I'm not going to have live musicians for the ceremony, just a CD. But I'm confused about how many different songs I need, how long they should each be, etc. I know it goes something like this:
Pre-ceremony music: How long should we play background music before the ceremony actually starts?
Seating of parents/grandparents: Does this require its own song? Is this technically the start of the ceremony, or is it still considered pre-ceremony until the girls start coming down the aisle?
Bridesmaids: This is when I was thinking of doing Canon in D. How long should this take? I have five bridesmaids. Will it last long enough to get to the main theme of Canon in D?
Me: I thought this was when you typically do the traditional "Here Comes the Bride" theme, but a lot of posts I saw here talked about doing Canon in D for *this* part.
(We're not having a singer or any other special music during the ceremony itself.)
Recessional: This is usually the wedding theme, but again, it seems like a lot of you are picking something totally unique. In movies it's always the traditional wedding theme... is that outdated?
Do we need any other music after, like when they're releasing guests by rows to go out to the receiving line?
I know this is a lot, but if anyone could give me some pointers about how this all works (and how long each of these songs should be!), it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Erica