July 9, 2021
The music you choose to play at your wedding reception sets the tone for your wedding, and helps make it so memorable. Whether it’s your first dance as a married couple, your father-daughter or mother-son dance, or the peak-of-celebration party dance where everyone joins in; you need both a venue to create the space, and the right music to bring your guests out to the dance floor!
You can hire a live band, or create a custom playlist, but you might also want to curate a collection of songs that tell the story of you as a couple, with particular care given to highlighting those unforgettable moments. From sentimental tunes to rug-cutting numbers, here are our recommendations for the types of music you must have at your wedding.
Let everyone know that it’s time to let loose and have fun by welcoming them to the reception venue with fun numbers that will get the mood going and encourage guests to run out on the dance floor. Current top 40 pop hits are great for this since they have a universal appeal and will have everyone nodding their heads, and singing along.
For your first dance as a married couple, you need either a classic love song such as Stand by Me by Ben E. King, Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, or a song that expresses the unique relationship between you and your partner.
If you have a choreographed dance piece in mind, you can choose a fun, energetic piece to showcase your moves. Otherwise, for a classic slow dance, choose a piece with lyrics with special meaning for you. By the time the dance is over, there won’t be a dry eye in the venue.
The father-daughter, and mother-son dances are always highlights of a great wedding reception. A fantastic way to imbue the moment with emotion and capture the history you share as parent-and-child is with heartfelt songs from years past. You might even consider classic crowd-pleasers that your guests will also likely have fond memories of.
The right music can bring even the more reserved guests out on the dance floor. Make it easy for everyone to join in with songs that already have choreographed dance moves to go along with them. The Macarena, and the Cha-Cha Slide are all staples at big events just for this reason—they get everyone out on the dance floor moving together.
Your end-of-the-night songs will wind down the mood and send your guests off with that warm, glowy feeling that follows a great time with family and friends. Jazz, down-tempo, and ambient tracks are all awesome ways to signal that the party is wrapping up on a relaxed, happy note.
With the right playlist, and a large wedding venue in Riverside to encourage the guests to dance, you are bound to have the perfect, memorable wedding.