It’s the penultimate moment, right after the ‘I Do’s’, when the Officiate announces the couple AND- this is when your recessional music would start.
What do you want your music to say? The piece should be exuberant, joyous, and celebratory.
As a professional musician part of my job is to blend the recessional piece into the end of the ceremony as seamlessly as possible. This can be tricky as ceremonies often differ from one another and thus the cues for when to start the recessional can change. For this reason, the musician would check in with the Officiate prior to the ceremony. If that’s not possible, the musician is able to draw on their many years of experience to best feel when to start the recessional.
The first step for the couple would be to choose the recessional music during the consultation. The perfect recessional piece is a quicker tempo and embodies the excitement of the ceremony.
Some of my favorite traditional and popular recessional choices are:
Wedding March from a Midsummers Night's Dream - Mendelssohn
Trumpet Voluntary - Clarke
Trumpet Tune - Purcell
Ode to Joy - Beethoven
On Top of the World - Imagine Dragons
Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
All of these pieces have common elements, including quick tempos, exuberant openings, and loud dynamics. If the couple already have a certain piece they'd like for the recessional, it’s helpful to keep these three components in mind to be sure the piece would be appropriate.
With these criteria choosing the most appropriate wedding recessional should be a piece of (wedding) cake!