Your guests will hear more prelude music than any other music at your ceremony, 20 to 30 minutes of it, and most couples never choose a single song of it. A working pianist on why the prelude deserves better.
The prelude is the music playing as guests arrive and find their seats, usually starting 30 minutes before the ceremony. It has two jobs. The obvious one is covering the shuffle of arrival so the room never sits in awkward silence. The real one is setting expectations: the moment guests hear live piano instead of a speaker on a stand, they recalibrate what kind of ceremony this is going to be. First impressions are cheap to win here and expensive to lose.
Thirty minutes of prelude is 8 to 10 songs, which surprises couples who assumed the ceremony needed 4 total. This is where a deep repertoire quietly matters; nobody wants the same two songs looping while 120 people file in. The good news is you do not need to pick all of them. The couples who plan this best choose 2 or 3 meaningful songs as anchors and let the musician fill around them in a matching style.
Works: gentle and mid-tempo pieces with familiar melodies. Debussy and Satie, quiet film themes, softened versions of pop songs your families love, and instrumentals that reward half-attention. This is also the natural home for songs honoring people: a grandmother's favorite hymn lands beautifully in the prelude without stopping the ceremony for it.
Skip: anything with a big emotional peak. The prelude should climb toward the processional, not compete with it. Save the tearjerkers for the walk; the processional guide covers that moment in detail, and the full ceremony guide maps the whole arc.
Prelude length should match your invitation math: if the invite says 4:00 and the ceremony truly starts at 4:15, plan 40 minutes of prelude, not 20. Tell your musician about any seating of parents or grandparents that needs its own moment, since those mini-processionals live at the end of the prelude. And prelude time is included in a standard ceremony booking with Faye, from $500, not billed as extra; details on the weddings page.
Send Faye 2 or 3 songs that matter to you and she will build the arrival music around them. Send an inquiry.