Hymns For Church Weddings

hope you don't mind!

I'm in a church choir, and we have a little website. On this website, there is a page called "Special Occasions" where we have listed some lovely hymns that are suitable for weddings

have a look!

St Michael's Choir

There's also a page where you can look at all the words to the verses.

My personal favourites are Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost, O Perfect Love and O Worship the King.

 

Hello

Arh that fab! Thankyou so much!

When are you getting married?

 

August:
we're so sad that we've already got the order of service done, with separate versions for the guests, the choir and the organist!

 

VHC, I am a member of my church choir and we seem to get the same hymns- All things Bright and Beautiful and Morning Has Broken, but we think it is because the vicar recommends them rather than the bride and groom choosing them outright! These are lovely hymns, and ones that most people know, which is great!

I've just had a look at the hymns on your link and there's loads on there I love and would like, I mentioned To God Be the Glory, Love Divine, All Love's Excelling and Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise on another thread before I saw this link, and some I couldn't remember the names of, but your link has reminded me of some of them- Praise My Soul the King of Heaven is one, but I love Tell Out My Soul, How Great Thou Art (I think we had that at my Baptism and Confirmation last year), Guide Me Thou, O Great Redeemer and Oh Praise Ye The Lord. We sang Priase My Soul the King of Heaven about a month ago as a request from one of our choir members who celebrated her Golden Wedding Anniversary about a month or two ago, as it was one of her hymns at her wedding, and it was beautiful and lively at the same time. I love hymns!

 

Ah, it's so nice to talk to someone who understands!


Our church has a dedicated Wedding Clerk, and she tries her hardest to get people to choose proper hymns, but they seem convinced that that's all their friends will know

The hymns we're having at our own wedding are: Gracious Spirit Holy Ghost, O Praise Ye Lord!, O Worship the King and All My Hope on God is Founded.

During the register, the choir will sing O Perfect Love and an anthem version of Love Divine.
and I'll be walking in to an arrangement of Tell Out My Soul (not as a singing hymn, just the music)

 

I know exactly what you mean! I went to my Godparents's daughter's wedding in August and she had "proper" hymns. She had:
Tell Out My Soul- first hymn
The Lord is My Shepherd- second hymn
To God Be The Glory- final hymn

I always thought The Lord is My Shepherd was a lovely hymn and said I want that one, then our choir said do you like the Vicar of Dibley version? I didn't even know that it was a different version! I heard the "real" version, or one of the real versions and I didn't like it so much! We're having Jerusalem, which is the only hymn my h2b wants, and I think it might go better as the final hymn, but there's so many others I like that its difficult to choose!

Your hymns sound lovely! We're doing an anthem in our church next week- Come Holy Ghost, and it sounds beautiful! We're also practising The Wilderness, which is beautiful but a little on the tricky side! That would be nice to be sung whilst signing the register, but that would be way too much pressure on the choir! Hehe! I'd love to hear the anthem version of Love Divine. I might see if our choir master knows that one!

 

good hymns, excellent!
makes a change from One More Step Along the World I Go....

The vicar of Dibley version of The Lord is my shpeherd is a choir anthem by Howard Goodall - it's the theme tune to the show. it's quite pretty in its entirety - we learnt it a couple of years ago and now we do it whenever the lectionary says psalm 23!


Come Holy Ghost makes my spine shiver! is your the one with the solo at the beginning?

The anthem for Love Divine is by Nicholson.
(he'll be able to find it even if he doesn't have a copy)

We're also doing O Thou the Central Orb (charles wood) in the service - but as a proper choir piece so everyone has to listen!
it's the best anthem ever - it has everything you need - loud, soft, quiet, sad, slow, deep bassy part, happy and victorious!
B)

 

Love Divine anthem version from RSCM website:

here

 

Thank you, will have a listen to that!

Yes, our version of Come Holy Ghost is the one with the soprano solo at the beginning. We have two women who have fantastic soprano voices and they take it in turns each year to do the solo part. When we do The Wilderness (S.S. Wesley) the main soprano part is sung by one of these sopranos, but she can't always make choir practice, so now our choir master gets me to do her part! If you hear me sing you'd realise just how out of tune I am! Hehe! Everyone says I am improving and sing really well, I simply don't believe it! Hehe!

 

solos are so frightening!
but i'm sure you don't sound as bad as you think

we have one lady who always gets the solos, but when I did my Voice for Life Red Ribbon, I had to do a solo, and after i'd got over the sheer terror of it, i started to get really annoyed (read: jealous) that she always got the solos without anyone else being asked! :lol:
Now i have 2 solos that "belong" to me, and I keep trying to persuade DF that he should let me have some more - so i'd learn them at home and when we're at pracitce, the other lady and i can fight over who gets to do it!

 

Sorry to gate crash but i have no idea what hymns to have, neither of our families are very religious but me and H2B really want a church wedding. Any simple yet beautiful hymn suggestions please?

 

Hello Mrs Boucher2B!

Whatever you do, please steer away from the following (no matter how much you're tempted to go "but i remember that one from school! - your organist will die a little inside.

hymns to AVOID AT ALL COSTS :lol:
Morning has Broken
Lord of the Dance (also known as I danced in the morning)
Give me joy in my heart
All things bright and beautiful
Amazing grace.

Hymns that you should consider because they're lovely and wonderful and perfect!
Love Divine all Loves Excelling (tune Blaenwern)
O Perfect Love (a few different tunes buit my favourite is Perfect Love by Joseph Barnby)
Make me a Channel of your peace.
All my hope on god is founded
O praise ye the lord (this one's a bit of a roof-raiser!)
Tell out my Soul! the greatness of the lord.

Have a quick look at our choir website (link at the top of the page, but here again in case you can't find it), click on the special occasions page, and you can listen to an organ version of the hymns.

 

lol in your hymns to avoid at all costs i have 2 lol amazing grace and all thing bright and beautiful lol why must we avoid them?

 

:lol:

the reason that you should avoid them is that they are always always always chosen (mainly by people who don't go to church regularly... ).
it's just that the poor organist has played those hymns so very often that they feel quite sick and broken when they play them :lol: :lol:

now, if you have a choir, i have a suitable alternative suggestion for your all things bright and beautiful. There is a beautiful anthem version of that hymn written by John Rutter, and you could have your choir singing the anthem while your guests sit back and enjoy.
then you can have some of the lovely hymns as congregational ones.
(guide me o thou great redeemer is forgivable because it's a good hymn, and also Jerusalem (again, very overchosen at weddings, but such lovely hymsn that you can get away with it!! - noone could get fed up of those two!) :lol: )

 

We had morning has broken as well but we also had Great is thy Faithfullness, and it always gives me a lump in my throat when I hear it.

 

morning has broken is funny.
(i promise there's a reasonfor this!)

when i was in Junior school we used to sing hymns and songs in assembly and the words would be on the overhead projector.
one morning, we were singing morning has broken and the whole assembly burst out giggling.
the teacher looked at the screen, and saw that he'd written "blackbird has broken" instead of spoken...
so he drew a little blackbird all in pieces on the sheet and laughed alongwith us.
ever since then, i can't look at that hymn without seeing Blackbird has broken. and it creases me up.


Great is thy Faithfulness is lovely - very rousing.
you're forgiven!

 

That is a great idea. Our church is quite big so we will be having a choir so it doesnt sound hollow with just our families singing if that makes any sense.

 

O Perfect Love is awesome as is one I know called The Potters Hand but can''t find it anywhere. Brilliant link VHC :blink:

 

just bumping this thread for newbies!

hope no one minds!

 

Another bump - hadn't realised it was so long since it's been bumped!