On September 4th my husband and I were married in a Beatles-themed wedding extravaganza in Toledo, Ohio. Doug and I are huge Beatles fans and their music was the soundtrack to our college courtship. When we got engaged in May of 2010, before we knew when and where, we knew that our wedding would include a lot of Beatles music. And not to brag, but my wedding turned out to be AMAZING! (Mostly because Carly, Stitely Entertainment‘s Event-Planning Coordinator/Guru, planned my wedding from top to bottom. Thanks Carly!)
The "Please, Please Me" table (See the melted record candle-holders?)
Our theme was really fun and allowed us a lot of flexibility in our decorations and other “typical” wedding traditions. For example, each table was named after an album and was decorated with Beatles trivia cards and melted record-candle holders (which were also favors). Our bridesmaids were called the Honey Pies and our groomsmen were the Day Trippers, while the man of honor and best man were called (what else?) The Walrus and The Eggman. And of course, our theme influenced our music choices and special dances:
- First Dance: Don’t Let Me Down
- Father/Daughter & Mother/Son Dance: In My Life
- Anniversary Dance: And I Love Her
- Bridal Party Introductions: Come Together
- Bride and Groom Introductions: All You Need is Love
- Cake cutting: A Taste of Honey
- Garter Toss: Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?
- Bouquet toss: Octopus Garden
- Second to last song: With a Little Help From My Friends
- Last Song: The End
Just because our wedding had a Beatles theme didn’t mean we wanted to limit ourselves to only their music. We also included some of our other favorite dance music that ran the gamut from Motown to indie rock to hip hop.
- Range Life– Pavement
- Blister in the Sun- Violent Femmes
- Do you Realize? – Flaming Lips
- Send Me on My Way- Rusted Root
- Home– Edward Sharpe and Magnetic Zeros
- Superstitious- Stevie Wonder
- Sexyback –Justin Timberlake
- Speaking in Tongues- Eagles of Death Metal
- Crazy in Love- Beyonce
- 1901- Phoenix
- Dog Days are Over– Florence and the Machine
- 10 Dollar – M.I.A.
- The Way you Move- Outkast
- Power of Love- Huey Lewis (Requested by my dad!)
- This is Not a Test- She & Him
- Electric Feel –MGMT
- Fidelity- Regina Spektor
- Bang a Gong – T. Rex
- Forget You- Cee Lo Green
Some of my favorite memories from our wedding were our musical shout-outs to the Honey Pies and Day Trippers. We wanted to acknowledge their love and support throughout the length of our friendships (and planning process) by picking special songs that reminded us of each of them. We played some during dinner & some during dancing.
- Measuring Cups- Andrew Bird
- Dreams –Cranberries
- Man in Me– Bob Dylan
- I Won’t Back Down- Tom Petty
- Bicycle- Queen
- Hollaback Girl- Gwen Stefani
- Land Down Under– Men at Work
- Ain’t No Other Man- Christina Aguilera
- Gold Digger – Kanye West
- Idioteque- Radiohead
- How Bizarre –OMC (It’s a LOOOOONG story)
Despite the questioning of the skeptics, we couldn’t be happier with the way our wedding turned out! And by the end of the night many of those dubious relatives said that ours was the most fun wedding to which they had ever been invited. So if you and your fiance don’t want to follow the typical wedding color schemes or traditions, or if others think some of your ideas are “crazy,” just ignore them. It’s your day, do it your way and have a blast!
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