Music planning advice for your wedding

Your wedding is unique to you and we believe that any music can be played at some point in the day, depending on yours and your guests’ tastes. We have DJ’d at thousands of UK weddings, which range from Heavy Metal to Indian playlists, so you are in safe hands. We also professionally mix all music and keep any unnecessary chitchat over the microphone to a minimum, so the whole evening flows without any gaps. Firstly though we shall focus on the start of the day.

Party music:

Music planning:

Rather than turn up on the day of your wedding and hope for the best, we like to plan the music with you and build a night of bespoke entertainment. We require a list of requests from you, so 30 tracks are a good number as each track is on average about 3.5 mins long, which is a good few hours worth. We also ask that you include your top 5-10 tracks and also your partner’s top 5-10 tracks additionally. These can be anything at all and it lets us know who likes what, which is very handy when one of you is on the dance floor and one is at the bar etc.

Please also include any ‘do not play’ tracks. It could be that you hate Robbie Williams or that a certain track evokes memories you don’t want on your wedding day. Please try to think of any tracks that will relate to you and your guests. This may include your parent’s First Dance; a family party track or perhaps you have guests coming from another country etc. A popular one is the hen do, or stag do track.

The best way to get music to us is in text form via email. This allows us to store your music selection on Google calendar and makes sorting the tracks much easier. You can simply type out the tracks or if using iTunes etc. just get your playlist down to album and artist and copy and paste as a Word document. Please add your First Dance and other special tracks. More ideas for First Dance here.

This is what we require:

• First dance and any follow up tracks.

• Bride top 10-20 tracks.

• Groom top 15-20 tracks.

• General 20-30 tracks

• Other special tracks (e.g. Cake Cut/ Father/ Daughter Dance).

• Slow tracks and end of night tracks.

• ‘Do not play’ tracks.

• (please limit the total combined play list to a maximum of 70 songs).

Guest requests:

Guest requests are also very important to us and we will actively encourage them on the night, as it’s often very beneficial including them in the party and it also makes the set list a bit different. If you can think of tracks that will get people dancing, that would be very helpful. An example may be a family anthem that is always played at parties; or perhaps some of your friends are salsa dancers etc. A great way to find this out is to ask other relatives, or perhaps set up a Facebook group (or a post with guests tagged) for your wedding music. Your parents are always a good port of call for this and it also helps them feel involved in your wedding day.

Please make it clear to your guests that these are a guide and although we will try our best, their track may not necessarily get played. This may be because of time constraints or because the track might just not ‘fit’ with the majority. Music is very subjective so they may have chosen a track that means a lot to them, but it is lost on your guests resulting in an empty dance floor, which is not great especially near the end of the night.

 

Supplying a music list:

Please do supply a good list of tracks for all eventualities – up to 60 is sufficient. When supplying the tracks please keep it simple. The best way to supply us with a list is an attached Word document or just simply type it out into an email. That way we can copy and paste it into our calendar system (remote online backup) and also print it if necessary.  NO spreadsheets (i.e. Excel), Spotify / itunes playlists, charts or graphs please. Thanks.

 

Ceremony music:

Wedding pre-ceremony background music:

You will need at least 8-10 wedding ceremony background tracks. The registry services advise 15 minutes but often this is not long enough, so about 20-25 minutes is better. That way if there are any delays we have enough music to play. We advise that you both choose something the groom likes (as he will most often be in the room) and select something that suits the venue, which does not include any swearing or religious connotations (such as ‘what if God was one of us’ or hymns). A good example could be Jack Johnson, Nora Jones, Vitamin String Quartet, piano tribute players, Oasis, Vivaldi, Cafe Del Mar, Bob Marley etc. The choice is yours and should be personal to you as a couple.

Wedding ceremony entrance music:

The best wedding entrance tracks are relaxed but also dramatic like “Canon D” or “At Last”. If you have less than 30 metres to walk, then walk at half the pace (perhaps even stop for a few seconds on the aisle) and also send Bridesmaids/ Flower Girls in before you, as you will only get about 15-20 seconds of the track before you reach your future Mr or Mrs. Choosing a really good entrance point and making the guests wait is also an excellent idea assuming you are out of sight from the guests. This entrance point is most effective on a crescendo in the track, which can be pre-cued (and even rehearsed) and signalled to a member of staff so you enter at the perfect moment.

Wedding register/ signing music:

This is usually background music that gets turned up or down, depending on when the registrar is calling a witness. This is a great time to add some personality to the proceedings. Easy Listening works well or even something a bit comical such as ‘Signed, Sealed and Delivered’. Also at this time the guests who will be taking photos (following the photographer’s official shots) and the registrar will be finishing off the paperwork. The registry services advise 10 minutes, but you will normally only need about 2 tracks (6 mins) depending on what your photographer wants to do, but 3 are advised depending on the length of them.

Wedding ceremony exit music:

At this point the registrar will give you your documents and wish you well, while your guests rise. A track with lots of energy works really well. Everyone will be clapping so something that has a bang and that can be cued on a crescendo is ideal. An example is Barry White – The First The Last My Everything, which needs to be cued at 48 seconds in as it has a huge intro. If it was played from the start then you and many of the guests will have already left the room before the track actually kicks in, so make sure you listen to your music and work out the best timing as there will be no second chances on the day!

Why not hire a DJ to take care of the ceremony music?

Most people hire our services during the ceremony for peace of mind, as they know that we will make sure that your tracks are cued at the right place and played at the right volume using a state of the art sound system. We will guarantee that your music does not just stop when you reach the registrar but is taken down and up to suit the mood. We can also supply LED uplighting (which really transforms a ceremony room) and also condenser microphones (so no messy cables being clipped to you) for large venues and outside ceremonies.

The end!

The end of the night is very important (as people will always remember an end to a party) so you will want to finish up your wedding day in style. Your DJ will coordinate this and make sure everyone knows that the night is drawing a close and are required on the dance floor. It is very helpful for us if you could include some ending tracks that really get people up and dancing in Unisom. Favourites include: New York, Hey Jude, Never Forget, Wonderwall, Sweet Caroline, Elbow etc.

Often in venues people may leave before the official end of the wedding (such as booking a taxi at 11pm for a 12am finish). If lots of people start leaving before the official end then it’s advisable to have a pre ending at 10.45pm which then leaves one hour of party. That way you will not finish with only a few guests left (who are most often staying at the venue) and you can perhaps enjoy some more alternative music (Garage/dance, indie, classic rock etc.) in that period.

We also often finish the night 10 minutes before it’s supposed too end (especially with early finishes). That way your guests can applaud you and send you on your honeymoon, but also squeeze a couple of your favourite tracks after, which in all essences is an encore, but we like to call it “the fake ending”.

This is all something that we go through on your planning meeting with us so on the day you can relax knowing that we have everything under control! If you would like an example of a very good (and real) playlist from 2013 then have a look at the bottom of this page. It includes some classics but also some modern tracks and also some more obscure numbers!! Your requests list is best supplied via an email one month before the wedding. This also coincides with our catch up meeting and final payment.

Typical ending tracks you can choose from:

New York New York – Frank Sinatra, Don’t Stop Believing – Journey, Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond, Time of our lives – Dirty Dancing, Hey Jude – Beatles, Waiting all Night – Rudimental, Hit the Road Jack – Suzie Quatro, Gold Dust – DJ Fresh, Never Forget – Take That, Man in the mirror – Michael Jackson, Living on a Prayer – Bon Jovi, We will rock you – Queen, Use Somebody – Kings Leon, You have got the love – Florence & the Machine, I love you baby – Frankie Vallie, Hi Ho Silver Lining – Jeff Beck, Don’t Look back in anger – Oasis, Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen, American Pie – Don McLean, Elbow – A day like this, Time of our lives – Greenday, Ho Hey – Lumineers, Semisonic – Closing time, Wonderwall – Oasis, Build me up Buttercup – Foundations, Delilah – Tom Jones, Greatest Day – Take That, Pompeii – Bastille, Bad Moon Rising – Creedence Clearwater, Bohemian Like you – The Dandy Warhols, Best Day of my life – American Authors, Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls, Rule the Wold – Take That, Bump & Grind – R Kelly, It must be love – Madness, Lets’s get it on – Marvin Gaye, Africa – Toto, We are the Champions – Queen, The Best – Tina Turner, All night long – Lionel Richie, Wonderful tonight – Eric Clapton, One more time – Daft Punk, Take me home country roads – John Denver, We are young – Fun., Angels – Robbie Williams, You and me song – The Wannadies,