The bride almost did not hire the saxophonist. She had already booked a string quartet for the processional and the recessional, and a second musician felt like a lot. Her mom kept pushing. So a saxophonist played her down the aisle, and played again as she walked back out, and she told us afterwards that it gave the whole ceremony a texture the quartet alone would not have.
That was a wedding this August. It is one of 49 we have published since March 2022, and every one of those couples told us what they played. Between them that is 346 songs, from the processional through the grand exit, at weddings mostly around New Braunfels, Gruene and San Antonio.
Walking in
Two songs own the brides entrance. Nine couples walked in to Cant Help Falling in Love and eight to Pachelbels Canon in D, and most of those were arranged for strings, harp or piano rather than sung.
After that it scatters. You Are the Reason by Calum Scott. At Last , sung live by a soloist. A mariachi instrumental of Cant Help Falling in Love . Wildest Dreams arranged by Duomo. A Bridgerton-style string quartet cover of the Elvis. And Ladyfingers by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, which is the least likely entrance in the archive and, by the sound of it, a great one.
The processional is where the agreement stops. Forty-two couples told us theirs, and apart from Cant Help Falling in Love turning up yet again, nothing repeated more than twice. A Million Dreams by The Piano Guys. Married Life from Up. Bachs Jesu, Joy of Mans Desiring . In Your Love by Tyler Childers. At one wedding, Who Let the Dogs Out .
Cant Help Falling in Love appears twenty times across the archive, in five different moments of the day. Elvis, Kacey Musgraves, a mariachi band, a violinist, a string quartet. No other song comes close.
The first dance
Forty-nine first dances and almost no overlap. Four songs repeated: Cant Help Falling in Love three times, then Lifetime by Justin Bieber, Perfect by Ed Sheeran and Theres the Sun by Zach Top twice each. The two Zach Top couples picked it within three months of each other, which is about how fast a song travels around here.
The country lean is clearest in this one moment. Made a Home by Cody Johnson, I Just Want to Dance with You by George Strait, That Look by Aaron Watson, Who I Am by Wade Bowen, Summertime Love by Flatland Cavalry, Next Thing You Know by Jordan Davis.
And then a completely different group of couples reached for soul and standards instead. A Sunday Kind of Love by Etta James. Always and Forever by Heatwave. Love by Nat King Cole. No One by Alicia Keys.
The father daughter dance
This is the one moment of the day where Hill Country couples genuinely converge. I Loved Her First by Heartland was chosen seven times, six of them outright and once inside a medley, at weddings spread across four different years. Nothing else in the archive repeats like that. My Girl and I Hope You Dance follow at three each.
Texas country carries most of the rest. Diamonds and Daughters by Aaron Watson. Youll Always Be My Baby by Alan Jackson. My Little Girl by Tim McGraw. Cmon Cowgirl by Cody Johnson. Just Fishin by Trace Adkins. Today Im Giving My Daughter Away by Dale Watson, which is about as direct as the genre gets.
A few went somewhere else and made it work anyway. Sweet Child o Mine . Vienna by Billy Joel. Here Comes the Sun . And one father and daughter danced to a medley of My Little Girl , Centerfield and Jump On It , which we would have liked to see.
Mothers and sons
A shorter list with more agreement in it. My Wish by Rascal Flatts five times, Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw four, then Thought You Should Know by Morgan Wallen and What a Wonderful World at three each. Past that: Mama by Boyz II Men, Youll Be in My Heart , Simple Man in two different arrangements, Mammas Dont Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys in the Lukas Nelson version, 100 Years , and Edelweiss .
Tim McGraw shows up eleven times across four different moments, which makes him the most played artist in five years of Featured Brides.
Walking back out
The recessional is the most emphatic agreement in the whole archive. This Will Be (An Everlasting Love) by Natalie Cole, seven times, at weddings four years apart. Signed, Sealed, Delivered three. Then Sugar , Marry You , Kiss Me , Oklahoma Smoke Show by Zach Bryan, and Im a Believer from the Shrek soundtrack.
Last call
Thirty-seven couples told us their last song and only two of them repeated, Lover and Make You Feel My Love . Some finished quietly, on the Adele or Turning Page . Others very much did not: Dont Stop Me Now , Celebration , Closing Time .
Ten couples had a separate send-off, and those went bigger. The Top Gun theme. Crazy in Love . A Sky Full of Stars . Love Man by Otis Redding.
Who is actually playing it
The thing that shows up again and again is not a song, it is a combination: live musicians for the ceremony and cocktail hour, a DJ for the dance floor. The saxophonist wedding did exactly that, with the string quartet at the ceremony and a DJ later on.
One bride last November went the other way and skipped a DJ altogether. A friend of seventeen years sang her processional, her entrance, her recessional and her first dance.
At a wedding in May, the parent dances and the last dance all ran in Spanish, with Vicente Fernandez, Los Bukis and Los Dorados. Worship music turns up more often than you might expect too, almost always during the ceremony: Shane and Shane, Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, Chandler Moore.
If you are weighing live music against a DJ, our Hill Country wedding DJs, live music and entertainment vendors include a DJ and emcee, a harpist and a saxophonist, so both are available locally. And if you are working out when to book any of it, the Texas Hill Country wedding planning timeline shows where music sits next to everything else.
Every song here came from a couple who let us tell their story. They are all in the Featured Bride archive.
