Weddingbee Blog

Sorry, I couldn’t think of a good title for my music post that hadn’t already been used, so I’ll just let you all use your imagination!

It’s finally time for me to do the obligatory music playlist post, which I hope you all will enjoy. I know I read everyone’s playlists I could find before creating my own, to find the best reception music ideas out there. But then, I kind of a “Top 40″ girl, so making the playlist wasn’t that hard for me!

We aren’t really doing much to appease the masses (read, the older guests) with our music selections. ’Sweet Caroline’ or ’Brown Eyed Girl’ will not be making appearances at our wedding, because, frankly, I’m just not that into dancing to a lot of older tunes. Don’t get me wrong, I love classic rock, but I just don’t feel like a lot of the songs are that great to dance to. And we will have full control, because we’re doing all the music ourselves!

Yep, we’ll be having an “iPod Wedding”, or actually, using my laptop!
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Our ceremony musician (and also my MOH/Sister’s boyfriend) will be monitoring our playlists throughout the night, making the transitions at the appropriate times, and of course, we will have a back up mp3 player on hand, just in case. This is a huge budget saver for us, and also, I’m happy I won’t have to give up any control over the music, since I’m always in control of our party playlists at home!

I’m still tweaking our wedding playlists, and probably will for another couple months (you never know when a new song will come out that will be a perfect addition!), but here is my list so far, with song lengths. I tried really hard to find songs for the cocktail hour that are “lovey” but a little more upbeat, then “really lovey” slower songs for dinner, and good dance songs for the rest of the reception. We want everyone feeling energized and like partying for the dancing portion of the evening, which is why I’ve left slow songs off the last list.

I will need to reorganize these into a better mix at some point, since they’re alphabetical right now, as well as weed out some of the less important songs and rearrange them to fit in the allotted times. I’ve noted the song importance in my song list as:

Must Have = duh, it must be played
OK to Have = could be cut if needed to accommodate must have songs
Not a Must Have = will probably be cut unless I need it to fill the time

Cocktail Playlist - 70 mins - 5:20 PM to 6:30PM

• 1, 2, 3, 4 - Plain White Ts - 3.18 - OK to Have
• All You Need Is Love - Beatles - 3.47 - Must Have
• Fell In Love With A Boy - Joss Stone - 3.39 - OK to Have
• Free Fallin’ - Tom Petty - 4.18 - OK to Have
• I’m Yours - Jason Mraz - 4.3 - OK to Have
• Jack & Diane - John Mellencamp - 4.17 - Not A Must Have
• Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer - 3.17 - OK to Have
• Lucky - Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat - 3.1 - OK to Have
• Marry Me - Train - 3.25 - OK to Have

Marry Me is such a sweet song; check it out if you haven’t heard it before! “You wear white, and I’ll wear out the words I love you… and you’re beautiful.”

(all videos in this post are from YouTube)

• Smile - Uncle Kracker - 3.22 - OK to Have
• Something Coming Over Me - OAR - 3.59 - OK to Have
• Wonderful Day - OAR - 4.31 - OK to Have

Playlist total time: 43.33

Dinner Playlist - 60 mins - 6:30PM to 7:30PM

• All My Life - K-Ci & Jo-Jo - 5.32 - OK to Have
• Amazing - Josh Kelley - 3.46 - OK to Have
• At Last - Etta James - 2.59 - OK to Have
• Belief - Gavin Degraw - 4.27 - OK to Have
• Better Together - Jack Johnson - 3.3 - OK to Have
• Bubbly - Colbie Caillat - 3.16 - OK to Have
• Collide - Howie Day - 4.09 - OK to Have
• Come Away With Me - Nora Jones - 3.18 - OK to Have
• Crazy Love - Van Morrison - 2.35 - OK to Have
• Falling In Love At A Coffee Shop - Landon Pigg - 4.32 - OK to Have
• I Do - 98 Degrees - 3.46 - OK to Have
• I’ll Be - Edwin McCain - 4.27 - OK to Have
• Lets Get Married - Jagged Edge - 4.23 - OK to Have
• Like A Star - Corinne Bailey Rae - 4.03 - OK to Have
• Look After You - The Fray - 4.27 - OK to Have
• Say (All I Need) - OneRepublic - 3.51 - OK to Have
• The Book of Love - Peter Gabriel - 3.37 - OK to Have
• The Way I Am - Ingrid Michaelson - 2.15 - Must Have
• Truly Madly Deeply - Savage Garden - 4.37 - OK to Have
• Wherever You Will Go - The Calling - 3.29 - OK to Have
• Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton - 3.45 - OK to Have
• You and Me - Lifehouse - 3.15 - OK to Have

Playlist total time: 79.59

First Dance Song - 7:30PM

• Can’t Help Falling In Love - Ingrid Michaelson - 3.14 - Obviously a Must Have

One of the best songs of all time, made even better by my girl Ingrid! “So take my hand, and take my whole life too…”

Dancing Playlist - 150 mins - 7:30PM to 10:00PM (I will save the less appropriate songs for later in the evening)

• 1-2-3-4 - Coolio - 3.34 - Not A Must Have
• Ain’t No Other Man - Christina Aguilera - 3.49 - OK to Have
• Atomic Dog - George Clinton - 4.46 - OK to Have
• Blister In the Sun - Violent Femmes - 2.25 - OK to Have
• Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas - 4.12 - Must Have
• California Love - 2Pac - 4.45 - Not A Must Have
• Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Runners - 4.15 - OK to Have
• Crazy In Love - Beyonce - 4 - OK to Have
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen - 2.44 - OK to Have
• Don’t Stop Believing - Journey - 4.1 - Must Have
• Don’t Stop The Music - Rihanna - 4.27 - OK to Have
• Feel Good Inc - Gorillaz - 3.41 - OK to Have
• Float On - Modest Mouse - 3.28 - OK to Have
• Forever - Chris Brown - 4.41 - OK to Have
• Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper - 3.58 - Not A Must Have
• Gold Digger - Kanye West - 3.28 - OK to Have
• Good Life - Kanye West - 3.27 - OK to Have
• Here I Come - Fergie - 3.21 - OK to Have
• Hey Ya - OutKast - 3.59 - OK to Have
• Hot In Here - Nelly - 3.48 - OK to Have
• I Believe In A Thing Called Love - The Darkness - 3.36 - OK to Have
• I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas - 4.49 - Must Have
• Ignition (remix) - R. Kelly - 3.06 - Must Have

Ignition is a kind of silly/not-that-appropriate song to include, but it’s the first song Mr. Cola and I ever danced to, so it has to be on our playlist! “Sippin’ on coke and rum…”

• I’m A Believer - Smash Mouth - 3.03 - Not A Must Have
• Just Dance - Lady GaGa - 4.02 - Must Have
• Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Cool - 4.5 - Not A Must Have
• Livin’ On A Prayer - Bon Jovi - 4.13 - OK to Have
• Low - Flo Rida - 3.51 - OK to Have
• One More Time - Daft Punk - 5.21 - OK to Have
• Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry - 4.59 - Not A Must Have
• Poker Face - Lady GaGa - 3.57 - Must Have
• Pon de Replay - Rihanna - 4.09 - OK to Have
• SexyBack - Justin Timberlake - 4.01 - OK to Have
• Shake It - Metro Station - 3 - OK to Have
• Shake Your Groove Thing - Peaches & Herb - 5.33 - Not A Must Have
• Single Ladies - Beyonce - 3.13 - OK to Have
• Smooth - Santana & Rob Thomas - 4.56 - OK to Have
• So What - Pink - 3.35 - OK to Have
• Starry Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold - 3.26 - OK to Have
• Surrender - Cheap Trick - 4.14 - OK to Have
• Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd - 4.45 - OK to Have
• That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker - OAR - 8.43 - Must Have

Admittedly, this OAR song isn’t the best dance song, but it’s one of our all time favorites by our favorite band! (Skip ahead to 1:05 in the video for when the song really gets going.)

• The Seed (2.0) - The Roots - 3.51 - OK to Have
• The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani - 4.06 - OK to Have
• They Don’t Want Music - Black Eyed Peas - 6.47 - OK to Have
• This D.J. (edited) - Warren G - 3.24 - Not A Must Have
• This is How We Do It - Montell Jordan - 3.59 - Not A Must Have
• Wake Me Up Before You Go - Wham! - 3.51 - Not A Must Have
• What Is Love - Haddaway - 4.3 - OK to Have
• Yeah! - Usher - 4.1 - OK to Have
• You Got The Right Stuff - NKOTB - 4.1 - OK to Have

Playlist total time: 200.68

And to help ensure we remain in full control of our music the whole night, we will have this sign I made on my laptop, with the screen closed. No chicken dance requests would be possible anyway, since that’s not a song already on my computer!

How much control do you plan on having in your reception song selections? Anyone else going the iPod or laptop route?