How to Choose the Tracks for Your Wedding Band to Play.

So, you’ve booked Under the Covers wedding band and got all of the boring formal contract and invoice aspects out of the way.

Now we’re onto the fun stuff, what do you want your wedding band to play on your big day?

This can be quite a daunting question. Could you think of 15 tracks you definitely want to hear at your wedding right now if I asked you? I’m sure I couldn’t!

This blog will give you some helpful pointers and some advice on how to pick the tracks that will help you get the best out of your band.

1. Start with the tracks you don’t want to hear.

When me and my partner got married and we booked Under the Covers wedding band. I’ve been associated with the band for nearly 5 years now, so I’ve been involved with hundreds of weddings, and I’ve been asked this question countless times.

“Where do we start?!”

My advice would be to start with the tracks that you definitely do not want to hear your wedding. For example, I cannot stand “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. It gets people on the dancefloor and goes down very well at weddings, but I really do not like this track! So, when I got sent through the repertoire list, we labelled it as a track we definitely did not want to hear played by the wedding band. We then did this with the rest of the repertoire and were left with a list of around 50 also tracks.

These 50 tracks were the ones that we either loved or liked and would be more than happy to hear played by Under the Covers wedding band.

Now, with our shorter list, selecting our final 15 tracks that we definitely wanted to hear on the day was that much easier. We highlighted these and sent them back to the band leader to create the set list.

2. We only need 15 tracks you really want to hear!

Even though we will play around 30 tracks throughout the evening, we only need 15 tracks from you. The rest of the set list will be made up of songs that we know get the dancefloor going, based on the genre of tracks that you have selected. For example, if you select a lot of Pulp or Blur tracks, then we might build in more 90s than 60s into the set list.

Having said that, we are always ready to tailor the set list on the night to ensure the dancefloor remains full. All of our wedding musicians are highly trained and skilled to understand the audience and have the experience to keep the dancefloor buzzing all night long.

After all, the musicians want to play to an audience that is dancing!

3. Don’t worry if your special song or first dance isn’t on the repertoire.

If you were to go ahead with a six-piece wedding band or higher, we guarantee they would be able to learn two bespoke tracks for you to hear on the day. Usually this would be your first dance and then another track which may be special to you or your friends/family.

4. Make a special night for it!

Plan a special evening where you and your partner, with a drink in hand, relive memories through some special tracks. Weddings aren’t all about the day itself, it’s the build-up and the excitement of the planning and preparation.

5. Don’t sweat it, you’ve got plenty of time.

Unlike other weddings bands, we will not ask for your song selections until two months prior to the big day. This gives you plenty of time to agree on your top 15 choices and make sure you’ve not missed any favourites!

6. Upgrade your wedding band!

You can always upgrade your band up until a month before your big day. If you’ve had a look through the repertoire and you are still finding that the songs you want can only be played by a bigger band, then let us know and we can discuss scaling up!