The Best Non Traditional Wedding Ceremony Music Playlist

Even after being a part of hundreds of weddings over the years, I still have actually not seen it all. What exactly do I mean by this?  Only the true professional wedding DJs will meet with you and sit down with you and actually tell you that no two weddings are alike.  YOUR wedding is going to be much different than your best friends. Perhaps your best friend had the worst wedding DJ on the planet? Even if they had a top wedding DJ, YOUR wedding is still going to be much different. Different guest lists. Different bride. Different groom. Different venue.  Now, I don't want to scare you but there are probably young, amateur wedding DJs who are trying to mimic my success by looking at this blog right now who believe that they can just set their Ipad up through some speakers and be done with it. I apologize if I just scared you. Just seeing that on my Macbook screen scared me to death. Now that I have your attention its time to discuss this non-traditional wedding client.  Darden and John found me by way of the fine folks at Hopsewee Plantation. The rest is wedding history.

It should be no surprise to you that a non-traditional wedding DJ like myself is going to attract clients with non-traditional tastes in music.  I love this.  It's one of the things I've promoted from within my company since Day 1.  When I spoke with Darden over the phone, I must say it was one of the most refreshing conversations I had been a part of for quite some time. Within a few minutes of my conversation, I could not only tell that Darden was passionate about music, but I could also tell that she looked at the musical parts of her wedding much differently than a lot of my other clients previously.  We bonded very quickly over the phone and became fast friends. Darden's passion for the music became even more apparent when I met her and her mother for dinner in the weeks leading up to the wedding. At some point in their lives, the typical modern bride develops a vision, or a dream, for that matter of walking down the aisle and marrying the man of her dreams.  Perhaps some of these visions and dreams are formed by a movie or a play that they saw and as a result, they developed an attachment to those images as they were growing up.  When I speak of non-traditional music at any wedding, I'm speaking of making YOUR wedding sound like something of a fairy tale.  What is wrong with a modern bride being impacted by a movie she saw as she was growing up and using some of those songs in her wedding? Absolutely nothing.   I mean, let's be honest. Taylor Swift wrote about it in one of her signature songs "Today Was A Fairytale". 

So, let me begin in sharing these highly non-traditional (well-thought) music selections for Darden & John's wedding.  If you are looking to create a different type of sound for your wedding, I enocurage you to either bookmark this blog post or take some detailed notes. 

Wedding Ceremony Prelude Music

If you are new to planning your wedding music and don't know what "prelude" is, it's the music that is generally in advance to the start of your wedding ceremony. It can really be any type of music but it is designed to set the mood for the ceremony.  For more information about wedding ceremony music, be sure to click this link. 

"Once Upon A Dream" - Relax a Wave
"Far Longer Than Forever" - (from The Swan Son) - Minnz Piano
"Moonlight Densetsu" -  (from Sailor moon) - Harpsona
"Soon" (from Thumbelina) - Steven Bear
"Dearly Beloved" - Reprise- (Moises Neito)
"Dawn" - (from the Pride & Prejudice Soundtrack) - Darie Marianelli, Jean Yves Thibaudet
"All I Ask Of You" - One Piano
"When The Sun Loves The Moon" - Reinaeiry
"Moon and Back" - Alice Kristiansen

Wow. What did you think of those prelude selections? My initial impression when Darden sent me this playlist was just that, "wow".  What you see there is a playlist of wedding ceremony prelude music put together by a modern bride who is very well versed in drama and acting and during her upbringing created a catalog in her mind of beautiful songs that she would want to be heard on her wedding day. There is no other way to put it than that.  And I must say it was refreshing to break tradition from the normal wedding ceremony songs that most wedding DJs tend to see.  I don't really believe other wedding DJs would give their clients a chance to see their dreams come to fruition by allowing these kinds of non-traditional wedding songs to be played at their wedding. How could that be though? How could any wedding DJ try to convince any modern bride or groom to play the same music heard over the past 40 years for wedding ceremonies? Believe me, it happens and those are the wedding DJs you need to distance yourselves from.  Generally speaking, these are the young amateurish wedding DJs who steal ideas from seasoned professional wedding DJs like myself and try to pass them off to YOU as their own.  You can avoid coming into contact with these types of wedding DJs by clicking right here.  Now, let's get back to Darden & John's non-traditional wedding music selections.

Wedding Ceremony Music

 So, now we come to the wedding ceremony music. And as I was spending the time to secure these wedding selections, I was still in awe. As a matter of fact, I texted Darden to let her know that I would be putting together a post about this experience and mentioning her. She loved that idea.  It should be of no surprise that Darden's wedding ceremony pieces continueds along the lines (thematically) that her prelude music took.

"That's All I've Got To Say" | Art Garfunkel ----- Song played as officiant, parents walk out......
"Awakening Of Spring" | Zbigniew Preisner ----- Bridal Party processional song
"Colin Opens His Eyes" | Zbigniew Preisner ----- Bride processional song
"Eternity" | Dream Comes True, Miwa Yoshida, Mike Pela, David Zippel ---- Recessional song

Weren't those selections just amazing? For a wedding DJ who has seen so many couples over the years get married, I was wowed by Darden's selections. And as I do with all of my clients music, I listen and study to their music beforehand, especially if there are selections that are highly custom as what you see this post. When I did this, I began to get excited for Darden and John because  I was going to be playing an integral role in allowing their dreams to come true as they became husband and wife. 

Cocktail Hour & Dinner Music

I don't think it should be of any surprise that the non-traditional wedding music theme would continue into cocktail hour and dinner time. You'll see that Darden chose a lot of songs from some of the movies that were impactful to her as she was growing up.

"Love"| Nancy Adams
"The Trail We Blaze" | Elton John (The Road To El Dorado Soundtrack)
"Let Me Be Your Wings" | Barry Manilow (Thumbelina Soundtrack)
"Far Longer Than Forever" | Regina Belle, Jeffrey Osborne, Robbie Buchannan
"If I Never Knew You" | (Love Theme From Pocahontas)
"We've Only Just Begun" | The Carpenters
"Looking Through Your Eyes" | LeAnn Rimes (From Quest For Camelot)
"Banana Pancakes" | Jack Johnson
"We're Going To Be Friends" | The White Stripes
"Merry-Go Round Of Life" | Joe Hisaishi (Howl's Moving Castle)
"Send Me On My Way" | Rusted Root
"Somewhere Out There" | Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram (American Tail Soundtrack)
"Because You Live" | Jesse McCartney
"The Promise" | When In Rome
"Rule The World" | Take That
"Can't Help Falling In Love" | Haley Reinhart

Wedding Dance Music

While Darden & John placed a few of the tried and true wedding classics on their playlist, there were also quite a few lesser unknown songs that were added in to make their wedding soundtrack unique.

"She's My Coconut" | Bill Baylis, Simon Stewart
"C'est La Vie" | B*Witched
"Move It Like This" | Baha Men
"Juliet" | LMNT
"Us Against The World" | Play
"Butterfly" | SMILE.dk
"The Rockafeelr Skank" | Fatboy Slim
"Tank" | Seatbelts
"Superman" | Goldfinger 

Looking for some more ideas on how to put together the perfect playlist dinner? <---CLICK HERE

Darden & John's Special Dance Songs

You just know that a non-traditional bride and groom like Darden & John are going to have non-traditional songs as it pertains to introduction and special dance songs.

Bridal Party Introduction Song: "All My Best Friends Are Metalheads" | Less Than Jake
Darden & John's Introduction Song: "Raise Your Hands" | Bon Jovi
Darden & John's First Dance Song:  "You Are The Moon" | Hush Sound
Father / Daughter Dance Song: "Highlife" | Greazy Meal
Mother / Son Dance Song: | "Loves Me Like A Rock" | Paul Simon
Bouquet Toss Song" | Short Skirt, Long Jacket" | Cake
Last Song Of The Night (Darden & John only) : "Dance Me To The End Of Time" | The Civil Wars

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And there you have it, I will never forget Darden & John's special day.  They were such a beautiful couple. One of the reasons I won't soon forget this day is because we had a very early tropical depression move up into the coast of South Carolina. I encountered a lot of heavy rains on the ride up to Georgetown, as well as the trip back to Charleston.  No rainy day was going to get in the way of playing of all this non-traditional wedding music that Darden & John requested. It seemed that the rain would come and go and you could hear it tapping on the roof of the tent all day and evening. But under the tent was a happy group of people dancing and celebrating the love of Darden and John. I hope you enjoyed this post and if you were stumped on how to get your wedding playlist put together, you've got some ideas.  Remember, this is your day, not mine. You only hire me to help you mix and choreograph it with the music that YOU select.  If I sound like a broken record, I apologize, but I cannot emphasize it enough that this is YOUR day. The reputation you see on my website, as well as in my reviews is built on that very premise.  When you give modern brides and grooms the latitude to create their wedding playlist, the best things will happen.  Every single wedding is different and I encourage every client of mine to make their wedding playlist a custom musical creation. Click the link up above if you'd like to reach out and see if I am available for your wedding date. Thank you for visiting my website. I look forward to hearing from you.