Easy Tips for Building the Ultimate Wedding Playlist
Most people’s favorite part of a wedding is the reception. I mean, who doesn’t love a big party surrounded by friends and family celebrating the union of two people who love each other? Plus, there’s drinks, cake, and dancing!
One of the biggest and most time-consuming decisions for your wedding reception is the music. Whether you choose to hire a DJ for your wedding reception or choose to create the playlist yourself, picking the music is a huge part of making your wedding reception inclusive and memorable!
Creating a wedding reception playlist can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are five things to keep in mind for DIYing your playlist or helping your DJ get a feel for your music vibe:
5 Tips for Building the ULTIMATE Wedding Playlist
Use Spotify or iTunes to stay organized. We live in a digital age now, so were you really going to create your playlist with a pencil and a piece of paper? If you have a Spotify account or apple music account, you have access to thousands of songs in every genre imaginable. Both programs allow you to create custom playlists and add an unlimited amount of songs to them. Also, Spotify allows you to create collaborative playlists, so your family and wedding party can add to your wedding playlist, too.
Create different playlists for different parts of your wedding. It may seem easier to create one playlist with an order of songs, but to avoid hiccups and embarrassing incidents, you’re better off creating a different playlist for every part of the wedding reception. At the very least, you want a playlist for the cocktail hour, the wedding party arrivals and dinner, the newlyweds first dance, and the dancing.
Keep the song choices diverse. Grandma doesn’t want to hear upbeat rap songs all night, and your best friend doesn’t want to hear classic rock when they’re in the mood to dance! Along with having a variety of genres, you want to include one slow song per five fast songs. The best wedding playlists are the ones with a wide variety of music, giving everyone a chance to enjoy their favorites while mingling and relaxing in between.
Ask for song requests on your invitations. Worried about having enough songs to choose from? An easy way to make sure you have a variety and make sure your guests are pleased with the song selections is to ask for requests on the invitation. Asking for song requests for your wedding playlist will make your guests feel included in the process and make it easier for you to create a 3-5 hour song list.
Review your entire playlist before the event. I know this doesn’t sound exciting since the reception playlist will be 3+ hours long, but this is your music rehearsal before the big day. You want to listen to every song and make sure nothing is overtly explicit, offensive, or has a meaning you didn’t realize before. This is also your software test, so there are no technical errors or surprises on your wedding day.
If you’re not a music person, you don’t know what sounds good, or you have too much on your plate already, you can always hire a wedding DJ. Wedding DJs have the most popular wedding tunes available for you to choose from and have access to any song you’re looking for. If you want to take wedding music off your to-do list, having a DJ can give you peace of mind for your wedding day.
No matter which option you choose, these five tips will help you create an amazing wedding reception playlist!