How to Choose a First Dance Wedding Song

Think Long Term Memories

I’m celebrating my 20th Wedding Anniversary August 18! And in honor of that I’d like to talk about first dance songs. My husband and I have a special song that we danced to on our wedding day. Now we sing it when we karaoke with our six kids! It’s even more meaningful now than it was then. Our first dance song has endured and we still love it!

You get one first dance at your wedding. You want it to be just right, but picking just the right song can be really difficult. You want it to be sentimental, but not cliche. You want it to speak to the uniqueness of your relationship. You don’t want to pick the most popular song of the season even though you love that song when you’re singing in the car by yourself. This is your first dance! It needs to be good and you want to still love it 20 years from now. 

Here are 5 Tips to Choose your First Dance Song: 

• Find a genre or artist that you both love. We loved 80s music. It was reminiscent of our childhoods and things we enjoyed even before we knew each other. 

• Consider your history together. We survived long-distance dating and multiple parent hurdles in order to get married. Once we said “I do” we felt unstoppable.

• Ask your parents or grandparents what they danced to at their wedding. You might love it and want to continue the tradition. I’m not super sentimental and didn’t do this, but maybe my kids will play it at their weddings someday. 

• Start searching for ideas and listening to love songs. Listen for lyrics that are meaningful to you. 

• Ask your DJ for ideas. He/she has seen A LOT of first dances and knows which songs are really good and which ones are overdone. I wish I’d had an amazing DJ like Turn Up Columbus when I got married!

And just for laughs. Here’s my first dance song! 

Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now (Official Music Video)

Leanne O’Donnell, TUC Office Manager and her husband, Mike after 20 years of marriage!