Long time lurker, first time poster.
FI and I are getting married in the United Methodist church we grew up in and even first became friends at. While we now are closer to lax Presbyterians than anything else (largely due to PCUSA's stance on social justice and LGBT rights), we went ahead and decided to use the childhood church. It's meaningful to our family and our history however there are limitations on the music that we are struggling with. In order to use the church, the music at the ceremony must be as our officiant calls it "Christ-centered" and based on the sample music cd that means either lame praise songs or classical pieces. We only plan to use music for processional and recessional, but it's still an issue.
While fiance enjoys the symphony, I fundamentally don't "get" classical music and find it odd to play something that I have no personal attachment to at such a personal and meaningful moment. I'm also that weirdo in church who genuinely gets nothing out of praise music and find most hymns to be incredibly stuffy and old-fashioned.
We've been thinking as a compromise to use contemporary rearrangements of hymns that focus on natural beauty. I'm absolutely in love with "Morning Has Broken" as performed by Cat Stevens. Would it be odd to use that song at a 6 pm ceremony? Any ideas for other songs in a similar vein that are beautiful, sweet, have a religious heritage but aren't entirely religious? We're also fans of "For the Beauty of the Earth" and "Come Thou Font of Every Blessing" as performed by Sufjan Stevens.