Wedding Wednesday: Our Wedding Playlists

When I would dream about my future wedding day when I was in high school, college and my early 20s, the number one part of the wedding day that I'd fixate on and dream about specifically was the wedding reception dance floor. I love to dance, and the thought of being on a dance floor surrounded by the love of my life and all of the people in our lives that we love seemed like heaven on earth to me! I joked to friends in the months leading up to the wedding that the one aspect of wedding planning that I was a bridezilla about was anything to do with our wedding reception playlist! God bless the poor DJ that would have to put up with me. 😉

Anyways, before I get into recapping our full wedding reception on the blog, I wanted to share a detailed blog post with our wedding playlists, for cocktail hour, dinner and of course the dance floor! Below you can read about the must-plays, the do-not plays, and even the newest songs I would've added to the playlist that didn't exist yet in November 2024. And of course I have plenty of dance floor photos to share with you too!

Photos by Vinluan Photography

Cocktail Hour Playlist:

The space that our Cocktail Hour would be in at our reception venue was a very classic and chic space. I wanted older classic music to reflect this. Throughout the course of our relationship, Ryan and I have enjoyed cooking and eating dinner to the "Siriusly Sinatra" channel on SiriusXM radio. That's what inspired us to choose a Frank Sinatra song for our first dance! I told our DJ that the core artists for cocktail hour would be artists found on the Frank Sinatra radio channel that we like so much (I just asked him to omit Fly me to the Moon, since that would be our first dance song!)

Core Cocktail Hour artists:

Frank Sinatra
Dean Martin
Nat King Cole
Doris Day

Dinner Playlist:

I am a huge late 90s/early 2000s pop music fan. While I did have a number of dance-pop songs from this era on the dance floor playlist, I still wanted there to be a time to play some of the slower songs I liked from this era at the wedding. I decided to do a 90s/2000s soft pop dinner playlist, and I'm so glad I did! The DJ added in some of his own picks to my list (the only one I can remember off the top of my head that he added was Sunday Morning by Maroon 5, but I know there were others he added that fit this vibe), but below is my list of must-plays for dinner.

90s/2000s Soft Pop Wedding Dinner Playlist:

Breathless by The Corrs
The Way You Love Me by Faith Hill
Crazy For This Girl by Evan & Jaron
Dreaming of You by Selena
Truly Madly Deeply by Savage Garden
Forever and For Always by Shania Twain
Can't Fight the Moonlight by LeAnn Rimes
Mine by Taylor Swift

Wedding Do-Not-Plays:

I was just as adamant about the songs I did not want played at my wedding as the songs that I did want. Some of these songs I think are very cliche or overplayed at events, others I just genuinely hate the song. Here was my Do-Not-Playlist.

Single Ladies by Beyonce
I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas
24k Magic by Bruno Mars
Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran
Perfect by Ed Sheeran
Can't Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake (My least favorite song out of all of these- I just really don't like this song!)
Good as Hell by Lizzo
Happy by Pharell
Shake It Off by Taylor Swift
Lover by Taylor Swift
Something Just Like This by Coldplay
Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon
Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus

Dance Floor Final Playlist:

And finally, the crown jewel of my wedding planning efforts: my wedding reception dance floor playlist! I had been working on this for years. When it got to be time to trim it down, I realized my original playlist was 7 hours long. Woof. If I only I could've had a 7-hour long dance floor! My wedding playlist was very heavy on 90s/early 2000s dance pop. I wanted the dance floor to predominantly feel like a high school homecoming or prom dance floor for all of our friends. But I also wanted some 70s and 80s music sprinkled in for older family members, and a couple of newer 2020s songs as well.

I did take input from Ryan on a few songs, although he was overall pretty hands-off with the playlist and knew this was my domain. 😉 The one battle that I lost in regards to this was the Cupid Shuffle. I am very anti organized line dances at weddings (Electric Slide, Cupid Shuffle, Cha Cha Slide etc), but Ryan enjoys those dances. Cupid Shuffle was the one he really pushed to have. Another song he rooted for was Mr. Brightside by The Killers, not necessarily a personal favorite of mine, but a popular wedding dance floor song across the board. We were both very much in agreement from the start though about One More Time by Daft Punk being the final song of the night, we both love the song!

I also worked hard on arranging some older and newer songs that I specifically wanted mashed up / played into each other. I was very proud of my transitions with these! My past career as a pop radio personality came in handy for planning out this part of the playlist. I'll list those out below in the notes.

Here is our finalized wedding dance floor playlist from Spotify:

Wedding Playlist Notes:

Songs I was overall most excited to hear and dance to at my wedding: Waiting For Tonight by Jennifer Lopez, Trap Queen by Fetty Wap, Believe by Cher, Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera, Hotel Room Service by Pitbull, Don't Trust Me by 3OH3!, 1985 by Bowling For Soup

New song I was most excited to hear and dance to at my wedding: Tie between Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter and Greedy by Tate McRae (which sadly didn't play)

Older song I was most excited to hear and dance to at my wedding: Let's Groove by Earth, Wind + Fire

Song I got the most compliments from guests for adding to the playlist: I Wanna Be Bad by Willa Ford

Songs that got the most guests on the dance floor: Cupid Shuffle (hate to admit by Ryan was right on adding this, people do like the line dances 😂), What Dreams Are Made Of by Hilary Duff, Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne, 1985 by Bowling For Soup

Song I was surprised more people didn't get up and dance to: Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot

Songs on my wedding playlist I was excited about that the DJ sadly cut: 679 by Fetty Wap, Promiscuous by Timbaland and Nelly Furtado, Greedy by Tate McRae, Diet Pepsi by Addison Rae, Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle

Songs I would've had on the playlist, except they weren't released until after the wedding: Sports Car by Tate McRae, Abracadabra by Lady Gaga

Highlighted Songs at Our Wedding Reception:

Parents + Bridal Party Entrance Song - Let's Get It Started by The Black Eyed Peas

Bride & Groom Entrance Song - Get the Party Started by Pink

Bride & Groom First Dance - Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra

Father & Daughter Dance - Sweet Baby James by James Taylor

Mother & Son Dance - My Wish by Rascal Flatts

Cake Cutting - Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer

Dance Floor Opening Song of the Night - September by Earth, Wind & Fire

Longest Couple Standing Anniversary Dance - I Knew I Loved You by Savage Garden

Bouquet Toss - Glamorous by Fergie

Dance Floor Closing Song of the Night - One More Time by Daft Punk

Specific Song Blocks / Transitions I had the DJ Do:

Early 2000s Girly Pop Block

What Dreams Are Made Of by Hilary Duff
I Wanna Be Bad by Willa Ford
Miracles Happen by Myra

2000s Pop Punk Block

Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne
1985 by Bowling For Soup
Dont' Trust Me by 3OH3!
Mr. Brightside by The Killers

Originals + New Versions Song Blocks

Blue by Eiffel 65 into I'm Good by David Guetta ft. Bebe Rexha
What is Love by Haddaway into Baby Don't Hurt Me by David Guetta ft. Anne-Marie
Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot into Anaconda by Nicki Minaj
Promiscuous by Timbaland and Nelly Furtado into Greedy by Tate McRae (sadly these two got cut)

And without further ado, enjoy my favorite dance floor photos from our reception!