How to Choose your Wedding Songs

Choosing your wedding songs is one of the most important elements of your wedding planning.  Your choice of songs will provide the soundtrack to your day and will help to set the tone and ambiance for the entire day.

You also need to choose wedding songs which are appropriate to a wedding, which match your wedding style – traditional, informal etc and which have some personal meaning to you both.  You will need to choose many songs to feature throughout your day including:

• Your ceremony
• The cocktail hour
• The wedding breakfast
• Cutting the wedding cake
• The first dance
• Evening party

You may already have some favorites that you want to use and most couples will already have a song in mind for their first dance later on in the day.  It is a good idea to start with songs which you have already identified for your wedding and then work in other choices around them.  If you are having a religious wedding ceremony then you may be restricted in your choices for the ceremony.  A civil wedding ceremony on the other hand is more relaxed about what music is played, the only stipulation is that is must not contain any religious references.

For your cocktail hour and wedding breakfast a compilation of quiet, relaxing classical or instrumental music is perfect.  It will aid in the atmosphere of the occasion whilst allowing your guests to chat with each other without having to compete with the music.  You can choose a romantic song or a song with special meaning for when you cut the wedding cake also.

The evening party is the time when you can kick back and enjoy yourself as the formalities of the day are over with.  For most couples a disco is the preferred option for entertaining their guests and a good wedding DJ will be able to put together a playlist of tracks which keep your guests dancing all night long.  As a guide, choose disco classics from the 70’s and 80’s along with a few modern dance floor classics which people will know.  Avoid any unusual remixes or cover versions, if your guests don’t know them they are highly likely to sit them out and your dance floor could empty very quickly.

If you want some inspiration for your wedding songs ask for some recommendations from family and friends.  Also go online as there are many song library websites where you can listen to songs, read lyrics, watch videos and see ratings given by others.  Checking the lyrics of your chosen songs is also very important just to make sure that they are wholly suitable for a wedding!