Choosing The Best Wedding March Songs


Weddings will almost always have a lot of music, but the main focus of the entire ceremony will be the “processional” when the bride enters the ceremony and walks down the aisle. This special moment is often called the “march in song” or “bridal march”.  This “walk down the aisle song” is very important to the bride because whatever song she chooses to enter the ceremony with will be a musical display of her heart or personality.

bridal march

If you are a bride, you will want this song to be a picture of how you feel. Some brides do like loud and “triumphant” wedding march songs, but a softer song often works better to show the bride’s tender and romantic side. For example, some brides start the ceremony with Pachelbel Canon in D as an instrumental while the family and flower girl enters, then the wedding party to the same song, then it stops and the “wedding march song” will begin. If you are the bride, what do you envision for that moment? Do you want a pipe organ that proclaims your joy and the sacred respect you have for that moment? Or do you want a vocalist singing a romantic favorite like “I Will Be Here” by Steven Curtis Chapman (one of my all-time favorite love songs)?

People in the audience are excited about that moment and will appreciate whatever wedding march in song you choose as a bride to walk in with.

We often think of the “Wedding March” by Wagner (the common wedding march song “here comes the bride”), but that song is actually not used much in weddings because it is forbidden my most churches due to its negative use in the opera that it is from.

So what song will you, the bride, walk in with? If you have a quiet personality, you can still have a “big” walk down the aisle song, because this is YOUR wedding day, after all, and you are excited, as you should be, you are entering a new life with your beloved and this ceremony is the proclamation of your commitment to each other and your love to each other. The ceremony will also always live in your memory for the rest of your life, so it is important that the music be right for you and that it be done well by whatever musicians are in the wedding.

It is OK to consider having a vocal solo for the wedding march song as long as the soloist is very good and the background music is excellent, because this one song will set the tone for the rest of the wedding.

You can also have an instrumental song, played by the piano or organ.

This is your time to be creative, and show your personality and feelings through the music of your wedding. It will be video-taped and photographed usually, and you will be able to hear the songs anytime you want for the rest of your life, since video cameras are so easy to use these days.

You should focus on having great music with high quality musicians, since the music does have such a big impact on your overall wedding, and the wedding march in song is one of the most important songs in the wedding.

Here are some suggestions that are classical music.  Remember that your wedding march in song could be any style, as long as you have an excellent musician to play it.  The march in song does not have to be classical, but there is something elegant about the classical style wedding marches that are so popular, and here is a list of the top wedding march in songs (classical style):

Air (from Water Music Suite) – Handel
Allegro Maestoso (from Water Music) – Handel
Arioso – Bach
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba – Handel
Blue Danube Waltz – Strauss
Canon in D – Pachelbel
Elvira Madigan Theme – Mozart
Erev Ba – Shoshana Damari
Guitar Concerto in D Major – Vivaldi
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Bach
Processional to Te Deum – Charpentier
Romance (from Eine Kleine

Nachtmusik) – Mozart
Rondeau (Masterpiece Theater Theme) – Mouret
Trumpet Voluntary (The Prince of Denmark’s March) -Clarke

The Four Seasons – Vivaldi
Trumpet Tune and Air (in D Major) – Purcell

march in song