We got married in a simple ceremony at the local Town Hall yesterday. Everything went very smoothly apart from a slight hitch with the music. Booking involved choosing music from a drop down list, or suggesting your own and saying how you would supply it. We assumed this meant the venue had a set of tunes which it had licensed and at the required points would play 6, 10 and 12 or whatever those selections were.
This turned out not to be the case. Whatever the music it had to be supplied, along with a means of playing it. A Bluetooth speaker was rustled up, a network connection obtained on my phone (the registrar didn’t know the wifi password) and things went ahead more or less as planned. It was always going to be a relaxed occasion, but I can imagine that at a larger affair that had been months in the planning this could have led to great stress. The registrar has taken the comments on board and said that she has already reported to the County Council that the instructions aren’t clear enough.
Anyway, we had intended to enter to Pachabel’s Canon in D, sign to the theme tune to The Detectorists, and exit to The Darkness’ I Believe in a Thing Called Love. In the event I forgot the Pachabel, we entered to The Detectorists, signed to I Believe in a Thing Called Love (which segued into Teenage Kicks by the time the witnesses signed), and exited to Kate Wolf’s Green Eyes (which I had originally wanted but omitted as it wasn’t on the list of suggestions and I wrongly assumed that would make things easier).
Your wedding music and related stories please.
We had a small lunchtime wedding at the local registry office followed by a reception in a function room in a hotel in the middle of town where everyone also stayed the night. We didn’t actually have any music played but you have reminded me of something that happened.
After an afternoon of eating and drinking it was thought a good idea to go on a bar crawl. One couple had drunken words, she tried to run off, he grabbed her wraparound skirt which came off. She then ran along the main street in her knickers. It was about 9pm on a Friday so very busy. She was found about an hour later by the hotel staff, fast asleep in the their flower bed.
The following morning everyone pretended it hadn’t happened and it was never mentioned again.
Until now.
Good point. There’s no way they are reading this, fortunately.
Also, I now feel bad (or at least thoughtless) for not saying congratulations.
I gave my congratulations when it was mentioned in the “It’s The End Of The World Tonight” thread. Maybe this is s better place for it. So, congratulations Gatz – I hope you enjoy married life.
The soundtrack to that incident should have been Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz.
Happy married life @Gatz I hope you have many happy years together.
My mates used to joke, the wits that they think they are that I love wedding cake ’cause I’ve been married 3 times.
The darling Mrs Pyramid III chose among other musical pieces The Waterboys ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ to be played at our ceremony.
At the reception the music was provided by a band who specialized in songs by various 60’s bands and The Waterboys so ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ was played once again.
Congratulations! Always remember that whatever went wrong on the big day, you’ll laugh about it in years to come.
Similar shenanigans at my own big day. We were meant to have Pachabel’s Canon for my wife’s entry, also selected from the Council’s very limited selection. In the event she came in to “Here Comes the Bride” while trying to keep a straight face.
At my brother’s wedding there was a gentle Celtic thing playing quietly in the background. Halfway through the ceremony the CD started skipping and the registrar very calmly muted it with a remote while still talking, as the rest of the party tried not to corpse.
Did you have a do? We didn’t trust a DJ to follow instructions so we put together a 4 hour mix on an iPod for the reception. A cousin of my wife did some engineering magic to balance the sound levels of the disparate tunes, which meant swearing him to secrecy on the choice for first dance…
No ‘do’, we only invited The Light’s daughter and her partner to be witnesses and didn’t tell anyone else until the deed was done. Both of us, though especially me, hate being the centre of attention and we didn’t want any of what Jake Thackray called the Lah-di-Dah.
So, it was a short ceremony, then photos at the Town Hall and nearby park (beautiful weather yesterday a bonus) and lunch for the 4 of us at nice Italian restaurant, where I was surprised to find the that front of house staff were Thai though the food, and from what I could glimpse behind the scenes, the staff seemed to be authentically and deliciously Italian.
Firstly and most importantly congratulations!
My eldest daughter decided to go to Gretna Green to get married. So we all trooped up from London for the gathering. There are various ‘Chapels’ in Gretna and it was a lovely ceremony. As we followed the married couple out of the chapel some Peruvain pipe muzac came through the speakers. I instantly realised the track we were listening to was “I’m not in love'(10cc cover). As we got to the door I turned back and found the source of this music. I said to the lovely little lady in charge “Do you know the name of this track?” She said “No”. I informed her and she seemed nonplussed either way. I’ve often wondered whether anyone else had the pleasure or whether she disposed of said compilation. There is also the chance that she did it on purpose as an ‘in’ joke to brighten their day. I’ll never know unless someone on here has some inside knowledge. The rest of the day went without hitches so to speak.
Betcha By Golly Wow and You Are The Sunshine of my Life.
Hawkfall’s theory of Venn Diagrams of Couple Musical Tastes states that no overlap is greater than Stevie Wonder or smaller than Frank Zappa.
Oh and Congratulations!
Our registry office wedding featured our choices of ‘Mysteries Of Love’ by Julee Cruise at the beginning, and the unironic ‘Now We Are Free’ by Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard at the end, as we were/are both huge fans of the Gladiator soundtrack.
I resisted the temptation to ask the guests whether they were not entertained…
Having worked as a wedding registrar I’ve had to endure much musical repetition “Girl I want to Marry You” being one still not sure who it’s by.
For ours I planned for my wife to be to come down the staircase to a haunting classical piece which as she reached the bottom would phase into Harry Belafonte singing “Jump in the Line” alas this was vetoed. Our walk out music was “Haste to the Wedding” from The Compleat Dancing Master which at least made everyone smile.
Friends who are early music musicians were asked to play a piece of music for a wedding Battle Pavane “Are you quite sure this is what you want?”
We got married in Corbridge, Northumberland, in a posh restaurant (now flats) with gardens. We had the whole place to ourselves. Apart from our 90 guests. My bride and I were running our own band at the time, so we got a really nice PA and lights from friends for our choice of pre-recorded music and booked a live Country Blues acoustic duo we liked. After the food, a poet friend delivered a poem he’d written specially for us. We hired in a children’s entertainer (Jason the Juggling Jester as I recall) who did a great job with the little ones.
The only specific music moment I remember was when the Registrar finished the marriage ceremony; right on cue, the sound guys played “I feel good” by James Brown.
So did my brother, he had a Northumbrian piper.
We got married on a beach to the music of Strange little girl by the stranglers afterwords I did a playlist of music of 1982 which then turned into a very aggressive game of pop master. Congratulations to you both .
Quakers don’t do wedding music for the service, but at the reception, we had Sunshine Through My Window by Gabrielle for our first dance, as it is a song which we both liked, and I could just about learn enough steps to dance the rumba to.
My best man, when he got married the first time, his wife chose the Muppets theme to come down the aisle to, which entertained everyone including the vicar, who was happened to be my friend’s dad.
Many congratulations.
Me coming up for 21 years end of month.
Don’t recall any music at the ceremony itself (nor was it ever suggested – maybe they didn’t have any licensing?)
I was generally banned form choosing any music for the reception/First Dance affair as “your weird sh*t probably won’t go down too well”.
Hence, Ronan Keating warbled “When You Say Nothing At All” as we moved around in a circle.
Although – little victory – I managed to arrange for that to segue into McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed”
Me not being involved in the music was very much the stance adopted by my wife (and everyone else for that matter). We danced in a circle to Shania Twain’s From this Moment. She chose very nice Uilleann pipe music for the bride’s arrival. Much better than anything I might have suggested.
My brother’s experience still makes me wince. They had a very good live band – with an American female singer, who had a fantastic voice – she also looked the part. Think along the lines of Rufus-era Chaka Khan.
For their first dance, my brother and his new wife were alone on a dark dancefloor illuminated by a spotlight. Lovely. As the music started, “Chaka” appeared within the spotlight and stood very close to them, singing to them, to their faces with sincere and unrelenting eye contact. She sang “The Greatest Love of All” with all of its breathy drama and then ear-splitting volume and warbling histrionics towards the end. My sister in law laughed throughout, mainly at my brother’s deep, deep discomfort.
Congrats!
We had Bach’s Partita no. 1 for Mrs. T to walk in. This occasioned some drama unbeknown to me. We had hired a pianist to play and the venue had a nice grand piano. This was before YouTube and we had hired the pianist on a recommendation but had never seen him. The maid of honour and the mother of the bridge decided his greasy comb over and dandruff bespecked black jacket set entirely the wrong vibe so, both Good In a Crisis, they rounded up a few waiters before things kicked off and rotated the piano, lid up, until the poor chap was completely hidden from the guests. He played quite well but I could see the visible relief on his face when Mrs. T was in situ and his spot was over. I suspect Bach wasn’t his usual thing.
We didn’t have much formality so there wasn’t a first dance etc but we did have a great Cajun band and everyone danced their legs off. I got up and guested with “Nadine” which is of course a wedding song. Happily not recorded.
Congratulations to the Gatz’s – I hope you have a wonderful married life.
We got married at the Chartered Institute of Builders at Engelmere House in Ascot. It was very grand but absolutely stonking value. They looked after us fantastically well and it was a brilliant day. They CIOB no longer reside in the building (it is now deluxe apartments) but I can’t help thinking that we properly lucked out in the venue (it was significantly cheaper than all the local hotels that we looked at).
We had a terrible time picking our first dance. For a long time, it was going to be The Luckiest by Ben Folds. We then got cold feet on it because of the last verse being somewhat on the miserable side. So we ended up with Valentine by Steven Lindsay. Which was lovely. But I still regret not going with The Luckiest.
We had a small ceremony in the late morning, followed by a big raucous rerun in the afternoon when everyone else arrived. My wife came down the aisle to Bob’s OG version of ‘To Make You Feel My Love’ in the morning and ‘Waterfall’ by The Stone Roses for the livelier version.
First dance; ‘Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher’, followed by ‘Sometimes’ by James for the bit when everyone floods the dance floor and joins in.
I was quite obsessive about music throughout the day. Booked a great little gypsy has trio who accompanied the drinks and canapés bit between wedding and lunch, too.
12 years this September. Still going strong.
Congrats @gatz me and Mrs Moles put
Our tax affairs in order two year ago and at
The ceremony itself we had:
True Faith – New Order
I’ve decided to give myself to you – Dylan
Always on my mind – PSBs
and that all important walk-in track:
Justified and Ancient – Klf and Tammy Wynette
Congratulations, Gatz – lovely news. Wish you much happiness together.
Our wedding was at Matfen Hall up in Northumberland. We were the first of our social circle to get married, even though I was knocking on for 30, so there was a good buzz.
Perhaps because everyone was a little over-keen, festivities actually began the night before. The bridal party wisely retired early, but my side of the family – no strangers to a party – stayed up very late with guests getting well and truly sozzled. Awoke the next morning to discover that one of my brothers had thrown up on the hotel doorstep while the other had won a bet that he could jump into one of the hedges out the front and leave a perfect outline of his body. One of the guests had slept on a sofa in reception, Inauspicious.
The day itself passed off fairly blissfully. My mates were a bit of a pirate ship back then, so there was high risk of incident and much spirited warning that they would have to behave themselves. Fortunately, they had largely blown themselves out the night before and consequently their menace was dulled.
In terms of music, while I waited for my wife’s arrival we had Your Hand In Mine by Explosions In The Sky. She then came down the aisle to You’re So Cool by Hans Zimmer, before we headed back up it, newly man and wife, to You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes by Johnny Boy. We also had the lyrics from Love Minus Zero as a wedding reading.
Two songs I tried for but was brutally rebuffed. The first was All Or Nothing, which I wanted for the first dance – because what a sentiment to start a marriage with. The second was Intl Players Anthem by UGK, which I wanted for the signing of the register, but which would have probably ended the wedding had it actually been played. Not the moment.
Following the service, we had our photos taken for what felt like about four hours by a lovely Geordie bloke who was the spit of Steve Bruce, much to the delight of our guests.
The evening turned quite boozy. There was a small scuffle between two guests from my wife’s side of the invite list – much to my delight; I had previously asked if we could have two friends stage a punch up and dive through the cake, November Rain style – and my wife showed pretty much everyone in attendance her underwear, which had “just married” written in diamanté on the back.
Wedding DJ duties were kindly overseen by a mate who at the time was presenting Top Of The Pops and the Radio 1 chart countdown. He absolutely killed it, perhaps unsurprisingly, and it was a busy dancefloor. Importantly, he took the approach of playing the 50 or so songs people actually want to hear at weddings,
At midnight, the karaoke came out – kicked off by my wife and her bridesmaids utterly murdering Sound of The Underground by Girls Aloud, before a very dear friend redeemed proceedings with a note perfect Cry Me A River. My mother still recalls the latter performance with glowing respect to this day, much to said friend’s delight. I honestly can’t remember what I sang, but I remember a friend’s husband, who’d always seems quiet and conservative, suddenly stepping forward and leading the entire room through a fabulous Rocket Man.
Karaoke ran to 3am, at which point those left standing retired to a back bar, and there was much rejoicing when my best man – who had anticipated this eventuality – showed up with bags full of snacks. We eventually fizzled out at 5.
The next morning I was delighted to discover that, after all the dire prognostications about my side of the wedding and their potential for catastrophe, it was my wife’s friends who had disgraced themselves.
One of the bridesmaids had been caught drunkenly manning the phones of the hotel reception. Another had peed in a wardrobe in her room, much to her mortification as it was discovered by the bloke she’d just started dating (they’re now married). A third had brought a date, who got up naked in the middle of the night, mistook the hotel room door for the bathroom, and was too sozzled to figure out how to get back in. He was found wandering through the main lobby of the hotel without a stitch of clothing.
We got the train home the next day, had a curry with a bunch of mates and tried to piece together everything that had happened. The following morning we got up early and flew to Barbados.
A couple of years later we went back to the hotel for a long weekend. The staff fondly remembered the wedding and all the chaos, but assured us that they had seen far worse. That’s Northumberland for you.
It was a truly lovely day, and entered into the folklore of our friendship group. Half the people in attendance had never been to a wedding before, and had no real idea how to behave. It was a great party, which was what mattered. I do love a wedding – I’m currently trying to convince our pals we should all get remarried so we can do it all over again. Love and parties – that’s what’s it’s all about.
That, my friend, confirms all my impressions – you are in fact an AI Construct . Nobody, nobody, could write so well about an imaginary Perfect Wedding in some imaginary place called “Northumberland”. As always, beautifully constructed but the throwaway reference to the mate who was “currently presenting TOTP” gave it all away. Next you’ll be telling us the next morning you “flew off to Barbados”…. oh
By the way, first marriage round I got married in Kensington & Chelsea Registry Office. Afterwards our Wedding Party (me, new wife, Cliff and Liz) walked up Church Street to the Vegetarian Café. We ate splendidly, no alcohol of course – booze was for squares – and as we emerged into the late afternoon sunlight, Elton John descended from a Rolls Royce and dived into Mr Freedom, no doubt looking for yet another pair of high-heeled boots.
Trust me, you wouldn’t be calling it perfect if you’d heard that rendition of Sound of the Underground. Still haunts me to this day.
As I wrote earlier I also eloped, my wife to be was 7 months pregnant, my mother had passed away relatively recently and her’s was in a terrible state with Lewy Body Dementia. Also my father had been dead 20 years and she had a somewhat fraught relationship with her dad, no other close family nearby so we decided to go it alone.
We were living in Montreal in Quebec but for some reason it was easier to get married in Ontario, so we chose the closest location in that province to Montreal and got married in a small city called Cornwall. Following the ceremony with strangers as witnesses, we had official pictures taken in a park next to the mighty St Lawrence river, then got the train (first class) to Toronto. There we broke the news to my new father-in-law and his wife in the wonderful Fairmont Royal York hotel right at Union station and had a celebratory drink together. Then another train to Niagara Falls for a short, fairly low key honeymoon.
Surprisingly I don’t recall any music
Wow Dai that’s doing it. Respect!
Cheers
Like @pyramid, I am quite practised at weddings, learning from my mistakes….
Number one involved the hiring of a jazz band, whose usual gig was a pub down the cut, in Lambeth, given we met at St. Thomas’ hospital, of that parish. The officiating vicar, Angus, a friend of the bride’s parents, played his accordion in their fag breaks.
Number two saw me give instructions to a disco van man, sensible stuff around no Queen, no ABBA etc. Within minutes they pumped up Another One Bites the Dust, and I knew the relationship was doomed.
Number three was Registry Office and a CDr. We came down the ramp to, as did many here, it seems, Pachabel’s Canon, but the Ed Alleyne-Johnson Purple Violin version. We exited to Insomnia, by Faithless. A day later, in Chester, for our honeymoon, we found, unexpectedly, Ed Alleyne-Johnson, a regular sight, seemingly, busking, and told him we had used his music. Which was nice. (We didn’t get much sleep, either, fnarr…)
No plans for number four.
The only I’m seen Ed’s famous never ending busking tour was in Chester, outside the cathedral IIRC.
At my friend’s first marriage (he’s on wife #3 now, and long may it last) their first daance was to – and I kid you not – Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It?”
Spooky… I was just emptying some boxes yesterday in anticipation of a trip to the tip when I found a CD that I’d burned back in 2007 for my wedding. The registrar asked for all the songs we wanted to play at the actual ceremony so she could vet them. It seems she had to be sure there were no inappropriate words and nothing with any religious connotations – she made a point of saying she regularly had to refuse Robbie Williams “Angels” and the Beach Boys “God Only Knows”.
From memory I though we provided 5 tracks but there are 10 on the CD – 4 played ahead of the ceremony, 1 to walk in to, 3 while the register was signed, and 2 to walk to.
The pre ceremony tracks were
“Joe and Me” – Robbie McIntosh
“Uncle Remus” – Frank Zappa
“Thorn Tree In The Garden” – Derek & The Dominoes
Signing
“9 Million Bicycles” – Katie Melua
“This Will Be Our Year” – Beautiful South (despite Co-Pilot telling me they never recorded it)
“Tempted” – Squeeze (yeah, I know…)
Exit
“I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” – The West Ham 1975 Cup Squad
“Take Me I’m Yours” – Squeeze
“Bubbles” was played because to get round the woke ban on confetti; we handed out bubble blowers to everyone – it worked quite well in the pics and I don’t think anyone heard the final Squeeze track. Some kind of pen misfunction meant we had the signing tracks played 3 times over, although if anyone twigged what the lyrics of the “Tempted” were about they didn’t say. We both liked the track so we thought we’d play it anyway.
The walk in track was Brian Ferry signing “Let’s Stick Together”. Guess what….
Oh, and forgive my manners – congratulations !
My bride entered to Ray Charles’ wonderful orchestra backed version of Come Live with Me. We had Baby I Love You by the Ramones during the service. One reading was an adaptation of JCCs I Wanna Be Yours. We exited to Morecambe and Wise’s Bring Me Sunshine. Our first dance was Anyone by Joan as Police Woman and I sang It Must Be Love with our excellent band. They also DJd excellently and had been told I wouldn’t pay them if they played Black-Eyed Peas or Mumford and Sons. A highlight was the assembled company jumping around to Fuck the Police by NWA and the evening finished with the Irish National Anthem….this town is coming like a ghost town!
A great evening was had by all.
In my haste to post this, I forgot to congratulate you @Gatz Wishing you many happy years together.
Tsk. Not a mention of the folk genre yet.
I have been asked to contribute a song to a number of weddings, and the tradition offers up excellent possibilities. Searching for Lambs closes with ‘and married we shall be’, so that’s a shoo-in. My nephew got married on the 3rd of August, which any folkie will know is pretty much adjacent to Brigg Fair. For the more mature marriage (my brother’s), Nothing Else to Do hit the mark.
But I do know someone whose wife insisted on this.
POO (point of order) I mention “Haste to the Wedding” above.
Or there’s this:
As long as you follow it with that album’s ‘Merry Sherwood Rangers’.
*more Crumhorn*.
Apart from “I Wish I was Single Again” for the reception we also had this as one of the songs.
I Believe in A Thing Called Love was our first dance. We both like the Darkness, and tried a few others out as we weren’t sure it would work, but it did and we went with it. Second dance (where everyone joins in) was “Rule the World” by Take That.
Oh, and we got married in a church, so were in thrall to what the organist could play (which was a lot TBH, he was fantastic) – I got to choose that, so went for Widor’s Toccata in F. Always a good recessional.
It was a church I had sung in as a boy – when we sang at weddings, our then organist (not the one we had for the wedding) used to play “We’ve Only Just Begun” during the signing of the register which always made me smile.
We got hitched at Guildford Registry Office. A hot day and the proceedings went off without drama. Music was Perfect Day, Moon River and Dream a Little Dream (Beautiful South version). We didn’t have an evening do, just a good sit down meal because many years at the conference coal face have given me a loathing of buffets.
Nothing everyone’s day goes so smoothly. A guy I worked with was from a Liverpool family, two boys, two girls and when the younger sister got married, he got into an argument with his brother which ended when one of them pulled the sleeves off the jacket of the other. Some time later, he briefly married a girl so unsuitable that his parents wouldn’t go to the wedding. It lasted 18 months.
Just heard this today which would have been excellent for the play in.
I was responsible for putting together the post-wedding music for my daughter’s wedding 21 years ago. I managed to squeeze in ‘Let’s Get Drunk And Screw’ by Jimmy Buffett, which caused a few raised eyebrows from some of the stuffier in-laws. A proud moment.
At least it wasn’t If You Don’t Want to Fuck Me, Baby, Baby Fuck Off by Wayne County and the Electric Chairs.
Tempting but I don’t think I would have got away with it.
My daughter was officially married in a room off the main party with just two witnesses (best man & make of honour). There was no top table, no speeches and food was a buffet. There was also no grand entrance.
The DJ said, “As you know, the happy couple are not doing a first dance. They ask that everyone else does one instead. Everybody on the dance floor…” Then straight into Earth, Wind & Fire September ( all my family love them). Everyone was up. The couple joined in half way through. It was the happiest, most relaxed wedding I’ve been to with no carving about bored. I’ve never seen her so happy.
I hate the kindle automated spellchecker. 🙁
Congrats!
Mrs F and I got hitched in Oliver Cromwell’s gaff, which is a private school during term times, surrounded by rolling parkland.
Entrance was Burns’ My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose performed by Kenneth McKellar, exit to Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, which put a smile on everyone’s faces.
It was a lovely late-summer evening and I had to implore the guests to stay indoors and enjoy the live music and dancing. Many of the guests were fellow ballroomers, who didn’t need much persuasion.
We had a 5-piece covers band play, our first dance was “Wings on My Heels”, a waltz written by my tall chum (who was away on tour), which started very fast and I had to mouth “SLOW DOWN!” as we circled the floor, before we both tripped up.
They alternated sets with a 16-piece Glenn Miller style orchestra (I danced the Foxtrot with my grandmother to Moonlight Serenade).
I think we spent as much on the musicians as we did on everything else, and it was well worth it.
The best party we’ve ever had (although my 3-band 50th birthday gig came pretty close).