Day #21: Cocktail Music At Your Reception

from Erik Michaels and June Hoffman of Megasound

Some people think of cocktail music and dinner music as the same thing. While there is nothing wrong with playing the same type of music for your cocktail hour as for your dinner hour, your dinner music should be slightly more relaxing than the music played for the cocktail hour. You want your guests to enjoy their dinner and be ready for fun and (usually) dancing afterwards.

Cocktail music can be almost any type of music, although I believe that upbeat jazz is probably the most popular type generally played. "Rat Pack" type music (Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, etc.) is featured fairly often for cocktail music, but other types of jazz also work well. Utilizing older types of music will impress your older guests and generally bring back memories for them. Another idea which can be used for your cocktail hour is to play old TV themes. If you want your wedding to be memorable, that will definitely do the trick! Just imagine peoples' expressions as they hear "The A-Team" theme! There are so many different styles of music one can use for the cocktail hour because there aren't any particular traditions going on at this point and people generally are not ready for dancing yet. Since there isn't much structure at this point, almost any type of music will fit the bill. You can use a single type of music or you can spice things up by choosing music of all different types. Themed music such tropical, heritage, and others work well here also.

Basically, the only rule of thumb for cocktail music is to have fun with it! Since dancing is not generally featured during the cocktail hour, other types of "listening" music can also be played during this time which would not fit in well later in the evening. Many couples generally have at least one song that just isn't "danceable" but which they want played at some point during their reception. This song would fit in very well during the cocktail hour. Keep in mind, of course, that the wedding party is not usually at the reception yet. This time is generally reserved for the photographer to take pictures of the couple, their wedding party, and the immediate families.

If you need examples of cocktail music, call Megasound TODAY!