Yorkshire is Britains biggest county with 5,284,000 people living there and there is a vast choice of places to have your civil partnership or wedding ceremony. Yorkshire is where I was born and raised, and I am always pleased to perform music in this great county. The venues range from museums and historical buildings to modern hotels in places like York and Harrogate. Pianists are few and far between in Yorkshire and I am frequently called upon to provide music for civil partnerships and weddings in and around the area.
I can provide music for every part of you wedding day including classical or something a bit more modern for the ceremony. This is followed by the drinks reception where something lively is often called for, and I find that jazz and swing seems to go down well for this. The wedding breakfast is the next part of the day where I can provide some gentle background music. For the evening reception I am often required to provide a band which sometimes makes a nice change to having a disco.
The Ceremony
If it is a civil ceremony or civil partnership then you can have any music you want as long as it doesn’t have any reference to God or religion. Most of the information on this site refers to civil ceremonies in the UK, but I have found that religious ceremonies (usually Church of England) are similar and allow even more freedom of choice by also allowing music that has religious content. If the ceremony is in a church, then you will usually find that the minister conducting the ceremony will probably offer guidance about music choices.
Before the ceremony begins everyone has to be seated and music is uaually provided just to allow people to settle. This part is traditionally called ‘The Gathering of the Congregation’, but it isn’t really a part of the ceremony, and anything is suitable for this section. It is not usually necessary to make any music choices for this part of the days procedings. However, I have occasionally been given a list of pieces for this part also.
After ‘The Gathering of the Congregation’ the ceremony, as far as any musician is concerned, can then be divided as follows:
The Entrance (Procession or Processional)
The Signing (of the Register)
The Recession (Recession or Recessional)
Please select any of the above links to take you to the relevant page.
Please note that I am always willing to learn any requests.
There are loads of music tracks on this site. Here are just three for you to be going on with.
I’m Just a Lucky So and So by Duke Ellington