Greetings.
So folks I am getting hitched in a little over a year. Been working on the planning phase for the big day. We already have the venue, caterer, and photographer lined up. We are now working on the little, but just as important details. One I'm particularly interested in is the music for ceremony, cocktail/dinner hour, and dancing.
I'd love to hear from folks what they chose and why. What would you do again and what would you do differently? Did you have a DJ who blew the roof off the house or did they leave the floor empty? Any live music? Did you allow crowd participation, or have a strictly chosen playlist?
I ask because I'm waffling between a DJ or a playlist. I experienced both in the last couple of weeks. One wedding allowed folks to pick songs off spotify and turned into a miley cyrus and fallout boy festival (I very much did not enjoy!). The second had a fairly decent DJ who was playing a lot of standards mixed with todays latest hits. I didn't know many of them myself, but the kids loved it. Until the last song of the night which was oddly enough Eddie Money.
Eddie's 80's classic cleared the dance floor and had the party screaming "one more song" which they didn't get. Which brings up the argument that a DJ can read the floor and get people dancing. I know its not foolproof but id like to avoid such a situation.
I'll comment more on specific topics but lets start with DJ vs. playlist and go from there.
-Cheers
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I chose a lot of classic rock and classic country love songs (this was in 1990) for the first 30 minutes before the wedding. IMMEDIATELY after the pastor announced us as Mr. and Mrs, the church sound operator hit the play button on the cassette (yeah, cassette) and James Brown's "I Feel Good" roared out of the speakers. It surprised and delighted a great many people, and I followed it up with more old rock, soul, and country ballads.
A cassette? Nice! So you went the playlist route before the playlist route was cool.
How was the flow of the music? Obviously, you started with a great track, but how did you flow from rock to country and heavy to light styles of music? Any long stretches of empty dance floor or was it a steady come and go?
I really like Etta James into Donnie Trumpet. I have this early in my list but im trying to convince my fiancé to make this a two song first dance.
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I suggested the Super Mario theme be played at our wedding. I am no longer permitted to plan anything to do with the wedding.
The World by Five for Fighting would be a great wedding song. Oh, and Gratz!
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I suggested the Super Mario theme be played at our wedding. I am no longer permitted to plan anything to do with the wedding.
lawlz.
So I told my fiancé no to Miley Cyrus Party in the U.S.A because its terrible and only her four friends would like it. We were out one night at the bar and she was talking to my friend's wife. I came around the bar and was accosted about my tight grip on the music and the convo went like this;
Friend, "You need to lighten up and compromise on the music Pan!"
Me, "She wants Miley Cyrus Party in the U.S.A...."
Friend turns to my fiancé, "Honey, you need to just let Pan plan the music!"
A cassette? Nice! So you went the playlist route before the playlist route was cool.
How was the flow of the music? Obviously, you started with a great track, but how did you flow from rock to country and heavy to light styles of music? Any long stretches of empty dance floor or was it a steady come and go?
I really like Etta James into Donnie Trumpet. I have this early in my list but im trying to convince my fiancé to make this a two song first dance.
The church where we got married was one her family had helped found in the 1930s, and while she wasn't nearly as fundamentalist as the rest of the congregation, there was no dancing or drinking allowed. The music was just for playing in the background. I'm actually surprised they let us get away with what we did.
No dancing allowed....wow. Were you from the town of Elmore City?
Reminds me of another story about a friend of mine. I was hanging out with him and his fiancé one night. They were talking about their distant wedding plans (they never ended up together). He said he wanted cool jazz and dancing wouldn't be allowed because he didn't want to.....
I used to dj weddings and proms and such. Here in the Bible Belt, I can count on one hand the number of weddings I dj'd where alcohol was allowed. These were the most boring affairs you could ever imagine. Hardly anyone ever danced, and most of the time half the people complained about the music the other half wanted to hear. I did this off and on for 10 years until I dj'd a friend's wedding (another affair where there was no dancing or drinking) and I finally threw in the towel.
No dancing allowed....wow. Were you from the town of Elmore City?
Reminds me of another story about a friend of mine. I was hanging out with him and his fiancé one night. They were talking about their distant wedding plans (they never ended up together). He said he wanted cool jazz and dancing wouldn't be allowed because he didn't want to.....
I know towns here in Arkansas where dancing is still not allowed by law.
When my wife and I got married, I think we just had the usual wedding march and such for the ceremony itself (at the church).
Our wedding reception was in a resort function hall. We had a DJ, and IIRC, we chose most of the selection of music beforehand, but not the order apart from key pieces (like our first dance and bride/father dance). Our tastes are pretty eclectic, so there was a little bit of almost everything.
When it was time to start the dancing for everyone, the DJ played a conga track; my mother-in-law (who has very little shame) promptly got out on the floor and started dragging other people out with her. After that ice-breaker, the guests were more willing to dance on their own, and there was almost always at least a few people dancing at any time (usually with our college friends at the core).
Our conga is polka. I have a bunch of tracks from Frankie Yankovic lined up. The nice thing is, the songs are like 2 min long each so you can do 3-5 of them in a row and then everybody gets their polka fix.