What makes for a great reception?
Colors? Flowers? Dresses? No.
It’s the music. All the rest turns into a blissful blur the second you hit the dance floor. If the music is right, so is the night.
Wedding music is tough to pull off, and I pity every wedding DJ in America. This is partly because of their burden of having to please so many different demographics of people and partly because they’re slowly getting replaced. Sorry, but y’all are too damn expensive and getting replaced by iTunes playlists… at least for this wedding.
That’s what happens with good technology. It replaces manual labor.
We won’t be hiring a band either. Again, too expensive and not diverse enough. Also, you know that I’d have to pick up the bass or guitar for a song, and then I’d get distracted and forget I was in the wedding as I rip a solo on “You Shook Me All Night Long.” So anyway…
Groomsman Wesley and I have already ventured into the gray area of appropriate wedding playlists before for my sister’s wedding, so we have a good idea for how to plan:
1. Play oldies for the old folks who only stay for the first hour of the reception. Start with Beatles, Elvis and Sinatra.
2. Transition midway into party favorites like Bon Jovi, AC/DC and Madonna.
3. End the night with club bangers like Jay-Z, Beyonce and Lil Wayne.
The general rule of thumb is that you should move chronologically through the decades during the course of the reception. Start old-school and end modern. Also, play one to two slow-dance songs per hour. People need a break and/or make-out time.
That’s the fun stuff.
The tough part about choosing music is identifying the specific procession and recession songs, the first dance song, the daddy/daughter dance song, etc. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right, “Thriller” can suit all of these. If only it were that simple.
I think we’ve found the Beatles’ song for the procession. Not sure what we’re doing for the other songs. We’ve toyed with the idea of going 100 percent Beatles music because it’s a totally safe/musically legit direction to take, but we’ve got to explore all of the options.
That’s why I’m burdening myself by listening to all the great songs that could be a part of our wedding, figuring out the right soundtrack for the day. It’s a tough job, but I’ll take this one for the team.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Oh man, I hear ya. I've spent hours on putting together playlists for my wedding and I still have yet to figure out the ceremony music. We'll have to compare notes, though thinking you probably won't like a lot of my country choices. :)
The new Jay-Z album is hot
Post a Comment