Philofaxy All Stars 2013: J’s Wedding Music

As part of the 2013 Philofaxy All Stars blog tour, J from The Crazy Life of J has offered to do a post on her wedding music.  She and her husband have just celebrated their first anniversary.

Photo used with permission from J

This post is LONG overdue. Kanalt first asked me to write it about a year and a half ago when she first saw the song I was planning to use for my first dance on my wedding day. Now that I just celebrated my first anniversary, I figure it's about time I sit down and get this post over to her! 

We used a local DJ called Music by Design - they were awesome from our first meeting with them to a few days ago when I emailed them, begging them to try and find our song list over a year after our wedding. After we decided on them, we were able to log into our own client area on their website. Once there, we could access all of their songs, and include them on categorical lists according to songs that must be played, songs we would like played, and songs we absolutely didn't want played. And you know me with my lists and categories - I was in heaven! It also made it really easy to ban songs like “The Chicken Dance” from ever being played on our day!

Our first dance was danced to Zac Brown Band's song “Free.” Brian and I were both big fans of ZBB to begin with. When “Free” was released, the song just fit. We must have had half a dozen different people tell us they thought of us the first time they heard it. It only made sense to dance our first dance as a married couple to what was so clearly our song. 

One of the things we were most excited about was our ceremony music. Yeah, I know. Ceremony music is usually pretty boring. But since we knew we didn't want to hear any “Here Comes the Bride,” we set out to find something with a bit more "us." After a bit of digging, we found an awesome group called Vitamin String Quartet. They put an awesome twist on traditional rock and roll songs - perfect for our ceremony! 

We chose several songs that VSQ covered, including “Bittersweet Symphony” by the Verve, “I'm Yours” by Jason Mraz, “Penny Lane” by the Beatles, “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, and “Yellow” and “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay. Perhaps one of my favorites was our choice to have me walk down the aisle to VSQ's version of Eric Clapton's “Wonderful Tonight.” It was absolutely perfect. Plus, it was fun watching our guest realize a song was familiar and watch as they tried to figure out what song it was! 

Our wedding day was absolutely perfect, and a big part of it was our awesome DJ and music. From traditional songs to fun modern twists, our music perfectly fit exactly who we are. That would probably be my top advice when picking wedding music, or picking anything to do with your wedding: make sure it is YOU. Because at the end of the day, your wedding day is your day. 

Thank you, Kanalt, for giving me the chance to share a little bit of our wedding day with your readers!

Thank you, J for sharing your day!