Tonight’s song is pure happiness: a young woman is getting married today, and she can’t stop singing about it.
Learn from Songs · Unit 4: The future · A2–B1
Chapel of Love
The happiest wedding song ever: the present continuous for future arrangements (we’re getting married on Saturday), going to for plans, and will for predictions and promises, with Demetria, in charge of her sister’s wedding.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
My sister is getting married on Saturday!
SOPHIA
Then this lesson is for you. And the gamebook even more.
MARCOS
Is there cake in the gamebook?
Before you listen: the song
New York, 1964
The Dixie Cups were three young women from New Orleans: the sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Hawkins, and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson. In 1963 they travelled to New York to try their luck as singers.
“Chapel of Love” was the first song they ever recorded. It had been written for other singers, by the songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, with the producer Phil Spector. In June 1964, the Dixie Cups’ version went to number one in the USA, knocking the Beatles off the top, and stayed there for three weeks.
In the song, the singer is getting married today, and she is on her way to the chapel. Everything around her seems perfect, like a spring morning, and she is sure that she and the person she loves will never be apart.
Today is the big day.
Listen: the wedding day
PHILO
Listen once. Where is she going? Why? What will happen?
SOPHIA
Then listen for going to and will. Answer Section A.
💐 Listen to the song: “Chapel of Love” (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, 1964), sung by The Dixie Cups.Listen to the official recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Chapel of Love”, The Dixie Cups.Read the lyrics →
Present continuous for arrangements
DEMETRIA
We’re getting married on Saturday. The musicians are coming at six.
SOPHIA
For fixed arrangements in the future, usually with a time or date, English uses the present continuous: I’m meeting Philo tomorrow. We’re flying to Rome on Monday.
Going to and will
MARCOS
She’s going to wear her grandmother’s veil. It’ll be wonderful!
SOPHIA
going to = a plan or intention (She’s going to wear a white dress). will = a prediction or a promise (The there will be music and dancing. I’ll love you for ever.). Often all three forms are possible, with small differences.
Wedding words
PHILO
bride, groom, ring, veil, bouquet, to get married, to marry someone, a wedding, a marriage.
SOPHIA
Careful: She’s getting married (no object), or She’s marrying Kallias (no with!). A wedding is the day and the party; a marriage is the life together.
Sophia’s comparison: weddings old and new
SOPHIA
In Greek weddings, the bride is taken to her new home at night, in a procession with torches, singing and flutes.
PHILO
And at a Jewish wedding, the couple stand under a canopy, and a glass is broken, to remember Jerusalem even on the happiest day.
DEMETRIA
And in every wedding, someone cries.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| present continuous | fixed future arrangements | We’re getting married on Saturday. |
| be going to | plans and intentions | She’s going to wear a white dress. |
| will | predictions and promises | The there will be music and dancing. |
| get married / marry someone | wedding verbs (no with!) | She’s marrying Kallias. |
| bride, groom, ring, veil, bouquet | wedding vocabulary | The bride carried a bouquet. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Where is the singer going?
2. Why?
3. How does she feel?
4. What will happen at the chapel?
5. Where were the Dixie Cups from?
6. Which band did they knock off number one?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. We’re married on Saturday. (get)
8. The musicians at six o’clock. (come)
9. She’s to wear her mother’s ring. (plan)
10. The guests dance. (prediction)
11. She’s marrying childhood friend. (no preposition)
12. The is the woman getting married.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “She’s marrying with a doctor.”
14. “We’re getting married in June.”
15. “I meet Philo tomorrow at five.” (arrangement)
16. “It will be a beautiful day.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Wedding planner. In pairs, plan an imaginary wedding: The guests are arriving at…, the band is playing…, we’re going to…, it will be…
Discuss. 1. What are weddings like in your country? 2. Is a big wedding important? 3. Why do people cry at weddings?
Write (80–100 words). Next weekend. Write about your arrangements, plans and predictions for next weekend, using the present continuous, going to and will.
Now play the gamebook: Demetria organises her sister’s wedding.Play the gamebook →