Dance Songs

Alternative title: Eighth Grade Sway Songs In typical warbler fashion, I've flip flopped about a bijillion times over our choice for first dance songs. The problem is I keep running into the problem of expectations vs reality. Like when your friend tells you about this amazing restaurant that you just have to try. When you go, your expectation is that the food will be really really ridiculously good, but often the reality is that it's just OK. Nothing to write home about. Well for me, I hear a great song and I get all excited because I think this song is so "us". Well, could be us, will be us. But then I listen to it again and I think "pssh, this is so not us". After expectation vs reality overdose, I narrowed our choices down to a few choices.

Video via Youtube.com

From day one, I was convinced this would be our song. The lyrics are soulful, realistic and most importantly I freaking love John Legend. But, I think I love the song way more than Mr. Warbs does, which doesn't really make it feel like it's our song.

Video via Youtube.com

Even though this song is a little outdated, it has more meaning for us. Mr. Warbs, the biggest goof you will ever meet, actually thought the song was called Atlanta. When he told me, I laughed hysterically and now he refuses to acknowledge his mistake. Every time we hear this song, he purposely makes up funny lyrics to get me to laugh again. I can definitely see him whispering silly lyrics into my ear on our wedding day. And that image kind of makes my heart melt.

Video via Youtube.com

Every since I heard this song, I fell in love with it. It completely reminded me of Mr. Warbs and when I played it for him, I was sad to find out that he actually found it annoying. I suffered some serious expectations vs reality sadness that day. How can you not love this song? It's so fun! Even though it won't be our first dance song, I still make Mr. Warbs dance around with me while it's playing every now and then. To TORTURE him.

Video via Youtube.com

Ah, Coldplay. Pretty much any song by this band would be perfect to play for a first dance song. This is actually one of the few songs that Mr. Warbs said that he really liked. Any song that my man takes note of is definitely up for consideration. Of course, this is always going to remind me of Wedding Crashers.

Video via Youtube.com

This song is on the list just because when I was a kid, my parents would slow dance to this song all the time. Every time I heart it, I'm reminded of them. After looking up the song though, I found out that it is way too long. Six minutes dancing to this super super slow song? Not happening. I might play it later on in the night for my mom though.

What do you think of my choices? What song are you using for your first dance as man and wife?

In Which We Search for Musicians

In my last post, I expressed my dream of having a friend officiate my wedding and Everlong (acoustic of course being played as I walk down the aisle). Well the officiant is taken care of (woot!). Now we move on to the music!

First of all, Mr. Warbs and I are only having live musicians for the ceremony and cocktail hour. That's right. No band or DJ for our reception, we're going the DIY route.

No turntables for our wedding!
Image via Turntable DJ

Here are a few reasons why we're not having a DJ. Cost. Some of the quotes we got from local DJs were ridiculous. A lot of them started at a grand. As in a grand for the bare minimum. And if you've ever been to a party with a DJ the majority of them use iTunes or even their iPod. I figured why should we pay somebody upwards of a thousand dollars to do something we could do ourselves?

Hey, I have one of those!
(Source)

But we want live music for the ceremony. At first I wanted to have a string quartet. Classical, romantic and visually awesome. But cost wise, it didn't make sense for our budget.

Sorry quartet!

Image via Cliftonmusicanddance.org

Instead we opted to have a solo musician. It made sense cost wise and it would serve our small wedding. There were a few sounds we knew we didn't like.Violin was a nice, but not as nice when accompanied by another instrument like a guitar. We also knew we didn't want a harp.

Classy, but not for me

Image via Boston Wedding Harpist

In the end we decided to go with the guitar. Most of the ooey gooey songs I love are acoustic covers: Everlong, Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez and Thirteen by Elliot Smith. So far I've found a few solo guitarists who seem to be reasonably priced. And more importantly, have good samples of their music.

So to recap, for the ceremony and cocktail hour we'll have live acoustic guitar playing. During the reception, we'll have our own hand crafted playlist to rock our guests' faces off. The playlist is currently under construction, but shows promise for an awesome time! iTunes reception, here we come!

Are you going the iTunes route?