{"id":34968,"date":"2014-08-07T12:18:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T02:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.easyweddings.com\/au\/articles\/creating-wedding-playlist-wedding\/"},"modified":"2021-11-10T03:24:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-09T16:24:01","slug":"creating-wedding-playlist-wedding","status":"publish","type":"au-article","link":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/articles\/creating-wedding-playlist-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating YOUR wedding playlist for YOUR wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nPaddy Cummings likes to joke that he knows every song in\u00a0<\/span>the world bar 12. And you\u2019d expect nothing less from a man\u00a0whose band is named after an iconic Beatles track.<\/p>\n

The singer and vocalist is part of Melbourne band Penny\u00a0Lane<\/a>\u00a0and, as someone who describes music as a \u201cbeautiful\u00a0gift\u201d for couples to give their guests, he loves the way it can\u00a0be used to create a bespoke wedding soundtrack.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is one of the ways people communicate; it\u2019s\u00a0something they have a strong emotional connection to. And\u00a0because a wedding ceremony is such an emotional thing,\u00a0and a reception is such a joyous celebration, couples who\u00a0incorporate live music into their day are really offering a\u00a0beautiful gift to their guests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are Paddy\u2019s <\/a>insights into creating a live music\u00a0soundtrack.<\/p>\n

The wedding ceremony\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bespoke ceremonies are the norm for modern couples, and\u00a0one beautiful way to really give them a personal feel is with\u00a0live music and a singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sound of a voice interpreting\u00a0truly heartfelt lyrics creates a mood and a message; it\u2019s such\u00a0an intense and pretty experience,\u201d says Paddy, who performs\u00a0at ceremonies with fellow band member Alinta Burnell (pictured above).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt perfectly ties in with what people are seeing when they\u00a0watch a couple come together at the altar or the end of the\u00a0aisle, or when the bride starts her walk.\u201d[ew-supplier-carousel]<\/p>\n

He nominates Stand\u00a0by Me<\/em> and Can\u2019t Help Falling In Love<\/em> as popular options\u00a0but points to a wider variety of possibilities. \u201cAlinta often\u00a0sings the Eva Cassidy version of Songbird<\/em>, or At Last<\/em> by Etta\u00a0James, while I do This Old Love<\/em> by Lior and Saving Grace<\/em>\u00a0by Pete Murray,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about setting a vibe for the\u00a0ceremony.<\/p>\n

Canap\u00e9s and cocktails<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once the business part of the day is over, it\u2019s time for the fun.\u00a0This starts with canap\u00e9s and cocktails – plus a great backing\u00a0beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of low-key jazz and laidback background music\u00a0is nice for people to have a chat to,\u201d says Paddy. \u201cAnd what\u00a0you need to remember is that often, people haven\u2019t really\u00a0been able to chat to each other until that point, so it\u2019s about\u00a0choosing music that is not very loud, but that people can\u00a0still tap their foot to.<\/p>\n

Think jazz, a bit of Bossa nova, Latin\u00a0music and even some of the quieter sing-along favourites that\u00a0people know, like Message To My Girl<\/em> or (Sittin\u2019 on) The\u00a0Dock of the Bay<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about easy listening at its finest before\u00a0people head into the reception to await the day\u2019s two stars.<\/p>\n

The wedding party\u2019s arrival<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If there\u2019s one part of a wedding with great potential to go\u00a0viral, it\u2019s the arrival of the wedding party at the reception.<\/p>\n

You only have to look on Google to see inspirations ranging\u00a0from dancing and sunglasses to backflips. The common note\u00a0is an upbeat accompaniment, and it\u2019s something Penny Lane<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 which can be a duo, a five-piece, add a second female\u00a0singer or horn section \u2013 continues when it\u2019s time to \u201cplay\u00a0in\u201d the bride and groom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old standard is the riff from\u00a0Everybody Needs Somebody<\/em> by The Blues Brothers, so that\u2019s\u00a0always quite popular,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the moment, though, a\u00a0lot of couples like to use the chorus of Happy<\/em> by Pharrell\u00a0Williams, which is really infectious.<\/p>\n

You usually just use the\u00a0refrain and then you play it in full later.\u201d It\u2019s all about getting\u00a0the celebration off to a flying start.<\/p>\n

Dinner is served<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dinner calls for something that, in Paddy\u2019s words, enhances\u00a0the ambiance without overpowering the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou need\u00a0to be mindful that people will be talking, so you don\u2019t want\u00a0to drown that out,\u201d he says. However that doesn\u2019t mean the\u00a0music needs to be bland.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome younger couples opt for the\u00a0kind of stuff you\u2019d hear in a club, like electronic chill out\u00a0music, while older people might like a bit of Creedence.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0between, there\u2019s traditional favourites such as Sam Cook,\u00a0Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. We also find people quite\u00a0enjoy some chilled out vocals, so we\u2019ll do some Michael\u00a0Buble, some Alicia Keys and some jazz and instrumental,\u00a0even a customised playlist.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about keeping it simple –\u00a0complimentary but not forgettable.<\/p>\n

First dance and special songs<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cOne of the things we encourage people to do is think about\u00a0not just a song, but an interpretation of it as well,\u201d says\u00a0Paddy, who points out your band on the big day is the same\u00a0as the one pictured on the website.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople might say we\u2019d\u00a0really love you to do this Lana Del Ray song, or this Adele\u00a0song, but do it in a really chilled out way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to any\u00a0such request, he says, is to make sure expectation matches\u00a0reality. \u201cWhat we like to do is give the couple a copy of our\u00a0take on the song beforehand, so the first time they hear it\u00a0isn\u2019t at the wedding when they\u2019re walking down the aisle or\u00a0starting their first dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a practical side this also helps\u00a0to ensure, for example, that a carefully choreographed first\u00a0dance ties in perfectly with the beat.<\/p>\n

Father\/daughter dance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even in this modern age, many brides still cherish the\u00a0chance to connect with the man who came before all others.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s many beautiful options to consider, from\u00a0Butterfly Kisses<\/em> to My Girl<\/em>. The key is to pick something\u00a0with meaning. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s happy, or\u00a0sentimental, or melancholy,\u201d Paddy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more that it\u00a0should be relevant. We had one father-daughter dance which\u00a0was to Little Ray Of Sunshine<\/em>, and that was a really lovely\u00a0one because it was a song that was on the radio when the\u00a0bride was a little girl and it always reminded her parents of<\/p>\n

her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filling the floor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things couples sometimes do is overplan or\u00a0overthink their music or set list, but we encourage them to\u00a0eave the door open to see how things unfold,\u201d Paddy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you think about it, everybody wants a piece of the bride\u00a0and groom, so they have to work their way around the room,\u00a0which mightn\u2019t leave them much time for dancing.<\/p>\n

So, while\u00a0they might be firm on the fact they don\u2019t want Footloose\u00a0<\/em>by Kenny Loggins or Brown Eyed Girl<\/em> by Van Morrison,\u00a0they\u2019ve got 80 to 120 people of all ages and musical tastes\u00a0who might enjoy them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggests people trust their\u00a0band to read the crowd, gauge the mood and choose songs\u00a0accordingly, from an \u201880s classic to Blurred Lines<\/em> or Vance\u00a0Joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our jokes is to say we know every song in the\u00a0world but 12, so if someone calls out something we can\u2019t\u00a0do, we say \u2018oh that\u2019s part of the 12\u2019.<\/p>\n

But if people want the\u00a0Stones, we have them. We have Johnny Cash, we have Keith\u00a0Urban, we know the crowd pleasers and we play them. And\u00a0suddenly the couple looks around and the room is going\u00a0bananas. It\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

A grand exit\u00a0Paddy says the departure of the bride and groom is one of\u00a0the most important musical moments of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liken it\u00a0to going to a concert, where you\u2019re walking out afterwards\u00a0and the last song kind of gets stuck in your head. People get\u00a0in the car after the reception and they drive away and the last\u00a0thing they hear is the clapping and the cheering and that final\u00a0song.\u201d So it\u2019s worth making it memorable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething we\u2019ve\u00a0done that people like is Big Jet Plane<\/em> by Angus and Julia\u00a0Stone,\u201d he says. \u201cThe original song is pretty stripped back, so\u00a0we do a feelgood version, which everyone sings along to.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u00a0Yours<\/em> is also very popular, while Drops of Jupiter<\/em> by Train is\u00a0huge at the end of weddings.\u201d Then there\u2019s also the classics,\u00a0which are guaranteed crowd pleasers. Think Horses<\/em> by Daryl\u00a0Braithwaite, All Night Long<\/em> by Lionel Richie and the ever-popular Can\u2019t Take My Eyes Off You<\/em>, by Frankie Valli and\u00a0the Four Seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeping it personal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though his band is named<\/a> for a Beatles song, Paddy\u00a0says it doesn\u2019t focus solely, or even mainly, on the Fab Four.\u00a0But occasionally, they come in handy. \u201cWe had a couple who\u00a0got married on a beach, and for the recessional we did What\u00a0Is Life<\/em> by George Harrison.<\/p>\n

We did that with a bit of acoustic\u00a0guitar and it was beautiful.\u201d With the flexibility to learn up to\u00a0three new songs for a wedding, he encourages people to cast\u00a0their net far and wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a wedding recently where\u00a0the groom\u2019s favourite song, and that of all his uni mates,\u00a0was Roxanne<\/em> by the Police. So, we had that for the first song\u00a0and then they wanted it for the last song, and then we had to\u00a0come back and play it as an encore, and the place nearly fell\u00a0apart with people crowd surfing and jumping around.\u201d<\/p>\n

And\u00a0while the song mightn\u2019t be something you\u2019d usually expect\u00a0to hear at a wedding, it\u2019s not the lyrics that are the point. It\u2019s\u00a0the association people have with a time in their lives. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0the same with people who want to hear Khe Sanh<\/em> or Run to\u00a0Paradise<\/em>,\u201d Paddy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the song, it\u2019s how they relate\u00a0to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which bring us nicely back to the Beatles, and the origin of\u00a0that name.\u00a0\u201cThe band had a couple of other names beforehand, but we\u00a0had to change it again when it turned out we were sharing it\u00a0with a band who was part of Triple J Unearthed,\u201d Paddy says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually looking through some albums for inspiration\u00a0when I picked up one by the Beatles, saw Penny Lane and\u00a0thought to myself: \u2018Perfect\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11058,"template":"","au_article_tag":[634,123],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-article\/34968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/au-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au-article\/34968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"au_article_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easyweddings.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/au_article_tag?post=34968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}