Wedding Breakfast Background Music
While your wedding reception will likely be your main musical event later on – with such iconic moments as the couple’s first dance and the father and daughter dance to look forward to – your guests will also love being treated to another match made in heaven: dinner and music.
It’s therefore important for you to choose the right background music for your wedding breakfast – you don’t want something too distracting (especially after you’ve spent so much on the catering!), but you also want to create the right tone which captures you as a couple. Every song counts!
Here are the top wedding breakfast songs
Acoustic Dinner Music
Instrumental or unplugged-style reworkings of your favourite popular songs is exactly the kind of soundtrack you want for a romantic sit-down meal with your beloved.
With all the amplifiers, drums and effects stripped away, you’re left with an intimate, soul-baring performance that just makes you want to reach for your loved ones. Also, with fewer sonic distractions, you can hear the lyrics much easier. This is great news if there are plenty of love songs on the playlist – which there most certainly will be if you dip into the folk and country genres.
Wild Love – James Bay
Ocean Eyes – Alicia Keys
Watermelon Sugar – Zita, Jonah Baker
Afterglow – Ed Sheeran
To Love Somebody – Tim Dawn
Taylor Swift 1989 Medley – Gardiner Sisters
Power Over Me – Dermot Kennedy (Acoustic)
Fast Car – Boyce Avenue, Kina Grannis
Stand By Me – Tom Speight
Somewhere Only We Know – Lily Allen
Candle In The Wind – Amber Leigh Irish
Leave The Door Open – Blame Jones
Home / Dirty Paws – Gardiner Sisters
Seven Nation Army – Zella Day
Billie Jean – Civil Wars
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Trousdale
In My Life – Madison Cunningham
Use Somebody – Lusaint
Golden Oldies
Nothing gets you looking back on your past life through shared rose-tinted glasses like these timeless classics! Old they may be, but this type of gold never loses its glow.
When a song has stood the test of time, you know it’s the real thing.
California Dreamin’ – The Mamas & Papas
When A Man Loves A Woman – Percy Sledge
For One In My Life – Stevie Wonder
You’re My Best Friend – Queen
I Say A Little Prayer For You – Aretha Franklin
Love Me Do – The Beatles
Come Away With Me – Norah Jones
Ocean Drive – Lighthouse Family
Every Breath You Take – The Police
Harvest Moon – Neil Young
Ordinary People – John Legend
When The Stars Go Blue – Ryan Adams
The Luckiest – Ben Folds
Indie
Big, anthemic choruses – that’s what songs from the nineties and noughties were all about. If you’re all about that too, treat your guests up with some trilby- and tie-wearing indie classics – we bet that you’ll look good on the dance floor! The music we grow up loving has strong ties to our youth, so make your guests feel young again with some top tunes, defiant lyrics and unadulterated joy. Be sure to save some of your dancing energy for the night to follow though – we’re not as young as we used to be!
Baby I’m Yours – Arctic Monkeys
Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve
Rooting For You – London Grammar
Patience – The Lumineers
Your Bones – Monsters Of Men
Toothpaste Kisses – The Maccabees
Harmony Hall – Vampire Weekend
Simple Song – The Shins
The Only Exception – Paramore
Don’t Delete The Kisses – Wolf Alice
Slide Away – Oasis
Friday I’m In Love – The Cure
You & Me – The Wannadies
Everlong – Foo Fighters
There She Goes – The La’s
Valerie – The Zutons
Electric Feel – MGMT
Jazz and Swing
Although jazz and swing have their roots firmly in the glitz and glamour of the roaring 20s, the genre never really went anywhere.
A jazz trio or a jazz quartet would be perfect for a cool wedding breakfast with moody vibes – and a larger scale swing band would be ideal if you’re trying to create more of a Great Gatsby-inspired atmosphere. You might even want start out with a jazz trio playing some instrumental music for your wedding breakfast, and have them change it up into a full band, complete with jazz singer, to play wedding songs for your evening reception – some of the most romantic lyrics ever written come from the jazz genre.
Crazy Love – Michael Buble
Beyond The Sea – Bobby Darin
Ain’t That A Kick In The Head – Dean Martin
My Way – Frank Sinatra
That’s Amore – Dean Martin
Moon Dance – Van Morrison
L-O-V-E – Nat King Cole
Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra
At Last – Etta James
The Very Thought Of You – Shirley Horn
Dream A Little Dream Of Me – Diana Krall
Classical
If you’re a traditional couple who have planned the perfect white wedding, the classical music route is the only one to go down. Walking down the aisle to a string quartet performing such classical music gems as Pachelbel’s Canon in D or Wagner’s Bridal March is the dream of brides to be world over – so if you maintain that level of elegance going into the wedding breakfast, she’s bound to keep her radiant smile for the rest of your magical wedding day.
Bluebird – Alexis Ffrench
Cello Suite – Bach
Fur Elise – Beethoven
Anoso from Cantata No. 156 – Bach
Ave Maria – Bach
Claire De Lune – Debussy
Glasgow Love Theme – Craig Armstrong
Dawn – Pride & Prejudice
A Thousand Years – The Piano Guys
Perfect – Atlys
Fairy Fountain – Super Guitar Bros
thank u, next – Vitamin String Quartet
September Song – Agnes Obel
T.V. & Film
If you’re a pair of T.V. and film buffs, it’s only right that you give your wedding breakfast the cinematic treatment. Nothing will make you feel more like you’re living in a real-life rom-com than having your favourite movie soundtrack playing in the background! Plenty of cult classic shows have bona fide pop songs as their theme tunes, just as plenty of films have classic scores which played a major part in your childhoods – so you can find plenty of references whether you go down the band route or the string quartet route.
Fuel To Fire – Agnes Obel
Married Life – UP!
I See The Light – Tangled
Hopelessly Devoted To You – Greece
Can You Feel The Love Tonight – The Lion King
A Whole New World – Aladdin
So Close – Enchanted
City Of Stars – La La Land
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
Concerning Hobbits – Howard Shore
Hedwigs Theme – John Williams
The Feather Theme – Forrest Gump
Contemporary / Modern
Do you love keeping up with the latest chart hits? Are you into fads and trends? There’s no shame in looking out for the next big thing – but the biggest next thing for you both is, of course, your wedding day! Remembering what was playing on everyone’s radio the day you got married will be a wonderful way to look back. If all your friends are on the same page when it comes to keeping ahead of the curve, you might even have to give your list of wedding songs a weekly update!
Love Again – Dua Lipa
Cinema – Harry Styles
Hope – Arlo Parks
Shivers – Ed Sheeran
Cinerama Holy Days
My Future – Billie Eilish
Stay – girl in red
How Can I Make It Ok? – Wolf Alice
THATS WHAT I WANT – Lil Nas X
Kiss Me More – Doja Cat, SZA
Care For – Blossoms
My Universe – Coldplay, BTS
Just You & I – Tom Walker
Skate – Silk Sonic
Hold My Girl – George Ezra
New Light – John Mayer
Shallow – Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper
Wildest Dreams – Taylor Swift
Moonlight – Ariana Grande
Golden – Harry Styles
Unique / Funny
Music is a great way to showcase your individual nature as a couple – if you want to subject your guests your favourite rock or metal songs, your best floor filling Ibiza dance songs, or your most hilarious novelty songs, then so you should! There are no rules when it comes to choosing your wedding songs – if you have a good time, your guests will have a good time too. When you choose wedding songs that are so unique, the lyrics of each song sound as though they were written especially for you – plus, you’ll be giving your guests an idea of the kind of quirky first dance songs you’ll be kicking off the evening reception with!
Karate – Baby Metal
Praise You – Fat Boy Slim
Pokemon Theme – Pokemon
Sandstorm – Darude
Gay Bar – Electric Six
Through The Fire & Flames – DragonForce
Barbara Streisand – Duck Sauce
Tequila – The Champs
We Like To Party (The Vengabus) – Vengaboys
Mii Channel – Wii Sports
El Paso – Marty Robins
Peaches – Justin Bieber
When your guests are in the mood for food, it’s important to let them enjoy their meals at their own pace and give them a chance to take in everything you and your caterers have worked so hard to provide.
That being said, you’ll want to put your personal stamp on each and every stage of your big day – it’s all about you two, after all! – so we hope our lists of wedding songs has served as an inspirational entrée for the main to follow.