The Dreaded DIY

I saved the play list for last for a reason, talk about intimidating. As I procrastinated actually starting it for many months some guests left their song requests. I kept everyone up to date on those by having a Requests section on the Tunes to Expect tab of our wedding site.

Two weeks ago I sat down with all the song requests, all the songs I scribbled down over the course of planning and a few Googled lists of good music to dance to. Most of the songs I thought of (and requests) were slow dance love songs. So I wanted to make sure there was a good deal of dance-y stuff. A lot of songs are either completely inappropriate to a wedding, more drunken karaoke than dance music or unavailable for legal download. I made sort of a master list for myself. At that point I cursed not hiring a DJ. You see, most of my music was lost two hard drives ago. I knew I needed to search Mike's mp3s and then buy a bunch. Blah.

The next time I forced myself to work on it I browsed through Mike's music adding anything that appealed to me and crossing things off the list. Than I searched the list a song at a time. I needed four hours worth of reception music. I made separate lists for the "event" songs (cake, bouquet, first dance, etc). After that I saved it and took a break.

When I started buying mp3s I started feeling guilty. There was no way I could accommodate all the requests. We had 3hrs and change when I got to the point of purchasing music. There was no way I could add all the remaining requests or even the rest of my ideas. Suddenly, it was a microcosm of the whole planning process. Us first, than everyone else's input. It's my wedding.

Don't get me wrong I want them to be pleased with the selection. I need them to find there way out to the dance floor, but one request per person (or less) in some cases is how it seems to be shaking out. I decided that was pretty fair. Next step now that I have 4hrs of music is to burn it on to a cd and listen to it for a day or two.

Then I'll reorganize the songs and add anything that is missing. I want to put the list on to at least one other computer if not two. I will say $20 in mp3s beats the hell out of $700+ for a DJ.