Our parish music director, Mary Bellman, ordinarily plays for all weddings and is able to provide a variety of styles of instrumental and vocal music. She will assist you in choosing music and can recommend musicians to play additional instruments if you wish to include them. It is best to contact her soon after reserving the church in order to secure her services.

During the course of your marriage preparation you will be given a booklet, Celebrating Marriage, which includes a planning sheet with some brief explanatory notes about appropriate wedding music. It is helpful to become familiar with this information before meeting to plan the liturgy.

If you would like to hire musicians from outside the parish or include family members or friends as musicians for the wedding, you will need to contact Mary Bellman and give her their a list of the music they would like to play/sing. All musicians are required to follow the music guidelines from Celebrating Marriage and St. Columban parish guidelines for the celebrating liturgy. It is presumed that any visiting musician who has the responsibility for leading the wedding music (an organist, pianist) is familiar with the wedding liturgy and plays regularly in a Catholic parish. If this is not the case, you must hire an additional organist or pianist to lead the parts of the liturgy sung by the assembly. Ms. Bellman can be available to do this or may recommend other musicians for you to contact.

Typical fees for wedding music are set in consultation with those recommended by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. This information is included with the other printed material you will receive.

Our hope is that your wedding liturgy is a prayerful, joyful celebration – one that reflects the love of God for God’s people, symbolized in the union of man and woman. If you have any questions about the music guidelines, please contact Mary Bellman at the parish office. Best wishes as you continue with the preparation for your wedding!