Choosing your wedding songs

(Including a list of our recommended ceremony songs)

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For most couples, planning your own wedding is a time consuming and often daunting task! Without much event planning experience, it can be hard to know where to start - especially when it comes to music and entertainment. After many years of experience in performing at weddings and events, we have plenty of knowledge in this area, which we’re happy to share. Hopefully this helps you in organising the music for your wedding.

We often get asked “what normally happens for wedding music? What do most couples do?”. This isn’t always an easy question to answer, as there are many options and it always depends on your budget and personal taste.

In our next blog post we have worked out the 10 most important things to keep in mind when organising your wedding music supplier/vendor- things that you might not necessarily think about at first.

Before we get to that, lets start with one of the most crucial steps- choosing your songs!

The songs that matter

There are normally 5 or 6 special songs you will need to choose for your wedding. They are for:

• Walking down the aisle (sometimes a separate song for bridal party and bride)

• Signing of the registry (generally 2 songs)

• Recessional/ End of Ceremony

• Bridal party entrance at the reception

• Your first Dance

And a few less important songs you may like to choose:

• Cake Cutting

• Bouquet and/or Garter Toss

• Final Dance Floor Song

• Goodbye/Farewell Song
  

We always recommend that couples choose songs that are special and unique to them. This could be a song by a band or artist that you saw on your first date, a song that was playing when you had your first kiss or a song that reminds you of your loved ones. Most importantly, have a good read through the lyrics and make sure they resonate with you. Not all songs are suitable to take centre stage at a key moment of your wedding. In fact, on more than one occasion, we have had requests for beautiful ceremony songs only to read through the lyrics and realise they are about a break-up or infidelity (ie: Not the only one by Sam Smith or Someone Like You by Adele).

If your favourite song isn't a typical "love song" but it means something to you both, thats totally fine too, we're not judging! You have to do what is right for you - it's your wedding after all. But if you have no idea where to begin, and want some recommendations of songs that reflect the love and commitment of your marriage, we have compiled a list of songs that you can select for the key moments in your wedding. Hopefully this will at least give you some ideas!

Our top 50 wedding ceremony or first dance songs:

• Adore- Amy Shark

• All Of Me- John Legend

• All You Need Is Love- The Beatles

• Amazed- Lonestar

• A Thousand Years- Christina Perri

• Better Together- Jack Johnson

• Can You Feel The Love Tonight- Elton John

• Can’t Help Falling In Love- Kina Grannis Version

• Can’t Take My Eyes Off You- Frankie Valli

• Dream to Me- The Cranberries

• Even When I’m Sleeping- Leonardo’s Bride

• Everything I Do- Bryan Adams

• Feels Like Home- Matt Johnson Version

• Fly Me to The Moon- Frank Sinatra

• Forever You and Me- Teskey Brothers

• Grow Old With You- Adam Sandler (Wedding Singer Movie)

• Heartbeats- Jose Gonzales

• Heaven- Bryan Adams

• Here Comes The Sun- The Beatles

• Hero- Enrique Iglesias

• Higher Love- Steve Winwood (Grace Grundy version)

• Hold My Girl- George Ezra

• Holy- Justin Bieber

• Ho Hey- The Lumineers

• How Deep Is Your Love- The Beegees

• How Long Will I Love You- Ellie Goulding

• How Would You Feel- Ed Sheeran

• If I Ain’t Got You- Alicia Keys

• I Get to Love You- Ruelle

• I Knew I Loved You- Savage Garden

• I’ll Be- Edwin McCain

• In Case You Didn’t Know- Brett Young

• Isn't She Lovely- Stevie Wonder

• Is This Love- Bob Marley

• Kiss Me- Sixpense None The Richer

• Let’s Stay Together- Al Green

• L.O.V.E- Nat King Cole

• Love Someone- Lukas Graham

• Make You Feel My Love- Adelle version

• Making Memories of Us- Keith Urban

• Marry Me- Train

• Over the Rainbow- Israel Kamakawiwoole version

• Perfect- Ed Sheeran

• River- Leon Bridges

• Simply The Best- Tina Turner (Billianne version)

• So Into You- Tamia

• Something About The Way You Look Tonight- Elton John

• Stand By Me- Ben E King

• Take Me Home Country Roads- Music Travel Love Version

• Tenerife Sea- Ed Sheeran

• The Way You Look Tonight- Frank Sinatra

• Thinking Out Loud- Ed Sheeran

• To Love Somebody- Beegees

• True Colours- Cyndi Lauper

• Truly, Madly, Deeply- Savage Garden

• Two of Us- Birds of Tokyo

• Two Strong Hearts- John Farnham

• Until I Found You- Stephen Sanchez

• When You Say Nothing At All- Ronan Keating

• When You Were Young- The Killers

• Wonderful Tonight- Eric Clapton

• XO- John Mayer version

• You & Me- Lifehouse

• You Are The Reason- Callum Scott

• Your Song- Elton John

• You’re My Best Friend- Queen

• You’re the One That I Want- Grease- Angus & Julia Stone version

• You’re Still The One- Shania Twain

• You've Got The Love- Florence & The Machine

  
  

Finally, once you've chosen your songs and the big day has arrived, an important detail which is often overlooked is the timing of the aisle walk. It's important to put some thought into the way the bride and bridesmaids walk down the aisle, ideally so the bride is walking during the chorus, for maximum impact! The worst thing you can do is rush down the aisle so quickly that the song has barely started by the time you all reach the front. Take your time, space it out and enjoy the moment! If you have professional musicians (like us) singing you down the aisle, we will always adjust and make it work no matter how you walk, but its always better if you've thought about your timing.

We look forward to seeing you at a wedding soon!