Dinner music has quickly become one of my favorite items to personalize.
Let's first compare dinner music and cocktail music.
Cocktail music is the background tunes used usually before the guests of honor arrive. Quite often, the bride and groom, as well as their wedding party and parents, will arrive late due to pictures. The guests have already arrived at the reception hall and they are enjoying cocktails (hence the name "cocktail music.")
While I am not much of a traditionalist, I love when my couples use "the standards" for cocktail music. I have always felt the room just has a little more of a wedding feel when you are listening to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc.
Dinner music is different. Dinner music is played during.........dinner. (boy, I am quite skilled at explaining this)
A few years ago, I had the privilege of helping a wonderful couple celebrate their marriage, Justin and Ashlee. Justin and Ashlee had a funny disagreement as to what type of music should be played for their wedding dance. Justin thought the dance should primarily be one genre, while Ashlee did not want Justin's assistance on the dance.
They came up with a wonderful compromise. Justin worked on the dinner music; Ashlee worked on the dance.
This is an example of what Justin came up with.
While quite the extreme, and not what most couples would want, the dinner music fit them perfectly. You could actually feel the energy in the room build during dinner as we started with power ballads and built to heavy, 80's long-haired rock.
Since that night, I have been encouraging clients to assist me with songs and styles for their dinner music. It allows your guests to get to know more about you, and the music is the soundtrack for your reception.
Justin and Ashlee did not realize it that night, but they have helped make other couples receptions better. Whether country songs, songs from your high school days, or even 80's rock, find out what fits for you and let your personalities shine.
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