Looking for just the right music to serenade your big day? Many classical compositions have become time-honored favorites for couples hoping to capture just the right note.
Some selections, like Wagner's "Bridal Chorus" from the opera Lohengrin--better known as "Here Comes the Bride"--and Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" (originally part of the incidental music for the composer's setting of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream) have been enormously popular with betrothed couples ever since the pieces premiered. They remain perfect selections for jubilant processions.
On the other hand, you might be looking for something more offbeat or more personally meaningful. If you like Baroque music but want to look beyond Handel and Bach, what about Johan Helmich Roman's wedding music, written for the 1744 marriage of Sweden's crown prince? (That might be a particularly nice selection for those of Scandinavian heritage.) Continuing on the courtly theme, there's also Jeremiah Clarke's stately Trumpet Voluntary in D Major, also known as the Prince of Denmark's March; it's the piece that was used as the procession during Diana, Princess of Wales' wedding ceremony to Prince Charles.
Many classical selections are also perfect for the more reflective moments in a wedding ceremony. Bach organ transcriptions, such as "Sheep May Safely Graze" (which comes from the Cantata No. 28, "Hunt Cantata") and "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" (from Cantata No. 147) are often used during the ceremony prelude; during an interlude, a violin work like Massenet's Meditation from Thais or Elgar's Salut d'amour can be lovely choices, as can such Romantic opera arias as the achingly ethereal "Flower Duet" from Delibes' Lakme or even the impassioned "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, with its fitting lyric about going to buy a wedding ring: "Vo' andare in Porta Rossa a comperar l'anello!"
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by Anastasia Tsioulcas
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