Do You Need a Cantor?
Several parts of the wedding ceremony are traditionally sung. You do not necessarily need a cantor to sing these. Your rabbi or a relative who knows how to read Hebrew could sing them. But hiring a cantor can be a good idea if you have a cantor that you are close with or you want a cantor to represent either your family's synagogue or your spouse's synagogue. The rabbi and cantor can both stand under the chuppah and facilitate the ceremony together, the rabbi making some of the blessings and explaining the parts of the ceremony and the cantor singing the sections that are usually sung.
If you do elect to have a cantor, be sure to find out what his fee is beforehand and be sure the rabbi and cantor are in touch to arrange the flow of the wedding ceremony. They must also predetermine which parts of the wedding ceremony each will chant and facilitate.
Cantors will usually sing several specific parts of the ceremony. As bride and groom walk under the chuppah, the cantor will usually sing the boruch haba, several phrases of welcome in Hebrew that are sung to the bride and groom as they enter. A cantor will also usually sing the sheva berachot, the seven blessings, or at least the last of the sheva berachot. The last of the seven blessings is longer than the previous six and contains several lines that are usually sung. In addition, just before the breaking of the glass you can opt to have the cantor sing the traditional song remembering Jerusalem, “Im Eshkachech Yirushalayim” (“If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem”).
