Weddingbee Blog

I’m sure you’re sick of reading my ramblings about music, but you’re all SOL! Because not only am I going to make you read some more, I’m going to beg for your advice!

As I’ve said before, Mr. S and I are very, very picky about the wedding music. He and I are both total music snobs and want to have 100% control over what’s played.

We’re not too worried about the ceremony music, and our cocktail and dinner music is pretty much picked out.

But I’m worried about the reception/party music. First of all, Mr. S doesn’t want dancing at all. Neither of his older brothers had dancing at their weddings, and his family and friends aren’t big into dancing in general. I’m not big on dancing either, but I will probably dance if I drink enough. And my family likes to dance, as do a lot of my girlfriends.
So what we decided was that we’ll have an open space and some fun music. If people want to dance, so be it. But we won’t have any encouraged or special dancing, e.g., no first dance (probably), no parents’ dances, and no announcement from the DJ about dancing. If people want to dance, they can. And I know that my mom will get the dance floor at least semi-packed. (She’s bossy like that.)

So here is the dilemma:

We hate Top 40 pop music. That means that there will be no Beyonce, no Justin Timberlake, no Ke$ha, no Black Eyed Peas, no Usher, no Katy Perry, no Rihanna, etc. I’ve recently come to realize that I sort of have a soft spot for Lady Gaga, but the boy has vetoed her, so Gaga is a no-no.

Most of our guests won’t miss it, as long as we have some other fun music to dance to.

But that’s where we’re stuck. Mr. S doesn’t like most ’80s music, although he’s OK with some. Neither one of us is a big disco fan. If it were up to me, I’d be playing indie dance artists like Junior Senior, Black Kids, MGMT, The Rapture, Hot Hot Heat, LCD Soundsystem, and The Sounds. But I don’t think that anyone will dance to that stuff because people like to dance to what they know.

So I’m asking you: what do you like to dance to, besides Top 40? We want something very accessible and fairly well known. Would you dance to the following?

• Motown (e.g., Marvin Gaye & Tami Terrell, The Four Tops, The Supremes)
• ’80s New Wave (e.g., The Cure, New Order, The Smiths)
• ’80s Pop (e.g., Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince)
• ’80s Rap (e.g., Run DMC, Rob Base, Sugar Hill Gang)
• ’90s Brit Pop (e.g., Oasis, Blur, Pulp)
• Classic and/or Arena Rock (e.g., The Beatles, Queen, Journey)
• Oldies (e.g., Chuck Berry, Elvis, The Ronettes)

Gah, this would be so much easier if we weren’t trying to please our guests. I keed, I keed. But I’m looking for suggestions for dance music that is fairly universal but not current Top 40 pop, and I’d be oh-so appreciative for any advice!

Did you stress about your reception music? What kind of music do your guests like to dance to?