music at reception?

karulyne

Anyone struggling to find songs that are love-friendly and danceable and to their musical tastes? Any recommendations? I never really gave much thought to my musical taste but now that I'm trying to come up with music I realize how many angry, sad or just generally inappropriate songs I enjoy! I think I've got a list of 50 songs right now that will probably make the cut out of the thousands of songs on my ipod or pandora stations. Doesn't help that FI keeps shooting down songs that I put on the list. No 'more than words' because 'there will be no music by extreme at my wedding' or no 'american wedding' because its too 'crazy sounding' (ok he may have a point there). I have a feeling in the end our dj will be given a lot more free reign than we thought!

courtski2004

For me, it was way easier to give the DJ a 'do not play' list rather than an 'okay to play' list. I provided a few must haves that were outside of the first dance/parent dance/last dance songs, but no defined playlist. A good DJ knows what will get the crowd going based on the median age of guests you have and any requests people make.
For example, I outlawed anything by U2, Alan Jackson, Lady Gaga, hardcore rap, YMCA, Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey, and 'celebrate good times, come on' (not sure of the actual title there). From there I told him that I adore Dave Matthews and that we like country and 90's stuff.

arco13

I may just let the Mariachi band that goes around LV do their thing! Hahaha, I'm sure if you google "best wedding love/dance songs" or something to that extent you can find some good suggestions. I agree with having a DNP list. And it may sound corny, or not be what you want, but at my cousin's wedding, we had the most fun of all doing the Cupid Shuffle. 

karulyne

Good call on the DNP list, thats probably going to be easier! A mariachi would be fun, I wish I'd thought of that, but we already booked a dj so I guess that wouldn't make sense. I have to admit I have no idea what the cupid shuffle is, I'll be heading to youtube shortly! FI doesn't really want any corny songs; I could go either way because yeah the music snob in my head says 'ugh, the macarena; shoot me', but then the goofy part of me says 'yeah but silly dancing!' 

I wanted 'my girl' or 'unforgettable' for my first dance with my dad, he wants some country song 'i saw her first' or 'I loved her first' or something like that, I told him I'd try and find that on youtube to give it a listen since I don't really ever listen to new country, I'm more of a hank williams or willie nelson sort of gal when it comes to that genre. FI's mom has a song picked out for their first dance that she danced to with both of his older brothers so he's all set (though he said its the worst song ever. lol. I can't wait to hear whatever it is!). I'm sure the music will turn out fine, its just been funny to realize that despite my large music collection and general love of music, I am hard pressed to think of many love songs I like! I have the bitter jaded soul of someone who grew up in the grunge era I guess

crash2729

Idk who you are using, but when my DJ asked me for a must play list, I gave her one song and said "idk what else you play. There will be older people there, so make sure it's appropriate." 

She did fine. Then when the older people left she knew she had clearance to play some of the more innappropriate songs. (Baby got back, for example."

professorscience

My DJ had three lists: Must Play, Do Not Play, and Play If Possible.  We had three or four songs on the "must play," and a decently extensive DNP list, and our DJ said that "Play if Possible" was always really helpful to get a feel for our musical tastes.  I'm fairly certain he worked everything in.  

roseofdeborah

I have to start working on this very soon. I think I need to get the music to my dj within the next two weeks and I haven't even started. And I'm like you in that all of my music seems so depressing compared to what is appropriate for true love and all

rsaleh84

I totally understand!  FI and I have been trying to narrow down some must play songs, and we still dont know what our first and last dance songs will be...we have a large variety of guests coming with different musical tastes and we really want everyone to get up and dance, so we're playing just about everything.  The do not play list is fairly short lol

abwatts

I have always wanted to ban the YMCA at my wedding.. but considering we met at the YMCA I dont think that will be possible.