Wedding Reception Forum

Reception playlist

My fiance and I are on a tight budget so we are doing all of the music ourselves. This is much more stressful than I thought it would be! Especially since (due to our budget) our reception will ony last 3 hours. The first hour will be cocktails and dancing, then an hour (ish) for buffet dinner (approx. 50 people) and immediately to the cake cutting. Most of our guests are middle aged family so there won't be very many young people there so I'm trying to choose music for both, but not too much too young because I don't know who will dance. Here is what I have right now and I need opinions! Thanks for any help or advice you can give!
This is approx. 3 hours of music.

All You Need is Love (instrumental) – Entering ceremony and announced as MR & MRS

Thank you for Loving Me (Bon Jovi) – First dance

My Wish (Rascal Flatts) – Mother/Son dance

Marry Me – Train (everyone can start dancing now)

When a man loves a woman – Michael Bolton

I can see clearly now – Johnny Nash

How Sweet it is – James Taylor

Ho Hey – The Lumineers

I Got You Babe – Sonny and Cher

Heaven – Bryan Adams
I Would do anything for Love – Meat Loaf
Baby I love your Way – Peter Frampton

A Thousand Years – Christina Perri (I am walking down the aisle to the instrumental version of this song)

Love of a Lifetime – Firehouse

Dinner should begin around this time – followed immediately by cake cutting

More than Words – Extreme

I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing – Aerosmith

Love of my life – Michael W. Smith

All I ask of You (from Phantom of the Opera)

Angel – Aerosmith

When You Say Nothing at All – Alison Krauss

Everything I do, I do it for You – Bryan Adams

Every Rose has it’s Thorn – Poison

Lucky – Jason Mraz & Colby Caillat

Come What May (from Moulin Rouge)

I Will be Here – Steven Curtis Chapman

I Won’t Give up – Jason Mraz

I’ll Be – Edwin McCain

Drunk on You – Sunshine Brothers

Hopefully cake cutting will be finished by now and the fun dancing can begin

I Want You to Want Me (the live version, I like it so much better) – Cheap Trick

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Tammy Terrell and Marvin Gaye

Twist and Shout – The Beatles

Shout – Otis Day and the Knights

Tonight, Tonight – Hot Chelle Ray

Cupid Shuffle

Just Dance – Lady Gaga

The Wobble

I’m a Believer – Smash Mouth

Stellar – Incubus

While my Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles (the fiancé insisted lol)

Nothing Else Matters – Metallica

Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton

I’ve Had the Time of my Life (from Dirty Dancing – ideally this should be the last song)

White Wedding – Billy Idol

Bless the Broken Road – Rascal Flatts

Re: Reception playlist

  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_reception-ideas_reception-playlist?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:5Discussion:29388954-accc-4e26-b55b-4668a8480bfcPost:4ea07514-7e67-4008-9d9a-0a2631bc9bc6">Re:Reception playlist</a>:
    [QUOTE]As someone who did her own music, you are way over complicating this. Make 3 playlists: cocktails and dancing, dinner, after dinner. Make each one about 90 minutes long, so you don't run out of music, then just let each one shuffle. Don't try to time out specific songs to play at specific moments, it will be a huge stress and won't work out right. Eta: you should do a separate play list with your spotlight dances in order. I would not mess with a big entrance and WP introductions, personally, without a DJ.
    Posted by StageManager14[/QUOTE]

    Thanks! That's basically what I'm doing, I'm just wondering if my song selections are pretty decent? I feel like it's a lot of slow stuff, but due to limited time and more older people I thought it'd be awkward to have a bunch of young dance music and nobody dancing.
  • We're having our guests recommend songs on their RSVP cards then supplementing with our own iTunes lists so that we have a bunch of different tastes represented.

  • We must share similar musical tastes! :)  Love your list, and that you have some faster songs, too! 
    Hope you have a great wedding day!
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