Lake Erie Events
Wedding Music
Planning Cheat Sheet
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You're engaged! Congrats!
Your best days ever are ahead of you as your wedding draws near.
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BUT, there's so much planning and so little time...
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We created this "cheat sheet" to help you select the most important elements for your wedding music for your ceremony & reception. This is a small part of the Lake Erie Events experience our customers enjoy.
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We hope it helps!
1. Most Popular Ceremony Songs: Prelude
These songs set the mood for your ceremony that your grandparents, parents, & bridal party walk out to.
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2. Most Popular Ceremony Songs: Processional
This is BIG! This is the song that you walk out to. You're about to marry your best friend. Make it a magical one!
3. Most Popular Ceremony Songs: Recessional
You just married your one true love. Now the officiant is going to announce you as husband and wife before everyone leaves the ceremony. Time to pump it up!
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4. Most Popular Introduction Songs
You just got married, got your family photos done, and now the DJ is about to introduce the bridal party! Time to turn up!
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5. Most Popular First Dance Songs
It's time to share your first dance as husband & wife.
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6. Most Popular Father/Daughter Dance Songs
Some brides opt to go right into the father/daughter dance after the first dance. You can do this NOW or after dinner.
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7. Most Popular Mother/Son Dance Songs
A special dance for the groom and his mother.
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8. Most Popular Cake Cutting Songs
The heartfelt and hilarious toasts were given, and dinner just finished. It's time for the cake cutting!
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9. Most Popular Bouquet Toss Songs
Cue all the single ladies to the dance floor, it's time to toss the bouquet!
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10. Most Popular Garter Toss Songs
A lucky lady just caught the bouquet. Now it's time for your husband to remove the garter, and toss it to the boys.
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11. Most Popular Party and Dance Songs
The formalities are over, and it's time to party. Here is a long list of songs we see requested frequently...
BONUS: Cocktails and Dinner Music Selections
A lot of our brides and grooms we work with have a small opinion (if any) on what gets played during cocktails and dinner, but there are a few weddings that also want more hands-on with every song we play during dinner. Both are fine options! Here are some of the “themes” we see used a lot!
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(1) Classic Jazz: This is great for Cocktail Hour. We probably play this at over half of our weddings for cocktail music as guests show up/arrive at the reception. There are no vocals, and it’s all easy listening Jazz instrumental music. Very traditional, upbeat, classy/formal, cocktail music. Not too "big band" and no slow "elevator music". We like artists like Jorge Miguel, Joward Lopez, Paul Lamoureux, and Joanna Jordan.
(2) Classic Crooners and Mo-Town: This is the classic dinner mix that mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandma, and grandpa will all sing along to. This was our most popular dinner mix last year, and works great to set the tone for tradition and classic music… but also pleases older guests' requests that may be awkward to fit into dancing later on. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Neil Diamond, Engelbert Humperdinck, with a little Stevie Wonder, Isley Brothers, Natalie Cole, and Barry Manilow… just to name a few!
(3) Contemporary: Modern and easy listening rock/adult contemporary/pop mix. Everything from Maroon 5, Train, to Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, with John Mayer, and even Keith Urban.
(4) Country: The thing that country music fans understand is… that you can’t get up and dance to every single country song. I could probably name 10 types of "country music" but for weddings usually, I can break down every song to 4 types, Sad Songs, Happy Love Ballads, Happy Love Upbeat Songs, and Stadium Dance Songs. The stadium dance songs like Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt, and Big & Rich are great to dance to later on if you want country music, however, there is a lot of upbeat happy love singalong country music and ballads that just doesn’t fit the dancefloor perfectly. That’s where this playlist makes these songs perfect for dinner and even cocktails.
(5) Pop: Much like country, not every pop song is a dance anthem. There’s a lot of singalongs, love songs, and ballads that fit perfectly here. We’ve done everything from Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Adele, Bruno Mars, and Maroon 5. We commonly mix this with rock, contemporary, and even acoustic playlists
(6) Urban and R&B: I’ve done newer and older urban mix at weddings. It features a lot of R&B usually, with some rhythmic music thrown in. Here’s an example of an older urban playlist that specifically features R&B classics with a few new songs sprinkled in. Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Atlantic Starr, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Robin Thicke, and Jackson 5.
(7) Customize, Mix, and Match! The thing about our dinner playlists, is that there isn’t any. Every family is different, and we cater the music to your tastes. We load up a folder of music the week of your wedding that fits your specific requests and needs. Sure we play 2 of these 6 genres a lot of the time, but every wedding is truly different. I’ve had weddings ask for specific vibes I didn't list here. I've also had weddings name a few of their favorite artists they wanna hear, name specific songs that mean a lot to them, or name certain artists or songs they don’t want to hear during dinner or cocktail hour... but giving us free rain. Naming a few of your favorites will absolutely help us narrow down music that mixes well with that vibe. We can also mix 2 or 3 of these together.
Others I could name examples of are classic pop from certain decades, the classic country from certain decades, beach wedding music, rock-country mixes, acoustic music, Disney weddings, and I could go on.
The best option: Give us an idea of what you want to hear during cocktails and dinner. Think about you and your husband/wife, think about your guests, and think about what might not fit during dancing later on if people would want to hear any of this during the evening.
If you want to mix, customize, name specific vibes, genres, decades, artists, songs… we can create the perfect cocktail and dinner mixes for you. Also, remember… you’re usually not around for a cocktail hour. You’re getting pictures somewhere else, so think about your guests! 😉
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