Wedding March Style

Believe it or not, I've never been asked to perform the Wedding March until now. I just work work up a basic solo piano version but I thought a style with some orchestra voices might add some pazzaz. Any Yamaha style recommendations?

Thanks!

no styles I just play it with FULL PIPES !

Ditto!

The Choral Symphony style!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20101644/S_Audio_475.WAV

Ouch! Not sure I'd want something that overblown to see my bride come down the aisle to!

Maybe something with a smaller string ensemble, without the piatti cymbals and the heavy horns might work, but I'm with Donny and Gary here... In fact, I might not go for the full tutti diapason organ stops, maybe something a little less over the top there, too.

I have always felt that keeping wedding music appropriate to the scale of the venue helps bind it all together. A massive orchestral score, in a small chapel just isn't realistic. Maybe in the largest cathedral, but in a normal wedding chapel?!

Back before I was much into arrangers, in the early 90's, I sequenced the wedding music for when my own lovely bride came down the aisle. I used my Ensoniq SQ2... I went and programmed a bunch of small classical pieces, in a small ensemble fashion. It worked nicely, didn't draw too much attention to itself (which is part of the function of wedding music) and for the processional at the end, I still stayed fairly small. Several people complimented me on not going over the top (lots of musicians in the congregation!), and have always remembered that for any wedding ceremonies I played.

Remember, it's ALL about the bride, not you..!

This is a perfect opportunity to use one of Yamaha's excellent "free play" styles. One of the Ethereal styles or Brass Band Hymn might work, if you drop some of the voices out.

I often encounter this problem with traditional liturgical music. I can't tell you how many hymns change from 2/4 to 3/4 partway through. Rhythm / drum / percussion just doesn't sound right- what's needed is a strong bass, and the phrasing is punctuated by periods of silence. Sync stop helps but it's hard to do convincingly.

I really wish other manufacturers offered rubato styles similar to the Yamaha ones I mentioned! -Ted

Thank you gentlemen for your comments. Now here's a very dumb question: The Bridal March (Here Comes The Bride) is played as the bride enters and the Wedding March is played after the couple gets married and are exiting. right?

Yep, sometimes it's also called the Recessional, while the wedding song Here "Comes The Bride," written and composed by Wagner, is sometimes referred to as the Processional.

Good Luck,

Gary

The "Bridal Chorus" "Treulich geführt", from the 1850 opera Lohengrin, by German composer Richard Wagner is what we call Here Comes the Bride, then "The Wedding March" from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (F. Mendelssohn) is the traditional exit music.

Oh NO!!! followed by the Too late!!

Thanks guys for the wedding march tips. The wedding went off really well... I ended up using a slowed down orchestral march style which I set very low in the mix. I used strings and then full pipes. We played for three hours. As the guest entered and found their tables we did some light bossa novas, standards and boleros. I was surprised that we were getting applause. As they bride entered I did the bridal march with strings and when the ceremony finished I did the wedding march with full pipes. Then dinner was severed and we kept the lite music going. Before we took a break we did a request of NY NY which got a huge applause from a mostly Mexican audience. Latter we played the couples requested dance song of the Beatles "All You Need is Love" Luckily they requested that song in advance as I have never had to play/sing that song in my life... Also the groom requestes in advance a Spanish Language pop/rock song that he sung to his new bride. We played it for at least 15 minuets as the crowd got on their feet, going crazy, the bride crying in joy. Thank God for the arranger KB... I don't know how I could have pulled this extended version with a Karaoke track or SMF... Anyways, I worked really getting the marches and specially request ready. Not that they were hard to play, I just wanted them to be perfect because the importance of the occasion. It was a very special event that I will always remember.

I forgot to mention, the groom called me the other day and thanked me again. He said his father, a CEO for Coca Cola of Mexico, wants to hire us for some events during the holiday session in Mexico City.

Also when we finished a DJ took over... The groom told us that a lot of the guests told him that they wanted us to continue instead of the DJ. Let's hear it for live music/arranger keyboards!

WAY TO GO, Paul !!!

Although I really don't play weddings anymore, it is essential that the special requests - first dance/bride with father/groom with mom etc. etc. - be spelled out well in advance ...
'Back in the day' with our band in NY we were playing a wedding in one room and a younger 'rock n roll' band was playing one in the room downstairs ... while on a break a frantic maitre d' came over and asked if we could go downstairs and play for the bride and her father because the RnR band didn't know "Daddy's Little Girl" ...
We played for them and the groom and mom, and later went down and did the cake cutting ceremony as well ...
We did get a thank you from the band at least ...