Piano Wedding Music

Planning a cozy church wedding and want a softer sound than an organ usually provides? Piano wedding music--either live or via CD--would be a perfect alternative. Luckily, both are easy to obtain.

Fortunately, there are many accomplished pianists in the world and you shouldn't have much trouble finding one in your area. Organists can also be terrific pianists. If you don't know a pianist or an organist, contacting a local college/university can help you find a wonderful pianist in short order! A reputable piano teacher can also be an excellent source in your quest.

Obviously, piano wedding music CDs with song clips can easily be found online. Here are just a few:

• The Ultimate Wedding Collection is a CD by pianist Danny Wright that features classical songs that are often performed at weddings.

• Christopher West's The Gift of Love is a 2-CD set with 10 songs on each CD that contains a nice mix of pop and traditional piano wedding music.

• Tender Moments by artist Newell Oler is a CD that features some 2 minute song clips of well-known---but not classical---love and wedding songs.

As far as websites are concerned, I think it is well worth your time to visit:

• The O'Neill Brothers which is an all-encompassing site that, of course, contains a wedding music section. Specifically, they offer 3 wedding CDs that have song clips of each song. In addition, each CD places every song on that particular CD into either the prelude, processional, ceremony, recessional or reception category to make planning easier!

  In my opinion, The O'Neill Brothers have many beautiful arrangements played with melodious expression which creates a wonderfully relaxing listening experience. To add icing to the cake, their website offers digital downloads and many of their popular arrangements can be purchased in sheet music form for $3.98 + shipping.

• Ivory Treasures is the website of pianist Steve Siu. Again, there is a wedding music section (click on the "wedding music" heading which is 2nd from the right on his website's somewhat small and light toolbar!) that lists 7 wedding music CDs. Audio samples are available and you can buy CDs or download them.