Iceland Destination Wedding Reception Music Ideas

Hey hey hey!  How are you gorgeous?!

With wedding season in full swing, we are in photography heaven with our bride and grooms so far this year.  They have chosen stunning dresses, DIY details, and been really amazing to work with.  Especially Photos by Miss Ann‘s most recent couple who was willing to take an adventurous walk to get to a pretty weeping willow tree!  Check out the striking Plymouth, Michigan wedding portraits of Traci and Jimmy Meyers below and may her DIY wedding details inspire you to have sparkly niceties of your own!

Our destination wedding in Iceland topic of the week is all about your reception music options.  Iceland has disc jockeys (dj’s) to be the MC of your event, many Iceland hotels also offer a speaker system throughout their banquet rooms that you can plug an IPOD into, there are a few Icelandic bands also available for booking.  But, my challenge to you is… Think about the wedding receptions you have been to throughout the years, did you love or hate the music?  Annoyed by the DJ?  Were you greeted with bellowing Frank Sintra songs? Songs about love and marriage? Disney themed songs?  An earthy harpist? Orchestra music?  A poppy band?  Celebrity impersonators?

A couple questions you need to ask yourselves as you consider what kind of music you would like to have played during your Iceland wedding reception:

  1. What kind of music do you and your fiancé love?  Genres, vibe, tone, lyrics, etc.
  2. What kind of music is enjoyable to your VIP’s (parents, bridal party, family, etc) and guests?
  3. Do you want to have formal dances?  If so, you may want break the music into sections to build the energy of the event.  Example: Cocktail Hour, During Dinner, Formal Dances, and Fun/Dance Songs.
  4. Are there songs on your “do not play” list?  This piece is important if hiring an Icelandic DJ for your wedding day.
  5. Is there a speaker system at your Iceland wedding host hotel?  Can you plug an IPOD into the sound system?  <This is a wonderful Iceland wedding cost savings if you can. Which means you can allocate more to your Iceland wedding photography fund, woohoo!>
  6. Who will you designate to run (or check in on) the wedding IPOD playlist during the event?  They will also need to be the person who ends up with the IPOD at the end of the night (if you and your hubby leave the reception early).

When planning for our destination wedding in Iceland reception music at Hotel Ranga we took a bit of an old school approach.  We wanted a formal event that still had fun laid back elements to it.  We’re not big “dancing fools” so we wanted to have some older genre easy-listening songs that would make people smile, reminisce, and laugh to.  The music would be more background music to us than anything else because our reception was focused on the 5 courses, conversation, the location, and our newly wedded bliss =)  Without further delay, here is our inclusive list of our Hotel Ranga wedding reception playlist we played from our IPOD:

Iceland Wedding Cocktail Hour Music:

“Can’t Smile Without You” by Barry Manilow

“Strangers in the Night” by Frank Sinatra

“When I Fall in Love” by Nat King Cole

“You are so Beautiful to Me” by Joe Crocker

“When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge

“Georgia on my Mind” by Ray Charles

“What the World Needs Now is Love” by Jackie Deshannon

Hotel Ranga Wedding 5 Course Dinner Music Playlist:

“Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol

“Lost in Love” by Air Supply

“You Light up my Life” by Debby Boone

“Blue Eyes” by Elton John

“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elivs Presley

“After All” by Cher & Peter Cetra

“Whenever I Call You Friend” by Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks

“That’s What Love is For” by Amy Grant

“True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper

“My Love” by Lionel Richie

“September Morn” by Neil Diamond

“Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor

“She Believes in Me” by Kenny Rogers

“Oh Girl” by Paul Young

“Lady” by Little River Band

“Love of a Lifetime” by Firehouse

“Something” by The Beatles

“The Lady in Red” by Chris Deburgh

“You Got it All” by The Jets

“Hey Jude” by The Beatles

“Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx

“Eternal Flame” by The Bangles

“Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen

“Crazy for You” by Madonna

“Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers

Even though we were not participating in anything traditional during our 5 course wedding reception in Iceland, we felt it was important to share 3 special dances of honor in front of all we love and adore.  Our first dance was together as husband and wife, the second was shared between Christopher and his mother Donna, and the third was shared between myself and my mother, Irene.  All were super special and I am thankful we honored our parents.  Here are the song choices we picked for our Iceland wedding dances at Hotel Ranga:

Iceland Wedding Formal Dances:

Chris and Ann’s 1st Dance Choice:  “Don’t Know Much” by Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville

Chris & His Mother’s Dance Choice: “A Song For My Son” by Mikki Viereck

Ann & Her Mother’s Dance Choice: “Anyám Lánya” by Agi Szaloki (Yes, we have very strong Hungarian roots!)

After Dinner Music for Our Iceland Wedding Reception at Hotel Ranga:

“Slow Dancin’” by Johnny Rivers

“Addicted to Love” by Robert Palmer

“Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

“All She Wants to do is Dance” by Don Henley

“Take Me Home Tonight” by Eddie Money

“Power of Love” by Huey Lewis & The News

“Old Time Rock & Roll” by Bob Seger

“White Wedding” by Billy Idol

“Pink Cadillac” by Bruce Springsteen

“Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton

“The One” by Elton John

“Thank the Lord for the Night” by Neil Diamond

“Good Vibrations” by The Beach Boys

“Young Americans” by David Bowie

“We’ve Got Tonight” by Bob Seger

“The Finer Things” by Steve Winwood

“Stuck on You” by Lionel Richie

“Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand

“Midnight Show” by The Killers

“Stars and Boulevards” by Augustana

“New Year’s Day” by U2

“You Need Me” by Anne Murray

“Save the Best for Last” by Vanessa Williams

“Tonight Tonight” by the Smashing Pumpkins

“Rock Me Amadeus” by Falco 3

“Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top

“The Longest Time” by Billy Joel

“Counting Cars” by Dishwalla

“Wonderwall” by Oasis

“Beautiful Day” by U2

“Shout by Tears” for Fears

“Heros” by the Wallflowers

A couple of you lovelies have also inquired and asked what our playlist was also for our Iceland wedding welcome dinner (or some call it our Iceland Wedding Rehearsal Dinner).  I would love to share that Iceland wedding weekend playlist with you too!  Our wedding welcome dinner was held at Hotel Ranga from 7-11pm.  We had a cocktail hour, 3 course meal for our guests, had a “welcome” and “thank you” toast, celebrated our best man’s 29th birthday and also handed out our Iceland destination wedding welcome bags to each couple/person.

Our IPOD Playlist for our Iceland Wedding Welcome Dinner at Hotel Ranga (Hella, Iceland):

“Get Closer” by Seals & Crofts

“Close to You” by the Carpenters

“Nobody Does it Better” by Carly Simon

“Lonely People” by America

“Everything I Own” by Bread

“Don’t Make My Brown Eyes Blue” by Crystal Gayle

“Fire and Rain” by James Taylor

“I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” by Jim Croce

“Midnight Blue” by Melissa Manches

“Silly Love Songs” by Paul McCartney

“Your Love has Lifted Me Higher” by Rita Coolidge

“I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher

“In My Life” by The Beatles

“Sailing” by Christopher Cross

“More than Words” by Extreme

“Angel” by Jon Secada

“You Make it Real” by James Morrison

“All I Want is You” by Barry Louis Polisar

“Oh My Love” by John Lennon

“Morning has Broken” by Cat Stevens

“Mad About You” by Belinda Carlisle

“Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes

“The Next Time I Fall” by Peter Cetera & Amy Grant

“Endless Summer Nights” by Richard Marx

“Stay” by Lisa Loeb

“Just You and Me” by Zee Avi

“Sweet Pea” by Amos Lee

“The Luckiest” by Ben Folds

“Dearest” by Buddy Holly

“Truly” by Lionel Richie

“Straight from the Heart” by Bryan Adams

“Making Love out of Nothing” by Air Supply

“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper

“Maybe I’m Amazed” by Paul McCartney

“To Be With You” by Mr. Big

“Do You Remember” by Jack Johnson

“Everything” by Michael Buble

“You and I Both” by Jason Mraz

“This Will Be Our Year” by The Zombies

“Little Shadow” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

“12 Sea of Love” by Phil Phillips

“Love Never Fails” by Brandon Heath

“Making Memories” of Us by Keith Urban

“I Go Crazy” by Paul Davis

“Can’t Take My Eyes of You” by Frankie Valli

“Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts

“Fallin’ In Love” by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

“You Decorated My Life” by Kenny Rogers

“Linger” by The Cranberries

“You Gotta Love Someone” by Elton John

“She’s Like the Wind” by Patrick Swayze

“Perfect Girl” by Sarah McLachian

“Only Time” by Enya

“Masterpiece” by Atlantic Starr

Phew, that’s a lot of songs!  Hopefully you’ll find yourself grabbing a few of these songs (or from our previous post Iceland Ceremony Music Ideas) to create your own amazing Iceland destination wedding reception music or Iceland wedding IPOD playlist!  I know all of these little details may be overwhelming especially making it all happen in Iceland, but that is exactly why we are here to help you smooth out those overwhelming bumps!  Please contact us at any point to help you plan and also be your awesome photographers for your unforgettable destination wedding in Iceland!

Keep Smiling and Iceland Wedding Planning,  Ann Peters (Expert Iceland Wedding Planner & Iceland Wedding Photographer).

© 2002-2013, Photos by Miss Ann, All Rights Reserved

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