Planning the Music for Your Wedding
The members of the Music Ministry at St. Joseph 's Parish congratulate you on your upcoming wedding and wish to help make your celebration a memorable one. Not only is this an important event for your family and friends, it is also an important event in the life of the Parish community here at St. Joseph's.
As in any liturgical celebration, the music for your wedding should be chosen with great care. A wedding is, first and foremost, a worship service - worship and praise of God who calls a man and a woman together in marriage. Wedding music celebrates not only the human love between woman and man, but must celebrate the presence of God as well. Lyrics should be drawn chiefly from Holy Scripture and other liturgical sources. For this reason, popular music is not appropriate during a wedding liturgy. We use a wide variety of traditional and contemporary liturgical music to help you make your wedding uniquely your own.
Any member of our team will be happy to work with you to plan your liturgy and find the music that best expresses your taste while still reflecting the sacramental nature of the Catholic marriage service. We encourage you to seek input from your parents and other family members in planning your wedding music. The music list, below, contains some suggestions for your musical selections.
Scheduling & Fees
As soon as you have met with the priest and set your wedding date, contact a member of the parish Music Ministry to schedule your wedding musicians and start the planning process. Return the planning forms to your musician(s) as soon as possible, but no less than six weeks prior to your wedding date.
A qualified cantor and instrumentalist are required for all weddings. We recommend that you choose your musicians from the parish music ministry. The standard fee for each parish cantor is $125, and for each parish accompanist the fee is $150. Fees are paid directly to the musicians at least two weeks prior to your wedding date. If you choose to use non-parish musicians, a fee for technical services (sound system, etc.) of $50, payable to St. Joseph's Church, is due two weeks prior to your wedding date. We can also refer other instrumentalists (trumpet, violin, flute, etc.) if you wish; their fees vary and you will contract with them separately.
Please feel free to speak with any member of our ministry at any time with any questions you may have about the planning process.
Music Suggestions
Typically, music is used at the following parts of the Wedding Mass. For a wedding ceremony outside of Mass, omit the right-hand column, except for the Recessional.
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Seating of Guests - instrumental or vocal selections |
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Seating of the Parents
Ave Maria (Schubert) |
Hymn During Preparation of Gifts ("Offertory Hymn")
All I Ask of You (Norbet) |
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Bridal Procession Instrumental
Bridal Chorus (Wagner) Vocal
Gather Us Together (Alstott) |
Eucharistic Acclamations
Heritage Mass (Alstott) |
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Responsorial Psalm
Blessed the people (Ps 33) (Alstott) |
Communion Hymns
Gift of Finest Wheat (Kreutz) |
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Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia - Chant (various verses) |
Meditation/Hyrm of Praise
Bridegroom and Bridge (SLANE/arr. Haas/Cotter) |
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In addition to the suggestions listed here, many of the hymns from Sunday liturgy are also appropriate for your wedding. Please feel free to ask us about using other music. |
Recessional Instrumental
Hornpipe (Handel) Vocal
Irish Blessing (Stookey) |
Downloadable Forms
Complete and mail these forms to your musician(s) as soon as possible, but no later than six weeks prior to your wedding. These files are Adobe PDF format, and require Acrobat Reader, free from Adobe.
Contact Us
Wedding Music Ministry Coordinator:
- Laura Grant, 781-767-1469
Cantors:
- Laura Grant, 781-767-1469
- Stephen Williams, 781-767-2763
Accompanists:
- George Krim, organ, 781-767-3573
- Stephen Williams, organ/piano, 781-767-2763
