Music for Your Marriage Liturgy

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Welcome to the Cathedral! One of the first steps in preparation for your wedding will be to contact the Director of Music, Rachael Verhaagh. She can be contacted by phone at (920) 432-4348 or by e-mail at rverhaagh.sfx@gmail.com Music is an integral part of the wedding liturgy and Mrs. Verhaagh would like to meet with you to start the planning process for the music part of the liturgy. Please plan on starting this part of your wedding preparation early since church musicians calendars tend to fill quickly with playing for weddings.

MUSIC FOR YOUR MARRIAGE LITURGY

Things to keep in mind when choosing music for your wedding. Music used for the wedding ceremony should stress the God-Love relationship. In choosing a sacramental marriage, you should also choose music that reflects the dignity of the sacrament. The question you need to ask is "Is this particular piece of music appropriate for the marriage liturgy?" Because of the ritual and traditional nature of the Catholic Wedding Ceremony, music should be carefully selected to reflect what is happening at each part of the ceremony. Included is a list of appropriate wedding music that can be used as a starting point in planning. Recordings of this music can be found on YouTube, ITunes, Pandora, Spotify, etc. And additionally, most hymns in our Music Issue, the hymnal we use in the parish, can be used for your wedding.

Musicians for Your Marriage Liturgy

The role of the musician is to encourage the full and active participation of the congregation. Church Musicians aide the congregation in their sung prayer. Therefore, careful selection of your musicians is important. At Saint Francis Xavier Cathedral Parish, we have a professional organist, cantors who can help bring to life the joy you wish to express at your wedding liturgy. They are familiar with the church instruments and Catholic Wedding Liturgy. With this in mind, we strongly encourage you to choose to work with our pastoral musicians. The pastoral musicians of the Cathedral would be glad to work with you! Mrs. Verhaagh can also provide you with a list of musicians - strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, keyboard, vocalists that can supplement the music of your Marriage liturgy.

Musicians' Fees and Recorded Music

Since each church musician has his/her own fee, Mrs. Verhaagh does not know what each musicians' fee is so please ask he/she for that information however, Mrs. Verhaagh can help facilitate that. Because the Wedding Liturgy is a live celebration, music should also be live. Therefore, recorded music is not appropriate.