How to Choose Music for Your Wedding Drinks Reception

If you want to keep costs down, put together a playlist specifically for the drinks reception. Start with gentler songs, add a little more rhythm later and put someone in charge of starting the music and adjusting the volume. You can use Spotify to collect ideas and show your suppliers what you like. For playback on the day, agree on a suitable music source with your venue. Spotify limits its service to personal, non-commercial use.

If the budget allows, we’d choose live music. A guitar and vocal duo feels intimate and easy-going. Piano and vocals give the same repertoire a slightly more polished feel. Both work well with acoustic pop, mellow soul and lounge arrangements. Tasteful backing tracks can fill out the sound. The advantage of live musicians is that they can see how the reception is going and adjust the song, intensity or pace as guests settle in.

At the piano, Elton John’s Your Song is a good example of a song guests can recognise from just a few notes. If you lean a little more towards rock, Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls works well as a stripped-back guitar and vocal arrangement, with a gentle lift in the chorus.

For an Italian aperitivo, a jazz and swing trio is the option we recommend most often. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Michael Bublé give you songs people recognise even when they’re listening between conversations. A small group can ease in as people arrive and move into a livelier swing once guests have settled.

For an Italian touch, mix in Quando, quando, quando and Nel blu dipinto di blu, better known as Volare. Dean Martin’s That’s Amore brings an Italian-American flavour that international guests often recognise straight away. If you want to build the energy gently, save one of the brighter numbers for the last round of drinks.

Saxophone works well if you want jazz and swing standards alongside instrumental versions of soul and pop songs. Ask the player for a few examples from their set. Grover Washington Jr.’s Just the Two of Us, featuring Bill Withers, and Sade’s Smooth Operator give you a feel for the sound. Try Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are, Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour, or Sia’s Chandelier in a gentler arrangement. Norah Jones’s Come Away with Me, Alicia Keys’s If I Ain’t Got You, Colbie Caillat’s Bubbly, Jack Johnson’s Better Together and Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning are other pop and soul ideas to try. Stevie Wonder’s I Just Called to Say I Love You also lends itself to a mellow instrumental arrangement.

A string quartet suits a particularly elegant, formal reception. If the quartet has already played at your ceremony, consider changing the lineup for drinks. A solo violinist playing pop arrangements over light backing tracks can give the reception a more relaxed feel. If the same violinist played at the ceremony, they could switch repertoire or add another player to give the reception a different sound.

At first, guests are saying hello and talking about the ceremony. Towards the end, they’ve caught up with friends, everyone’s more relaxed and someone might even start dancing. Ask the musicians how they’d change the set between those two points. More energy could mean a brighter swing number or a chorus everyone knows. Keep the volume at a level that lets guests talk without raising their voices.

You can build the same way with the lineup. One or two players for the ceremony, three for drinks and more than five for the party is one way to build the day if space and budget allow. Some of the same musicians can play throughout, with new instruments joining at each stage. Guests will hear the difference even if they’re busy choosing their next canapé.