… until Mary and I get married. The big things (like where to have the wedding and reception, who else will be involved in the ceremony, etc.) have been taken care of. Now it’s the time to look at other things, such as
What music are we going to play?
I’ve been mostly put in charge of making this decision. I’ve spent time coming up with a 4-hour “background music” playlist for the reception, and another 4-hour “dance music” playlist. That has been a lot of fun. What has been a little more difficult has been trying to decide what music will play at particular moments, like our first dance and our dance with our parents (Mary with her dad and me with my mom).
The first thing we decided was that there was going to be only one song for us to dance to and one song for us to dance with our parents to. Some weddings make it a more drawn-out process, where the bride dances with her father for a whole song and then the groom dances with his mother for a whole song. That’s not going to happen.
We also decided that we’re not going to have a separate announcement, “And now it’s time for the dance with the parents!” Once the song we’re dancing to is over, it’ll go right to the next song and we’ll grab our respective parents.
So what songs are we going to play? For our dance with each other, we’re going to go with a song by Bing Crosby, “Constantly.” We both like Bing’s style and voice – and after all, he is a native Washingtonian!
The decision about what song to play next was more difficult. There are a few lists around the Internet of “Father-Daughter Dance Songs,” and they generally have “Butterfly Kisses” at the top of the list. I’m sure it is very special to a lot of people, and maybe I will understand it better if I have a daughter – but I would rather elope than have “Butterfly Kisses” played at my reception. And the rest of the songs on these lists are no less sappy. We decided, in the end, to go with Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade” – a classic, and instrumental.
We’re still working on what to play during the ceremony itself. Any suggestions?
Elliot Ritzema 
Excellent song choices! You cannot go wrong with Crosby & Miller.
You must include Final Countdown in the dance mix. I know it’s a dear favorite.
we did much the same thing – I hate this whole “first dance” thing. So we had the first dance song and told the rest of the wedding party to jump in after about 30 seconds.
We did the same with the parent dance – which was new to me as we dont have that tradition in the UK
Receiption suggestion: “The Way You Look Tonight”. There are many version to choose from including Bing, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Billie Holliday, etc. (Jas)
For the ceremony: We had “Praise to the Lord, The Almighty the King of Creation” – at least that is the first line. The actual title escapes me. I also like “In Christ Alone.” “O Perfect Love” is a traditional English one. There are lots of songs that would completely stink – in which case I will yell loudly from the cry room in protest. (Jenn)