Dancing the Night Away
Our Willow Room Bride, Susan, offers advice on making the right musical selections for your reception. Lethal DJ’s are a Willow Room favorite, and they are fantastic at keeping your guests dancing and having a great time. Give them a call at (724) 255-6501. Be sure to mention The Willow Room for special offers!
The Bunny Hop, the Electric Slide, the Macarena – everyone knows what I’m talking about here. Music for the reception of course! Choosing the music for your wedding is a huge step in the whole wedding planning process. Music can really establish the “fun” of a wedding – a make it or break it aspect. Now don’t freak out! While it can be confusing, it’s also tons of fun picking and choosing what music you’re grooving to on your Big Day.
Whether you’re hiring a disc jockey or band, make sure you are comfortable with them and honest about your expectations. Music is one of the more complicated aspects of a wedding; you need music for your grandparents, teenage cousins, and your Rock N’ Roll husband-to-be. Being the bride, and calling most of the shots, you may feel a little overwhelmed! Sometimes brides want a romantic and classy wedding, but how that can happen with a tipsy uncle trying to do the Cuban Shuffle, let alone the horrified look on your in-laws while your family does the Chicken Dance. That’s why it’s important to establish what you and fiancé want played and, more importantly, DON’T want played. Always discuss what’s important to you in your music selection. For instance, I really wanted some classy traditional wedding music (I’m in love with the whole “Father of the Bride” feel), while my fiancé insisted that all he cared about NO Chicken Dance. While we agreed on that, we also agreed on some other group dances that might work for us. It was nice to establish guidelines and relaying that to our DJ.
Now I’m not saying pick every song that will be played while calculating the seconds between, but I am advising that you have an idea on what type of music you would like played. Maybe you want classical music at the beginning, during the cocktail hour. This is also a good time to play some old favorites such as Frank Sinatra. Have an idea on what genre you want played during your entrance and whether or not you want group dances.
So how do we find a common ground and a balance for the music that could make or break our weddings? Well, after doing a ton of research, reading everything from blogs to wedding websites, I have become even more confused then I was when I started. All the advice had a few things in common:
- Choose a band (generally more expensive) or DJ that fits your needs, budget, and style. Many established companies have music planners that can help you pick out songs that are played during the cake cutting all the way to the father daughter dance. (Suggestions are always nice!)
- Let them do their job! Sounds pretty easy, but many brides and grooms want so much control over the music that they forget that the company they hired is more than capable of doing that for them. Definitely have a list of must play songs, but give them a little wiggle room.
- Have a DON’T play list. Unless you want the song that you are your ex-boyfriend deemed “your song” played, please make this list.
- Always plan for music that will be fun and comfortable for everyone. (Tip: set older individuals like your great-aunt AWAY from the speakers or band, not only will this help their sanity, but having the younger people closer to the dance floor will help get the party started!)
Wishing you luck in your wedding planning,
Susan
P.S. The most important thing is to have fun and remember your comfortable dance shoes!
Heidi Counts Down and Crosses things Off the List!
Our Willow Room Bride, Heidi, has been busy crossing tasks off her list. She selected the Filet and Crab Stuffed Orange Roughy for the dinner – both Excellent selections! Thanks for the update Heidi!
Wow… it has definitely been way too long since I’ve written a blog update! While I have definitely been slacking with our Blog – we have been making lots of progress! There are lots of things to catch everyone up on…so I’ll probably break this into a few blog updates over the next few weeks. First of all, we are officially at a little over 4 months to go! Seriously, where has the time gone?
We are continuing to meet with our Pastor for our marriage counseling classes. They are definitely interesting 🙂 I think we only have a few more sessions to go, so it will be nice to have these completed.
In April, Dan and I and our parents went to the Willow Room for our tasting. Umm…yum! The food was absolutely delicious! We were able to try three different soups, entrees, starches, and veggies. All of us really enjoyed all of the food, and though it wasn’t easy, I think we have pretty much narrowed down our entrees to Filet (Dan’s favorite) and Orange Roughy stuffed with Crab (my favorite).
While at our tasting, I also had a chance to meet with Nicole, the most recent addition to the Willow Room. She was really enthusiastic and extremely helpful in answering all of our questions, and I look forward to our detail appointment in July. So excited to finally be crossing some of these things off of o
ur list.
Also…drum roll please…we finally booked our Honeymoon! YEA! So excited. We are going to Couples Negril in Jamaica for 7 amazing days. Sun, Sand, Tropical Drinks…can’t wait!
More to come soon!
In-Law Love
Our Willow Room Bride, Susan, explains how she copes with In-Laws involvement in the wedding planning process. As she explains it’s not always easy, but there are strategies to get your way and keep the peace!
In-Laws. Can’t live with them, can’t kill them (a friend of mine once said). Ok, so maybe I’m exaggerating, but in-laws can sometimes be a pain in the butt. Whether you get along swimmingly with your fiancé’s family or you have glorious dreams about setting them on fire, you will eventually come to a point in the wedding planning process when you don’t agree and nothing can sway your opinion, (much to the dismay of your fiancé, although he will get over it, I promise).
So what do you do? Well I guess that depends on the aspect you are disagreeing on. It can be anything from the colors of the wedding, the location of the ceremony or even the BIG dispute over who is paying for what. Personally speaking, most disagreements can be easily fixed. Most of the time disagreements are about small things over which we start to get stubborn, such as the colors of the napkins. You have to ask yourself in these times, “Who in their right mind is going to care about the color of the napkins?” Who is actually going to go home and say to their friends and family, “Did you see their napkins? They were awful.” NO ONE! The only person who cares about things like that is you! Honestly. That’s why the first step in the disagreement is always figuring out whether it’s important enough to fight over. If it isn’t, maybe you should let your in-laws have a say, especially if they are contributing to the wedding. If you give them a small thing you DON’T really care about, then you have more chances to make the final decision on aspects that you actually DO care about. If it is something important, such as the shape of the wedding cake (I always wanted round, and it was a big deal to me) or your dress, explain in an understanding, yet firm way, “I appreciate your thoughts and advice on my choices, but I’ve decided that I’m going with the round, delicious cake because it’s a better fit for myself and fiancé.” Yeah, yeah, I know, easier said than done, but being polite but firm always works better than being a b****. Most of the time, in the end, your in-laws won’t care. If they do, they will most of the time get over it, even though it might take a while. If they don’t, you might want to involve fiancé, not that he shouldn’t have been in the first place, but maybe have him talk to them.
One of the biggest arguments in any wedding is MONEY. Now traditionally speaking you can always Google a list of who contributes what. My thoughts? It’s year 2011 Not 1950. This means you can mix up who pays. Maybe your parents aren’t as well off as his, or maybe you and your fiancé want to contribute the majority of the bill. Either way, be open and HONEST about your thoughts. Your parents aren’t contributing? His parents aren’t contributing? Yeah, I won’t lie, it sucks. Whether you wanted the actual money or just the gesture, it’s not easy when someone isn’t pulling their weight. My advice? Have a discussion about it with your fiancé, and he might have an idea on how to go about bringing up the topic. At the end of the day, it’s up to them on whether or not they are going to contribute. A way to think of it, anything they give we will appreciate and if they don’t, they don’t. Nothing will change that so you might as well not keep thinking about it. I know it’s hard and at times you want to pull your hair out, or better yet, pull their hair out! You might even daydream of making a speech at the wedding to thank yourself for all YOUR hard work, just to let everyone know, who DIDN’T help out. (I have that wonderful dream sometimes, because you know when that day comes, everyone will want to eat YOUR great food, and drink YOUR open bar, and stuff their faces full of YOUR cookies, but in reality, they don’t deserve them!)
So at times like these, I appreciate wine and/or aspirin, and friends and my fiancé who understand that sometimes a wedding is HELL, but it’s my wedding none-the-less and it will be perfect, whether anyone helps out or not. Remember, things can only get to you when you let them. Stay calm, focused, and realize this is about love, not just cake and dresses.
Wishing you luck in your wedding planning,
Susan
Words of Willow 