7 Tips for Creating the Perfect Wedding Music Playlist

Putting together the perfect wedding music play list for your big day can be a daunting task. With so many things to consider where do you start?

Picture Your Dream Wedding

Start by picturing your dream wedding. Visualize what you and your wedding party are wearing, what your ceremony and reception venues look like and the smiles of all your guests as they dance and celebrate the night away. Now, stop and listen closely, what music do you hear when you visualize these things?

Music plays an integral part in the success of any wedding. From the first note of the ceremony prelude music to the last dance of the night, the music creates the atmosphere for your wedding.

There are no rules when selecting music for your wedding but here are a couple of helpful hints to help you.

Wedding Ceremony Music

There’s no need to stick to traditional classical music if you don’t like classical music. Pick something you and your fiancee enjoy, whether it be contemporary, traditional or somewhere in between. There are a lot of great covers of popular wedding songs done by string quartets out nowadays so you can have the best of both worlds!

Cocktail Hour and Dinner Music

Most people prefer to go with the standard Frank Sinatra style music for cocktail hour and dinner. Why not use cocktail hour to mix it up a little bit and play some of your favorite songs. What’s on your iPod? Adult contemporary, alternative rock, classic rock, reggae, Top 40? It can make for great cocktail hour and/or dinner music and set your wedding apart. This is your day; choose something that reflects your personal style and taste. Of course, if you really love Frank and the Rat Pack go for it.

Time to Dance

Once dinner and the formal activities are over it’s time to open up the dance floor and get your guests out there celebrating. What songs should you pick for dancing? Of course you should include your favorite songs but don’t forget about all of your other guests who may not share your musical tastes. Be sure to throw some songs on your play list for your older guests too!

Work With Your Wedding DJ

A good wedding DJ will take the time to find out what your musical preferences are and tailor their performance to that while at the same time “reading” the crowd and playing music that keeps the dance floor jumping.

It’s perfectly all right to ban certain songs from your wedding, even entire genres of music. Just don’t fall into the trap of saying I only want my favorite style played and nothing else. You want all of your guests to dance and have a great time at your wedding.

How Many Songs Should You Pick?

A good rule of thumb is 15 songs per hour. A typical wedding reception will see about 3 hours of dancing after dinner and all the formalities are over. That is just 45 songs.

It’s never a good idea to give your DJ a list of 100 songs to play, there is no way they will have time to play them all and they won’t know what the most important ones are.

A good way to break up your request list is into a Must Play and Play If Possible list. Give your DJ your top 15 favorite songs on your Must Play list so they know those are the most important to you. Give them a second Play If Possible list of 15-30 more songs that they can choose from at their discretion.

If you hire a professional DJ trust them to use your request list along with their skill at reading the crowd to create the perfect mix of music for your wedding. That is their job!

You should also provide your wedding DJ with a Do Not Play list so they know what songs and types of music you don’t want to hear. A professional DJ will know this from their conversations with you but it never hurts to have it down in front of them.

Start Making Your List and Checking It Twice

Take a look at your iPod play lists, what’s on there?

Carry a pad of paper in your car and every time you hear a great song you want to hear at your wedding jot it down. That list will probably change between now and your wedding day but it will give you some good ideas.

If pen and paper are a little to old school for you, use the incredible Shazam app. Just click a button and it will tell you the title and artist of whatever song it hears, tags it and adds it to a list for you.

Check out the most requested wedding songs to see what other people are requesting. It will give you some great ideas for popular songs to add to your Must Play List or Do Not Play List if they are a little too mainstream for your tastes.

When you add a song to your list think about how the crowd will respond to it. If you have a whole list of songs by bands no one has ever heard of, how do you think that will affect your dance floor. Try to pick songs that you know people will like dancing too. Shift the more obscure and non-danceable songs to the cocktail hour request list.

Get To Work

Don’t wait till the week of your wedding to try and figure out what you want to hear on your wedding day, you will have enough other things to deal with. Now that you’ve got some direction, start working on the perfect wedding music playlist today!

For more information on creating a wedding music playlist and DJ services for your wedding contact MDM Entertainment today at 773.253.4986.