There are so many decisions a bride and groom must make when planning their wedding. Flowers, Cake flavors, color scheme… But one of the hardest things I had to make a decision on was music.
I think that music can really set the tone for any event. Is this a low-key informal affair? Or is it a very traditional, formal affair? I feel that the mood is very much set by the background music. It took many hours of listening to music, both traditional and non-traditional, and lots of changing my mind before I picked out the music for our wedding. Here is was we ended up choosing and why.
Bridesmaid entrance – Belle Norte from “Lady and the Tramp”
I chose this song for two reasons. The first being that my side of the family has Italian heritage and both my bridesmaids were my sisters. I grew up on Italian cooking and loud, obnoxious family and I introduced that to my husband and his extended family… well I shouldn’t say I introduced it, more like they were kind of thrown into it! I always loved this song and I always remember that seen at ‘Tony’s’ with the piece of spaghetti leading towards a kiss between Lady and Tramp. It is one of the most romantic scenes in a Disney movie in my personal opinion. The other reason I chose this song was because it was obviously from a Disney movie. Not all of my song choices were Disney songs. I figured being in Disney was enough and I didn’t want it to be over kill but this song was subtle enough that it worked beautifully.
Bride entrance – Canon in D
Since I was young I played instruments. I started at age seven playing the piano, and in high school I played the Clarinet in the high school band. Yup, Band geek! Anywho, in my musical career I have always loved Canon in D. I played many classical pieces when I took piano lessons and most of them put me to sleep. This song however was so beautiful and timeless that I always loved playing it. As I got older and noticed that it was a popular alternative to “here comes he bride…” I decided I wanted to walk down the aisle to this song. The aisle at sea breeze point is a long one and it made me pretty nervous, but the second the violin started playing canon in D all that worry went away.
Unity Sand Ceremony – Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve
Ok, I know… this is really random! I have loved this song for a long time. If you’ve never heard it on a violin I highly recommend you youtube it! I was trying for a long time to figure out how to incorporate it into my wedding. When we decided we were going to do a unity sand ceremony I knew this would be a perfect spot for this song. The whole uniting of two lives is very bitter sweet to me. Part of me was very excited to change my last name to my husband’s, but another part of me almost felt like by doing that I was closing a door on my life with my maiden name. It was a very exciting moment that was both happy and a little sad and I thought this song fit the moment perfectly.
Recessional – Under the sea from “ The Little Mermaid”
This song both my husband and I picked out. We both had an idea that there would be some happy tears amongst our guests list (which there were) and we wanted to get them happy and smiling again. We also wanted to walk down the aisle as husband and wife to a song that fit our personalities. This was a complete secret and nobody knew. After the pastor said “I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Z! You may kiss your bride!” the violinist started right up with “Under the Sea” and it was perfect! It was the most magical Disney-ish way to end the ceremony, I couldn’t have picked a better song. All of our guests loved it and it made everyone smile.
So there you have it! The songs that made up our wedding. My advice to any bride and groom trying to decide on what music to use in their wedding is this, pick what songs represent you and they type of wedding you’re having. You don’t always need to go the traditional route.
Contributed by: Katie Zwicker (NDW#70) Katie is the DDL Weddings and Honeymoon Blogger. She is also the creator of My Fairy Tale.
Katie grew up on all things Disney. When she met her future husband she knew that converting him into a disney fan was a must! After a few WDW vacations, Disney history lessons, and lots of Disney peer pressure, she finally had her prince charming loving all things Disney as well. After getting engaged in 2008 on a carriage ride through Fort Wilderness, Katie threw out the idea of getting married in the place where they shared their happiest memories. Two years of planning, and a whole bunch of Disney magic later, they had the most amazing Disney wedding on October 2nd, 2010. Now living at home in New England, Katie keeps the Disney romance alive in her home and is constantly planning romantic vacations to the world. She has her own personal blog www.makingmyfairytale.blogspot.com and is thoroughly excited to start writing for the Disney Driven Life.
