Unique wedding processional songs and “Here Comes the Bride” alternatives

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#Alternative Wedding Ceremony Ideas & Examples#music#playlist#processional#wedding songs
Photo by Velodramatic
Photo by Velodramatic

My fiancee and I are going to be walking into the ceremony together and then meeting in the middle.

As you can imagine, the traditional “Here Comes the Bride” wedding processional song wouldn't really fit us too well.

That being said, does anyone know of any alternatives to that song?

I'm open to anything!

-Shell

Here we go! We've already rounded up AWESOME first dance songs and non-sappy father/daughter dance songs, now it's time to put our Offbeat Bride spin on wedding processional songs.

Here are our favorite “Here Comes the Bride” alternatives, ranging from the classic, the modern, and the totally nerdy (of course).

Classical alternatives

  • Satie's “Gymnopédie No. 1” (hear it)
  • Gustav Holst's “Jupiter, The Bringer Of Jollity” (hear it)
  • “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven's Symphony 9 (hear it)
  • Vivaldi's “Spring Allegro” (hear it)
  • Handel's Air From “Water Music” (hear it)
  • Mussorgsky's “Pictures At An Exhibition: Promenade” (hear it)

Variations on a theme of traditional

  • Queen's wedding march — I had to! (hear it)
  • Canon In D Remix by Ronald Jenkees (hear it)
  • Etta James' At Last (hear it)

Subtle (and sometimes nerdy) alternatives

  • “Concerning Hobbits” (hear it)
  • The Princess Bride's “Storybook Love” (hear it)
  • The Turret Opera from Portal 2 (hear it)
  • “The Shape of Things to Come” from Battlestar Galactica (hear it)
  • Sigur Rós' “Hoppípolla” (hear it)
  • “Romantic Flight” from the movie How to Train Your Dragon (hear it)
  • “Neville's Waltz” from Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire (hear it)
  • The Skyrim theme (hear it)
  • The theme from Braveheart (hear it)
  • Triumphal March from Aida (hear it)
  • Game of Thrones theme (hear it)

Goth and metal

  • Amhran by Leaves' Eyes — an operatic metal band from Norway (hear it)
  • Apocalyptica's version of “Nothing Else Matters” (hear it)
  • Suite Gothique by Leon Boellmann (hear it)
  • Anything from Gothic Wedding Collection by Vitamin String Quartet (hear it)

Silly

  • The theme from James Bond (hear it)
  • The theme from the Pink Panther (hear it)
  • The theme from Mission impossible (hear it)
  • “A Cadence to Arms” by Dropkick Murphy (hear it)
  • The Jurassic Park theme (hear it)
  • The Throne Room/End Title song from Star Wars (hear it)
  • The Muppets' Somebody's Getting Married/He'll Make Me Happy (hear 'em)
  • Europe's “The Final Countdown” (hear it)

Pop and rock

  • Somewhere Over the Rainbow (hear it)
  • Colbie Caillat's “I Do” (hear it)
  • Adele's “One and only” (hear it)
  • The Beatles' “In My Life” (hear it)
  • Pearl Jam's “Just Breathe” (hear it)
  • Cat Power's version of “Sea of Love” (hear it)
  • Tesla's Love Song (hear it)

Indie

  • Thirteen by Elliot Smith (hear it)
  • Phone Call by Jon Brion from Eternal Sunshine (hear it)
  • Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah (hear it)
  • We Are Going To Be Friends by the White Stripes (hear it)

Want to see more music selections?

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About the Author: Megan Finley Horowitz

@meggyfin @thedashanddine @meggyfin

When Megan's not writing, traveling, and sleeping, she's eating like the fate of the world depends on it. (You're welcome, world!) You can snoop into her personal life over on her website The Dash and Dine!

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Comments on Unique wedding processional songs and “Here Comes the Bride” alternatives

  1. I had my fiance choose the song I would be walking down the aisle to. He chose “Falling Slowly” from the Once soundtrack. It’s absolutely beautiful.

    • This song is amazing, and the perfect tempo! Your fiance has good taste! ^_^

      • Totally agree with “A Thousand Years”. It was actually specifically written for Twilight, but I fell in love with it on the radio before I knew that.

        • I love “A Thousand Years”, even if Twilight put it in their movie. (Grr, Sparkle vampires..) My future husband is a soldier in the National Guard, and before that he was enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. So, needless-to-say, when deployment comes around “A Thousand Years” is what it feels like until he returns.

        • I walked down the aisle to Thousand Years as played by my friend on piano and my other friend sang. It was so special and beautiful and reminded no one of Twilight!

      • There is a wonderful version of “Please Please Please” by Zooey Deschanel of She and Him! You’re welcome. 😀

    • My fiance chose ours too!! He chose Macklemore’s “Same Love” but a piano version. We are a hetero couple but we both wanted Gay Marriage solidarity and this was a lovely way to do it. I was very proud of him!

      • This makes me smile, We are a queer couple in Wa and this song was the unofficial anthem of the election season. We are getting married and this is the song we are going to walk into the reception to. It always makes me happy when people use there wedding to address marriage equality. Thank you

      • I LOVE this. What a special song to include in your ceremony. Just curious, is this the version you chose?

      • We used this, as well (though, a version we found on iTunes)! My parents, my groomsmen, and myself came out to the pre-ceremony music (a bunch of Vitamin String Quartet and other instrumental songs). The bridal shower walked to “Hedwig’s Theme”, and my wife walked with her parents to “Same Love”. It was beautiful!

    • I am doing a Zelda song too! I have a dramatic door opening and all. It is one of the songs from the 25th Anniversary CD that I got with Skyward Sword. 🙂

    • The Contemporary Worship Leader at our church is going to sing/play his guitar at our wedding and I’m praying that he can learn this one in time!

  3. These are pretty much all fantastic suggestions. My gentleman is a video game developer and I want to use the theme from his second game.

  6. My dad and a friend of his are going to play and sing “All I Want Is You” by Barry Louis Polisar, from the Juno soundtrack. We love it, my dad loves to play the guitar, it all works out!

  7. I walked down the isle to Frank Sinatra’s Can’t take my eyes off of you. I walked down to the slow sweet beginning and then walked down as husband and wife to the upbeat happy chorus. It was definitely a fitting way to move from sweet ceremony to fun party for us. 🙂

    I’ve never been a fan of the wedding march as a piece of music, let alone as something so important to me as a bride. I’m all for different processionals. 😀

    • This is what I am walking to as well but I have a person singing it live for me, and changing it up a bit, LOVE the words, hooked me right away!

  9. Oh dear, just please not that staged lipsynching-to-Christina-Aguilera clip that’s making the rounds of facebook and happyplace.com today.

    “Hallelujah” has always struck me as an odd piece for a processional, though — the lyrics seem to be about someone reflecting on having felt lonely and unfulfilled in a relationship that has just ended.

        • We used “The Way I Am” as our processional. Bonus: it’s a short song and we had a short aisle, so we weren’t standing at the front awkwardly waiting for the song to end.

      • Ingrid Michaelson is a fantastic choice. My fiance and I actually got engaged at her concert in Nashville this year during her cover of “Can’t Help Falling In Love” (http://youtu.be/5sQeQC4hT10). Because of that, I’ve strongly considered using that as my processional. Afterward she dedicated “The Way I Am” to us
        [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xET52cji0R8&w=560&h=315%5D (I’m linking to the video from the show because she talks a bit about writing the song and how people tell her often they used it for their wedding and it’s funny).

        I would also consider her song “Parachute” and her and her husband, Greg Laswell’s song “The Light in Me” (Well, that’s what it’s called in videos on youtube)
        [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI6lbD2o6_E&w=420&h=315%5D
        I want to use that song at some point partially because I just love how obviously in love they are.

        • I love The Way I Am, but FH is going bald and he gets annoyed at advertisements for hair loss treatments (cause he wants to go bald gracefully) so he wouldn’t appreciate the Rogaine line. Sadly, because it’s a lovely song. :S

          • I just had this same issue, my fiance has no hair on his head and would take that line as a joke on his behalf. I was thinking it could be a perfect song until I heard that!

          • Not to mention it’s a song about loving her the way she is, but that line makes it sound like she can’t love him the way he is. I love that song! I just wish that ONE LINE was different.

        • I’m thinking of using that one too. Either that or Vitamin String Quartet’s version of Stolen by Dashboard Confessional. It’s such a beautiful song, especially when VSQ does it.

          • i considered Stolen by VSQ also, but ended up going with their cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow” as my processional 🙂 it was so amazing! I love contemporary music but having it in strings made it very elegant & beautiful

    • Yeah–Hallelujah is not a song about a healthy relationship. Or even a sustainable one.

      • my FH suggested “Free Bird.” I had to explain to him why a 9 minute song about a guy who wont commit might not be the best wedding song…”Epic guitar solo” or not…

    • Er. It is. Especially if you listen to the origional by Leonard Cohen.

      Er.

      Gorgeous song and usually on my playlists but. . . yeah. It’s a breakup song.

      • Once again (like the “‘No Children’ controversy of 2010“) I feel the need to step in and remind y’all that we’re not here to judge the songs people choose to use for their weddings. Songs have more of a meaning beyond just lyrics — you never know what or why someone has chosen a particular tune. So let’s keep it positive, respectful, and let’s keep hearing your suggestions!

        • Trufax. Most of the songs my Viking and I consider “our songs” are extremely depressing For example, Etta James’ version of “Loving Arms” is OUR SONG, despite it being one of the saddest songs ever, because it’s the song we first kissed to. And it will be played at our wedding.

    • We played Hallelujah at my grandma’s funeral, along with Danny Boy, Ave Maria, and What a Wonderful World. Those are OUT.

    • I wanted to use this, but my husband said it would give the wrong impression. Not sure why? We decided on “Beautiful” by Randall Shreve. Incredible lyrics, incredible song.

      • You could do the imperial march and then have the wedding party do their walk in, and then when it’s time for you to come in, the lights go down low, and you walk in with a lightsaber.

      • I walked down the aisle to the Imperial March. 🙂 it was awesome, everyone chuckled. Our recessional was the theme from Jurassic Park. We didn’t really have a movie theme, we just liked the mood and associations of those songs.

    • My fiance says I should walk down to the Imperial March. I told him it would only happen if he was waiting for me at the end of the aisle in a Slave Leia costume.

    • My processional is going to be “Han Solo and the Princess” from Episode V.

      We’re planning our walk out to be the Episode IV theme song.

      ((Can you tell we’re planning a Star Wars wedding?))

      • We did a halloween wedding with the Star Wars theme for our wedding party. We all walked in together to the Emperial March – good stepping beat!

  11. For our mostly agnostic ceremony I walked down the aisle to a friend playing Death Cab for Cutie’s “I’ll follow you into the dark” on his acoustic guitar. Those who knew the words were tearing up, those who didn’t were pleased with the light music.

  12. I got an classical guitarist to do all of our ceremony music. He was a family friend so that worked out awesomely. We had him play differernt music for everyone’s entrance/exit:

    Bridesmaid entrance: Final Fantasy Main Theme from the Final Fantasy series

    My Entrance: Storybook Love from Princess Bride(no lyrics)

    Recessional: Legend of Zelda Main Theme from Legend of Zelda series

    The best part was everyone coming up to me afterwards and saying how the music was so amazing. Saying things like, “It’s so awesome you used music from [blank]!”

      • We considered Don’t Stop Believing too! But we eventually agreed on Digital Love. We both love Daft Punk. I also doubt anyone attending my wedding will know the song, especially this version, so it’s going to be a nice little secret between us as I’m walking. I also wanted their version of Ceelo’s F**Ck You as our exit song but my fiancée vetoed that right away and instead we’re doing Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

    • Thank you so much for the lead “vitamin string quartet”. Daft Punk would have been odd at our wedding in a Tudor house – but a string quartet cover is a different beast altogether.

    • I plan to walk down the aisle to the Vitamin String Quartet cover of Death Cab For Cutie’s Transatlanticism – my fiance lives in the UK and me in the US, so it’s perfect for our transatlantic love story 🙂

      It is somewhat melancholy, especially with the lyrics… but the string cover is just beautiful, and it is a subtle way to include something meaningful to us.

  16. We’re down to two choices: Marry Me by Train and 1234 by Plain White T’s. Both have significance to us. And because I’m a huge Muppet fan (and I’ve recently gotten my fiance into them), we’re walking out to ‘Life’s A Happy Song‘ from The Muppets.

    • Oooh, Life’s a Happy Song is going to be our first dance! Our friend edited out the sad bit in the middle, and elongated the last bit so we can get a good can-can going. It’s such a happy song ^_^

      • If you can, convince them to give you a break-down of how to do it and put up a DIY tutorial for simple song editing! We need to edit out the sad bit as well, but that kind of computer magic is beyond me.

      • This is amazing! I need this edit. Any chance you could send me the edited song file?

    • I want Life’s A Happy Song too! For one weird moment I thought I’d been sleep-commenting.

    • After the ceremony we played “Life’s a Happy Song” It’s ok to be a bit smug on your wedding day 🙂

  18. My husband played the guitar for me but to a song from a Post Rock Japanese band called Mono. The song is “Follow The Map“. It’s simply about one love trying to follow a map to his eternal love. Its instrumental which is the best part! Check it out… The song still makes me tear up thinking about walking down the aisle to my husband rocking out in front of our loved ones.

    • Such a gorgeous song! My fiance and I love Mono and he’s in a post-rock band so Follow the Map could be super fitting for us.

    • Nice! I did have my dad walk me in but we had parents, attendants, my husband and then me and my dad all walk in to a track from the new Star Trek movie (its called “That New Car Smell“) which worked very well. Its where everyone has assumed their roles on the Enterprise at the end and its all swelling and awesome. (We walked out to the Throne room theme from Star Wars IV)

  20. For a classical alternative there’s “Procession of the Nobles” and the overture from Midsummer’s Night Dream (kind of quiet, but breaks into something more robust and swelling).

    Personally, I am dead set on “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit.

  21. I have some string musicians from the local university covering this Yo la Tengo song:

    I can’t wait to hear that big, fat bass on a cello! Lyrics aren’t all syrup-y, either; more laugh-in-the-face-of-the-end-of-the-world-y.

    Since the song is kind of droning and very long, we’re having them keep it going quietly through the entire (short) ceremony. It’ll be easy for them to coda parts of it to fit the length.

    Recessional? Moonage Daydream. On strings. Followed by This Must Be The Place.

    Oh, man, I’m so excited!

  22. We used Concerto Grosso in G Minor from Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World for the wedding party’s processional.

    I walked down the aisle to The Gloaming by Jonae, which randomly came on my Pandora one day and which I fell in love with.

    (This is my first attempt in a loooong time at doig HTML links, so sorry if it came out wrong.)

  23. I’m looking at La Valse D’Amelie (the piano version) for my processional… it starts slowly, but definitely builds momentum, and the movie is one of my all-time favorites.

  25. I processed down the aisle to the “Throne Room” song by John Williams from the end of Star Wars IV: A New Hope. It was epic, but still classical sounding. 🙂

  26. Last summer I went to SIX weddings, three of which played the exact same predictable music: “Canon in D” for the bridal party to enter, “Here Comes the Bride” and whatever that end song is that everyone always leave to (is it just the end of Here Comes the Bride?). I decided I would definitely not have any of those.

    After seeing it suggested here or another site discussing non-traditional songs, my wedding party and I walked down to “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. Prior to that, I had all attending “confetti kids” sprinkle petals to “Lollipop” by the Chordettes. My new husband and I left to my all-time-favorite “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.

  28. We’re coming in to LCD Soundsystem’s Us v Them.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJx02LpQao

    It’s fitting in so many ways. The day he gave his notice so he could move to Victoria to be with me, we went to see LCD Soundsystem and this was the opening song. The first several lines are, “the time has come… “, and really – this is about us becoming a team of awesome that can take on the world. I can’t wait! Only problem is that it’s going to be hard not to rock out the whole way down the aisle. 😀

  30. My FH and I had our fisrt-ever conversation about The Monkees so he and his groomsmen are walking down the aisle to this
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLPO-Dhe7s&w=420&h=315%5D

    And me and the girls to this:
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts&w=420&h=315%5D

    I have a question for you all though. How are you handling the logistic of playing these songs? We are having an outdoor ceremony and I guess we’ll hook up some speakers and a laptop or an ipod but do we have to have someone in charge of pushing the buttons to be sure the timing is right?

    • I had an outdoor wedding as well, too far from anywhere we could run an extension cord from. We were going to just use a boombox, but for some reason no boombox that we could find would play a burned CD. Finally, we used my laptop hooked up to speakers, with a car battery powering the speakers. We had my brother hit “play” at the right times.

    • First of all SQUEEING for the first time my buddy’s band got mentioned in the comments. Second of all — I was THERE at that live recording. 🙂 Thanks for making my day.

    • Hah! I really wanted to walk to Book of Love, but my husband deemed it too sarcastic. It definitely went into the reception playlist, though.

    • Oh God! I just listened to that and I’m balling. Not just a little. I think I may have to talk the FH into it.

  33. At one of my friends weddings she walked down the asile to glasgow love theme by Craig Armstrong and it was hauntingly beautiful.

    • Theme from Love Actually!!! Since ya’ll mentioned the Muppets so often, the sendoff at the beginning wedding scene was inspired by Jim Henson’s funeral where all the puppeteers & puppets said got up to “say” goodbye 🙂

  34. Me and my partner have agreed on me walking down the aisle to a piano version of I Am The Doctor from Doctor Who and Good Thing by Reel Big Fish to walk back down together afterwards.

    • Love, love, love Good Thing by RBF, excellent choice. For me and FH its a toss up between this and Without You by the Mad Caddies. Also trying to workout a way to slip Extraordinary by The Suicide Machines in there somewhere.

    • I did “Doctor Forever” from Doctor Who…and my family just thought it was beautiful music. Love the secret nerd stuff thrown in.

  36. Even tho our pianist messed up. I walked down to “let it be” by the beatles by piano i absolutely loved everymoment. Family was super conservative but actually really liked it..

  37. I came in to the opening credit music from Labyrinth. I had it timed so the music faded out after “It’s only forever. Not long at all.”

  39. Those are nice! A good friend is playing the violin for our ceremony, and I’ve chosen “Be Thou My Vision” for the processional song. I’m not particularly religious, but I’ve always loved that hymn, and it sounds so beautiful on violin.

  40. I really wanted to use Elbow’s “One Day Like This”

    but it ended up being one of the things we compromised on bc we also liked the idea of having string players and they couldn’t swing it. Ended up with the fairly traditional Canon in D. If I could do it again I might cut some $ from our budget by ipodding it instead of string players and sticking with that song because I love it! Didn’t really matter in the end bc I barely remember walking down the aisle!

    • Our wedding party walked in to “One Day Like This” – it was absolutely breathtaking!

  42. Oh! Oh! I know!
    I walked down the aisle to the “Vive Henri IV” section from Sleeping Beauty… I didn’t know anything about the music until I started reading about the ballet, but Sleeping Beauty was my favorite movie when I was a kid and it was such a perfect theme… romantic, kind of familiar, but new, and wonderful to walk to. I walked down the aisle with my dad, but you can see Sleeping Beauty walked down the stairs with her Prince, what an offbeat lady…!
    It begins at 1:28 in this clip…

  43. I walked (alone) across the field/aisle to Led Zeppelin’s “Bron Yr Aur” a lovely acoustic guitar piece by Jimmy Page. It was something both my husband and I could appreciate. For pre-ceremony music, we used a lot of Vitamin String Quartet songs, music from the Princess Bride, Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, many of which would make a nice processional.

    • A friend of mine is named Arianne, after All of My Love, and DIDN’T walk up or down the aisle to it! I think they might have played it at some point though. I actually didn’t know she was named after the song until her dad mentioned it in his speech.

  44. This is what I am having for my processional. My harpist is learning (and the bits I have heard sound awesome so far!). She also has on her playlist already a lot of stuff from LOTR and the Princess Bride. I can’t wait!

  45. My husband and I walked down the aisle together to ‘Best Friend‘ by Queen. We walked back out to ‘Got to get you into my Life’ by the Beatles.

  47. We had a bagpiper play during our processional. The nice thing about that (other than the beautiful sound and fairly unique concept) is that we didn’t have to get a sound system to play outdoors.

    In terms of songs, we really didn’t know anything with bagpipes, so we just asked him to select something that was appropriate and reasonably traditional.

    • We’re using First Date as the song the DJ plays when introducing the bridal party. We thought it was a really fun song to the get the party going.

  50. Dear Prudence by the Beatles!! 🙂 The sun is up the sky is blue, it’s beautiful and so are you.. dear prudence, won’t you come out to play? 😉

  51. If I ever have an actual wedding, I promised myself I would walk down the aisle to Jean-Joseph Mouret’s “Rondeau” (a.k.a. the theme song for Masterpiece Theater). I’ve always liked the regal aspect of the melody. Plus, my man frequently calls me his “princess”/”queen” so it fits.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ8QVKOWbPU

    On a side note, my cousin walked to a piano version of “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof, which I also think is a nice song in lieu of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” or Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus.”

    • We had the parents walk in to “rondeau”. All of them kept asking “Why does this sound familiar.”

      We just giggled.

  52. I am going to use an instrumental version of The Islander by Nightwish (we are having a few of their songs, since they are one of my FH’s favorite bands). I think the feel of their music loans itself well to medieval themes.

    • Yay! You had me at Nightwish. I was thinking of using Sleeping Sun as the first dance! But this has me thinking good things!

  53. Damnit, where was this thread three months ago when we were trying to find music for our wedding?

    I started frantically polling my friends for suggestions because instrumental music mostly all just sounds like bookstore background music to me.

    I threatened to enter to Ride of the Valkyries but decided against it.

    The most entertaining suggestion we got was the Jaws theme:p

    I really wanted to use Aniron, from Lord Of the Rings for the processional because 1) I liked the idea of using music from the sound track of a movie I love so it would have some meaningful association for me (See above), 2) we were both linguistics majors, so a song in Quenya was appealing, 3) we were getting married in the redwoods, so it seemed to find the setting, 5) It’s the theme for a romance. Unfortunately, it is just to somber for a processional:( We compromised and used it as prelude music.

    He entered to Winter, from The Four Season. I entered to the Vitamin String Quartet cover of Shania Twain’s From This Moment On and we used Appalachian Spring: VII. Doppio Movimento: Variations On a Shaker Hymn (Simple gifts) for the recessional (We found out later than his parents had played Simple Gifts at their wedding. Which was kind of neat.)

  54. The Tribesmaids have convinced me to go ahead with my plan to arrange Locke and Celes’ themes from FF6, so that they’re blended the way they are in the game’s ending. I’ll get a few friends to help me record the arrangement and then I guess we’ll walk down the aisle to it!

    This is a recent decision (I’ve been on the fence and finally told myself it was okay today) so I have no idea how it will turn out! But apparently someone else used the separate themes at different parts of the processional and it was awesome, so I am optimistic.

  57. I walked down the aisle to “Arioso,” a beautiful celtic song from the Highland Serenade wedding CD. Our first dance, however, was to Storybook Love 🙂

  59. I am seriously thinking of walking down the aisle to “Forever” by the Beach Boys. However, every time I hear it I can’t help but think about Uncle Jesse and Rebecca on Full House. I can’t tell if that makes the song is a good or a bad choice!!!

    • I want to involve “Wouldn’t it be nice” by the Beach Boys…”wouldn’t it be nice if we were older/then we wouldn’t have to wait so long”. I’ll be 46 for my wedding so it makes me smile, plus it’s just about the most optimistic song ever…

      • We are going to start our recessional to “Wouldn’t it be nice” by the Beach Boys. We chose it mostly because it is so upbeat and optimistic, and partly because it’s pretty ironic when we finally are married.

  61. I’m stuck between two:
    Michael Buble’s Everything
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbQvxo50GQU&w=420&h=315%5D
    I love the lyrics so much, and it’s just so jazzy and happy! But it’s Michael Buble, so my sister might just kill me! 🙂

    And Ed Miller’s My Love is Like a Red Red Rose (a gorgeous rendition of Robert Burn’s poem). The song starts at about 1:10.
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov-jgO6Zptg&w=420&h=315%5D
    Ed Miller is a Austin-based Scottish folk singer, and my mom and I just love him. The lyrics again and so gorgeous, and it’s slower and more processional-like.
    So, I’m stuck.

  63. I started my processional with Here Comes The Sun, the song my mom walked down the aisle (I had a long walk) and when I got to the end of the aisle to start towards my groom, the bluegrass band played Rainbow Connection (Muppets). It. Was. Perfect.

    • We’re planning on having me walk down the aisle to Here Comes the Sun, and recessing to either Rainbow Connection or Life’s a Happy Song (from the new Muppet movie). 🙂

  64. From Battlestar Galactica, there is also of course “Roslin and Adama” which is actually a love theme:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG-Js_rMEV4

    There are several other variations of that like “Adama Falls”, “Roslin and Adama Reunited” and “So Much Life”, as well a solo piano version

    • I am walking down the aisle to “Roslin and Adama Reunited”! It’s my favorite of all the BSG tunes. My only dilemma is that I cry each and every time I hear it. He wants to walk down the aisle to “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” from the Kill Bill soundtrack.

      We’ve narrowed our recessional down to “Starlight” by Muse or “Two Step” by Dave Matthews Band.

    • I love “Roslin and Adama”! I agree, though, that it tends to make one cry. I’d love to include that in my ceremony as well as “The Shape of Things to Come.” I thought about walking down the aisle to it myself, but I can’t let go of “Aniron” from LOTR. I’m really an elf at heart.

  65. We had our ceremony in a church, and were required to have “litugrically appropriate” music. But I hated all the traditional songs (which made me think of every wedding I’ve been to ever). So we got to walk in to an organ rendition of Finlandia, which is majestic and beautiful and “approrpriate”. 🙂 Plus, since it WAS in a church, our theme in our readings and everything was inclusion of everyone, even non-catholics, and the lyrics I’ve learned to this song so beautifully encompass that:
    This is my song, oh God of all the nations,
    a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
    This is my home, the country where my heart is;
    here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
    but other hearts in other lands are beating
    with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine
    My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
    and sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
    But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
    and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
    This is my song, thou God of all the nations;
    a song of peace for their land and for mine.

    • We’re getting married in a Catholic church too, and we’re struggling with the readings and music! Did you have to choose from the “Together For Life” book? I’d love any help you’d be willing to give!!!

      • Yeah, I was a little surprised we had such limited options for wedding readings. But we chose Song of Songs (2:8-10, etc etc etc), Romans (12:1-2, 9-18), and Matthew (5:13-16), because they seemed to be the nicest, and not as much… in your face as the others. For music, I don’t remember much except Finlandia, and then my friend sang a stunning song in Latin. I have no idea what she was saying but it had me in tears. Anyway, hope it helps. 🙂 Good luck! (Personally, I would just say don’t do it in a church at all… but obviously that’s my own opinion.)

  66. I’m a huge Wagner nerd, and I’ve always wanted to use the motif for Valhalla, the home of the Gods:

  67. We are getting married in church, the priest expected Here Comes the Bride, but I used my powers of persuasion! I said that ‘Here Comes the Bride’ isn’t a hymn anyway, just a piece of instrumental music, so could I not pick a different instrumental instead? He couldnt see why not, so I’m having ‘Sally Cinnamon’ by the Stone Roses (Piano Version – on youtube) – the real version is one of ‘our’ songs, and the instrumental is beautiful 🙂

  69. My hubby walked in to the theme from the original Batman TV show, and I walked in to Lovecats by the Cure. 🙂

  71. I’ll be walking in to a slight variation on one of the songs listed – Chicane’s Poppiholla. We’re concluding with the rather marvellous Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club. Nothing but upbeat!

  73. Selecting music is basically my favorite part of wedding planning. For the party’s entrance, we’re using Old Pine by Ben Howard:

    For my walk, I’m choosing Lullaby by the Dixie Chicks, which I know is a mother-daughter thing but I don’t care:

    And finally, for the recessional, I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness:

    • Hi Liz,

      I was thinking of the same exit song as you – the darkness! Are you having that actually song or do you have a singer and musician?

      Or if your wedding had already taken place, congrats! And how did the song go down?? Thanks!

  74. I told my brother that when the day comes, he’s going to pick out my wedding music (he’s a classical music buff). Of course, the first thing he suggested was “March to the Scaffold” (this song is complete with a little ‘head bounce’ at the end), so maybe I’ll have to rethink letting him decide…. 😉

    Although I think the exit music will be the theme from Up! I’ve got siblings and family members who play clarinet, saxophone, piano, and french horn so I could totally whip up an arrangement of that.

  76. ok – question:

    so are you guys having the wedding party walk down to one song and then the bride walks down to another song or are you using the same song for the whole thing – flowerpeople, maids, and brides?

    i can honestly say I have never paid attention before!

    • I had two songs. Instead of a flower girl, all kids in attendance were invited to grab a bucket of confetti and sprinkle it up the aisle. So, the confetti kids did their thing to “Lollipop” by The Chordettes. This was the perfect length to give them time to sprinkle, but not so long that everyone was waiting for the song to end. Then, I played a different song, about 3:40 long, for the bridesmaids and myself to walk in to. We had to cross a small field to get to the tent, and then our parents walked up the aisle ahead of us. The song was just the right length for all of that, and still ended seconds after I got to the top of the aisle. So, to answer your question, I used two separate songs because of the confetti kids. If you’re having a regular flower girl and lots of bridesmaids, I’d recommend using one song for them, and then a second song for you to walk in to.

    • Traditionally I think you use different songs for the attendants vs. the bride, but really, you can do whatever you want!

  79. We walked in to “Come rain or come shine” sung by a friend while her husband played the guitar.

  80. I walked in to the acoustic version of “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters. It was perfect!

    • Sorry I just have to correct something.
      It’s “Goodnight Julia” by Yoko Kano (and possibly accompanied by the Seatbelts, which was her orchestra/band for almost all of the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks).

    • I LOVE that you’re doing Wonderwall! I actually took the lyrics to that and made it into flowers for my bouquet. I love love love that song.

  82. Vitamin String Quartet is a great option to look into if you want a classical sound, and they’ve done everything from pop to goth to metal to punk, so it’s really easy to go sweet and/or subversive.

    My husband and his family walked to Downstream, from the Braid soundtrack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiWXrVXOMAU

    After a pause, my mom and I walked to The Postal Service’s Brand New Colony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcqQDM-qOG0

    The recessional was going to be Be Still My Heart, also from Postal Service: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFHkfnyAstg

    My friend manning the iPod slipped and managed to start up the wrong song, specifically: Voltaire’s All the Way Down. It actually worked out because it resulted in my husband and I rushing out before anyone caught on to how depressing that song is.

    It was great choosing our own music! It felt like telling our story a little bit. Downstream is beautiful and geeky and comes from a game about love lost and found. Brand New Colony reminds me a lot of how I feel about the things we do to improve our lives together, and Be Still My Heart is so very close to the story of how we started dating that we always seem to drop everything when it plays.

  83. I was just at a wonderful wedding this weekend where the groom came in to the theme from Final Fantasy IV and the bride to the theme from FF VI. It was awesome!

  84. I walked down the isle to Flyleaf’s “Treasure.” It’s kind of “our song,” plus I’m a totally Flyleaf freak so… obvious choice lol. We also kissed to Kiss me Deadly by Lita Ford, and walked out to The Darkness’s I Believe in a thing Called Love.

  86. Much to my FMIL’s dismay I’ll be walking down the aisle to Angels and Airwaves’ “The Adventure“! And “Storybook Love” shall be the first dance. 🙂

  90. I plan on walking down to Josh Groban’s When You Say You Love Me. It’s a beautiful song and it can be used instrumental only as the bridesmaids walk.

  92. I’m thinking of walking down the aisle to Rose’s Theme from Doctor Who.

  93. I walked dow to Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s “The Ship Song”
    Every time I hear it, I have to stop whatever it is that I’m doing and just listen

  94. I am planning to have the wedding party walk down to “The Shape of Things to Come” from BSG, and I’m thinking of walking down to “Aniron” from The Fellowship of the Ring. For the recessional I like the Throne Room Medley. Hooray for nerdy music! There are so many awesome songs on this list!
    Question, though: how long does a processional usually take? I’m so attached to my musical choices that I’d hate to cut them off, but I don’t want to be standing there awkwardly as the song finishes, either.

    • You just have to time your own processional and practice it at the rehearsal. I used one song for my “confetti kids” that was about two minutes long. All kids in attendance got to grab a bucket of confetti and sprinkle it around for the duration of the song. Then, I used a different song for my two bridesmaids and myself to walk in to. That song was about 3:40 long. It was just enough time for my bridesmaids to walk in, and then for me to walk in, our parents to walk up the aisle, then my bridesmaids, and then me. You just have to practice. Even on the day of the ceremony, we had to subtly adjust our walking speed to where the song was so that I’d arrive at the top of the aisle just as the song ended.

    • I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking of using Aniron from the Fellowship of the Rings as my song.

      I was a bit concerned over whether it would feel too slow – but its absolutely beautiful.

      • Yeah, it is kind of slow. I think that works really well with it coming after “The Shape of Things to Come,” though, because that piece ens with a lot of energy, so the contrast will lend drama to the slowness. If that makes sense. So if you’re playing a song before it, maybe pick one that isn’t so subdued, and you will still catch people’s attention when you enter. 🙂 Not that anyone won’t be paying attention…

        • I can’t say I’m familar with “the Shape of thigns to come” ..

          I plan on using “Concerning Hobbits” for the Bridal Party, which is probably one of the happiest songs in LOTR soundtrack and its tempo is pretty close to 120, which is close ot a classic march tempo. So its actually a bit fast – the phrasing allows for some pauses.

          I was thinking aniron would be a huge contracts – I’m just afraid of too slow. My other consideration suprised no one’s mentioned

          “Danielle’s Wings” from Everafter. Check it out.

  95. I did “Just Breathe”. My husband had his own processional and it was to “Call Me Irresponsible” by Frank Sinatra.

  96. I got married on 6/16 and I just realized I have no idea what we/I walked down the aisle to! We just told our musician to pick something and he said “I got it” and he did. The music was awesome, but I have no idea was the song was. Maybe I’ll ask him…

  97. I am a total Queen fanatic, and so, while it may be over the top, I’m heavily leaning towards Freddie Mercury’s “I was Born to Love You”

  99. I will be walking to the piano version of Only Hope by Mandy Moore….. I jusrpt love they way it sounds when played that way. Also my processional will be walking into You are the only exception by para more absolutely one of my favorites!

  102. I would love to use Jurassic Park somehow, as we both find it awesome.
    But I would love to get some covers of the fiancee’s favorite songs, as I don’t really want to hear original Green Day music on our day.
    (When I ask for his input, he says he wants to walk down to “The End” by The Doors, the brat ;P )

  103. We walked to this – The first 9 minutes of the Butterfly Lovers concerto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_qd-9wD6qA&feature=related (???????) – played on a solo flute by a friend. It’s kind of like the Romeo and Juliet of Chinese opera, but it has crossdressing and they turn into butterflies and fly away together at the end.

    The recessional was more typical: Bach’s Orchestral Suite #2 in B Minor (Badinerie) because we knew our soloist friend already knew the song. We considered the Partita for Solo Flute (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAJ4i1L3y5M) or Partita #3 for violin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waxat-_tRH8).

    • I should note that our soloist edited the last minute to sound more upbeat and like the main theme rather than the more funereal music in the original concerto from minutes 8-9, so I could walk down without it sounding like everyone was in mourning.

  104. I’m debating walking down the aisle to Katuman Kaiku by Turisas. Because we’re a Viking and an elven princess, and I don’t think there’s a song in the world that blends those two things better.

  105. Oh yay! I can tell some of these are possibilities before even listening to them! One song I have in mind for the processional is a song that my FH wrote, but I think it might be a little too spooky and industrial for the older family members (who are most likely already uncomfortable with our non-traditional wedding). However it WOULD be fitting considering it’s called Halloween Night and that’s when we’re having our wedding! Either way, it’ll be played at some point during the night I’m sure 🙂

  106. Btw… how long does a processional take? I won’t need more than one song, will I?

  108. Since we’re having a ‘somewhere over the (top) rainbow’ wedding, we’re walking into the ceremony on Judy Garlands ‘Somewhere over the rainbow‘ We both love the song and it’s sweet and short. Walking out of the ceremony we’ll walk/dance/rock on the punk version of the same song, by Me and the Gimme Gimmes. It’s awesome and they also have a version of Rainbow Connection! 😀

    • I am SO SO SOOOOO jealous that you are going to have an Oz wedding. Fiance put the kibosh on that rather quickly. And your choice are absolutely PERFECT!

  109. at my wedding…my waiting music was THE BESTTTTTTTTTT!!!
    I chose *Dulcimer* from Blue Man Group…the same music that is played during the theater show still to this day.

    The song I walked down to was written by my mother…and also recorded on a disc so we could play it the day of. The lyrics are what really got me…because she “GOT” what my relationship was about and wrote about it. 🙂 <3

  110. I’m nerding it out and walking in to “Dearly Beloved”; the theme from the Kingdom Hearts series of games. I played it to our Vicar and he LOVED it!!

  112. We’re also considering Better Together by Jack Johnson. This song means a lot to our relationship and is offbeat here in France (maybe not so much in the States, though).

  114. The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba should DEFINITELY DEFINITELY be on the classical list.

  116. I’ve am soooooooo happy to see this post!

    I really want our bridal party to enter to the song “Concerning Hobbits” from Lord of the Rings. FH and I are huge nerds, love LOTR and its perfect.

    However, I’m clueless for what song I can walk into afterwards. I want something still instrumental, no lyrics and geeky!

  117. FINALLY!!! i h-a-t-e the wedding march, so for my first wedding i walked down the aisle to enya’s “how can i keep from singing,” and as much as that song moves me, i’m looking for something different this time around. i’m a huge kid at heart, and with our wedding coming in december, i’m thinking vince guaraldi’s instrumental version of “christmas time is here“.

  120. Our wedding music was all on church organ.

    Processional of the party: “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” which is in fact a traditional wedding piece, but Bach is one of my jams.

    My entrance: Jean-Joseph Mouret’s “Rondeau”, commonly known as the “Masterpiece Theatre” theme. Because MT has been one of my parents’ favorite shows for as long as I have been alive, and the piece reminds me of my childhood.

    Our recessional: John Philip Sousa’s “Liberty Bell March” in memory of my grandpa who loved Sousa marches and also the “Monty Python” theme. Because spam spam spam spam spam spam spam….

  122. I’m walking in to the chorus of blind melon’s “no rain” (i knew this before I even knew my fiancé) and we’re recessing to “home” by Edward sharp and the magnetic zeros. CANT WAIT!!!

  123. My fiance and I are walking in together to Elton John’s “Your Song” because I sang it to him at a cabaret performance as a surprise. LMFAO’s “Sexy (and I Know It)” was a close second 🙂 We are processing out to “Life’s a Happy Song” from the new Muppets movie, which I am ridiculously excited about.

  124. We had our wedding in a cave so we walked in to ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ by Grieg. It was perfect and our guests loved it.

  125. Welllll… We have no idea what we’re going to do, but The Boy LOVES LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It, and this particular rendition gives us hope that it can be done with a strut:

  127. We’re planning on doing our procession to Lullaby for Alexander by Beat Circus. We’re both big fans of the band and the song just really seemed to math our theme (vintage carnival!) It’s a beautiful song, with just this mood of hope and promise, which is exactly what we were looking for. Oh, and did I mention it’s under 2 minutes?? Perfect for a processional. 😀

  128. I love this! I completely lucked out with my walk down the aisle song. My fiancee wrote/composed a song for my 21st birthday and we’ve convinced a good friend of mine to play it on piano for us. Our other songs however for us walking back together will be “Married Life” from the up soundtrack and my wedding party’s song with be “teardrop” by Jose Gonzalez.

    • This is my all time favorite song and it’s what we chose for our first dance! Great choice!

  131. my cousin had one of the songs from the movie the holiday playing when she walked in.
    i think some of the music from the movie amelie would be beautiful as well

  133. I’ve been struggling with this question, because I’m going to have a friend play bassoon for the processional, and it’s hard to get solo bassoon to sound serious. I could probably wrangle a back-up guitarist, and am thinking maybe “Here Comes the Sun” for on my way in, and maybe “I am the Doctor” from Doctor Who for our way out, but would love other ideas. I’m already getting ideas from other commenters!

  134. Everlong by VSQ. I’ve wanted it since forever, but after hearing Elton John’s “Your Song” on the strings, i may change my mind!

  135. I will be walking down the isle to John Lennon’s “Love”, and we are using an acoustic instrumental version of Modest Mouse’s “Float On” for the recessional. A friend will be playing guitar and singing for us.

  136. We entered to “Willow the Sorceror” from the movie Willow. It sounds VERY traditional and dramatic… right up until the Nelwyn party music. I might add that there’s a BEAUTIFUL rendition of it on Youtube played on a Hammered Dulcimer. (Search “Nelwyn Music”)

  138. The groomsmen came in to “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top. The bridesmaids came in to “I Dreamed It” by Mumbo Gumbo. I came in to “She’s Got a Way” by Billy Joel. But the best was the recessional…”Ain’t Livin’ In Sin No More” by Paul Thorn. Good times 😉

  139. My FH’s only request was that there be two different songs for the wedding party and for me. The wedding party is walking down the aisle to The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” and I will be following them with “Question” by The Old 97’s

  141. For when the wedding party walks in, we’re gonna use Hevia’s ‘Buisindre Reel’ from LOTR, my processional will be to Sleepthief’s ‘Reason Why’ and the recessional will be George Harrison’s ‘What is Life’

  143. I walked down the isle with my parents, to Etta James “At Last” – everyone thought it was a very classy choice 🙂

  144. the Apotheosis from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. Makes my man cry involuntary tears every time.

  145. Damn I needed this post back in March!! We ended up with the Vitamin String Quartets cover of ‘Where is my mind’ by the pixies. It amused us and now every time we hear this song in any format, I get a grin and knowing look from my darling husband 😀

  146. We’re using Vitamin String Quartet’s Paradise City (Gun’s N Roses) for the entrance for me, and The Imperial March from Star Wars for our exit….it makes the boyfriend grin like an idiot every time he think’s about it.

  147. We are walking down to vitamin string quartet’s cover of seasons of love from rent. They have a lot of amazing covers, so you might find your favourite song. They do the song in the wedding that never happened in the movie the wedding singer – small town girl. So beautiful on strings.

  148. I’ve always wanted to use “Kakariko Village” from Ocarina of Time. It’s a really beautiful song, though I may have to get over my slight fear of being assaulted by chickens whenever I hear it.

  151. My cousin got married to a beautiful acoustic guitar and violin duet version of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie. Twas pretty awesome and completely sweet.

  152. STAR WARS IS NOT SILLY!!!
    *ahem*

    Also, Hallelujah isn’t Jeff Buckley’s, it’s Leonard Cohen’s. The Buckley version is just more famous.

  153. My guy made it known that he wants Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. We’re both Elvis fans, the entire thing will have a retro and relaxed vibe to it anyway, my guy plays a mean guitar, and I tear up at that song so it is perfect.

    I’m pretty sure our recessional is going to be Social Distortion cover of “Ring of Fire”. We both love this version of the song and it will fit the celebratory party we’re going for with a bit of dancing in the aisle (now to get key guest in on it…).

    I wish I could find “Make My Day” from Saved By The Bell (you can find a clip here: http://sbtb.net/Multimedia/Video.html# ). We spent hours discussing that show when we first met.

  155. I walked to “Walk with you” by Dispatch! The wedding party walked down during the instrumental first half, and I started walking when he started singing 🙂 it was perfect!

  158. Seems I’m Never Tired of Loving You by Nina Simone… or we will when we eventually get married. My mom passed away the day before our wedding was to take place last weekend. Needless to say we will wait a bit and try again.

  160. We were going to use the throne room theme from star wars but i think the turret opera has swung us! And i think we will use Sigor ros’ hoppopla for the outgoing music as that sounds more like leaving happily than entering happily! 😀 We also intend to walk in together, seems so right for us as we feel we are entering this legal partnership as equals rather than the (what seems archaic to me) usual of the bride being given to the groom.

    • I knew as soon as I heard Landon Pigg’s song, I would walk down to that song!! Love it so much!

  162. “into my arms” Lisa Mitchell cover of a beautiful Nick Cave song. Especially appropriate as he comes in at the end.

  163. While we’re a lesbian couple, we’re trying to keep it as tridition al as possible. We each have 5 people in our bridal parties, 7 girls and 3 guys. They’ll be paired up and walking in first to Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.” We will be entering from opposite sides with our fathers and meeting in the middle. Finishing our enterence together. Our bridal enterence is “I Won’t Give Up On You” by Jason Mraz but we’re using the Tyler Ward cover. We’re getting married next weekend so in getting g really excited!

  164. I walked down the aisle to Moon River by Henry Mancini. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is one of my favorite movies, though now that I see the Storybook Love option from The Princess Bride, I wonder why I didn’t choose that.
    Oh, and for the recessional we waked back up to What A Wonderful World by Joey Ramone.

  165. My betrothed is the son of a preacher man, but I also love gospel music (though I was raised non-religiously) and have hired a choir to sing Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” as I walk down the aisle. It’s a dash of silly with a dash of serious, he IS the only one to reach me 🙂

  166. My husband and I met in the middle as well and we used an instrumental/classical rendition of “Here Comes the Sun” for our processional… It was amazing! 🙂

  167. *Love Song by The Cure–the slow version how Adele does it
    *Something by The Beatles
    *The Luckiest by Ben Folds
    Untitled (Love Song) by Counting Crows (check out Romani Rye’s version)
    The very thought of you (I like the Ella Fitzgerald version)

    *We are having the *’d 3 in our “processional” and walking back down the aisle (recessional) to Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

  168. My fiance and I are walking down the aisle to a piano version of White Wedding by Billy Idol, because his last name is white so it really will be a great day for a White wedding. 🙂 It was his idea and it made me laugh so hard that I had to say yes.

  169. I just want the author of the article to be aware (And any other Bride out there). While yes “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” is the correct title and by Holst, that’s a seventeen minute piece of music. When most women think of this song for a wedding they are thinking of the ‘Chorale’. So ask your musicians, DJ’s or google ‘Chorale from Jupiter’, you’ll get what you’re looking for. The chorale, if I remember correctly is about four minutes long. Unless of course, that is you want a 17 minute walk, lol, it could work!

    And by the by, it sounds sensational on a harp/flute duet if you can find it.

  170. My husband (already married – getting weddinged!) and bridal party will be walking in to Rainbow Connection, the new version from the last Muppets movie. I will be walking in to Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles. Our recessional is Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Our first dance song would also be a good processional, as it’s You Are The Best Thing by Ray LaMontagne.

  171. I will be entering with Tracy Chapman’s “The Promise”.

    This song is particularly meaningful for us as we’ve had to live five years of our married lives in separate countries. This wedding will mark the end of our married life apart and the beginning of our married life together.

    • OMG, I totally just started crying watching this video! My guy and I have been together 3 and a half years, but long distance the whole time. For the last two months, I’ve been in France while he’s been in the US. I have missed him so much, and this song is just so gorgeous and exactly how I feel so much of the time. Thank you so much for posting this. I might just be using this for my processional.

  172. We are seriously considering walking down the aisle to Marvin Gaye’s Stand By Me.

  173. I walked to “Behind the Screams,” by CKY. It’s a beautiful guitar solo. It’s also a reminder that behind every epic battle we have had, there has always been peace.

  174. I always loved the instrumental of bittersweet symphony by the verve the violins just speak to me i guess. I also like the idea of playing lets hear it for the boy- by deniece williams so all the focus wouldn’t be on me as the bride but on my man too.

  175. I skipped through some of the comments, but I haven’t seen ours. The guys are entering to the theme song from Top Gun, I am walking down the aisle to “Hurricane Season” by Trombone Shorty and the recessional is “Good Lovin” by the Rascals.

  176. We had a bagpiper!!! I have no idea what he played but it was cool, and it was NOT “here comes the bride”. It was something cool and Scottish. Everyone loved the piper! We also walked together, and I loved it. We found each other on our own, we are starting our life together, and it was so nice to walk down the aisle with the most important person in my life. My new husband. I love that man.

    • THANK YOU! I have just been searching for his, using the terms “most awesome part of nutcracker,” which surprisingly didn’t work. 😉

  178. So my baby sister walked down the aisle to Requiem for a dream.. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22ut_pzoWgY ) It was actually unintentional, it was her last minute, 20 mins before the ceremony “oh crud i have the wrong playlist” substitution. But it actually ended up being kind of gorgeous. I’m getting married in 3 days and currently we are still debating back and forth between Christina Perri’s 1000 years, and Iridescent by Linkin Park. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYiIBCN9ec ) Another serious contender was just about anything from Lindsey stirling… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjpOzsQ9YI

  179. I’m walking down the Isle to “Blackbird” By The Beatles in November this year.
    I absolutely love this song.. Some fantastic beautiful lyrics!

  180. My favourite movie growing up was the “The Sound of Music” so I (and my bridesmaids) walked down the aisle with the same music that Maria did at her wedding in the movie (without the “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” bit)

  181. My husband and I are both LotR nerds, so our procession was a medely of Shire themes (http://youtu.be/dYhRGV8-kMw) and we left to Conserning Hobbits. We would have used Conserning Hobbits as the processionl song, but it was a little too short, so we just faded the Shire medely when everyone was in place.

  182. We decided to do a Queen theme for our ceremony. We are having their song “Processional” for folks to walk into, then we are walking down the isle together to their version of “The Wedding March” & for the recessional we are going to play the instrumental version of “Seven Seas of Rhye.” We might change the last one though. My future mother-in-law suggests “Another One Bites the Dust.” = NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

  183. One of my first decisions was to walk down the aisle to the Game of Thrones theme. Whee! The decision to make at the moment is: whether to have a CD of the actual theme; to have a string quartet; or to feature the awesome violin version by Jason Yang on Youtube.

  184. We’re considering a bunch of things, but here’s some I didn’t see mentioned (apologies if they were):

    You Make it Easy – Air http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plZAxtEEikY
    Forever – Ben Harper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzAVDg4m1Q
    Hooked On a Feeling – Blue Swede http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf-MAiUkO-o
    All My Love – Led Zeppelin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpJia1TrzL8 (we aren’t’ considering it really but my cousin used it in their wedding and it was wonderful!)
    Crazy Love – Van Morrison http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vS8GKcl9KQ
    Lovesong – The Cure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXCKLJGLENs – we’ll probably use a slower instrumental version of this for the wedding brigade to enter to

  185. For the processional, our friends played an instrumental version of “Origin of Love” from Hedwig and the Angry Inch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hBWa3n0_-Q

    Our recessional was “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. We printed up the lyrics and turned it into a sing-along: I wil never forget how awesome it was to have our friends and family singing for us. 🙂

  186. We were planning on walking in to either “Music for a Found Harmonium” or “Air, a Danser” by Penguin cafe orchestra, but now that you mention “The Shape of Things to Come” I may be changing my mind…..
    Our recessional is “Love Like a Sunset” by Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix as we are having our wedding….at sunset. 😀

  187. We are walking to “Elephant Gun” by Beirut 🙂 I still don’t know what the recessional song will be…

  188. I really want Heart’s Desire by Ron Sexsmith but it always makes me cry and I’m not sure I want to be already bawling as I walk down the aisle.

  189. We are considering the theme song/opening credits song from The West Wing. My only concern is that half of the guests won’t know the tune…

  191. I think I found our song! The Turret Opera from Portal 2, but there’s an a capella version on youtube, that’s SO BEAUTIFUL. It sounds like a real opera song, and no one would know how nerdy it is! I love the “secretly nerdy” aspect of it!

  192. I am walking down the aisle to “The Book of Love” by Peter Gabriel, specifically during the last verse. It suits the moment perfectly. “The book of love is long and boring and written very long ago. It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes and things we’re all too young to know. But I love it when you give me things. And you ought to give me wedding rings.” I love the idea of walking up to a song asking for a wedding ring and then getting one!

  193. There’s no way I can read through all the comments to see if someone else has mentioned this, but “I’m Under Your Spell” (Tara’s song from the Buffy musical) is really pretty. An instrumental version would be nice for pre-ceremony music or maybe a processional.

  196. My fiance and I are kinda… dark. We are setting of entire processional to “Oh Death” the Supernatural cover

    • I love this! That is one of my favorite scenes of that entire season! Dark, but awesome.

  197. I will be walking down the aisle alone to show that I am making this decision of my own will and that this journey is about the two of us. the song I’m walking down the aisle to is Giving myself by Jennifer Hudon

    Here’s an exerpt of the lyrics

    “Handing myself over to you
    Body and soul
    I’m giving it over
    I’m giving myself over to you”

    This is exactly how my fiancee’ makes me feel ^-^

  198. We are actually not doing a recessional. As soon as the ceremony ends, I am gonna turn around and yell Alright, its time to party!” And we are gonna start the song “Radio” by Rancid. It has always been our song, basically because of the first line: “Never fell in love, till I fell in love with you, never knew what a good time was till I had a good time with you…” Since it isn’t really danceable at all, I had to put it in someplace. I figured that was appropriate.

  199. I’ve always loved Mazzy Star’s Fade into You but didn’t know if it’s too depressing of a song.

  200. If you like anime, or just like beautiful songs, listen to “Lilium,” the opening theme to Elfen Lied. That’s what I’m going to be walking down the aisle to. Our wedding package comes with a professional violinist, so I Googled “Lilium sheet music” and found some!

    Thanks to those that mentioned Doctor Who! I think I am going to try to surprise my husband by finding sheet music of the theme song for the recessional!

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