Run to Paradise

The music played at weddings is important, because it's what the guests need as motivation to get up from their comfortable white fabric and satin-draped seats after a large meal and dance. After attending a wedding the other day, I realised that there are several key factors making certain songs ideal for playing at weddings. As well as a big enough dance floor, you need a mixture of music to appeal to all subsets of the guest list. It doesn't matter if it's a band or a DJ playing. They should be able to cater for any reasonable requests.

First of all, you need a selection of eighties pub rock. Most people who are old enough to go out hear this stuff on a regular basis played by covers bands or the pub DJ, so you need your set list to include Run to Paradise, You're the Voice, Summer of '69 and other such classics. You also need Love Shack, 500 Miles, the Grease mega mix (you can do without Abba though) and a few dance-related songs like the Timewarp and the Nutbush. The Macarena can be avoided, as it has aged considerably.

Complementing that, the rest of the set list can be more modern or even more classic. A bit of AC/DC or the Beatles can always get people on the floor, but at the same time, at least one of the nephews and nieces will request some recent crappy remix of a good song from a previous era. The key factor is variety and not to play all the good songs at the start. This is unfortunately what happened the other day. After dessert arrived, nobody wanted to go back up and dance again and it wasn't just the effects of the white wine wearing off or over-eating.