Make ‘em cry and you’ve given a great wedding toast!
The best wedding toasts make your audience laugh and cry. Here’s the rub: it’s harder to make people laugh than cry. Not everything is funny. So Owen Wilson’s advice to Rachel McAdams in “The Wedding Crashers” (above) is spot-on: speak from the heart, make e’m cry, and your wedding toast will be a winner. Let’s…
Read MoreStevie Wonder’s classic first dance song
Stevie Wonder released his best-selling album, “Songs in the Key of Life,” in 1976. He jammed 21 songs into the album which explored a wide variety of musical genres. One track from the album, “As,” became Stevie Wonder’s classic first dance song. In fact, The Knot ranks it highly on their list of classic first…
Read MoreHow a lopsided wedding budget can spoil your celebration
How would you like to attend a wedding where the bride wears a $33,931 wedding gown? But there are no flowers. No ceremony music. No wedding reception. No dancing. No food. No cake. No photography. No invitations. No honeymoon. Nothing, because she blew her entire wedding budget on the gown? What a bore. According to…
Read MoreThe most romantic first dance song
The Knot lists John Legend’s “All of Me” as one the most romantic first dance song around, perfect for your first wedding dance song. “All of me” became Legend’s first #1 hit when it was released on 2013. He dedicated the song to his wife, television personality and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Chrissie Teigen. More…
Read MoreBanquet halls decline in popularity when it comes to wedding venues
The Knot surveys wedding trends each year. Their 2018 survey found that couples are getting increasingly creative in searching for cool wedding venues, at the expense of banquet halls. As recently as 2009, banquet halls represented 29% of all venues according to surveyed couples. But by 2017, the number dropped to fifteen percent, which is…
Read MoreCole Porter for Millennials
Cole Porter transformed music in America by writing smart, witty, and totally catchy songs for theater and popular culture. And yet he is even less known among millennials than George Gershwin, who we wrote about last week. Millennials should get to know this giant, because he wrote love songs still requested at weddings today. Unlike…
Read MoreGershwin for Millennials
George Gershwin is one of the greatest American songwriters ever. His songs are still played at weddings to this day, and yet 3 out of 10 millennials have never heard of him. Gershwin lived and died in the early part of the 20th century. Songs have changed dramatically since that golden era. The Spanish National…
Read MoreHow to give a one minute wedding toast (and why you should!)
How many bad wedding toasts have you heard? Too many! Long toasts get boring fast, and frankly, most toasts ARE too long. It’s simply hard for an average Joe to pull off a scintillating toast that dazzles your guests. So what do you do? Keep it short by making a one minute wedding toast. The…
Read MoreThe language of love
What kind of person are you? You have a unique opportunity to express the essence of who you are during your wedding vows. These few minutes define the rest of your life. Consider them carefully. For inspiration, let’s soak in some beautiful expressions of the language of love found in literature. Shakespeare William Shakespeare expresses…
Read MoreThe best movie soundtrack songs for wedding ceremonies evoke strong emotions
The cinema is a treasure trove of great music for soon-to-be married couples. Last week, we considered some of the most romantic music written by the legendary Italian composer, Ennio Morricone. This week, let’s broaden our scope and consider the best movie soundtrack songs for wedding ceremonies written by other great film composers. “The Feather…
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