aisle like a church so a lot of people do the walking in with dad, walking out together bit. Even the HSE registrar officiated ceremony can include musical interludes, readings and a candle ceremony. Humanist ceremonies are even more customisable to the individuals involved.

Essentially you can make the ceremony as you want it (within reason obviously) and that is what is very attractive about it to an ever increasing number of people.

Pierced Off

Our three songs were...

"My Life" by the Beatles
"Longer" by Dan Fogelberg
and we finished it up with
"My Best Friend" by Queen.

The problem we had when looking for music was most great love songs are about breaking up or making up, not about staying together and we didn't want what everyone else had had.
The first dances were "Happiness is Me and You" by Gilbert O'Sullivan and "Since I met you" by UB40 with Lady Saw. The DJ wasn't sure about that one but everyone that mattered knew why.

rainbow kirby

Pierced Off wrote: »

"My Best Friend" by Queen.

Love it, would strongly consider finding somewhere for that one myself

Vojera

mozattack wrote: »

Hi there...

How come you had readings at a civil ceremony? Makes little sense to me, is that "normal".

For the exit, what is the exit given it wouldn't have been a church so the exit was maybe walking back 30 feet and out the door? I am curious.

Finally, who manned the music?

--- love the ACDC inclusion BTW ---

I've never been to a civil ceremony other than our own, but I think it is fairly normal to have readings. They weren't religious, obviously, but they were ones that meant something to us. We had a reading from Robert Fulghum, a writing from Plato that I rewrote myself into more everyday language, and the lyrics of "I Wanna Grow Old With You" from The Wedding Singer

As for the entrance and exit, there was a little aisle for us to walk down and the music at the end kept our guests in their seats for a few seconds extra while we caught our breath and had a little "AHHHHH, WE'RE MARRIED!" moment

And since we had a string trio, they knew in advance which song was for which part of the ceremony.

A2LUE42

'Sally Cinnamon'
Something by the Violent Femmes, but struggling to find a recording of them playing 'The boys of Barr na Sraide', as we only heard them play that live.
The Coolin.
Tunnels.

Ginny

rainbow kirby wrote: »

Love it, would strongly consider finding somewhere for that one myself

We used it for our "second dance" song and I danced with my dad for that, he's a huge queen fan and brought me up on their music.

Sleepy

We had Here Comes the Trio on strings too. Smuggled them in the back of the hotel to surprise Mrs Sleepy.

Processional - To Make you Feel My Love - Bob Dylan
Signing of the Register - Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
Recessional - Don't Stop Believing - Journey

They did about 2 hours of other contemporary / classic rock stuff for us during the reception too.

Pierced Off wrote: »

"My Best Friend" by Queen.

We very nearly used that for our first dance but went with Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" instead as it was easier for Mrs Sleepy to dance to in heels (she's more a jeans and converse type!)

Vojera

Sleepy wrote: »

We had Here Comes the Trio on strings too. Smuggled them in the back of the hotel to surprise Mrs Sleepy.

Actually, I have to say thanks to you Sleepy because it was a post by you that let me know that HCTT existed! So if you hadn't had them then neither would we and they were definitely one of the most special parts of the day

MsBubbles

Thanks for all the brilliant song ideas. Mr B and I are getting married in September and we were struggling to come up with songs for before and during the ceremony.

Jerrica

Ginny wrote: »

Pure imagination from Willy Wonka (bridesmaids)

By far and away the best start to a wedding I've ever been too, it still gives me the shivers

I walked in to the Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso (piano piece), we signed to one of the bridesmaids doing a stunning version of Crazy Love by Van Morrison and we walked out to The Raiders of the Lost Ark Theme.

LisaLee

We had 'Hoppípolla' by Sigur Rós for walking down the aisle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L_DQKCDgeM

'You' by Tom Waits for the signing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb0jsseh9J8

Then 'Steady as she Goes' by The Raconteurs for our exit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7aOWIFgIZQ

We had a Spiritualist ceremony and they were totally cool with our song choices and readings, even if one was about dinosaurs!

faughs

Here come the trio sound fantastic. However it may not be feasible to have them travel the distance required.Does anyone have recommendations for something similar in the north east??

Here Comes The Trio

faughs wrote: »

Here come the trio sound fantastic. However it may not be feasible to have them travel the distance required.Does anyone have recommendations for something similar in the north east??

Hey faughs
North East would certainly be a bit far but have heard wonderful things about Astral string quartet and Bohemian Strings as groups who do similar things a bit further up the country. I'm not sure of anyone north of Dublin but if you want to PM us date&venue I can try and post on Facebook and see if anyone is up for it!

faughs

Just checked out Bohemian String and really like them also. Thanks for the recommendation.

Dolbert

Some songs we've performed:

How Long Will I Love You - Waterboys/ Ellie Goulding
Halleliuia - Leonard Cohen (Instrumental)
The Voyage - Christy Moore
Bright Blue Rose - Mary Black
Songbird - Eva Cassidy
You Take My Breath Away - Eva Cassidy
Fisherman's Blues - Waterboys
Tabhair Dom Do Lámh - Carolan (Trad)
Eleanor Plunkett - Carolan (Trad)
She Moved Through The Fair (Trad)
Rainbow Connection - Kermit The Frog

DM addict

Processional - Elbow, One Day like This
Recessional - Meatloaf, Bat out of Hell

Both performed by a string quartet. You've not listened to Meatloaf until you've heard it on violin

John Mason

DM addict wrote: »

Processional - Elbow, One Day like This
Recessional - Meatloaf, Bat out of Hell

Both performed by a string quartet. You've not listened to Meatloaf until you've heard it on violin

oh, i really wanted Meatloaf but himself completely vetoed it :mad:

pooch90

Keep them coming guys, wedding in a fortnight and pretty stuck!!!

Starrgrrl

We're having the version of 'I Wanna hold your hand' sang by TV Carpio for me walking up the aisle, 'first day of my life' by Bright eyes, 'falling slowly' by the Swell Season, 'In My Life' by the beatles and one more possibly 'one day like this' by elbow, but that's very over used so that might change. I love them all!