Music is just ANOTHER thing to get you feeling overwhelmed when you’re planning a wedding. If you’re not musically minded, or you’re not sure of the genre or style of music that will fit with the vibe you want, I’m happy to help you brainstorm and find the perfect soundtrack to your wedding.
Here’s a quick rundown of how many songs you need to choose for different sections of your ceremony and some of my favourite songs to hear at weddings –
The ‘Before’ Playlist
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pay attention to your playlist for ‘before the ceremony’. To set the scene, your guests are filing in, chatting amongst themselves, the groom has started to get a bit antsy because we are less than 15 minutes away and playing softly over the speakers is the playlist you listen to when cleaning your house on a Saturday morning. That should be fine you said, there’s some bangers on that playlist. And Cardi B. WAP comes on. YOUR. MUMS. FACE. It’s not a fun time.
PLEASE, think about this playlist, carefully curate it, fill it with songs you love, but to fit the vibe, time, place and audience. You might even want to think about switching on the setting that restricts explicit content on Spotify, if you don’t want an accidental curse word to offend Nana Myrtle.
Walking down the aisle song
This song comes in many tempos, styles & genres, it can be performed live, an instrumental version or a cover version. As long as it reflects you as a couple, whether it’s ‘your song’ or just that the lyrics make you feel all the feels about marrying your favourite person, then go with it. I’ve watched brides walk down the aisle to punk songs, to string quartet versions of pop tracks and even a live acoustic version of a heavy metal song. If you want it because it’s ‘just so us’ then DO IT. Don’t let anyone tell you it won’t work, we make it work.
My only tip is to time it perfectly. Know what line in the song is exactly when you need to start walking to get where you need to be when you need to be there. You don’t want the song to finish before you get to me and your partner, that’s just awks.
Here are some of my favourites for walking down the aisle:
- City & Colour – Northern Wind
- Haley Reinhart – Can’t Help Falling in Love
- Ingrid Michaelson – The Way I Am
- Hozier – Like Real People Do
- Mumford & Sons – Lovers’ Eyes
- José Gonzalez – Heartbeats
- The Cranberries – Dreams
Sign on the dotted line songs
I say ‘songs’ and not song, because sometimes you just want a few minutes to take a breather while we’re signing the certificates. The last thing we want is for the next song on the playlist to just queue on up, and we hear the walk back down the aisle song – so have a buffer, choose two songs here. I generally suggest to make these songs more upbeat and happy, less with the heavy emotion that your walk down the aisle song might have had. Acoustic guitar is good, think fun, light and pleasant. These songs are to be treated as background music as your guests will talk quietly amongst themselves while we are signing the certificates.
Here are my favourites to hear during this time in a ceremony:
- Bon Iver – Perth
- John Mayer – XO
- Cat Power – Sea of Love
- You+Me – You and Me
- Angus & Julia Stone – You’re The One That I Want
- Jack Johnson – Better Together
- Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life
Strutting back down the aisle song
This song is where I like to encourage my couples to be playful and cheeky. Be happy, choose an upbeat song, because this track marks the beginning of the celebration part of the day! This is where we begin to relax, nerves fall away, and you can start to cheer that ‘We just got married!’ I suggest these songs to be upbeat, have a punchy start to the song, so we can press play, crank it and you and your new partner/bride/groom can start to groove back down the aisle, all the way to the bar!
These are my favourite tracks to mark a fun end to a wedding ceremony:
- Bruno Mars – Marry You
- The Beatles – All You Need is Love
- The Darkness – I Believe in a Thing Called Love
- Vampire Weekend – We Belong Together (feat. Danielle Haim)
- Barry Louis Polisar – All I Want is You
- Stevie Wonder – Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)
- Queen – Another One Bites The Dust
Also here are a few tips if you are not going to have a live performer or DJ:
- Get Spotify Premium for the love of cupid!
- Make sure you have downloaded the songs so we can play them offline (don’t want any awkward text messages coming through the PA!)
- Create two separate playlists that are labelled very clearly for whoever is doing your music –
- Wedding – Before Ceremony Playlist
- Wedding – Ceremony Songs (in order – aisle song, two signing songs, walk back down song)
So there go you love birds, happy planning!
Photo by Amelia Claire Photography
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