Wedding Music

General Music Information

Welcome to the process of planning music for the celebration of your marriage. The music staff is dedicated to providing liturgical music for your wedding that is beautiful, appropriate, and spiritually uplifting. Toward that end, there are several guidelines to aid you in creating a worship service that will be unique:

As soon as you book your wedding:

At the time of your booking, find out, from Margaret Walden, the future  dates of the wedding music seminars. Five times each year, the pastoral staff, music staff and wedding coordinators present a seminar where we take the opportunity to discuss many of the pastoral and logistical aspects of your ceremony.  We also play and sing many musical selections so that you can hear what the music sounds like in our particular church space. These seminars are held on select Saturday mornings at 9:00am, and generally last 75 minutes. It is usually best to attend one of these as soon as possible, so that you might start thinking about what music would be appropriate for your wedding.  The Music Presentation dates for 2012 are: February 4, May 12 and September 22.

It is important to note the requirement of a Six Months’ Preparation. You should also consult the General Procedures found on the Matrimony page (under Sacraments), where you will find a General Checklist and information about Candles & Flowers and Advisos .

For wedding music and general information, please click here: Music Booklet . In preparation for selecting music, please see the section below on “Planning Your Wedding Music at St. Ignatius.” When you are ready to make selections for your service, please go to the Choosing Music page to find the music choices available. Once you know your choices, you should download, print and fill out one of the Music Forms, either Wedding with Eucharist (Mass) or Wedding with No Eucharist .

Six weeks prior to your wedding date:

Please fax your completed music selection form (handed out at the music seminars) to Jonathan Dimmock at (415) 387-1867. If you want additional musicians for your wedding (cantor, choir, instrumentalists, etc.) please contact Jonathan as soon as possible at (415) 422-6021 or e-mail him at dimmock@usfca.edu. The music staff is accustomed to working with many of the professional musicians in the Bay area and are more than happy to book these artists for you (this also helps us guarantee their musicianship and ability). Six weeks will give us sufficient time to fulfill your needs and organize your selections. Sometimes bridal couples are overwhelmed by the plethora of musical choices and ask for help in finalizing their choices. Jonathan is more than happy to help you and can be reached by telephone (415) 422-6021 or e-mail at dimmock@usfca.edu.

Music rehearsals:

The music staff will line up all rehearsal times with every musician they hire for your ceremony. At the wedding rehearsal itself, you will be focusing on many logistics, the music staff is not present at the wedding rehearsal.

Planning Your Wedding Music at St. Ignatius Church

Policies and Guidelines

• Since Marriage is one of the Sacraments of the Church, only sacred music is allowed within the ceremony itself.
• The St. Ignatius Wedding Organist, Jonathan Dimmock, is the designated keyboard player for all weddings. His fee is included in your church payments.
• Only St. Ignatius designated cantors are allowed to lead the principal sung parts of the liturgy.
• Guest soloists are allowed to sing up to two selections (choice of Offertory solo, Communion solo, Presentation of Flowers to Mary solo, Special Solo).
• If a guest soloist is used, rehearsal with the Wedding Organist is mandatory and will take place one hour before the ceremony itself. The fee for this rehearsal is outlined below.
• Any hiring of outside instrumentalists or choirs will be done by the Wedding Organist.
• Musical choices need to be made at least one month prior to your wedding date. At that time, the appropriate Form needs to be filled out and forwarded to the Wedding Organist.
• No photography is permitted within the sanctuary during the wedding ceremony.

Choosing your Wedding Music: When thinking about music, keep in mind that St. Ignatius Church is a very large space to fill. For an average to large-sized number of wedding guests, the organ fills the space without being overbearing; use of the piano is also very lovely. Other options which work very well in our church are

• Piano trio (piano, violin, cello) – Prelude music
• Brass ensemble (quartet or quintet) – Prelude music
• Trumpet and organ duo – Processions

Fee Schedule

The Prelude

Generally, the organ (or instrumental) prelude begins when the guests start to arrive, typically fifteen to twenty minutes before the ceremony is scheduled to start. If you have particular pieces that you want played during the seating of your guests, please feel free to let us know what they are. Otherwise, the Wedding Music Director will choose pieces that are well-suited to the occasion (generally upbeat, joyful, but not overbearing, heavy, or too loud). If you are including extra instrumentalists in your ceremony, you may wish to have them play during the prelude. It is not usual to include processional music in the prelude (marches, trumpet voluntaries, etc.), as it may detract from the processions themselves (after the prelude). Also, you are not limited to organ music. The Wedding Music Director is also happy to play the piano or to employ other instrumentalists, such as strings, trumpet, harp, bagpipes, or the like. Some people wish to have choral music, and again, the Wedding Music Director can hire an octet of singers to provide choral music for your wedding.

Entrance Processions

The entrance music is played for everyone needing to make a noted entrance.

• Formal Seating – This may include, but is not limited to, parents, grandparents, and sponsors
• Bridal Party – This includes the priest, groomsmen, bridal party, flower girls, ring bearers, and the groom.
• Entrance of the Bride – This piece is just for the bride, often escorted by her

Music Within the Ceremony

The next decision to make concerns the amount of music to use within the ceremony. If a cantor is desired, would you prefer a male or a female voice? The psalm is generally sung although it can be read by one of your guests, instead. The Gospel Acclamation (“Alleluia” followed by a verse from the psalms) is usually sung, as are the Eucharistic acclamations (Holy, Holy, Holy, Memorial Acclamation, and Great Amen). There are many options for these parts of the Mass.  If you choose to hire a choir, there are countless lovely choral settings of the Mass that they can sing.

If you have a cantor, choir, instrumentalists, or chamber ensemble added to your ceremony, you may wish to have a special music selection at some point within the ceremony. The most common places to insert music, in the liturgy, are at the lighting of the unity candle, at the Presentation of the Gifts, during distribution of Communion, or while visiting our altar to the Virgin Mary.

You should feel free to carve out a wedding ceremony that is as unique and meaningful as the Sacraments we celebrate (Marriage and Communion). Don’t hesitate to contact Jonathan Dimmock in the music office, if you have any questions about the choice of music and/or musicians for your wedding.

Order of Service
(Two Options)

Wedding Musicians

• Organ & Piano – Our Wedding Organist, Jonathan Dimmock, is the designated keyboard player for all weddings at St. Ignatius Church.  In the event that he is unable to play for your wedding, he will take the responsibility of hiring a suitable replacement.  His fee is included in the payments you make to the church.  Furthermore, if you wish to have a piano trio for your prelude music (piano, violin, cello), he will serve as the pianist; no extra fee is required (except to hire the two string players).  Jonathan is an internationally renowned concert organist, Co-founder of American Bach Soloists, Founder of Artists’ Vocal Ensemble and Art to the Nations (using music in international conflict resolution).  He’s the organist for the San Francisco Symphony, has toured on five continents and recorded more than 30 CDs.  His website is:  www.JonathanDimmock.com.
• Cantors – The St. Ignatius Church cantors are the only cantors allowed to sing the traditional parts of the Mass at your wedding.  While cantors are not required (and therefore not part of your fee to the church), it is our normal standard to use them.  They add an enormous contribution to the liturgy.  You can choose a male or a female cantor, or, if you enjoy the timbre of the two voices together, both!  We are fortunate to work with exceptional cantors:
  • Kevin Baum
  • Aimee Puentes
• Choir – Artists’ Vocal Ensemble (called “AVE”) is the choir of choice for your wedding, if you would like to include choral music.  AVE is a professional ensemble that specializes in sacred choral music from the Renaissance and contemporary periods.  They are Artists in residence at St. Ignatius Church.  Hearing their exquisite singing within the sublime acoustics of our church building is an unforgettable experience.  This would definitely be something that everyone would remark on later.  To hear recordings of their music, please visit their website:  www.AVE-music.org.
• Trumpet – Trumpet players are often used for entrance and exit processions.  This adds stateliness to the occasion.  While the organ can also play trumpet voluntaries, there’s nothing quite like the sound of a trumpet player playing with an organ.  We are fortunate to work with several symphony musicians that we can book for you.
• Strings – Whether it be a string quartet or a piano trio (piano, violin and cello), there’s an elegance to this music that is unparalleled.  If you are interested in having string players at your wedding, we recommend using them in during the prelude.  This sets the tone for a lovely occasion.
• Brass ensemble – We generally work with the Monteverdi Brass.  This is a professional quintet which receives rave reviews.  Some of their music can be heard on the website called “Music Choices” on the left side of this page.