Rehearsal dinner music

[Rock Candy]

I am planning the rehearsal dinner for our son’s wedding this summer. All the arrangements have been taken care and the menu has been planned. The place is allowing us to use their sound system for free, but we will need to provide the music. I have made a playlist on my ipod for the rehearsal dinner music and will connect my ipod to their sound system.

Does anyone know about how many songs I would need to span a 3 to 4 hour time period? Has anyone done their own music before or have any helpful suggestions? I have an extensive music library and so far have about 80 songs on the playlist.

I want to make this a very relaxed and fun evening so it will be enjoyable for all. Because there is such an age span, should I include some songs that will please all age groups or just stick with songs for the younger generation? My son and future DIL are both very easy going and are basically giving me the go ahead to plan and make all arrangements.

 

[sumbride]

In iTunes, there is a line at the bottom of the screen that will tell you how long your playlist will play. I was kind of surprised by how few songs it took to get to 3 hours.

If you want to play with the length of songs, like if there is one that has a really long intro you don''t want to use, you can click the properties of that song and change the play time so you start already into it, or end it before it''s over. I''ve used this to sort of edit some songs that have a lot of chatter at the end or that otherwise make you want to hit "next!".

I think it would be a good idea to vary the music... you don''t have to make everything for the younger generation, particularly if you have all age groups present. A lot of the more popular "older" songs are still popular with the younger crowd too. If your son and DIL are giving you the go-ahead, they trust you. Just go with your gut!

And now I''m adding "rehearsal dinner music" to my to-do list. I hadn''t even THOUGHT about that!

 

[Rock Candy]

Date: 2/10/2007 12:21:40 PM
Author: sumbride
In iTunes, there is a line at the bottom of the screen that will tell you how long your playlist will play. I was kind of surprised by how few songs it took to get to 3 hours.


If you want to play with the length of songs, like if there is one that has a really long intro you don''t want to use, you can click the properties of that song and change the play time so you start already into it, or end it before it''s over. I''ve used this to sort of edit some songs that have a lot of chatter at the end or that otherwise make you want to hit ''next!''.


I think it would be a good idea to vary the music... you don''t have to make everything for the younger generation, particularly if you have all age groups present. A lot of the more popular ''older'' songs are still popular with the younger crowd too. If your son and DIL are giving you the go-ahead, they trust you. Just go with your gut!


And now I''m adding ''rehearsal dinner music'' to my to-do list. I hadn''t even THOUGHT about that!

Ok, I checked the screen at the bottom... these 80 songs will play 4.9 hours. That''s a great suggestion about editing the songs as I know some of them start off or end too slow or funky.

Assuming I have a varied playlist of songs, does it matter if the songs are all shuffled? In other words, would it sound OK to have an oldie song play, then a more modern one or should I group at least 2 songs of the same type together?

 

[FireGoddess]

We had the rehearsal lunch at an Italian restaurant and played the soundtrack from the movie "Big Night" (a movie about beautiful, gorgeous Italian food!)

 

[sumbride]

I think it would be ok to mix them, but make sure you don''t have too many fast songs during the meal.... you may want to leave those toward the end of the evening. Maybe do a couple test runs in your own house and see if it sounds good to you.

 

[Rock Candy]

FireGoddess - That''s a GREAT idea! A soundtrack would be nice "dinner music", then I could switch the playlist for more lively music afterwards.

Sumbride - I would''ve NEVER thought of that - great suggestion! Yesterday I played around with song editing. I must say that it was not only easy but entertaining as well. Is there a way to combine parts of songs together?

 

[sumbride]

you''d need some fancier software to combine the songs together, but it is available. Just google "audio editing software" and you''ll have lots of choices.