8 Wedding Music Mistakes To Avoid

So you're engaged, embarking on your wedding planning, and considering what the most important elements of the day are and where you should focus some wedmin... Whilst to you the biggest part of your wedding day may be the dress, the cake, and of course the beautiful exchanging of vows with your beloved, what makes it memorable for your guests is the atmosphere. And what makes a good atmosphere? Great music! Planning the music for your day, right from live music through to the late night disco, can make or potentially break the celebrations! Get it right, and you have a seamless soundtrack to your wedding story, seeing guests embark on an emotional journey from classical processionals through to classic rock ballads at the end of the night. Get it wrong, and you could irritate, offend or ruin a few good moments with a few bad lyrics. Here are our top tips for wedding day music... 1. Avoid awkward silences There are a few times when a bit of light music would help guests feel at ease throughout the day. A prime example being as they arrive and wait for the ceremony to start. Chances are, guests will be sitting around for up to 30 minutes waiting for the bride to make her entrance, so be sure to arrange for some light background music at this point. 2. Be mindful of your officiant If you're having a civil ceremony, you cannot use any religious music at all, so make sure you've checked song choices with the officiant beforehand. Likewise, if you're marrying in a church, some priests would rather certain music wasn't used if it could cause offence. 3. Testing, testing If you're not using live music for the ceremony, please PLEASE do a sound check before you arrive. Perhaps make this an usher's job? It would be awful to be poised at the end of the aisle ready for your big entrance, and the speakers blow! 4. Background noise too noisy? You may well choose to have some background music during post ceremony drinks, or during the reception - great idea! But be sure to keep it in the background. Professional musicians will get this right most of the time, but if you're using a sound system make sure it's not too loud, and keep song choices mellow and unoffending. Anything too loud or upbeat will be off putting for some guests and make conversation tricky. 5. Never ending first dance Unless you have something spectacularly entertaining choreographed  try to get your first dance short and sweet. You'll feel a wally if your fist dance is a 6 minute snog fest, and your guests will probably feel quite awkward. 6. Keep it clean This is a wedding, not a Limp Bizkit concert. Your Granny is probably there. Try and keep songs containing offensive lyrics to a minimum. 7. Too much of a good thing You may LOVE 70s disco hits, but make sure your music selection is varied and that there's something for all tastes. That way people will stay on the dance floor happy in the knowledge that their favourite tracks will come on soon enough. 8. Dirty stinking base You may be a base line junkie, but chances are your Great Aunt Susan isn't. Try and keep heavy base and volume down a touch, especially towards the end of the night, to stop older or more delicate guests feeling uneasy and taking early departure. Just chat through all this will your DJ, or road test your playlist with a group of pals beforehand if you're doing it yourself. If you're looking for some professional musicians for your big day, check out World of Wedmin's fabulous collection here. And bag yourself an awesome DJ here.