I don’t remember everything we used…I know Canon was in there, as was Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. The recessional is one I do remember, though: “It Had To Be You”.
If you think Clark’s Trumpet Voluntary is too stuffy and formal, you could go with the rock and roll version, Trumpet Volunteer (song starts at the 4 minute mark, but the interview’s worth listening to as well; Peter Sellers interviewing himself).
I walked down the aisle to Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntaru, played by our organist. It’s not specifically religious, and it sounded lovely. Our recessional was Charles-Marie Widor’s Toccata (Symphony No. 5). Some other secular pieces we had were Voluntary in G by John Stanley, Prelude on Rhosymedre by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bach’s Minuet in G, which is one of my favorites, Allegretto (Sonata No. 4) by Mendelssohn and Elgar’s Nimrod from the Enigma Variations. They were all very nice pieces and included a couple of my favorites.
My husband’s suggestion was either Darth Vader’s march or Devil With the Blue Dress On.
We used Mark Motherspaugh’s Canon from the Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack for the processional and Linus and Lucy for the recessional. And yes, we did dance up the aisle.
The Canadians on the board will appreciate this - my sister and her husband had the Hockey Night In Canada theme at the end of their recessional. (You really can’t have an organist in Canada and not play our unofficial national anthem.)
My processional was Handel’sThe Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. It was what my mother had as her processional too, so for me it was a nice link to the past.
It’s 02:12, so it might be too long for you, or too fussy and baroque for your taste, but it is a very apt piece of music.
You know, I’m a real traditionalist, but at the wedding described in the OP, I might just say, go for the Star Wars music. Either the Emperor’s March, or the Rebel March. It can’t hurt, and you’ll be pleasing the man who you plan to spend your life with. So for this one thing, let him choose.
There’s not going to be much of anything that hasn’t been heard before, so have fun. I went to a non-church, but religious ceremony wedding, and the recessional was “I Feel Good” by James Brown. Or further upthread someone suggested using the Peanuts theme as a recessional.
At my wedding I had tradtional music, the Purcell as recessional and “Prince of Denmark’s March” for the processional. The latter is pretty good, and can be made to fit different lengths of time. There’s some short Bach cantatas that are also lovely, you might look into those.
I love Rimsky-Korsakov’s Procession of the Nobles from Mlada. It’s long, but could be used as processional for the entire wedding party or cut to a 1 minute portion.