Hmmm - before doing an Ave Maria in a Lutheran church, I'd keep in mind that it's only Roman
Catholics who seem able to make the mental leap between "these two folks are getting married"
and the Annunciation - which is what the Ave Maria text is commemorating. Plus, not all
Lutherans are particularly enamoured of Marian hymns in general, nor Latin texts for that matter.
It's not even the most appropriate Gounod - that would be "Entreat me not to leave thee" from his
oratorio RUTH.

I'd definitely steer clear of Ave Maria myself in anything but a Catholic wedding. Gottfried
Heinrich St=F6lzel's "Bist du bei mir"

- listed as
BWV 508 (due to previous incorrect attribution of the song to J.S. Bach) and included in Bach's
"Notenb=FCchlein f=FCr Anna Magdalena Bach" would not only be a much more appropriate text for a
wedding, but a much more appropriate piece of music for singing in a Lutheran church. On the
other hand, I've heard Germans tell me it's rather too sombre for a German wedding; apparently
it's only Americans who find it appropriate.

On the other hand, I've also always found "Bist du bei mir" to be kind of morbid as a wedding
sentiment. This said, it gets sung at weddings (and, unsurprisingly, funerals) a lot. It definitely
emphasises the "Till death do us part" of marriage - I'll say that for it. And it is quite lovely.

But if you want a truly wedding-appropriate German song, the fourth of the Brahms Vier ernste
Ges=E4nge, "Wenn ich mit Menschen, und mit Engelzungen redete"

would be a good choice - it is a setting of 1
Corinthians 13, which is the Biblical text most frequently used at weddings.

Of course, could do far, far worse than to sing the "Alleluia" from Mozart's EXSULTATE,