So many times Brides and Grooms talk to us about what music they should use for their wedding day? From what to play during the pre music for the wedding ceremony, to what song should we use for the garter toss, to what music is proper for the dinner portion of the wedding reception, to the exit song before they walk through the crowd of their friends & family and get into the car to drive off into the sunset…or moonlight depending on when it all ends. We are going to give some tips on how to pick the best music for your wedding day. Please read every tip before you begin because we feel this will begin the process without overthinking it giving you more time to freak out about the rest of your wedding day. :)

Go Easy On Yourself…Don’t Overthink Your Music

You know what type of music you like and your spouse knows what they like. Blend the two together and everything will be great. Don’t even think about going online and looking up songs just yet on “what are some popular songs for weddings.” You can do this afterward if you are absolutely stuck. Write down some of your favorite songs on a piece of paper or lock into your notes on your device and have your spouse do the same thing. Then write down some of your favorite artists or bands below the songs. This will give you an amazing start without even trying hard.

Take Ten Minutes Only

Lots of Brides like to overthink their music list and provide the DJ with this amazingly long list of songs that they will never be able to get to even if your wedding was a solid 48 hours. (The norm is about 20 songs in an hour, however, remember there are toasts, some announcements for the specialty sections of the reception, etc. For a 4 hour reception if you have given the DJ 100 songs there is no way they will get to all of them.) At this point you have over thought this process by too many hours and frankly you may have some of the more important songs you would like to hear over looked, simply by the amount of songs you presented. Take ten minutes and go! Set a timer or look at the clock and just write your songs down for 10 minutes. If you need a little extra time that is okay, just don’t go over 15 minutes on this initial list.

Is the Song Slow or Fast?

Now that you have your music written down go back to the top of your list and write beside the songs either the word “Slow” or “Fast” for what type of tempo the music has when you hear it. If you can’t decide you can throw in the word “Medium.” This way you don’t get stuck on the tempo for too long. 

Group Your Songs by Tempo by Color Scheme

You may do this with a highlighter or by changing the text color on your device. This way you can get a colorful idea on what you have the most of on your music list…”Slow” songs or “Fast” songs. This is only important so you know where to place these songs during your wedding day. If they are “Slow” songs think about them being used for the pre-music for your ceremony, during your ceremony, during the dinner portion of the reception, or possibly for your specialty dances like the Mother- Son dance, Father-Daughter dance, Mother-Daughter dance, etc. You may not have a lot of songs down at this point, however you are doing awesome because now you have a guideline to go by to tell either your DJ or Band what type of music you like, what artist you enjoy, and what type of music you care more about…”Slow” Songs or “Fast” songs. 

Place a Star by Your Favorite Music

Now you have an idea of all the music you can think of within a 10 minute moment, remember your not overthinking this, place a star by the songs that mean more to you than maybe some of the others. This way if you have to cut, prioritize, or simply pin point when you want the song to be played you have the songs separated by a simple two-tier level of importance. A star just means you would like to hear this song for sure at your wedding. The rest would be great to hear, however, it is not the end of the world if the song is not played. 

Share Your Music List with Your Fiance’

Now the two of you share your list of songs with each other. This is also a great way to get to know one another a little better too or to confirm what you already know about the love of your life. Don’t worry about if one list is longer than the other. Ladies you will win on this one about 95% of the time and it doesn’t mean your spouse thinks any less of you, it just means he has a simple idea of what he would like to hear. A lot of times the fiance’ knows you will have lots of song ideas so they may not place a lot of thought into it or they just simply like a certain genre or artist. No matter, neither one of you overthink the list you come up with and set a timer of 10 minutes..we’ll tell you why soon. 

Allow Your DJ Some Freedom

You hire your DJ and want to tell them every song to play from the beginning to the end of the wedding reception. Then why did you hire the DJ? The reason you hire a DJ is to help move the day along as smoothly as possible, provide professional experience on what songs to play at certain moments, and you want some type of DJ personality mixed into the night. So cramming way too many songs into your reception time with no time for the night to have memories and personality is way too stressful for both you and your DJ. Give the DJ some areas to place there spin on what they know works for a wedding reception, and if for some reason the DJ sucks your guest will go up to them and start requesting songs. And any professional DJ will take requests and have 95% of them available. 

Look Up Songs Online?

At this point you have an idea of what you and your spouse like, you haven’t over thought the process if you follow the the guidelines provided, and you have a good idea of what songs you have where and what songs you still need for those special moments. If you do the steps above first, you have the opportunity for your wedding day to have it’s own personality that reflects the two of you.

When you look songs up first online, you begin to look like every wedding out there. If you did pick a lot of obscure songs you may want to taper those down so everyone at your wedding can enjoy the music while hearing several songs they know one of you picked or enjoy to listen to. Again most of the songs we would like to guide you to look up are your specialty songs like your First Dance, Father-Daughter Dance, Bouquet & Garter toss, etc. For the dance portion of the reception try not to pick too many songs from things you see online. Sure jot a few down. Taking an entire list from a website of the “top 200 songs for weddings” and giving it to your DJ is way too much and not personal.