For a religious wedding service, hymns play a very important role & your choice of hymns should be a personal one. However, many of us may not have attended a church service for some time & our knowledge of hymns is perhaps limited to songs we sang at school. If you are running into difficulty choosing your hymns for your ceremony, here are ten tips to help you make your selection:

A traditional religious will usually include two hymns. The first is sung after the bride has arrived & the minister has welcomed the congregation. The second is sung after the service & before the recessional. If you have a third choice this can be included after the conclusion of the wedding ceremony & before the prayers begin.

With so many hymns to choose from you may feel overwhelmed, especially if many are unfamiliar to you. Try to pick those that you do know & which you feel your guests will be familiar with too. Pick an easy hymn to start with so your guests can warm up their vocal chords! Be careful of picking something at random because you like the words or music. If your guests don’t know it they may just mime & the whole hymn will sound flat.

If you are stuck popular first hymns include: All People That On Earth Do Dwell; Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind; Lord of All Hopefulness; Immortal Invisible.

For your second hymn choose something gentle & melodic, particularly as this is sung before the most spiritual part of the ceremony - the vows & prayers. Popular choices include Morning Has Broken; Living Lord; Make Me a Channel of Your Peace; Be Still, For The Presence Of The Lord; The Lord’s My Shepherd.

If you do decide on a third hymn choose a more rousing hymn which is well known & will have everyone joining in. Here your choices could be: Praise My Soul, The King of Heaven; All Things Bright and Beautiful; One More Step Along The World I Go; At The Name of Jesus; Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer.

Beware of some hymns having more than one tune to the lyrics & if this is the case always choose the better known version. Always make sure the organist knows which version you require.

Check the meaning of your chosen hymns & the wording therein. Some hymns may contain lines which are not suitable for a wedding, such as Fight The Good Fight for instance. Your minister would usually agree the hymn list with you, however some hymns could still cause objections.

Many hymns will have up to eight verses, which may be too long for you & your guests, so be prudent & shorten them to perhaps just four verses. Again your minister will guide you when it comes to cutting hymns down & at the ceremony they will make an announcement about the verse numbers included. If you are having an Order of Service printed you can include your chosen verse numbers in there.

It is worthwhile asking your minister if there is a choice between traditional & modern hymns & if they have books you could take home to peruse in your own time. Remember you don’t have to make your choices as soon as you book the church.

If you are lucky enough to book a church with a choir ask to book them as quickly as possible. A choir could add that extra special element to your service. If there isn’t a choir available think about hiring a soloist to help guide the congregation through the hymns.