Survey of your favorite Music for Weddings

[Steve Montoto]

Im talking about the music you use in the intros or photo montages. I am trying to find music that is powerful and emotional for some wedding projects I have comming up.

I have seen some of your demo shorts that have quite a bit
of music fading into each other, but I cant make out which titles or sound tracks they come from.

Please let me know some of your favorites.

Thanks.

[John DeLuca]

Steve,

I am looking into buying the rights to use commercail music in my wedding videos because it is just head and shoulders above royalty free tracks. Im not sure about the cost, but two commercail tracks come to mind that have emotional impact.

Best commercail intro music- Boyz to men, "your home is in my heart"...I would only use the first part of it for an intro, still a good song to consider

Best credit roll, and general romantic commercail music(also good for an opener)- Brian Mcknight, "For the rest of my life"

Note that everyones taste in music differs, so keep that in mind when making your movies.

John

[George Sam]

As far as commercial music, I enjoy 'New Age' type music just like one of the samples you posted.

I stick to Enya stuff a lot of times because it is a soft and mellow start and it leads to a build up and climax where a lot of stuff is happening which is great for montages.

[Maurice O Carroll]

I think there are several factors involved in choosing the music for a production.

When I meet a couple prior to their wedding I like to have a sneaky peek through their music collection to gain some idea of their taste. I don't necessarily pick straight from their collection and I often try to avoid chart music; I prefer to try and use gems that were never released as singles. When I do use chart music I always avoid new releases - no matter how catchy the tune - and it's advisable to use a hit that has matured with time.

Personally, I don't like to use music that is overly-sentimental.

Depending on your shooting and editing style, particularly if your work can be described as cinematic, you should try to get your hands on some film scores. Every now and again, I like to pop into the record store and buy stuff by John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and the many compilation albums on offer.

Enya is also pretty cool... and she's Irish!:)

I'm quite big on themes and I believe they add depth to your production. My last video involved a couple who live by the sea and their love of the ocean and water sports was plain to see in all the footage shot before their wedding day. With this in mind, I picked music that I believed might tie in with their own musical preferences and all songs could be thematically linked with water; it's amazing how many songs use metaphors relating the sea and the ocean... And by the way, they loved the music even though they couldn't articulate why it "seemed to fit so well".

It's also vitally important that all tracks lend themselves to the mood you are trying to establish in your sequences.

One size fits all rarely works in any walks of life so don't get bogged down in choosing the same music for all your productions... it may be a step in the wrong direction and might encourage tired videos somewhere down the line.

Maurice

[Neil McLean]

I concur with Maurice's comments regards film scores.

Another one to consider is James Horner's Deep Impact. Appropriately called The Wedding.

Neil

[Maurice O Carroll]

I must check that one out, Neil.

I also forgot to add in my last post that while film scores certainly add weight to a cinematic video one must be careful not to choose a track that can be a tad too dramatic; which is often the case.

But look carefully and you're sure to find some beautiful compositions... And I'm off to the record shops on the wings of Neil's advice...

:)

[Daniel Runyon]

Hey, I realize this is an old thread, but I was looking for this info and have an awesome contribution:

Van Morrison, Crazy Love...from Moondance (speaking of good ol Irish music). The Masta....

I'd love to hear more from this thread...it seems to have gone away before it even got going.

[Brian Bechard]

Where would one find theatrical scores on the web?