Choosing hymns for your wedding
Hymns are one of the few moments in a wedding where every single person in the building does the same thing at the same time. Chosen well, they fill the church with sound and give your guests something they’ll remember. Chosen badly, you get a room full of people staring at their order of service in uncomfortable silence.
How many hymns do you need?
A Church of England wedding typically has two or three hymns. Two is perfectly normal; three works well if you’d like music at different points throughout the service. The usual places are after the bride’s entrance (once everyone has settled), during the middle of the service — often after the readings or address — and before the couple leave at the end.
Some churches and clergy have specific requirements about which hymns are sung and where they sit in the order of service, so it’s always worth checking with whoever is taking your service early on. Catholic and other denominations may follow different patterns, with more or fewer musical slots to fill.
If you’re having a civil ceremony, hymns won’t be part of the programme, but you may want vocal or choral music in other forms — our services page covers the options.
Wedding hymns most people actually know
The golden rule of choosing wedding hymns is simple: pick tunes your guests already know. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the words are if nobody can sing along. Here are the hymns we find work best, time after time.
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
The most popular wedding hymn for good reason. The words are about love perfected, which suits the day rather well, and the tune — usually sung to Blaenwern or Hyfrydol — is one most people can carry. It builds beautifully and sounds magnificent with a decent organ and a confident choir behind it.
Jerusalem
Technically not a hymn at all (it’s a poem by William Blake set to music by Hubert Parry), but it’s sung at so many weddings that the distinction hardly matters. Everyone knows it. Everyone sings it. If you want one guaranteed moment of full-throated congregational singing, this is your safest bet. It works particularly well as the final hymn before the couple process out.
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
A quieter, more reflective choice that still has a tune (Repton) people recognise instantly. It builds from gentleness to real power in the final verse. Lovely in the middle of a service, between readings, where you want something that draws people in rather than whipping them up.
Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer
The one the rugby fans in your congregation will sing with particular enthusiasm. Cwm Rhondda is one of those tunes that makes even the most reluctant singer open their mouth. It’s stirring, confident, and fills any space. If one side of the church is Welsh, you’ll hear it.
All Things Bright and Beautiful
A lighter, happier choice that people tend to know from school assemblies. It doesn’t have the gravitas of some of the others on this list, but that can be exactly what you want — a joyful, uncomplicated hymn that lifts the room. Works well early in the service.
Lord of All Hopefulness
Set to the Irish folk tune Slane, this has a gentle warmth that suits weddings beautifully. The words walk through the stages of a day — morning hope, noonday strength, evening peace — and it feels personal without being sentimental. A particular favourite with couples who want something heartfelt but not over the top.
Be Thou My Vision
Another hymn set to an Irish melody, with a stillness to it that can be genuinely moving. Not everyone will know the tune, but it’s simple enough that most guests pick it up quickly, especially with a choir leading. A good choice if you’d like at least one hymn that feels contemplative rather than rousing.
Morning Has Broken
Known to many through the Cat Stevens recording, this is a hymn about new beginnings — which makes it a natural fit for a wedding. The Gaelic melody, Bunessan, is easy to sing, and the words are full of light and freshness. It works especially well at morning or early afternoon services.
You can hear several of these hymns on our listening page, performed by our own singers.
Less traditional choices
Not every couple wants the standard hymn-book selection, and there’s no reason you have to stick to it. Contemporary worship songs, folk hymns, settings from the Iona or Taizé communities, and less commonly heard pieces from the wider tradition can all work well at a wedding.
The important thing is that whoever is playing and singing them knows them properly. A worship song performed hesitantly sounds far worse than a traditional hymn performed with confidence. If you have your heart set on something unusual, tell us early and we can make sure our musicians are fully prepared. We’re also able to create bespoke arrangements — if there’s a piece of music that means something to you as a couple, there may well be a way to include it, even if it wasn’t written for a church setting.
One honest word of caution: if you choose a hymn that nobody in the congregation knows, it can fall flat no matter how beautiful it is. The solution is either to pick tunes that are simple enough to pick up on the spot, or to have a professional choir strong enough to carry the piece while guests listen. Both approaches work; the worst outcome is somewhere in between, where everyone is expected to sing but nobody quite can.
Getting your congregation to sing
Even well-known hymns can fall flat if the conditions aren’t right. A few things make the difference between a congregation that sings and one that mumbles along half a beat behind.
Choose tunes, not just words. Many hymns have multiple tunes associated with them, and your guests might know the words but not the melody your organist has chosen. “Dear Lord and Father of Mankind” to Repton will have the whole church singing; set to a less familiar tune, the same words will get blank looks. If you’re unsure which tune is the well-known one, ask your musicians — this is exactly the sort of thing we advise on.
A confident choir transforms everything. When guests can hear strong, clear voices leading the melody, they sing. It’s as simple as that. People are self-conscious about singing in public, and a choir gives them permission to join in without feeling exposed. Even a small group of two or three professional singers makes a striking difference — something we see at virtually every wedding we do. Our guide to hiring a choir covers how this works in practice.
Accompaniment matters. A good organist sets the tempo, gives a clear introduction so people know when to come in, and provides enough harmonic support that the congregation feels held rather than stranded. If the church doesn’t have an organ, or if you’d prefer a different sound, piano works well too. What you want to avoid is asking a hundred people to sing with no instrumental support at all — unless your choir is large and very confident, it rarely goes well.
Print the words clearly. This sounds obvious, but a well-laid-out order of service with hymn words in a readable size makes a real difference. Tiny text in a decorative font will lose half your congregation before the first verse is finished.
We’re here if you’d like a hand
We help couples choose wedding music every week, and we’re always happy to talk things through — whether you already know exactly what you want or haven’t the faintest idea where to start. There’s no charge for an initial conversation, and no obligation.
You can see the full range of what we offer on our services page, or simply get in touch and tell us about your wedding. We’ll take it from there.