I'm going to a half-dozen weddings over the coming months, so I've had reception music on the brain these days. I love passing on playlist ideas when my friends ask — but I'm also impressed with some friends' musical choices that wouldn't have occurred to me.
One of the best weddings I've attended had a live zydeco band that kept the whole crowd dancing for hours. Another rocked a playlist of vintage soul. And in general, I'm always impressed when my friends manage to sneak in songs they love without totally alienating their Great Aunt Helen.
So I'm wondering: What's the best wedding music situation you've ever encountered? Did someone hire a particularly awesome band — or toss together an exceptional iPod playlist? Was there one song that was a surprise dance hit? Tell me all about it!
Urban Decay
Best Mountain
Hogan
My husband surprised me with a sitar and tabla player for my walk down the aisle. They stayed and played the reception hour too. I hearted that big time.
The funniest thing we did on our playlist was play the LSDudes take on Electric 6's "Gay Bar' mixed with the YMCA. Everyone was dancing their drunk butts off getting ready to do the YMCA when the lyrics of this song played instead. There were a lot of stunned faces then everyone kept dancing and laughing.
But hands down the best wedding music... before Pink Martini blew up and still played weddings!
1My sister had a themed wedding that was very jazz age, and the music totally went with that era. It was so much fun and really got everyone dancing!
2I recently went to a wedding where the couple had a friend actually dj as well. It was hilarious because the girl would play a song, run to the dancefloor to dance with everyone, and then run back to put on a new song. It kind of worked actually because she kept picking fun songs to dance to and was able to feel out what people wanted. It definitely was amusing to watch though.
3I am getting married in Hawaii and am walking down the aisle to "Falling Slowly" by the Swell Season played on the ukelele. For our reception we are having Hawaiian reggae. I basically just like music that reflects the mood or theme of your wedding. Personally, I do not want my wedding reception music to sound like Prom music.
4Best wedding songs:
My friend Heather and her husband Ryan cut the cake to "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard. And as for the reception in general, I'd say it would be my friend Coby's wedding to her husband Chad, when the DJ played "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." The ladies all ended up on one side of the floor doing the "will you love me, will you love me forever?" part and all the guys were on the other side singing back "lemme sleep on it"...it wasn't planned, totally spontaneous, and a great reception moment. I can still picture myself there whenever I hear the song now.
5We had all the good classics playing, Ella, Louis, Frank, etc.
6I've actually never been to a wedding with a band instead of a DJ or an iPod. Our wedding had a really great DJ who also mixes at popular clubs in the area. But I will say, my friend and her sadly now ex, danced to "High Voltage" by Electric Six. Way cool.
7My sister had the best iPod playlist EVER and we discovered that you can keep an entire crowd of people dancing if you only play about the first 60-75 seconds of each song--people get excited when they hear the first strains of "Bust a Move" and you get to hear the chorus at least once and then before you get bored of the song, all of a sudden KC and the Sunshine Band are hittin' you with "Do a Little Dance." iTunes makes it easy to cut the song down and fade out/in.
8Well, it's all theoretical since I've never gone to a wedding where I liked the music... but I like a smooth mixture of classical, jazz and some 80's pop thrown in. Mostly because I was a teen in the 80's and pretty much anyone I marry would at least have been listening to 80's music if not a teen. No rap, no 'do this dance' tunes, and NO! rock. I want people to dance and enjoy themselves but not be grinding and making a fool of themselves.
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