Wedding Reception Music

[brewcrew26]

My fiance and I are using an iPod and iTunes for our wedding reception. We have more control over the songs played and two of our good friends are serving as co-DJ for the night.

I'm just curious what are some must-have tunes for weddings? What did you have at your wedding or what must you hear at every wedding that you go to? On the other hand, what songs do you absolutely despise and are sure to clear the floor?

I'd love to hear what you all think.

Here's what we have for the specific dances: (there's a few we haven't decided on yet and need some ideas...)

Father/Daughter: My Little Girl by Tim McGraw
Mother/Son: My Wish by Rascal Flatts
Our First Dance: Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts
Bridal Party Dance: xxxxxx
Cake Cutting: xxxxx
Last Dance: xxxxx

Also, what kind of music do you suggest play during dinner? I'm thinking of using our Disney Fairytale Wedding CD since it's a nice guitar mix that's light enough not to overpower conversation. But, then, what should we have play during the cocktail hour?

[pogo]

Our Bride and Grooms first dance was "Keeper of the Stars" by Tracey Byrd. It is "our" song. I even have it as a ring tone when my Bride calls my Cell Phone. :thumbsup:

[Tigger&Stitch]

Are you primarily into country music? Or a mix? I find that Dixie Chicks are always fun music to play.

As for us...well, we had an Irish Band, so not much help there! We also didn't do any specific dances or music for cake cutting etc.

Unless you are in love with these songs, I'd say they are 'the' dreaded wedding songs:

Chicken Dance
Electric Slide (or any other type rock line dance)
Macarena
"Celebration"
Any songs about stalking (i.e. the Police)

I'd suggest playing "fun" music during the cocktail hour - it will keep people in high spirits and not minding the wait as much as if it were subdued music.

Haven't heard the Disney CD, but sounds good for dinner-time.

Congrats and have a great day!!

[Tinkerbella]

Since your wedding seems disney or mickey themed have you thought about an instrumental version of 'Some Day My Prince Will Come'...Does that sound cheesy? Or 'When You Wish Upon A Star'? I actually saw that Disney Wedding CD at Frys the other day and a lot of it seemed to be instrumental to me. That might be a good buy.

Songs to avoid....'I Honestly Love You' - Olivia Newton John, 'Escape' - Rupert Holmes and as somebody else mentioned The Police.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[conorsmom2000]

For the cake cutting song, one of my friends recommended "When I'm 64" by the Beatles - and it was truly the perfect song! It had the right tempo and it was just sort of fitting! Since then I've recommended it to 2 friends and my sister, all of whom used it! :thumbsup:

The only other thing we did that was a bit different was for when they introduce the bridal party - I've always been a big Snoopy fan/Peanuts collector, so we had them play "Linus & Lucy" by Vince Giraldi while they were introducing all of us (essentially it's the Peanuts theme song). It was perfect! :thumbsup:

I think you've made some great choices - but remember, it is your wedding. While you want your guests to enjoy it, you should really just go with what works for you guys. Mike and I both like a lot of Motown and Southern rock, so that's what we asked the band to play. It was awesome!

Oh, and I don't know how many you have in your bridal party, but our band surprised me at one point and cleared the dance floor except for me, my MOH and my 3 bridesmaids, then they played "Ladies Night" by KC and the Sunshine band - we had the dance floor to ourselves and just had a blast out there! It was just me with the girls and it was like no one else was there. I love watching that on the video - we had so much fun!

As for the dances like the "Chicken Dance", "Electric Slide"....well....I had to play the Chicken Dance because my Mom loved it! But, as for the rest of them, I told the band if they got more than 3 requests, they could play it, otherwise, no. In the end, all the typical ones got played!! :blush:

Happy planning!

[IloveJack]

It looks like our musical tastes are similar, so I'm listing the music we played at our reception 2.5 years ago.

Bride/Groom (Our Song) :cloud9:
She Thinks She Needs Me - Andy Griggs
Mother/Son & Father/Daughter
Then They Do - Trace Adkins
Wedding Party
If I Had $1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies
Friends from College+Wedding Party
Rocky Top :number1:
General Background Music
Jeans On - Keith Urban
It Must Be Love - Alan Jackson
When Somebody Loves You - Alan Jackson
Just Like You and Me - Clint Black
Huckleberry - Toby Keith
Deeper Than the Holler - Randy Travis
An Amen Kind of Love -
I Get Carried Away -
Forever Together - Randy Travis
Once In a Lifetime Love - Alan Jackson
I Got a Feeling -
Somebody - Reba MacEntire
From Here to Eternity -
Too Much of a Good Thing - Alan Jackson
The Man in Love With You - George Strait
I Cross My Heart - George Strait
Grow Old With You - Adam Sandler :blush:

And before anyone thinks I'm crazy for remembering the exact list... :blush:... One of the playlists on my iPod is our wedding music, plus a few other songs that are special to us for other reasons. It's nice to listen to, when I need a reminder of that day, whether for good reasons or bad. So I'm not crazy. :)

[ShelbyAD]

Our wedding reception was not your typical reception. First of all everyone in the bridal party - including myself & DH got changed into "normal" comfortable clothes. I changed into a plain white dress. My wedding gown weighed 20 lbs by itself. The trane was 9 feet long & 7 feet wide. Thus, the reason for changing into something more comfortable.

For our bride/groom dance we had: "From this Moment" by Shania Twain.

Father/Daughter dance: "Butterfly Kisses"

There was no bridal party, son/mother dances. We had the Chicken Dance, Electric Slide, Macarena, Celebration. We even had a limbo contest. Did the "Locomotion". The DJ even took the line out the door and back into the building. It was a blast.

For the "throwing of the bouquet" - the DJ played "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper.

He also played "Day-O" by Harry Belafonte. Someone every found some straw hats in a corner - so we used them.

The DJ had fake musical instruments and recruited a "band". It was awesome!! Not bad for only having 28 people show up at the reception. We invited 67 people, 33 showed up at the church. A few people couldn't stay for the reception.

I actually had 3 receptions. Because my family lives in CT and we live in TN and my parents are divorced . . . My dad's was fun. It was in one of my cousin's back yard. One of the things they did - which I thought was the coolest. They put a chair in the middle of the dance floor (which was the square part of their driveway). Then every male relative stood around me. Uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, etc. Then they proceeded to sing "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". They all got down on their knees too. It was AWESOME!!

I saw at one reception where they put the groom on a chair on the dance floor - the all of the woman sang "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" by Aretha Franklin. That was good too! At mine, a few of us sang to DH "Any Man of Mine" by Shania Twain.

Oh, another good one is: "YMCA" by the Village People

[murphy1]

Our Bride and Grooms first dance was "Keeper of the Stars" by Tracey Byrd. It is "our" song. I even have it as a ring tone when my Bride calls my Cell Phone. :thumbsup:

Pogo, you are one in a gazillion!!!

We had the song "Love is All Around" from Four Weddings and a Funeral (one of my fave movies)

I love Sinatra and Tony Bennett for background music and big band is always great, so throw in some of that! Also love Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Buble and Steve Tyrell.

There's a song called "Cut the Cake" I've heard at most weddings, you would recognize it if you heard it, it's a jazz-type song.

Have a wonderful time!! Oh, if you have never seen "The Wedding Singer", please do!! It's a great movie! There's a great song in it he sings called "That's All".

[RenDuran]

Our "first" dance was The Gap Band's "You dropped the bomb on me!"

It was funny, because our DJ started off playing some slow song to fool people and then it went into that great dropping-bomb sound effect! I love watching our reception video! It'll be 15 years this fall!

[brewcrew26]

You are all so great! Thank you for sharing your responses. I love hearing about your wedding playlists! Keep 'em coming there are some great ideas in there!!

[c&d]

I Cross My Heart - George Strait
:)

That's was DH's and my first song.

Our last song was, Can I have this Dance for the Rest of My Life? by Anne Murray

[tinkerbell04]

My sister just got married in October and some of the songs that they used were....

Intro of bride and groom-Theme song from King of Queens....He looks like Doug and works for UPS, she looks like Carrie, that is their long standing joke.:)

The remainder of the bridal party walked into White Wedding, but not blaringly loud!

Father/Daughter danced to The Way You Look Tonight

Mother/Son dance I can't remember, but they did have all mothers and sons dance together which I thought was a nice touch.

The cake cutting was to Pour Some Sugar on Me, my sis and I are 80's rock junkies!

The best thing that they did at their wedding was have all married couples start dancing to Through the Years and then the DJ started counting up in married years, example, those who have been married for less then a month leave the dance floor, then less then a year, then less then 5 etc. The last ones dancing, at 60 years!, won the garter and the bouquet. They did this instead of tossing them. Everyone there loved it.

The last dance of the night was Donna Summers Last Dance

[Mammabruski]

My husband and I used our laptop instead of a DJ to supply our reception with music, and I have a piece of advice for you...

When our "DJ" left to go dance, or get a drink, or whatever, we had some teenage relatives go to the computer and change my set list :mad: (I say my set list because like you, I spent hours and hours putting it together in just the right order). So please, please put a sign or something by your equipment telling people not to mess with it, on the off chance that your DJ's are out and about at the same time.

[ShelbyAD]

Just thought of another song. Since you will have some Disney items there - why not the song "Christopher Robbins" by Kenny Loggins.

I am listening to the radio and Kenny Loggins is on and I thought of that song. :mickey:

[PirateLover]

The best thing that they did at their wedding was have all married couples start dancing to Through the Years and then the DJ started counting up in married years, example, those who have been married for less then a month leave the dance floor, then less then a year, then less then 5 etc. The last ones dancing, at 60 years!, won the garter and the bouquet. They did this instead of tossing them. Everyone there loved it.


I LOVE this idea! How adorable.

I also love the idea of completing your own playlist. I'm sure we'll do something similar for our wedding.I think any of the upbeat Rat Pack stuff would be great for cocktail hour. All I know right now is what our first dance will be (not telling anyone yet ;) ) and I'm pretty sure our last song is going to be Sinatra's "The Last Dance." I've just always loved the final lines:
They're wondering just when will we leave/
but till we leave/
keep holding me tight/
Through the last dance/
each beat of the last dance/
Save me the first dance in your dreams tonight :cloud9: