Catholic wedding ceremony music

FScarrie

Hello all,

It's quite possible I'll be having a Catholic wedding sometime in the near future. I've been reading all the wedding guidelines for nearby churches and under their music guidlines they basically all say "proper church music only". I'm just wondering how strict is. Music during the ceremony is extremely important to me. I know it's innappropriate to play pop songs- the songs that I want played are religious in nature, but since they aren't in Catholic hymnals, would they not be allowed? Speifically, I'm talking about
http://www.hymns.me.uk/jerusalem-hymn.htm
and
http://www.canticanova.com/catalog/products/g_scervus.htm

Any thoughs?? Thanks!

professorscience

It really depends on your parish.  Some churches only allow what is in their hymnals.  Others will allow instrumental music that is not religious in nature, but sort of "themed" to a wedding.  We asked the music director at our church if he could play "Tuba Tune in D" for our recessional (we'd heard it at mass at another parish), sent him a youtube video, and he ordered it for us!

We also did not pick hymns that were in the music CD our church gave us, except for the responsorial psalm.  Everything else,while in the Gather hymnal, was a song that was important to us (plus "O God Beyond All Praising," which I got from here -- yay!) and fit with the mass.

[Deleted User]

It really depends on your parish/priest. We were not allowed to have anything secular in our wedding ceremony, including the Wedding March.

bibliophile2010

Ditto. What is approved in terms of music is going to vary greatly parish-to-parish. The only person who can tell you with absolute certainty is your music director or priest.

We were able to use contemporary Christian music that is used frequently in Mass and is otherwise liturgical, but our parish uses a lot of contemporary stuff generally. 

doctabroccoli

Ditto everyone else - please ask the parish where you will be getting married!  Good luck!

unplainjane

yep totally depends on your priest and music director if there is one. the organist gave us a list of songs that they typically play and i actually only wanted one song on the list which was classical. the other songs we picked were also classical but were not on the list. they were fine with that. as well we wanted most of the music to be played by a solo violinist not an organist and they were good with that too.

Kate61487

ditto the other girls.  My parish was very strict on the requirement for liturgical music.  When we met with the music director he played 4 or 5 options for each song choice and we picked from those. 

If we had wanted a specific song he would have considered it, but he had the final say and like MissySue I know for a fact he would not allow the wedding march; apparently (according to our music director) it was originally used in a play to escort a couple to the bedroom, not down the aisle - so really not appropriate for church.

lisa89760

I actually walked down the aisle to the hymn of jerusalem so our church allowed us to use that but could not use secular music.  I was worried about this one because I wasn't 100% if this was a Catholic song or not.  (If you didn't know, Kate Middleton walked down the aisle to this song at her wedding...it's also the official hymn of England and both my Mom's parents were born there, that's why I wanted to use it, plus it's a beautiful song)

  My BM's walked down to Morning has broken. 

lalaith50

While what everyone has said is true about different churches being different, no one seems to have addressed the specific songs you are asking about, which by  the way are *fabulous*, especially the Palestrina. Excellent choices, as they are quite religious and have very appropriate texts. I sincerely hope that your music director and priest allows them, and would be quite worried if they don't! (If they don't, then I suspect it would have more to do with them not having the music, or even not being able to play it.)

ElisabethJoanne

Sicut cervus is a Catholic song.

allegratree

@Lisa,
"Jerusalem" is a beautiful tune to use.  I was at a wedding once that used this.  Props to you!

caitriona87

We had Palestrina's Sicut Cervus for Communion at our wedding. I would be absolutely shocked out of my gourd if a Catholic church did not let you have it. It is Catholic, scriptural, and *breathtaking* IMHO. Good luck!

debbiem56

I was very fortunate that our music director has a CD of the "acceptable" songs which we listened to at our convenience several times before we selected them on the sheet she provided.