How To Perfectly Plan Your Wedding Music List – 2024 Guide

Summer is almost here and it’s the perfect season for weddings, the most beautiful events that become even better when hosted under the warm sun. Although the temperatures might be a bit higher on the scale, this still shouldn’t prevent you from inviting people over on your wedding, a moment that’s so heartwarming to witness, and a huge honor for many.

When it comes to organizing such a prestigious event, you must spend a lot of time on creating the perfect preparation list. Then, you can just follow the steps on that list and you hopefully won’t forget anything important. Weddings require a lot of preparation to achieve the perfect atmosphere both for you and your guests, and while we’re at the atmosphere part, one of the major factors for setting the correct “mood” is the right type of music.

In today’s article, we’ll talk about creating the best playlist for the event, and we’ll help you plan the entire thing based on a few different factors. So, if you’re interested in learning more, you’re more than welcome to keep on reading until the end. Let’s take a look.

Dividing the event into stages 

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Every wedding has different “phases”, and usually, it starts slow and calm with the ceremonial type of music, and as the night goes on, it starts to look more like a party. It’s no secret that music has a huge psychological impact on people, and you as the creator of the playlist have the goal of slowly switching songs and “adjusting” the atmosphere as the entire event keeps progressing.

For the first one or two hours, or until all the guests arrive and the main ceremonial things are over, you can choose calmer and slower songs, usually hits from the eighties or nineties that everybody knows. Think of the elderly people as well because they’re mostly present during the earlier hours, so include something that’s not very modern, and possibly something well-known to them.

When all of the dancing stars, you should focus on providing something more energetic, but still nothing too “crazy”. Save all of that for the final phase where people are only into the mood for dancing and partying, especially if the remaining guests are younger.

Considering the average guest age

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The entire theme of your music list should be based on the average guest age. It’s nothing too complicated here that you need to think of. If the majority are younger folks, play modern music, if they’re older, focus on hits and songs that are considered to be evergreen. Nothing wrong with playing something that’s “unknown” to a certain age group, but the atmosphere will be better if everyone is singing along and knowing the name, or even better the lyrics to each song.

Will you hire a DJ or not?

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Whether you’ll hire a DJ or not is a very important factor, and if you decide to go without one, you’ll have to find a proper solution for the atmosphere of your wedding. Understandably, some people are on a limited budget when hosting an event of this type, which is why we recommend that you replace the cost of a DJ with free online radio. There are many options on the internet, and they won’t cost you a dime. One of the examples is chilloutradio.com, especially if you want to achieve “freshness” and surprise yourself with songs that even you don’t know.

If you decide to go with a DJ, they’ll take care of the playlist and you won’t have to worry about anything, but this will cost you some money.

How long will it last?

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Of course, a very important part of making a playlist is determining the length of it. Shorter events require a playlist with fewer songs, while events such as a wedding that can last up to six or seven hours require long ones. If you have a determined time frame in which the event must start and end, and there are no options for any prolonging, it’s easy to fill up your playlist with songs to make it suitable. However, “crafting” the perfect list of songs is not an easy task, which is why a DJ is an entirely separate profession that requires a lot of knowledge and experience.

However, this doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to make one yourself, just try to keep the genre of the songs as close as possible, and don’t play anything that might be considered inappropriate for a formal event such as a wedding.

Based on your favorite songs

Last but not least, you shouldn’t ignore the fact that if this is your wedding, it’s your moment and you deserve to have the best time of your life. So, adding a few of your favorite songs shouldn’t be something that you’re going to think about twice. Now, it’s not too rare to have a wedding organized a bit in the “alternative” direction, with a different type of music that’s not considered the “standard”, but make sure to include such titles in your playlist only if everyone on your guest list appreciates the same style of music.

View other examples

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It’s 2024 and we can use the internet for almost anything that we want to know better, so even if you’ve never really made a music playlist for a wedding, there are so many examples that you can take a look at. Simply search for Wedding Playlist and you’ll get tons of different results. Since every wedding needs to be unique and special in its way, we don’t suggest that you copy an entire playlist from the internet, but you can use it as an example of what type of songs you need to add to create the perfect atmosphere. For an even more personalised choice hire a live wedding band like Dexter Band.

Conclusion

Without the right playlist, whether created by you or a professional DJ, a wedding cannot be what it should. One of the main factors that impact the atmosphere and the mood of your guests is music, and in this article, we provided a few very important tips that can help you to create the best playlist for the special occasion.