According to a recent survey on our site, more than 45 percent of couples are planning to forgo live musicians and use recorded music for their ceremonies, and 41 percent are depending on their own iPods to spin the tunes for their wedding dances.
Here are some tips to help make using recorded music go smoothly: Designate a Driver - Pick a tech-savvy friend or cousin (someone who will be happy to help, not annoyed) to be in charge of running the music and making sure that things are going smoothly.
Double Up - Be sure to have all your songs loaded on two iPods or MP3 players, so that if something happens to one, you will have a back-up.
Nothing puts a quicker end to a party than not having any entertainment.
And imagine walking down the aisle to the sounds of nothing.
Or worse...
humming.
Charge It - Great, now you have got two players ready to go.
Be sure that they are both charged on the big day, and that you have the chargers along for each of them.
Running out of battery at the gym is mildly annoying; running out of juice at your own wedding would be disastrous.
Shake It Up - Be sure to program a good variety of music for your reception.
A polka for Grandma, a waltz for Aunt Jane, and yes, even some Alice in Chains if that is what your betrothed loves and wants to hear (please, keep it to one song).
Be sure to pick some top crowd pleasers like party standards, disco and club faves that will get people on the dance floor and keep them there.
Do a Test Run - Before the big day, take the player to both your ceremony and reception venues and test it out with their sound systems.
Test transitioning between songs, adjusting volume, and fading out (for when your walk up the aisle is complete or the song selection fails to lure anyone to the dance floor).
Make Some Playlists - This is the fun part.
You are in control, and the entire library of recorded music is at your disposal.
You can waltz up the aisle to The Ramones, if you would like.
You can program the entire evening into one playlist to minimize fiddling with the player.
Be sure to keep separate lists for your ceremony music, reception music and dance music.
You would not want "Dancing Queen" to accidentally find its way into church while you are lighting the Unity Candle.
Here are some tips to help make using recorded music go smoothly: Designate a Driver - Pick a tech-savvy friend or cousin (someone who will be happy to help, not annoyed) to be in charge of running the music and making sure that things are going smoothly.
Double Up - Be sure to have all your songs loaded on two iPods or MP3 players, so that if something happens to one, you will have a back-up.
Nothing puts a quicker end to a party than not having any entertainment.
And imagine walking down the aisle to the sounds of nothing.
Or worse...
humming.
Charge It - Great, now you have got two players ready to go.
Be sure that they are both charged on the big day, and that you have the chargers along for each of them.
Running out of battery at the gym is mildly annoying; running out of juice at your own wedding would be disastrous.
Shake It Up - Be sure to program a good variety of music for your reception.
A polka for Grandma, a waltz for Aunt Jane, and yes, even some Alice in Chains if that is what your betrothed loves and wants to hear (please, keep it to one song).
Be sure to pick some top crowd pleasers like party standards, disco and club faves that will get people on the dance floor and keep them there.
Do a Test Run - Before the big day, take the player to both your ceremony and reception venues and test it out with their sound systems.
Test transitioning between songs, adjusting volume, and fading out (for when your walk up the aisle is complete or the song selection fails to lure anyone to the dance floor).
Make Some Playlists - This is the fun part.
You are in control, and the entire library of recorded music is at your disposal.
You can waltz up the aisle to The Ramones, if you would like.
You can program the entire evening into one playlist to minimize fiddling with the player.
Be sure to keep separate lists for your ceremony music, reception music and dance music.
You would not want "Dancing Queen" to accidentally find its way into church while you are lighting the Unity Candle.