How To Choose Music for Your Wedding Video

So your wedding was fantastic, you hired a great videographer who did an excellent job capturing the day and you’re anxiously waiting to see the final edited product so together, you can relive the most wonderful day of your lives.

First, your video editor wants to know what music you’d like for the montage sections of your wedding video. Suddenly, you feel immense pressure having to pick the music for this important document. You’ll have to live with the decisions you make today for the rest of your lives. Maybe picking that trendy dance track will seem like a mistake five, ten, twenty, forty years down the road when you’re sharing your wedding video with your children, grandchildren, long lost aunties, and new and old friends?

Don’t stress! Here are a couple of tips to help you with your choices:

Choose something that means something to YOU, not something that fits the “wedding music mould.”

Do you remember the song that was playing the first time you danced together? The first time you kissed? When he proposed? Do you remember that song you couldn’t get out of your heads that summer you traveled together? Do you and your new husband or wife have an anthem? A private “joke” song?

Choose something you’re going to love forever.

Your video is going to last forever, and it’s going to be passed down from generation to generation. Don’t think so? Ask yourself this: if you had the opportunity to watch footage of your grandparents getting married, would you want to see it? So pick music that is going to withstand the test of time, not something trendy that you’re going to get tired of in a couple of months.

Your wedding video soundtrack should reflect the tone of your wedding.

Was your wedding fun and quirky? Elegant and jazzy? Retro-chic? The music should complement the visuals and the overall vibe you created for your wedding. Think of it as the soundtrack to the movie that is your wedding day.

Think of the soundtrack as a whole, not its individual parts.

It’s not as complicated as “the art of making a mixtape” according to the John Cusack movie, High Fidelity but does put thought into the soundtrack as a whole: start it off with a bang, build up to something, then bring it down a notch. The music pieces don’t all have to all be the same genre or from the same era, but they should fit together, maybe even tell a story. Otherwise, the transitions might seem abrupt: unexpected is alright, but abrupt is not.

Don’t pick something that reminds you of something (or someone) else.

Is there a tune that always reminds you of that famous scene of that famous actor drowning in the ocean while the love of his life cries and looks beautiful? You know the one. EVERYONE does. Is that really the imagery you want to conjure up when you watch your wedding video? Worse, what if your wedding video doesn’t measure up to that other, more famous scene with that actor you kind of had a thing for in grade nine? Be as original as possible and you can’t go wrong.

Instrumental music is better if you’re layering in natural sound.

If your video editor is talented enough to mix source/natural sound with music, consider instrumental music over vocals. For instance, I always include a highlights montage with my packages and bring in the natural sound of the vows, ring exchange, some applause to add emotional impact to the piece.

If you pick a music piece with heavy vocals, your vows are going to have to battle with the singer’s voice and so will have less presence. Instrumental music will back you up and empower your voices.

I hope you found these tips useful. Most of all, have fun. It shouldn’t feel like homework!