Love Songs From Musicals For Your Wedding

West Side Story is one of my favorite musicals of all time and in my humble opinion, Tonight is one of the best songs to ever come out of musical theater. I particularly love this contemporary version by Kenny Loggins and Wynonna Judd. Listen to it, it's ear candy!

* Check out One Hand, One Heart from this musical as well. It was used for the scene in West Side Story where starcrossed lovers Tony and Maria pretend to marry each other. It makes for a good backdrop for when you exchange your vows.

Today, all day I had the feeling
A miracle would happen
I know now I was right
For here you are
And what was just the world is a star
Tonight...

As Long as You're Mine is an intense song from Wicked The Musical, interpreted by original cast members Idina Menzel and Norbert Leo Butz. The song is a duet between the Elphaba (who turns into the Wicked Witch of the West), played by Idina and Fiyero, the man she loves, played by Norbert. Idina Menzel won a Tony for Best Actress for her work in this musical. Listen to the music and see the photo slideshow below.

Just for this moment
As long as you're mine
Come be how you want to
And see how bright we shine...

Fallin' is a beautiful song that talks about being afraid to fall in love but taking the plunge anyway. The video shows Broadway veteran and dramatic actor Victor Garber playing Arthur in the musical They're Playing Our Song, a musical that illustrates the real-life relationship of composers Hamlisch and Sager. I saw this musical long ago and absolutely loved it. Listen to the song below.

* Check out Fill in the Words from this musical as well.

My head says go and find the door
My heart says I found you
And now I'm fallin
Catch me if you can
Maybe this time I'll have it all
When I fall in love...

I Will Be Loved Tonight is a very sweet and touching song from the Off-Broadway show I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, a musical that chronicles relationships from the courtship stage to marriage to growing old together. The song talks about finally finding love after years of being alone. I remember seeing this musical at the Westside Theatre alone back in the late 90s and I promised myself that if ever I get married, I would bring my husband to see it too. And I did, in 2005 when my husband and I went to New York for our honeymoon. Listen to it here.

* Check out Shouldn't I Be Less In Love With You? from this musical as well. It's a tender love song sung by one half of a couple who have been together for a long time who realizes that his love for his partner remains the same despite the flaws in their relationship.

So let darkness come, 'cause that will be fine;
for I'll have a soul entangled in mine.
We'll do as we please, and please... hold me tight.
For I will be loved, I will be loved.
Yes, I will be loved tonight.

A tender ballad from the musical Pippin, a show based on the life of Pippin the Hunchback, the son of Charlemagne. The musical is all about Pippiin and his ambitious quest for an extraordinary life. With You is a song he sings when he discovers that relationships without love can leave one empty and unfullfilled.

* Check out Love Song from this musical as well. It's a pretty duet between Pippin and Catherine, a girl he becomes enamored with, distracting him from his quest momentarily.

And time weaves ribbons of memory
To sweeten life when youth is through
But I would need no memories there
If I could share
My life with you...

I'll Cover You is an upbeat, unexpected love song from the musical Rent. In the musical you will see that it refers to a pure homosexual relationship between Collins, played by Jesse Martin, and Angel, played by Wilson Jermaine Heredia with him eventually winning a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor. The beauty of this song lies in that it can be sung by and for any gender. RENT is probably the only musical I saw four times on Broadway, twice on $20 lottery and twice using my discount when I was an art student in New York City - that's how much I enjoyed it.

* Check out Without You from this musical as well, a song that talks about not being entirely complete without the person you love, and of course Seasons of Love.


I've longed to discover
Something as true as this is
So with a thousand sweet kisses,I'll cover you
With a thousand sweet kisses, I'll cover you...

Soon It's Gonna Rain is a cute and uplifting love duet from The Fantasticks, which is incidentally the longest-running musical ever. It is sung by the main characters Luisa and Matt as they speak and sing of their love and their dreamed life.

*Check out Try to Remember and They Were You from this musical as well.

Then we'll let it rain.
We'll live and love within our walls.
Happily we'll live and love,
No cares at all.
Happily we'll live and love
Within our castle walls.

Sun and Moon is a haunting love duet from the West End musical Miss Saigon, interpreted by original cast members Lea Salonga and Simon Bowman. The song is about two people from completely opposite backgrounds finding love in the most unexpected of circumstances. Lea, a Filipino international recording artist, won a Tony Award for Best Actress for her fantastic work in this musical and my husband and I were fortunate enough to have seen her perform the role when she reprised it in a special re-staging just a few years ago.

* Check out The Last Night of the World from this musical as well.

You are sunlight and I moon
Joined by the gods of fortune
Midnight and high noon
Sharing the sky
We have been blessed, you and I

Some Girls is a tender ballad from Once on this Island, a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, the musical is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid set in the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. In the play, the lead character Daniel is betrothed to another but sings this song to Ti Moune, the girl he really loves.

* Check out The Human Heart from this musical as well.

You are not small talk or shiny cars
Or mirrors or French cologne.
You are the river, the moon, the stars.
You're no one else I've known.

(The video below is the best interpretation I could find of the song online but you'll have to forward it to around 2:46 to hear the song.)

Dina Carroll's version of The Perfect Year is a lovely rendition of the song from the tragic musical Sunset Boulevard. In the musical, it is sung by Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, to young screenwriter Joe Gillis, with whom she has fallen in one-sided love with. Despite the tragic circumstances in the story, it is still a lovely song to sing or dance to. Our wedding date is just a couple of days shy from January 1st so my husband and I chose this song for our first dance as a married couple.

* Check out As If We Never Said Goodbye and Too Much In Love To Care from this musical as well.

We don't need a crowded ballroom
Everything we need is here
And face to face we shall embrace
The perfect year.