Music and Traditions

 I've been fortunate enough to only go to a handful of funerals and weddings in my life. Thankfully for the sake of this project, I do remember one of my cousin's wedding. I was 16 when she got married, and remember it very well because she went all out for her wedding. Rather than having a honeymoon, they dropped-I think-close to $20,000 on the actual wedding itself. 

Unfortunately, they didn't actually hire musicians as a part of the wedding experience, but there were very very nice speakers around the venue. Music that they actually carefully selected themselves was playing almost the entire time. I actually asked my cousin for a list of the music they had at their wedding, and it was so carefully selected that they divided the music into sections of the wedding. Here's the list that she gave me: 

Ceremony Music

pre-ceremony: The Rest of Our Life- Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Parents/ Grandparents Processional: Make you Feel my Love- Adele

Bridesmaid/ Groomsmen Processional: A Tale as Old as Time (Instrumental)- Danielle Leoni

Bridal March: All of Me- Daniel Jang 

Unity: One Plus One- Lawson Bates 

Bridal Departure: This is it- Scotty McCreary

Reception Music 

Bridal Party Walk In: Signed, Sealed, Delivered- Stevie Wonder

Bride and Groom First Dance: Amazed- Lonestar*

Father/ Daughter Dance: Here Comes the Sun- The Beatles 

Anniversary Dance/ other Special Dances: A Thousand Years- Christina Perri 

*They actually had two songs to play for their first dance. The one that isn't listed here is the one that her husband actually wrote for her through Songfinch. 

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I can't for the life of me figure out how to embed this link, sorry guys. 

I think it's really sweet that he wrote the song for them specifically. I think that the music used at weddings helps to personalize it more to celebrate the couple and in general adds another layer of experience that would have otherwise been missed. Music allows emotions to come through in a way that they wouldn't come up in silence, and I think writing a personalized song for your spouse on your wedding day is one of the most romantic things possible. 

-if he wanted to he would😔-

Naturally, I think the reception was a lot more memorable than the ceremony, especially when you're a 16 year old kid that would rather be playing Minecraft than going to a wedding and helping set up (my mom baked all the cupcakes and decided we were going to decorate them at the venue). The song that I actually remember being played throughout all of this is the Anniversary Dance song. 

I know, cheesiest song possible, but there actually was a very sweet moment that kind of made me tear up. The anniversary dance was basically the part where they invited all of the already married couples to have a dance with their spouse and let the oldest couple go first all the way down to the newest couple. The oldest actually ended up being our Grandparents, who had been together 43?ish years. My grandpa has a hard time walking around and seeing the way he and my grandma looked at each other while they were dancing was adorable. 

Also, this song I feel like I should mention because it screams the energy of my Cousin and her husband. They're real country folk. 

Bonus: Here are some photos of the wedding