Rendering A Rapturous Recessional

A recessional is, by its position at the end of the ceremony, not nearly as important as the processional. If a bride was really stuck and couldn’t find a piece of music she liked, she and her new husband could simply exit to the enthusiastic applause of her happy guests. But it’s more likely she will want some joyous music to launch her into married life!

As I mentioned before, we never intended to use Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March”. There is nothing wrong with this piece, by the way, except that it’s lost some of its freshness through repeated use over the years. I won’t fault any bride who wishes to use “Here Comes The Bride” and the “Wedding March” for a processional and recessional. She may have been waiting all her life to hear these two pieces at her own wedding and they’ll regain all of their charm when her guests see how happy she is.

The mother-of-the-groom and I were partial to Jeremiah Clarke’s “Prince of Denmark’s March” (aka “Trumpet Voluntary”), another piece often used for both walking in and walking out, but my daughter was not. Using the “choose a favorite hymn” guideline, I suggested that she consider her favorite contemporary worship song, “Lion of Judah”, written by Ted Sandquist. She liked the idea! The song was upbeat and had a wonderful message too. In essence, though we would use an instrumental version, it was like a personal declaration by the couple that Christ would rule their married life. There was a little hitch, however. The only commercially recorded version of the song we knew of was a “live” version in which clapping and Pentecostal murmuring often obscured the music. The song also segued directly into a confessional piece titled “Humble Thyself” which was not the mood we wanted to leave folks with! We had a lot of affection for this version but it really wasn’t suitable for an exit piece.

Now, the contemporary worship team at our church had often played “Lion of Judah” and the sheet music was readily available to us. We decided to ask the piano player in the group – a talented musician, composer, and good friend -- who also happened to have a recording studio in his garage, to record an instrumental version of the song for us. We offered to pay but he insisted that it be a wedding present. Three weeks later we had our recording. We spent about an hour in his studio with him making choices about style and instrumentation, he burned a CD for us, and we were good to go.

Final thoughts: the recessional is as meaningful as a bride wants to make it but it’s by no means the highlight of the ceremony. It’s simply the period on the end of the sentence, and I’d like to encourage brides not to agonize over what to use. By the end of the ceremony most guests are already thinking about getting to the reception and the bridal party is thinking about getting pictures taken at the altar. In other words, no one is planning to stick around and listen to the music. My advice is to make the music just long enough to get everyone out of the room and upbeat enough to make them smile as they go.