One of the biggest considerations when planning your reception is what kind of music to play. The second question people usually have in terms of music is how do you know what dance/party songs to play when. This post will talk about the importance of music selection and flow.
I have met with several clients who have come out in our initial consultation and asked if I they can have a Do Not Play list. The most common NO plays are Electric Slide, Chicken Dance, YMCA, Macarena, and Who Let The Dogs Out. I tell potential customers that I have no problem acknowledging their request and that I have more than enough music to get through the night without relying on these songs.
Recently, one client evaluation came back from a bride and groom with rave reviews but questioned the flow of the music during the dance part of the night. They felt as if I only played the big songs that they requested towards the end of the night and that everyone really danced hard for the last 20-30 minutes of their reception.
I try to built my music sets or flow in the mindset of a band at a concert. There is nothing worse than going to a show to have your favorite band perform their best songs early on and have them limp through the rest of the night. Most people would leave early. My idea of music flow for a wedding is the same: Play the hits to get people dancing and sprinkle in the biggest hits towards the end of the show, keeping people wanting and waiting for more, to end on a high note.
In the case of this client, they asked me to only play one or two slow songs during the dancing part of the night and gave me 10 different party songs as requests to play (AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Lady Gaga, Bills Shout theme, etc etc). We had well over 2 hour and 10 minutes to dance and party.
I loved the freedom I had to play songs I felt would work for their crowd of mixed ages, while working in their requests. This didn’t come without a challenge: how do you keep people dancing, yet not wear them down so they leave the dance floor to get a drink/sit down when their feet are beat or in the worst case they are tired and go home.
In the case of this party, I decided to start out by playing the traditional family favorites, the safe songs if you will: KC & The Sunshine Band, Loveshack, some oldies, 90’s dance music, and a couple of newer songs. After about 30 minutes of dance music I went into a slow song and built things back up from there. At the 70 minute mark of the party tunes I played the second requested slow, leaving us about an hour to dance.
It was at this point most people were beat from over an hour of non-stop dancing. Many did the slow dance to catch their breath before taking a bathroom break, getting a needed drink or deciding after four plus hours at the reception it was time to go home. After playing a couple of new song requests I knew what it was time to do: hit them hard and heavy with the 10 big party bombs that were requested. And that is what I did… big hit after big hit taking us until 11pm with the cries of “one more, one more.”
What would have happened if I played those songs early? Would people have come out to dance right away? Traditionally most people need 3 or 4 songs to get up to dance. They want to let dinner settle in, get their dessert, and then are ready to go. If I played them in the middle of the night, my thought is that we would have peaked early, leaving the guests who were looking for that big finish disappointed.
This methodology is not something that is set in stone. I offer it as a mere suggestion to every client I meet with and 250 weddings later it still seems to be the best method to me…
