I decided early on in the planning process that I would be composing and arranging all the music for my wedding. Specifically, I wanted to write a piece for Krista, my wife, to process down the aisle. It was a big project - maybe bigger than I'd expected. When I consider how busy I was leading up to my wedding, I sometimes wonder why I did that to myself. But it was a gift to my wife, a gift to my family and even a gift to myself (in an oddly "masochistic" sort of way). I wouldn't have it any other way.

The piece is structured very clearly as a processional with a flourish preceeding the procession foward of each of the wedding attendants. Each of the participating bridesmaids is a musician, so I decided to match, as best I could, the melody instrument to the instrument of the person processing. There was a trumpet player, a saxophonist and a flutist, and I matched them to trumpet, French Horn and piccolo trumpet. And, for the bride (an organist), the organ enters triumphantly at the end.

Musicians always enjoy hidden messages in their music. One of these present in the Festive Procession is a musical motif which is repeated a great number of times during the piece: a descending major third. The melody begins with these two notes and there are numerous outbursts of the motif during the flourishes. The significance of this is that during our courtship, when we'd discuss our future, she was fond of saying the phrase, "Maybe, someday," which I jokingly parroted with a descending major third for each of these words. Using the interval in our wedding processional was my way of saying that "Maybe, someday" had finally arrived.

• Festive Procession is published by Drew Fennell Publishing.
  Available for Large Brass Ensemble with Organ.

• Hear Festive Procession (complete) by Sine Nomine, Drew Fennell, Conductor, from the compact disc recording My Whole Heart [large brass ensemble version]*.