How To Choose The Right Wedding Songs

Picture this: You’ve just had one of the most enjoyable days of your life. You got to marry your soul mate!  You’e just finished your speech, thanking everyone for travelling all this way to celebrate with you and the music starts… Your maid of honour grabs you by the arm and drags you to the dance floor with a huge bunch of other excited guests to dance the night away. What a brilliant end to an amazing day! Choosing the right wedding songs and music is MUST for creating the perfect atmosphere for a night of celebration!

 

[Tweet “Your #maidofhonour grabs you by the arm and drags you to the #dancefloor with a huge bunch of excited guests to #dancethenightaway.”]

 

Choosing the right music and songs can help you achieve this mass celebration. But choosing the wrong music, performer or songs can also mean that guests may not be so motivated to dance.

You have a few important decisions to make here. Hopefully we can help you with this.

Choosing whether to have a DJ, live singer or band or just a DIY playlist doesn’t necessarily seem like one of those all-important decisions couples have to make on their wedding day but choosing the right one can make a huge difference to the ‘feel’ of your wedding reception. But it’s not only the choice of how you’ll play the music, it’s knowing which wedding songs will get your guests running to the dance floor, forming a dance circle and busting out with the moves that they’ve been practising in front of the mirror for weeks!

Treens and I have been to a lot of weddings and we’ve made some very interesting observations regarding the correlation of wedding music choice to wedding guest behaviour!

 

Live Bands

It’s a great idea to book a live performance for your reception. They look after everything! You can often meet with them before the wedding and choose a specific playlist that you both like. Most bands and performers are flexible like that. This means that there is another person (or people) who are used to being on stage and interacting with your guests. They’ve most probably done many weddings before and already know what wedding songs are most popular and which ones get guests up and dancing.

This guy (Kel Harper) was an AMAZING wedding singer from a wedding we shot last year! He also does comedy and magic too if you’re interested 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

DIY Wedding Songs Playlists

We have also seen a lot of couples choose this option too. This is theoretically the best option as you and your fiancé get to choose what ever you like and play them in which ever order you like…well that’s the theory anyway. In reality, yes you do get to choose which songs but controlling the flow of music throughout the night is another story altogether. So many times have we seen grooms worrying about the fact that the wrong song is playing at a certain time or he’s been too busy to remember to press play and there’s no music at all.

Another problem is being able to judge the mood of guests and when they’re ready to break dance or slow dance. Also depending on your reception venue, you may have to think about sorting your own speakers, etc.

A possible solution is to get a cousin to look after the wedding songs but he then becomes a vendor rather than a guest who can enjoy the night.

This guy invented a device that is excellent for organising your playlists if you choose to go this path.

 

*************** UPDATE**************

One of our very clever #KTgrooms made this suggestions:

Trying to save a few dollars, we went with the DIY solution. We had a few people help us choose songs and then we took out a premium account with Spotify, made specific playlists for each part of the day, downloaded onto a laptop and sorted the music into the playlists. 3 playlists only had one song, walking down the aisle, first dance and father and daughter dance. Had up beat music for the after ceremony, softer music for the reception and belted out dance music for the dance floor. We had a family friend manage the music for us and everything went off without a hitch. Music wise we hit the spot! Cancelled the spotify account within the two month trial period and music cost us only the time to collate it smile emoticon

What a  cool idea!

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DJ’s

DJ’s are like a blend of live band and a Playlist. These guys have also most probably “DJed” (is that even a word??) many weddings and know when to play and stop the music, play up-beat and slow songs, and when to interact with your guests and when to stay quiet (like during speech time).

DJ’s definitely don’t bring the ‘feel’ of a live performance but are so much more dependable than a DIY Playlist. These guys (like the live performers) are professionals. This is what they do! They provide songs that EVERYONE knows and sing along to! Dancing Queen, My Sharona, Nutbush, Summer of ’69, Whip it Good and SO MANY MORE favourites. They come with all their professional gear and do all the setting up and packing away. Yay! We’ve seen all three of these music methods work but in our experience, the good DJ’s have always had the most people up on the dance floor for longer and dancing harder!

This guy (from Rockin U Wild) was the most unbelievable DJ we’ve ever heard. EVERY SINGLE SONG made Treens and I want to throw the cameras down and run to the dance floor! They’ve won a whole lot of awards too which is also a bit of a bonus when trusting someone with your music!

 

 

 

 

 

 

But how do you find a good DJ or live band or performer? Probably the same way you found us! You visit their website, have a read of their reviews or testimonials and ask friends who have been married recently for their advice. Then when you’ve narrowed it down to a few, go and visit them and see if you ‘click’, are they easy-going or ultra-organised like you? Do they love the same things you love? Do they already have the songs that you love in their playlist? Ask them to play a few songs for you if you are looking into getting a band.

Wedding songs can easily take a back seat in the planning process. They don’t seem as fabulous and the flowers, or as graceful as the gown, or even as phenomenal as the photographer (had to throw that one in 😃). They’re such a common thing that we hear days in, day out, but they mustn’t be neglected. Music and music providers do such an amazing job of bringing a sense of celebration into the reception venue and give the guests a buzz! They set the tune and the vibe!! Wedding songs are there to help create a memorable night for you and your new spouse, your close family and friends. Choose wisely 🙂

 

 

 

What style of music delivery are you planning for your upcoming wedding? We’d love to hear!

Let us know in the comments!

Blessings,

 

Kirk