Music Monday 06 - Banned Wedding Songs

I’ve been to a lot of weddings in my life. One of my favorite parts about going to weddings is the opportunity to dissect and critique each one. It gives me the chance to see what I would like to incorporate into my own wedding and what I would like to avoid. Now, as I’m preparing for my own wedding, I’ve got a lot of thoughts running through my head. This won’t be the last wedding-themed post but it is the first, and it focuses on songs that should never be played at any wedding.

Music is a big part of weddings. There is music during the ceremony, there is music as the couple enters the reception and, obviously, there is music during the dancing. There are a lot of opportunities to hear music at a wedding but that also means there are a lot of opportunities to make the wrong musical choices. I’ve heard plenty of music at weddings that was cheesy, offensive, incongruous with the occasion and just plain bad. Here are some songs that should never be played at a wedding.

Chuck Wicks – “Stealing Cinderella”

I make it a point not to listen to country music. In a perfect world I would have never heard the song “Stealing Cinderella.” But I was up late one night watching music videos on Palladia and I saw the video for “Stealing Cinderella” by Chuck Wicks. I don’t know who Chuck Wicks is and I’ve definitely never heard any other songs of his. This song, however, is completely contrived and entirely too sappy to play at a wedding. Here is the chorus:

Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big Popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes I’m Prince Charming
But to him I’m just some fella riding in and stealing Cinderella

The saccharine nature of this song is sweeter than any wedding cake and doesn’t even come with action figures of the couple on top. This song seems to have been written for the explicit intention of being played at weddings. Chuck Wicks isn’t planning on making money through record sales, but through the sale of sheet music. That way, any guy with an acoustic guitar can play it while the couple takes Communion or while the father and daughter have their dance, all while impressing the bridesmaids. There are a lot of really bad, sappy songs that show up at a wedding. In a tremendous upset, “Stealing Cinderella” has finally taken down the long-standing champ “Butterfly Kisses.”

Sting – “Brand New Day”

Without listening to the lyrics, “Brand New Day” by Sting seems like a great song to be played as the couple walks down the aisle as husband and wife for the very first time. The new couple is ready to face the brand new day of their lives together. In fact, my sister thought of playing this song at her wedding as she and my brother-in-law walked down the aisle. It seemed like a good plan until she found out that Sting wrote the song about his divorce. Here is a verse from the song:

One day you could be looking through
An old book in rainy weather
You see a picture of her smiling at you
When you were still together
Or you could be walking down the street
And who should you chance to meet
But that same old smile you've been thinking of all day?

Everyone wants to start their marriage out on the right foot; a song about divorce is the wrong foot. Songs like this really highlight the need to listen to the lyrics of all the songs played at a wedding. No one wants a song, which sounds good, to actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy about divorce. At a wedding that’s a brand new day that nobody wants to think about.

Steven Curtis Chapman – “I Will Be Here”

I actually really like this song a lot. Steven Curtis Chapman is the man and I would gladly have “Saddle Up Your Horses” played as I walked back down the aisle with my brand new bride. “I Will Be Here” is a great song because it’s romantic and acknowledges the role God plays in bringing a husband and wife together.

I will be true to the promise I have made
To you and to the one who gave you to me

I remember hearing this song in high school and I imagined playing it at my wedding. But now, after hearing it at a number of different weddings, it just doesn’t need to be played at anymore weddings, including my own. It had its time. It has run its course. It is time to move on. So any aspiring Christian artists should write the next “I Will Be Here” and release performance tracks in various keys.


I’m still trying to think about what music I would like played at my wedding. In some ways, it’s easier to pick the songs that I wouldn’t want to hear at my wedding. A wedding is a chance to celebrate the beginning of a life lived together and the soundtrack should match the occasion. A lot of thought should go into picking wedding music so that the wonderful, brand new day doesn’t turn into another example of Sting’s “Brand New Day.”

What song could you go without ever hearing at a wedding again?