catholic wedding ceremony songs

Today we met with the Liturgical Director (LD) at our church to go over the songs that will be sung/played at our wedding. My mom used to sing in a group, so we are having 4 of her friends sing and play guitars along with LD, who will play piano as needed.

When we initially met with our priest, he told us that we were not allowed to have any rock n roll or broadway showtunes. I was kind of bummed about it, but later I decided I didn't really want to fight any battles and would find some liturgical songs I liked....

...Until last night when my mom and I were going over songs that she used to sing at weddings that technically are rock n roll and broadway showtunes, that I really liked. So, we decided to take her along to our meeting so she could fight our battles for us :) Turns out, there were no battles that needed to be fought though. All of the songs we liked and wanted, LD agreed upon was excited about them! It also turns out that he knows my mom's friend that will be playing guitar, so he was excited to be able to play with him. I think it will all be really good. Both LD and Mom's friend are super creative and musically talented that I have no doubt they will sound awesome.

The only drawback is that our church just got rid of their organ, so we will not have that grand sound during the processional and recessional. That's alright though. I'm already over it.

Songs we picked:

Prelude: Sabbath Prayer
Beginning Today
Morning Has Broken
Processional: Canon in D
Responsorial Psalm: Taste and See
Alleluia: Celtic Alleluia
Lighting of Unity Candle: The Wedding Song
Sign of Peace: instrumental (leaving this up to LD and Mom's friend to do a little improvisational liturgical jamming :) )
Recessional: Ode to Joy

P.S. I mentioned our church got rid of their organ. We found out today that when they bought it over 25 years ago, it was already a 50 year old organ that they had bought used. It was basically a piece of junk that was constantly needing repairs. So, they researched organ builders and found one they liked and now just need to raise enough money to pay for it. They already have about 90% of the funds for it and are expecting to have the new organ in February of '09. Idiotically (in my book), they chucked the old one before they even got the new one. That's beside the point though. Guess how much it costs for a brand new organ? Seriously, take a guess. The answer for the one our church is purchasing is in the comments.